Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon: Digital Monsters. This is a fan work, created for non-profit purposes purely for the enjoyment of the readers and as a creativity exercise.
A/N: It's also ridiculously late. Sorry.
Episode XLVI
The IDEF at War
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave...
--Patrick Henry—
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
-Emiliano Zapata
France is a nation with many heroes. Charles Martel stood at Tours and halted the advance of the Moors into Europe. Charlemagne rose into power and created an empire from a small kingdom. Joan of Arc threw the English out of the country, starting with the lifting of the siege of Orleans. Louis XIV earned the title of the Sun King from his conquests as well as his palace. It was Napoleon who changed a nation wracked with revolution into a continental empire. The Marshals of the First World War pulled off the Miracle at the Marne to save their country. Charles de Gaulle kept the spirit of the nation alive when it had already fallen. To him went the glory of victory in the Second World War.
And Takeru Takaishi owned the Third Battle of Versailles.
This time he did not stand alone against his enemies, but his enemies learned of him nonetheless. He was the golden figure, the man in the golden aura who would streak to the battlements, to the modern ramparts of plastic and concrete set among the ancient city. He would be there, and the massive shining angel with the purple helm and sword would be right behind him, sword flashing in deadly arcs as he forced the digimon to fall back. Wherever he arrived, there he would stand, and he could not be moved.
He did not move alone. The brown haired girl in pink, with her accompanying angel moved with him, staying behind him, and shielding him from the fury of his foes. She moved with confidence, but she struck with an energy that was unearthly in its fury. She started with a staff, but when it broke she would grab other weapons to use against any unlucky foe who got close enough. Her angel sent flight after flight of arrows arcing down into her foes, and they would fall to the ground, burned from the inside out. The girl and the pink angel brought light.
With them came the shorter, blonde girl carrying the standard, that piece of blue cloth on a decorative lance that the enemies hated so. They could not understand how the appearance of nothing more than a piece of cloth could change things so, but it could. Whenever the children they fought could see the flag, fluttering bravely in the wind of battle, defiant against the darkness, they cheered, and out of that cheer they would leap back into battle once more. The banner was no longer bright and new, covered in soot and ashes, holed by bullets and by lucky attacks, but it was still there, a beacon in the ever-growing darkness.
The enemies also hated the cold-eyed men that followed the golden warrior. They watched the battle with calm, unblinking eyes, speaking rapidly to their followers and a wave of soldiers came out wherever they pointed. Holes in the line were plugged before they could be exploited. Successful attacks were ambushed and cut off from help. Counter-attacks arose at the worst point when they pointed. Men and women threw themselves into battle wherever those imposing humans could find a weakness to exploit, no matter how well it was hidden.
But the darkness hated the golden boy with a passion that defied words. He brought order out of chaos with his mere presence. Where he arrived battle surged back against them with alarming speed. Children who had been retreating, running away, or hiding in the desperate hope that they would not be seen, regained heart in his presence. They suddenly charged into the darkness, digimon screaming in rage, the children running along behind, granting their digimon strength. These children and their partners were outnumbered by so much, surrounded by so much darkness, but in the presence of that one golden candle, they flared to life like a bonfire. Unstoppable, dauntless, they threw themselves at their foes like a tornado, ignoring all injuries as they tore at their opponents again and again with the fury of the gods themselves. And with them came the humans with the guns, bullets cracking out, grenades flying, and then when those methods had been exhausted, bayonets stabbing and twirling until they killed their foe or were killed themselves. No attack could hit the golden boy either. Whenever he was pressed digidestined leaped to his defense in a wave, sometimes absorbing hits with their own bodies, and digimon surged in a tidal wave to defend him. He was more than their leader, he was their heart, and the sight of him caused the forces of darkness to quail.
The horde was causing damage; that they knew. Digidestined screamed and fell, their digimon partners torn apart by eager claws, but they were falling too slow. For every human they ripped to bloody rags, for every piece of flesh that died beneath their claws, they died too. There were more of them, but the digimon they were facing were unafraid and unstoppable, monsters out of legend, and for every one that died, a thousand more rose to take its place. The horde pushed on as the pressure from those behind mounted, but the losses were beginning to tell.
Cody hid beneath an overhanging wall and gasped for breath. He had never believed that war could be anything like this...this swirl of death and destruction, the constant noise filling the air. Even here in a relatively calm part of the city of Paris he could hear the screams of the dying and the injured, the piteous sounds they made as they expired or were crushed underfoot, and he winced at the noise. Everywhere he looked he could see faces, some just men who had died nearby, but others different, faces he had known. A young girl who he had led in a desperate assault to relieve some of the Russian positions who had died of a single shot through the chest from an enemy MetalMamemon. Her digimon, a FlareLizamon now angered beyond comprehension, mad with rage and grief had torn that digimon to pieces, and had leaped to battle, attacking recklessly. Cody had never seen him again either. His group had shrunk. Many of them had been forced to return to the medical camps further back in the city, but others had disappeared in the swirl of battle, and had not returned. He hoped against hope that they had made it out, that they had made it safely to friendly lines, but he knew that the odds were against him. The gaping holes in his ranks tore holes in his heart, but he steeled it. He now knew what the cost of not stopping that horde would be.
Armadillomon crouched next to him. Even for a digimon used to battle the slaughter outside was more horrible than anything he had ever known. But at the same time he felt a pride that could never have been equaled in those children, so used to laughing and playing games, who were throwing themselves grimly time after time into the teeth of battle. They went with no qualms, and they fought like maddened beasts. All of them now knew the cost of failure, knew that there was no retreat and no surrender, and had crossed the line of no return. He was proud of Cody too. When they first met Cody would have run away at the earliest opportunity to hide from the scene boiling around him. Now Armadillomon knew that his partner was focused, and absently wondered if Cody even remembered why there was decomposed data lining the blade of his sword. Or if he knew that his crest had been glowing the whole time.
Well Armadillomon, you ready? Cody asked after a moment.
Armadillomon replied.
We're ready too commander. A digidestined from Singapore grinned tiredly at Cody. Ready to go back out and kick some ass.
One of the soldiers who had attached themselves to Cody, a British private, nodded grimly. Amen to that.
All right then, let's go see if they can figure out what hit them this time. Cody rushed around the edge of the wall with Armadillomon bouncing right behind them, and his command dashed after him.
Izzy sat, puzzled. He had thought down many different lines of thought, and unfortunately had to admit that he was just as stumped as he was the first time that he thought about the question. It was not easy to think about for that long, but the desert offered no distractions, unless he wanted to look at the hungry Sphinx, who bared her magnificent fangs every once in a while. Remembering the traditional end to those who failed the Sphinx's challenge, he tried not to look in that direction too often.
The desert wind whipped hot around him, but he ignored it and kept on concentrating.
Daniel and Deltamon turned a new corner. His original team was still around him, and they were working like a real team now. In fact, they were fighting like one digimon that just happened to have multiple bodies. Where there was trouble, someone else sprang there to take care of it, whenever someone was in trouble there was a roar and someone else would be there. Still, they would have fallen a dozen times, a hundred times if it had not been for the others following them. Daniel's success at not only striking at the enemy, but also keeping his own people alive had attracted soldiers left abandoned all over the battlefield.
European Legion London was backed up by nearly two dozen digidestined whose names and faces Daniel no longer recognized in the haze of battle. Among them there were about fifty soldiers from a variety of nations hovering around, trying to keep together. Many of them had already run out of ammunition, but they were fighting all the same, simply because there was nowhere safe to fall back to. They clustered around the legs of the more powerful digimon, holding their positions and keeping smaller but more agile enemy forces from harassing the larger IDEF digimon. They were grimy, faces blackened by the constant smoke that filled the battlefield, sometimes covered in blood and bandages that once might have been white. But they were waiting on him, and the weight of the responsibility settled in his stomach like a large, uncomfortable bowling ball.
You ready? He asked quietly, receiving nods in answer, and he allowed himself to have a small grin. Then let's do it, eh?
Deltamon rushed out first, just in case there was any surprise waiting for them at the end of the narrow alley. He pulverized a Woodmon that was caught looking the wrong way, but that was the only enemy digimon close enough to hinder them. They had emerged in the side of a rush against the French Foreign Legion's positions at the top of the broad street, and most of the digimon there were sticking towards the middle, looking forward. They were concerned with the frontal attack they were about to make, not with the possibility of flanking maneuvers.
Next thing they understood there were two dozen Champions among them, along with their human partners, fighting as hard as they could, battering the enemy to pieces before they could rearrange to attack them. Behind them came the soldiers. Then Daniel was submerged in the continuing flow of battle, and there was only the moment. His only glance of anything besides twisting bodies surging against him was one crystal-clear vision of a golden boy moving across a street in the distance.
A voice broke through Tai's reverie. He snapped out of his exhausted trance in time to see Davis shaking him. It was just sunset, and Tai was so tired he could practically feel his arms falling off. He had been fighting all day, and lost count of the times that WarGreymon had turned back into Agumon from lack of energy. But now the expression on Davis' face told him that something was up. The other digidestined, grouped here, slowly became aware that something was happening.
What's up? Joe asked sleepily as Davis shook him too.
Ken's coming. Davis sounded like he had just been strangled, and the glances that he kept shooting over his shoulder enforced that impression.
What do you mean by ...Ken's...coming... Tai's voice trailed off as if he had just let it sail off a waterfall without him, and his jaw dropped so low that it probably would have been humorous if it had not happened in concert with everyone else.
Ken was coming, walking with a singleness of purpose that was so obvious, so astounding that every digidestined in the area immediately felt shocked. It was not the way he was moving, in a straight line toward them that astonished them. It was the way he walked through anything in his way. Even as Tai watched, the remainder of a Ford sedan suddenly crumpled up into a ball as if a giant hand had squeezed it, and Ken walked through the space it had just occupied. His eyes were unfocused, staring ahead through Tai and the others, and a telephone pole that had fallen down blasted apart, clearing the street in front of him. Tai wondered absently if Ken could actually see him with that unfocused gaze, and then realized that he really did not want Ken to be able to see him. He finally understood why Davis and the others had been unnerved, to say the least, by TK's sudden transformation. Yolei was walking about ten meters behind the black haired digidestined, and looking intimidated.
Ken came to a sudden stop only a meter away from Tai, and then his eyes cleared suddenly, and he was Ken again, even if he was standing in the middle of a straight path of destruction.
If his voice shook, nobody noticed it, and the smile he gave was gentle and clear as a bell. I'm ready.
TK smacked a Bakemon in the head with his glowing staff, no longer surprised when the digimon disintegrated under the golden blow. Not much was surprising him anymore, and he was in a dream-state. He could barely remember or understand what he was doing, his hearing dulled as his other senses enhanced themselves. Behind him there was a subtle change in airflow as MagnaAngemon sliced something apart, and the rain of digital data as whatever it was came apart on top of him. Then there was another pocket of calm, as Kari and Angewomon took point, raining silver arrows down on red glowing eyes and blackened heads.
TK felt himself come out of the dream-state with a shock. He grabbed the shoulder of a French boy he barely recognized, but knew was a leader of sorts and yelled in the boy's ear.
Give me a line, twenty meters across, at a backwards angle from that street corner. See if you can force them to go north right now! We can hit them as they cross the plaza to the north. But take your company and fall back now! TK did not even know if this boy had a company anymore, and, as he looked down, he knew what removing that company, no matter how small, would do to the thin line that was still holding, but he did not have a choice. He had to prepare for the future, and that line was going to hold for much longer anyway. The boy saluted and yelled some things and a group of ragged digimon and humans began to run away.
TK waded forward, nearly falling over a group of dead human bodies that lay clustered in the middle of the street, jumping over the wreckage that had been an armored car, before making it to the German captain in charge of this particular piece of the Line.
All right, start falling back in five minutes. That will give us time to set up another line behind you. Hopefully we'll be able to cover you from there. Now get moving! TK yelled, and the captain saluted himself as TK ran forward to the few digidestined still holding this portion of the line, one of them still holding the tattered remnants of an IDEF flag. Their digimon were almost buried in a sea of blackness, but they were still holding.
All right troops, let's give our boys a few minutes to do something with. TK yelled as he hoped into the shelter with them. He caught a glimpse of digimon in another section of the line staging a lightning raid at the same time, and he charged into the confusion, to be lost in the battle once more.
Get the reserve company moving! General Alexander yelled. Tell them to meet the retreating line...two streets back from where they are now. Take advantage of the height of the office buildings. I want constant sniper fire on those digimon as they approach. Let's move it! Catherine immediately turned around and shouted the same thing in French. General Alexander stopped for a moment to curse his luck. Here he was, the man in charge for the most desperate city battle since Stalingrad, and half his troops were kids. He was not badmouthing them, they were as good a group of fighters as he had ever met, but he had joined the army to save the children, not to send them into battle.
The fight, from what command information they had managed to assemble, had degenerated into a brawl. From the reports he was getting, they had been pushed back, while only inflicting acceptable losses on their enemies, and they were just about to get trapped against the river. But trained observers had also reported that, while the line itself was pushed pretty farther back, there was definitely fighting going on in front of them. Isolated army groups held individual building complexes; grounded digimon fought each other and raiding parties swept through enemy lines, exchanging fire with their opponents in hailstorms of oblivion. Everywhere there was the crackle of lightning, the thunder of the gun.
We're losing the right flank. Catherine reported grimly for a moment as the radiomen kept yelling at them.
I know. And I can't do a damn thing about it. And Sir Thomas Alexander knew despair.
Tai ducked out of the way as Ken brought both of his hands up. In one hand his D3 was burning so brightly that Tai could have easily mistaken it for the sun if the light had not been pure white. In his other hand there was only a flare of pink light, a torrent that raced through the elder digidestined and reinvigorated him. Ken himself seemed to be glowing from within, his hair rising as if an internal wind was blowing it away from him, his eyes once again unfocused. But the light in his hands was anything but. It was perfectly focused, and Ken brought forth the strength from within that had once housed nothing but darkness. His D3 exploded with energy, and the sky shifted to respond.
At first, there was nothing, not even a hint of a change. But then the sky swirled, the faint light from sunset changing, subtly torquing as the sky itself began to waver. And then the darkness pealed back, tearing apart, revealing massive holes through the space-time continuum. There was nothing there, they were only gates to nothing, doors that led nowhere, but they were the start of the real test. His face furrowed in concentration as his hands began to shake, as the D3 in the midst of them rattled, almost falling apart itself.
Tai felt his own heart move to join the boy, and he raised his own hands to help, and at that moment, he felt his courageous act provoke a response within. The light from within was warm and comforting, heating him slowly from the inside out, and then it stretched through reaching fingertips into his own D3. For a moment he was tempted to blink in consternation, as he could not remember drawing the device from its usual place on his belt, but he forced the impulse back. He wanted to risk nothing that could interrupt the timeless magic that was suddenly coming to the fore.
Matt stood also. He was amazed privately at the number of them still alive. His occasionally pessimistic viewpoint had gotten the best of him again, but he still believed that they had gotten lucky. The power of friendship had let them survive the battle for New York, and he was not about to start doubting it now. He, along with digidestined from a hundred countries had stood firm, had refused to fall to their enemies. And now he was standing there, in the center of everything, and he let that light shine out from him.
Mimi, her innocence forgotten, lost in the bloodshed of the battle of the Line, covered in grime and blood and sweat and tears, felt for a moment as if she was watching something more precious than innocence. This was Ken's solid refusal to fall, to give in to the forces that taunted him with powers beyond his own. This was a single man standing, glowing against the horizon, silhouetted against the fall of night. And her heart went out to join his as he let the light flare from him.
Joe had nothing to say. Ken was facing inner demons that staggered him, things that Joe did not even want to know about. But he knew all about running away from what was inside. There was not even a flicker of cowardice in his feelings now, and he raised one hand to mirror Ken's gesture, and his crest flamed with light, adding his own strength to the tower that Ken was becoming.
Davis knew he was not bright, but he failed to recognize his singular gift sometimes. The fact that, when the going got rough, his moral compass was as steady as a rock. The universe could have been built around Davis's picture of it, and could not have found a more stable anchor. Maybe it was that guidance that led Davis to place one hand just on Ken's back. As his hand touched Ken's left shoulder all present could feel the solid flow of strength from Davis to Ken, the river of Light that now was flowing into the boy still taunted by the darkness. Some of the strain eased from Ken's face, his sweat ceased to flow in rivers, and he looked comforted. The sky began to open, and this time they could begin to see shapes that spoke of land and air and sea.
Then Yolei, having no doubts about her purpose here, placed her own hand on Ken's right shoulder. The sky shuddered under that, and slowly the Dark Ocean began to come into focus, blazing ever brighter and brighter in the sky.
And light from a thousand digivices sent brilliant flares into the darkness, and with them the veils of night were repealed, and the Gate stood open. It obscured the entire northern part of Manhattan island, a massive doorway into a world of dark surf and sand, of darker foam. A thousand digidestined, tired, hungry, exhausted, but still somehow full fo energy and light clustered around Ken, the light from their digivices showing the way. More digidestined were gathering all the time, with every minute and every second the light was growing greater.
Ken yelled as the light spilled forth, flaming like the output of a thousand torches. Drive them back! Drive them into the gate!
All right! Tai yelled to make himself heard. Matt, take a hundred digidestined and go east, make sure to press them on the riverside. Mimi, I want you to take the western half, take Team Eagle with you and another hundred digidestined. Harrison and Joe, split up. Take the marine digimon with you and make sure that none of them manage to escape to either side of the island. Lock them in. Once we're sure they can't escape, we can drive them into the Gate. All the rest with me. We'll make a line between Matt's squad and Mimi's, and then charge them right up the center. Got it?
A thousand digidestined shouted.
Let's go! And Tai led his tired troops back into the crush of combat.
Izzy paced again, first one way and then the other, always keeping his mind busy, but his feet were becoming tired. The desert showed no signs of changing, and the Sphinx kept watching him with the patient eyes of a cat. He tried to ignore that emerald gaze, but was having scarce luck. Still the Sphinx did not interfere, something for which Izzy was grateful.
Obviously this test has something to do with my crest. Izzy spoke aloud after an hour of silence. The Sphinx made no reply, but swished its tail. Swish. Swish. Swish.
That means that something I know should be the key. I refuse to believe that the test could be impossible, which means that I must, somehow, know the answer. Not that this means anything, but the answer is somewhere inside of me. So, logically, by applying the rules I've learned I can come up with the answer. Swish. Swish. Swish.
But which rules do I apply? After all, I'm fairly certain that this isn't a logic puzzle. Hmmm....well, first you apply Occam's razor. The simplest solution is usually the correct solution. Swish. Swish. Swish. Okay, but what do I apply it to? Is it useless? No, it isn't. Got it. All it means is that whatever answer I come up with won't be too complicated. I suppose that means that I can forget any sophisticated physics answers or anything. The answer is simple.
Which answers are simple? Well, because is about as simple as you can get, but I don't think that it's correct. What about why not? Hmmm....same problem. What other simple answers are there? Because I said so? Too close to because. I suppose that there are many answers to this question. All right, I know that there are many answers to this question, but only one of them is right...or is it?
Izzy paused for quite a while, waiting for something new to come to him, the glimmer of an idea beginning to shape itself in his mind. Then he shook his head as if to clear it. But the meaning of life depends on the person, doesn't it? I mean there are six billion people on Earth alone, and everyone sees things a different way. So it would seem that there are as many meanings of life as there are people, but that's not a good answer really. Because it seems to me that the meaning of life for one particular person changes as time goes on. The way I view life today is not the same as I viewed in ten years ago. At the same time, the way I view life now is slightly different from the way I did yesterday, and tomorrow I will know something different from all that. So, we change, and our views change with us. So there is no flat-out answer, is there?
We're all like blind men, groping out way to an unknowable truth. And since it's unknowable, since it's so vast, then whatever direction we go in is still valid. There are an infinite number of meanings, but eventually they converge to one.
And that's the point. Despite all my knowledge and skill, despite all I can learn, and all that I have the ability to know, there are still things that are beyond me. All knowledge has its limits, but those limits are always closer to me than I think. There are many things that I cannot be certain about, and all of them must be foremost in my mind. One cannot know without knowing that there is much that one does not know. Which is the answer to the riddle.
The Sphinx was gone.
The desert was gone.
Izzy settled down on one of the plump, cushioned chairs in the vast library, opened the nearest book, and began to read.
We're running out of places to run! Kari called as fate brought her and her boyfriend together for one precious moment, golden light and pink-tinged white intermingling.
I know! TK screamed back moments before the press of battle broke them apart again. He had picked up an impressive cut across his jawline, and he was bruised and bleeding in a dozen places, but he was gamely holding on, rallying the troops where he arrived, leading them to safety or death. He was exhausted, tired and ready to drop, but he would not give up. Still, it had not done them that much good. They had been methodically pushed back until they were almost against the buildings they had tried so hard to protect. From his position only a handful of meters behind the front lines, TK could already see the Arch of Triumph, the huge landmark now pockmarked where some stray digimon had probably fired upon it.
Orders sir? A battered man wearing the captain's uniform of the Royal Marines looked up at TK, covered in soot and grime and blood.
TK's stomach roiled once as he watched a digidestined caught on the wrong side of the line explode into bloody fragments, and he took a moment to get it under control before responding. Then emotion was submerged in a tidal wave of exhaustion, exhaustion so deep it even overcame the pain of his injuries. How long can you keep holding here?
Maybe another fifteen minutes at this rate, but the ammo's starting to get a bit low.
TK swore. He had not managed to put together enough logistic support to reinforce his front lines. In fact, unless General Alexander had been pulling miracles out of his hat, there were no more reinforcements. I'm going to check if the second line is set, but if it is, you're going to have to get back there in under a minute, before they can follow us.
Got it. The captain nodded.
What's the plan? Sora ran up, panting. In the background, TK could see Garudamon doing the complicated flips she could do when not burdened with her human rider.
We try to give ourselves enough time to fall back to the second line, and plan B. TK replied calmly.
We have a plan B? Sora panted. That's nice for a change.
Right. We've been leading them here all day. The center has been giving ground steadily in hopes of drawing them into the center of the city, where most of their troops could be cut off from their flanks. The problem is that it hasn't all been our idea. Our center simply couldn't hold against that many digimon. We had hoped to have reinforcements here, but I think we've used them up just to hold them this long. TK looked around. I don't know if the second line will hold any better than the first, especially if we can't find a way to disengage.
Better than nothing. Sora shrugged.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. TK murmured.
They've broken through! A panicked voice shouted from the front. Other voices began to yell, breaking off occasionally with sickening suddenness, and TK whipped around.
Oh hell. Sora breathed out. An entire portion of the line had essentially disintegrated, and now a wave of darkness had broken through, punching its way through the front lines. Digimon roared and stamped, and digidestined and soldiers alike, bereft of the protection of their fellows, began to fall back, running away from their foe. The entire line trembled, a dozen men retreating in one way, a dozen in another.
Fall back! TK yelled, and the line began to move. Fortunately the forces of darkness were confused just enough to miss what was going on, and in taking and trying to clear unmanned defenses, they were just a bit behind the retreating army. Nevertheless they bounced up almost immediately to give chase as soldiers ran past open parks and exposed areas, drawing the main enemy after them. Chaos reigned on the battlefield. Men fell and were swallowed up by the darkness, but still the darkness came on, as the light fled backwards. For a moment TK despaired of managing to separate the two groups, of keeping from killing his own men. The enemy charge had split his army into two sections, one withdrawing to each side of a broad set of avenues, letting the enemy run freely down the street, driving a wedge between them. Even with an army unified physically, there were difficulties with defending once they had been pushed as hard as the IDEF had. Now it appeared that there was no chance at all.
Then there was a disturbance near the Arch itself.
As TK saw what it was, his heart sank.
The horde ran through New York. They did not know what lay ahead of them, in that portal of darkness, but because they could see in, it probably was not oblivion. And that was what awaited them here, standing in the way of the largest surge of soldiers that they had ever faced. Digimon charged them, leading point for huge groups of humans, armed with the weapons that cut and tore at flesh, that chewed the mighty digital warriors into so much scrap. There was not much more that they could do, the armies of digidestined were too much for them, and the IDEF had managed to push them back.
They were far from home, and they had become homesick. These were not the soft humans they had been told would fight them, these were battle-hardened warriors, and in the eyes of their imagination they had grown, become giant monsters with cold eyes and steel muscles. They had killed, but they were suffering too much to afford to stand here. For them, they had no purpose here, and they did not wish to die.
As one, they retreated into the portal, guided, pushed and prodded by the forces still defending the city.
TK's grandfather stood there, in the middle of the road, right beside the magnificent Arch. He was holding an arm close to one side and, looking closely, TK could make out blood staining the side of his clothes. But he still looked tall, full of life, and he had his trademark Devil-may-care grin on his face. He was also holding what appeared to be a full sized machine gun under his arm. Startled somehow by this human standing where the others were running, the enemy digimon stopped slowly, and stared, incredulously, at the older human who smiled back at them.
Time slowed down. In that moment of distraction soldiers checked their headlong advance, calming themselves down, turning to see what was going on. Every instant that this distraction brought was priceless, worth more than anything TK had ever bought before, but he felt a sinking sensation in his stomach, as suddenly he had a feeling of how this would turn out. Even as his desperate companions and soldiers turned and regrouped, horrific visions of what would come to pass flashed before his eyes, and he understood that it was too late to do something.
Vive la France!!! Takeru's Grandfather screamed with a voice that carried across the grounds, echoing almost like a gunshot, and then he brought the barrel of the gun up. The recoil of the first shot might have dropped another man, but he was braced against a monument to the victories of the French, and braced against an indomitable will and spirit, and TK thought that perhaps nothing could have knocked that old man down. His hair seemed to gleam, almost blowing back the way it did when he was riding his beloved bike. And then the first shot rang out.
The muzzle flashed. First once, then again, and then a hundred times, maybe even a thousand. Those digimon who had paused to watch him suddenly rocked back as their first ranks staggered as those bullets cut into them. Suddenly they began to scream, some in rage and some in pain and terror. Then they surged forward, an unstoppable tide of bodies, trampling toward the lone gunman, submerging the Frenchman in an ocean of death, until the sound of his gun faded away.
And TK went insane.
He charged, screaming, coming down from the side of the thrust, his staff swinging around him like a golden aura, a nimbus, protecting him from the blows of evil. But no evil digimon with a choice would confront that avenging angel. He was a figure out of legend, a being of chaos and death, shining with the glory of the sun. They were not prepared to face this creature, this harbinger of death in all his glory. And they fled as he came.
Behind TK, MagnaAngemon charged forward, wings straining with the effort. It might have looked foolish for a moment, that reckless charge, but the angel was not about to let his partner fall while he could do a single thing to stop it. He soared into battle, chasing down those who looked prepared to attack his human partner, leaving blasts of digital data scattered all over the ground. More digimon fell back, not eager at all to come within the arc of his sword. He howled, a battlecry that could have stilled the hearts of any demon, and at its sound, the enemy wavered.
Kari charged because it was TK at risk, and Angewomon floated next to her, keeping the digimon away from her partner with the blasts of silvery arrows that punched through enemy ranks almost effortlessly. They added their screams of rage to the sound.
Next to them a squad of Royal Marines charged, because this was TK after all, the golden general who had led them through a battle that now resembled a scene from hell. They charged because he was charging, and with them they brought the death of their remaining bullets, and their own howls echoed through the streets. And the boy with them, the young digidestined from Warsaw charged as well, barely understanding what was happening, followed along, because they had been keeping him safe. And with him he carried the blue-and-silver banner of the IDEF.
And, standing only a few meters away, Daniel Ollivander and European Legion London charged as well, because they could see the banner advancing, and, with their friends and allies advancing, they were determined to protect them. They were battered and tired and worn down, almost to stubble, but they were still digidestined, determined protectors of the world. They were not going to stand around while others died for them. And with them charged the remains of a German company, rifles cracking as they ducked and dived their way across the urban battlefield. From their center waved another IDEF banner, silver and blue glinting as the light sparkled off their weapons.
On the other side, across from the enemy General Alexander and Catherine skidded to a halt, with Kiwimon right behind them, staring at the sudden scene unfolding. It took them only a moment to understand that the enemy had made a major penetration, but Alexander had seen problems like this before, in textbooks if not in the field. The enemy had forced units through the gap, and now they were strung out, spread out as they had charged forward. Where once the IDEF had been almost split apart, now it seemed ready to envelop the enemy. The only problem would be in inspiring the soldiers, who were both exhausted and beaten, into making the charge.
And then the banners on the other side of the horde started to move.
What the hell are you waiting for? General Alexander thundered at the nearest man he could see. Are you going to make them do all the work?
At that moment, the great silver bulk of Shakkuomon began to move down from that side, advancing on the formidable enemy with a small group of digimon and humans rallying around his gigantic floating feet. One of them could be seen wielding a silver sword in dizzying swoops.
In the distance Catherine could see Colonel Galvanay, now covered in grime. He had his mouth open and was yelling something, but it was inaudible over the din of battle. But his message was unmistakable, and those soldiers around him began to move, slowly at first, and then faster and faster until, like an avalanche, they had driven their army before them and bitten deep into the enemy horde. Along with them came digidestined, some caught in the sudden surge of battle, others racing ahead of their own troops with their digimon leading the way. The battle, once chaotic, was suddenly worse, a blind melee as forces from both sides rushed down on the suddenly entrapped horde.
TK could see almost nothing. One moment there was MagnaAngemon and Kari and Angewomon behind him, the next they were gone in a surge of enemy digimon that covered his view. The next the surge parted under the steady, unremitting blows of his staff and a new vision emerged, soldiers using everything from their bayonets and the stocks of their rifles to their last remaining bullets to hold the enemy from them. Then they were gone behind the shadow of an enemy Tyrannomon, and when he passed beyond that massive digimon he saw Deltamon's three heads belching out fire at any digimon generally unlucky enough to look in their direction. Behind him there was a constant storm of fire and light as the rest of the London team kept pushing the enemy farther and farther back. Then they too disappeared into the storm, and their place was taken by images of more soldiers and children, fighting back to back, shoulder to shoulder, as the battle raged around them, circling them in death and sharp claws, but failing to overcome them. Sora emerged for a moment at the corner of his vision, swinging a baseball bat she had found with a viciousness and strength that had made her a terror on the tennis court, her eyes focused with intense concentration as she tried to stay between her enemies and the other children. Then all was gone into the swirl again.
Suddenly there was freedom from the crush, like a blast of sunlight and fresh air as the world came back into normal focus. There was the panting figure of Cody, holding his sword in one hand, and grinning widely at TK, and the huge metal form of Shakkuomon, head twisting back and forward rapidly, raking red eye beams over his enemies so fast it almost gave TK a neck cramp. TK looked back over his shoulder and suddenly realized that he had carved a path straight through, cutting the enemy advance in half, and that his followers were carving their own path further and further into what had once been an insurmountable darkness.
How's it going TK? Cody asked, still grinning.
Not bad. Now stop talking and start fighting. TK turned back into the battle.
I better. Cody shook his head. The way you're going there's not going to be much left.
Better for us. Someone, an adult TK did not know, yelled, and then he charged forward, screaming, holding a broken pipe as a weapon. TK looked up and down suddenly, trying to figure out how the battle was going, and noticed, for some reason, that the pipers had picked back up again. The swirl of bagpipes seemed, for some strange reason, appropriate to this choice of venues, and he spared a moment to give a quick salute, unseen but heartfelt, to the pipers. Then he turned, shouldered his staff and moved back into the battle.
THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE! Izzy yelled as he came out of his comatose state. His scream managed to wake up an exhausted Ken who had been collapsed next to him in the cold comfort of ImperialDramon's back.
What is it? Tai had not really been sleeping well, and Izzy's exclamation woke him up immediately. What's wrong?
I'll tell you when we get to Paris. It's too late to do anything about it now. Izzy shook his head. Too late indeed.
Have they gone? The voice was weak, tired. TK clutched his grandfather's hand, his elder face covered in lines and wrinkles that TK had not noticed earlier. He was drawn and sallow, and his beloved biker jacket was covered in blood. His own blood. Still braced against the arch his knees were buckling, but he had wedged himself too tightly to fall down.
You beat them. TK could only whisper and smile once, shallowly, but not without feeling.
And France? The older man's eyes bulged open, as he took yet another bone-rattling gasp of air. Those standing there could see the importance of the question in his now-faded eyes.
She still stands. You have helped save her. Colonel Galvanay was there, and he laid a hand on the older man. You will be remembered as a hero.
Always remember TK His voice drew out for a moment, and he managed to give a weak smile, and TK understood. Then he stared at the sky for a moment. His next words came out slow, but with the force and perseverance of a young, healthy man. I died on my feet.
And he did.
The battle had changed. Everyone recognized it. Had the IDEF kept fleeing, had humans and digimon continued to retreat the forces of darkness would have driven them back into destruction by now, or would have had forced them into desperate last stands. But they had not. TK's charge, the sudden rush of men and digimon supporting them had thrown doubt into the faces and hearts of the enemy. Their enemies seemed invincible, they simply would not lay down and die. And now they were coming back for more.
Now they charged forward, filled with a new spirit, and their second wind. Digimon slashed through enemy ranks like they were made out of tinfoil, and their human allies blasted through the enemy with any weapon they could find. The Dark digimon were exhausted as well, they had been fighting all day, fighting all the time, and they could feel exhaustion settling in for them too. Nobody had much strength left for fighting, but the sudden infusion of willpower had given the IDEF a mad power that their opponents could no longer rival. They disintegrated, first one by one, then by the hundreds, then the thousands as more and more digimon poured down into the gap, as more humans closed to suicidally close ranges and the pounding began all over again. Fistfights had even broken out in the battlefield as dozens of humans and digimon danced around each other.
Sora, now wielding a staff carrying an IDEF flag instead of a baseball bat, whirled like a mad dervish, sending enemy digimon flying from her in a huge arc. She was standing in the middle of a mostly cleared square, but her presence in the battle was lending the mighty Garudamon more strength. Everywhere she struck enemy digimon reeled back from her, only to be set upon by others, others with their passionate strength returned to them. She felt oddly like laughing, laughing in the face of death, as the surge of strength broke through them all.
They drove the enemy backwards. Meter after meter, inch by inch, until at last they had pushed their opponents through the streets of the city, past malfunctioning streetlights, through a darkness made more frightful then any nightmare by the continuing clash of combat. And slowly, pushed beyond their limits, the enemy retreated before humans and digimon working together nearly flawlessly, always moving forward, their enemy always moving back. There were still screams, pitched battles, desperate last stands. There were still deaths; men, women and digimon collapsing where they stood, blood that coated the streets, a faint sheen of data covering the walls. But the course of the battle was already set.
When the clouds of morning finally broke the first convoy of reinforcements from America arrived, hundreds of digimon and digidestined as well as fully equipped soldiers. But there was little left for them to do, except for one bearer of bad news.
He what? TK exclaimed.
Khartan intends to use his abilities to launch a first strike on Citadel, wherever that is. Apparently it's close enough to reach from here, even if they cannot open a gate directly. It's defended normally, so they can't reach it through a standard gate. Izzy looked pale and disturbed for once.
But you can't just open a gate. Patamon soared over TK's shoulder and landed on his head. They're natural occurrences, right?
That gate singularity that Utopia was constructing. That's what he wants to use, right? It doesn't need a pre-existing gate. Ken mused quietly.
Yes, but it doesn't work quite like that. Izzy fixed them all with a desperate look. If you think of it, all these parallel universes are floating in some sort of void. It's like we're all boats in the ocean.
We've been there before. TK returned shortly. Khartan sent us there on the first day that this all started.
Yes. Exactly. The Digital World is close enough to our universe that they touch at multiple points, but the path between here and Citadel is much longer. Khartan would need to enter the void to reach Citadel, but he can't create his own gate there.
Why not? Tai asked.
When you open a gate, you bring a bit of the world you left into it. Each world can have different laws of physics, but some concepts remain the same. The surge created by opening a gate by yourself, the energy draw would change the laws of physics in this world probably just enough to destabilize the singularity. That happens, and you can kiss the world, and Khartan, goodbye. Izzy did not look particularly worried about that.
So he has to go through an existing gate. Tentomon did not seem surprised. And he can't use the singularity because it is only one way.
Izzy took a deep breath to calm himself. But there's a side effect of using the void to do this. Inside the void, the laws of physics are broken. There's normally not any matter in there, and what enters stays there in the same form it entered in. The void is unchanging, eternally.
Those bodies we saw in Utopia's headquarters, those must have been people they sent through into the void. They couldn't handle the shock and they froze. Tai exclaimed.
Probably. But there's no gravity inside the void. Izzy added grimly. That's where the problem starts.
Oh hell, I think I see where you're going with this. Ken stared off into the distance as if he was thinking furiously.
So far I haven't seen a road sign yet. Matt complained.
Okay, do you know anything about black holes? Izzy asked.
No, not really.
The short and simple version is this. Izzy looked around in vain for something to draw on. A black hole has enough gravity to warp space-time. If you think of space-time as a flat surface that light roles across, sort of like a puck in an ice rink, then a black hole creates a dip that the light gets stuck in. That's why they're black. There's a point after which not even light can escape from the black hole. That boundary is called the event horizon.
I saw that movie. Davis whispered light-heartedly.
But in the void, there is no gravity. There is no warping of space, no event horizon. The singularity is naked, with nothing to contain it, a ball of almost solid photonic matter sitting in the middle of space. The only thing that keeps it intact is that there's no change in the void.
But when it crosses over into normal space Ken murmured.
Exactly. At the very moment the singularity bridges the gap, the moment it enters the other universe, it will not have bent space-time around it. It won't even be a singularity for that millionth of a second. It will just be a lot of light compressed into a small ball. And then it explodes.
A one kiloton bomb. Ken sounded horrified.
How big is that in real terms? Tai asked, quickly sizing up the looks of horror on the faces of both of the geniuses.
Let's see. Izzy began to scratch imaginary numbers on a piece of wall with Ken murmuring in his ear. For a few minutes all they could understand was a constant exchange of numbers and figures as the two worked at the different sides of the equation, throwing facts and figures at each other.
Our best guess, modified by angular momentum transfer and the collapse of the singularity in on itself, looks like a bulk release of about two times ten to the fifteenth power in terms of tons of TNT. Just for comparison purposes Izzy thought for a moment. It's about a hundred billion times larger than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
There was a moment of profound and absolute silence.
You're kidding me. TK spoke after a moment.
Not really. That thing gets through, and it could be all she wrote. Izzy sighed again and stared at where he had written his figures as if they were somehow to blame for this.
So then we have to stop him before he gets to the void. Gatomon was insistent about that. Do we know where he's going to do that?
You need a special gate. Izzy looked suddenly very tired. One that once went somewhere, but now goes nowhere to enter the void. A gate that was blocked.
But where would you get that? Kari asked. There aren't many gates leading nowhere.
Can't you think of one? Izzy's face flinched slightly, the corner of his mouth twitching. Not even one blocked gate?
Oh crap. Ken whispered quietly.
BlackWarGreymon sealed the Tokyo gate! TK slammed a fist into a wall.
Uh, guys. Michael suddenly stuck his head into the door of the new command room. You might want to see this.
This if Fuji Television, broadcasting right now from an undisclosed location in Japan. Right now we're the last free broadcasting network left around, thanks to some quick hacking into the computer systems, but I don't know how much longer we can keep broadcasting. Mr. Ishida's face was drawn, lined with worry. You see, as of five hours ago, the government of Japan was toppled by a large-scale conspiracy. As Japan has done little to prepare for the attacks that are now coming all over the world, the political scene has been incredibly confused for the past several days. In order to bolster the defense of Japan, the Japanese government has officially incorporated the structure of the Utopia Corporation, whose arms manufacturing division has stored on Japan a large amount of military equipment.
Unfortunately we must report that this is not the entire story. Utopia is working with those forces that have unleashed both attacks on New York and Paris. Although we do not have broadcastable evidence, we have many different eyewitness reports agreeing on this issue. Furthermore we have become aware that they were the ones who forced this measure through the Diet, and who have acted to secure their political power through unconstitutional means. Those opposing the change in power have been imprisoned or executed, and armed Utopia Corporation personnel are patrolling the streets of Tokyo to break up any sign of protest. Even as we speak forces consisting of foreign and native troops, as well as dark digimon are moving into Tokyo and other major Metropolitan areas in the hopes of taking the country firmly into their control.
We don't know how much longer we can keep broadcasting. Troops from all over Japan are moving, intending to shut us down and keep us from getting this out. We'll evade them while we can, but we don't know what their final goal is. For some reason they seem to be preparing for something, but we are so far unable to decide what it is. We only know one thing, whatever they want, it's big. They've made alliances with pure evil to get this started, and we don't know when they'll stop. So if any of you want a world left when this is over, send us any help you can as soon as possible.
From Japan, this is Fuji Broadcasting, signing off.
This isn't the same as helping out an ally. General Hayes pointed out, chewing on a pen. He wanted a cigarette, but he had kicked the habit years ago, and he was not carrying any. What he really wanted was someone to come along and relieve him of the sudden, pressing responsibility of being senior American officer on the scene. You're talking about moving halfway across the world, engaging and invading a country that has so far been out ally based on a single report.
It's not a false report. Japan's reaction proclaims this. Colonel Galvanay slammed his fist into the desk. Can we truly sit here and tolerate this evil in our world?
Do we have a choice? None of our governments is in the position to declare war, even once, even a small war. The decision is out of our hands. General Alexander pointed out.
We will not tolerate evil, whatever its stripe. Colonel MacLeod gave a gently pointed reminder.
This isn't us. We work for the government. They don't work for us. It won't help anybody if we end up becoming tyrants ourselves to prevent tyranny elsewhere. Hayes responded.
I feel much less reasonable. Sergev narrowed his own eyes dangerously. Russian dead lie out there, having died in the defense of the city of Paris. They have fallen fighting invaders from another world. We will not allow those invaders to go unpunished.
You cannot go to war without the support of your nation. And your nation is in now position to support anyone. Alexander replied sadly. None of us are truly ready for this.
But the point remains the same. General Hayes turned toward a window. Can we afford not to go?
The children are going. MacLeod reminded them gently. I have no doubts about that. They're just kids, but they fought as bravely as hardened veterans. They have risen from a hundred nations to take a stand. They saved the cities of Paris and New York. Without them all our fancy fighting material and tactics would have been about as useful as scrap iron. We owe them a debt.
Can we live with ourselves should we send them out to die alone? Galvanay wondered.
Hayes felt a smile quirk across his lips, and he turned to the sound of footsteps as a group of tired, bedraggled, but still determined children entered the large Versailles stateroom they were discussing in. His eyes took in the children there, not children anymore, men and women who had earned their maturity over the bodies of their fallen comrades. He took a look at the one called Tai, who had thrown himself ceaselessly into the breach in New York, striking again and again with a determination to save them all that had astounded his men. He had won their respect, all of their respects, by his dauntless courage and his skill in leadership. Beside him, whispering quietly with the long, black-haired boy was the other, the blond kid who the men in Paris had reported fighting like a demon. A man who, not yet old enough to shave, had already demonstrated the tactical and strategical skill necessary to save a city, and perhaps to win a war. He thought of what they had already risked, and smiled. A countryman of mine once promised to make the world safe for democracy. I do not intend to forgo on that promise.
As a representative of the French Republic I, Colonel Jacques Galvanay do, on behalf of the French Foreign Legion and the Armed Forces of France, declare my intent to uphold our debt of honor. We will stand firm and win through, whatever the cost.
Once my country had leaders that promised a shining new era, who gave us a dream of a better world, a world of peace and plenty. Sergev smiled himself, staring at the ceiling. Even today that dream lives on. Enough people have betrayed it for their own personal gain. I will not join myself to their ranks.
General Alexander nodded at all three of those who had spoken. As senior officer present of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, I, General Sir Thomas Alexander of Her Majesty's Armed Forces do, under the discretion granted to me as a field officer under the rules of military conduct and the NATO charter, accept responsibility totally and independently for the acts that I am about to set in motion. A NATO country has been attacked by a foreign power. Although we have beaten back the attack, I am choosing to take this moment to pursue the beaten attackers back to their home base, a country that has become hostile to us. I will, by any means necessary, deprive that power of their unlawful tyranny and restore the properly elected government of said nation, even if that means commitment of force of arms.
What's going on? Ken Ichijouji blinked.
Ladies and Gentleman, as of right now the NATO High Command, acting in concert with the authorities of the InterDimenional Expeditionary Force, are initiating an operation code-named Normandy.
Tai asked.
A part of France. It's where the Normans came from when they invaded England. Izzy explained quickly. It's also where the allies invaded Europe during World War II.
Which is why we've given that name to the mission. General Alexander pointed to a map of the world that was lying on the table. We're planning the largest amphibious invasion in history, coordinating armies from a dozen countries in an all out assault to take back Tokyo by any means, and prevent these forces from gaining a foothold in our world.
We'll catch political hell from it. General Hayes pointed out, grinning. Unless we win of course.
You don't have to do this. TK complained.
We're not about to let you go wandering off on your own. MacLeod pointed at them accusingly. Who knows what kind of trouble you'll get into. More to the point, what we've seen so far indicates that our entire species may be at risk. If we have a chance to stop them, we should. No matter the cost.
What's the plan? TK raised an eyebrow.
we don't know yet. General Alexander admitted, laughing nervously.
What do you mean? Izzy exclaimed.
You see, command is going to be crazy in all of this. So we thought that we would trust operational command to someone who knows how digimon fight, what they do, and what we can expect from them. Also, we wished to have a commander from the unit giving the most to this campaign, and with the greatest familiarity with the local territory possible. Plus, someone who enjoys the confidence of the general staff. And that left us only with one option.
You mean Kari grinned suddenly, resisting the urge to break out laughing at the sudden expression in TK's eyes.
We do. General Alexander handed a folder into the blond man's unresisting hand. Welcome to Supreme Command of Operation Normandy, Takeru Takaishi.
T minus Ninety-Eight Hours.
A/N: It's also ridiculously late. Sorry.
The IDEF at War
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave...
--Patrick Henry—
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
-Emiliano Zapata
And Takeru Takaishi owned the Third Battle of Versailles.
This time he did not stand alone against his enemies, but his enemies learned of him nonetheless. He was the golden figure, the man in the golden aura who would streak to the battlements, to the modern ramparts of plastic and concrete set among the ancient city. He would be there, and the massive shining angel with the purple helm and sword would be right behind him, sword flashing in deadly arcs as he forced the digimon to fall back. Wherever he arrived, there he would stand, and he could not be moved.
He did not move alone. The brown haired girl in pink, with her accompanying angel moved with him, staying behind him, and shielding him from the fury of his foes. She moved with confidence, but she struck with an energy that was unearthly in its fury. She started with a staff, but when it broke she would grab other weapons to use against any unlucky foe who got close enough. Her angel sent flight after flight of arrows arcing down into her foes, and they would fall to the ground, burned from the inside out. The girl and the pink angel brought light.
With them came the shorter, blonde girl carrying the standard, that piece of blue cloth on a decorative lance that the enemies hated so. They could not understand how the appearance of nothing more than a piece of cloth could change things so, but it could. Whenever the children they fought could see the flag, fluttering bravely in the wind of battle, defiant against the darkness, they cheered, and out of that cheer they would leap back into battle once more. The banner was no longer bright and new, covered in soot and ashes, holed by bullets and by lucky attacks, but it was still there, a beacon in the ever-growing darkness.
The enemies also hated the cold-eyed men that followed the golden warrior. They watched the battle with calm, unblinking eyes, speaking rapidly to their followers and a wave of soldiers came out wherever they pointed. Holes in the line were plugged before they could be exploited. Successful attacks were ambushed and cut off from help. Counter-attacks arose at the worst point when they pointed. Men and women threw themselves into battle wherever those imposing humans could find a weakness to exploit, no matter how well it was hidden.
But the darkness hated the golden boy with a passion that defied words. He brought order out of chaos with his mere presence. Where he arrived battle surged back against them with alarming speed. Children who had been retreating, running away, or hiding in the desperate hope that they would not be seen, regained heart in his presence. They suddenly charged into the darkness, digimon screaming in rage, the children running along behind, granting their digimon strength. These children and their partners were outnumbered by so much, surrounded by so much darkness, but in the presence of that one golden candle, they flared to life like a bonfire. Unstoppable, dauntless, they threw themselves at their foes like a tornado, ignoring all injuries as they tore at their opponents again and again with the fury of the gods themselves. And with them came the humans with the guns, bullets cracking out, grenades flying, and then when those methods had been exhausted, bayonets stabbing and twirling until they killed their foe or were killed themselves. No attack could hit the golden boy either. Whenever he was pressed digidestined leaped to his defense in a wave, sometimes absorbing hits with their own bodies, and digimon surged in a tidal wave to defend him. He was more than their leader, he was their heart, and the sight of him caused the forces of darkness to quail.
The horde was causing damage; that they knew. Digidestined screamed and fell, their digimon partners torn apart by eager claws, but they were falling too slow. For every human they ripped to bloody rags, for every piece of flesh that died beneath their claws, they died too. There were more of them, but the digimon they were facing were unafraid and unstoppable, monsters out of legend, and for every one that died, a thousand more rose to take its place. The horde pushed on as the pressure from those behind mounted, but the losses were beginning to tell.
Cody hid beneath an overhanging wall and gasped for breath. He had never believed that war could be anything like this...this swirl of death and destruction, the constant noise filling the air. Even here in a relatively calm part of the city of Paris he could hear the screams of the dying and the injured, the piteous sounds they made as they expired or were crushed underfoot, and he winced at the noise. Everywhere he looked he could see faces, some just men who had died nearby, but others different, faces he had known. A young girl who he had led in a desperate assault to relieve some of the Russian positions who had died of a single shot through the chest from an enemy MetalMamemon. Her digimon, a FlareLizamon now angered beyond comprehension, mad with rage and grief had torn that digimon to pieces, and had leaped to battle, attacking recklessly. Cody had never seen him again either. His group had shrunk. Many of them had been forced to return to the medical camps further back in the city, but others had disappeared in the swirl of battle, and had not returned. He hoped against hope that they had made it out, that they had made it safely to friendly lines, but he knew that the odds were against him. The gaping holes in his ranks tore holes in his heart, but he steeled it. He now knew what the cost of not stopping that horde would be.
Armadillomon crouched next to him. Even for a digimon used to battle the slaughter outside was more horrible than anything he had ever known. But at the same time he felt a pride that could never have been equaled in those children, so used to laughing and playing games, who were throwing themselves grimly time after time into the teeth of battle. They went with no qualms, and they fought like maddened beasts. All of them now knew the cost of failure, knew that there was no retreat and no surrender, and had crossed the line of no return. He was proud of Cody too. When they first met Cody would have run away at the earliest opportunity to hide from the scene boiling around him. Now Armadillomon knew that his partner was focused, and absently wondered if Cody even remembered why there was decomposed data lining the blade of his sword. Or if he knew that his crest had been glowing the whole time.
Well Armadillomon, you ready? Cody asked after a moment.
Armadillomon replied.
We're ready too commander. A digidestined from Singapore grinned tiredly at Cody. Ready to go back out and kick some ass.
One of the soldiers who had attached themselves to Cody, a British private, nodded grimly. Amen to that.
All right then, let's go see if they can figure out what hit them this time. Cody rushed around the edge of the wall with Armadillomon bouncing right behind them, and his command dashed after him.
Izzy sat, puzzled. He had thought down many different lines of thought, and unfortunately had to admit that he was just as stumped as he was the first time that he thought about the question. It was not easy to think about for that long, but the desert offered no distractions, unless he wanted to look at the hungry Sphinx, who bared her magnificent fangs every once in a while. Remembering the traditional end to those who failed the Sphinx's challenge, he tried not to look in that direction too often.
The desert wind whipped hot around him, but he ignored it and kept on concentrating.
Daniel and Deltamon turned a new corner. His original team was still around him, and they were working like a real team now. In fact, they were fighting like one digimon that just happened to have multiple bodies. Where there was trouble, someone else sprang there to take care of it, whenever someone was in trouble there was a roar and someone else would be there. Still, they would have fallen a dozen times, a hundred times if it had not been for the others following them. Daniel's success at not only striking at the enemy, but also keeping his own people alive had attracted soldiers left abandoned all over the battlefield.
European Legion London was backed up by nearly two dozen digidestined whose names and faces Daniel no longer recognized in the haze of battle. Among them there were about fifty soldiers from a variety of nations hovering around, trying to keep together. Many of them had already run out of ammunition, but they were fighting all the same, simply because there was nowhere safe to fall back to. They clustered around the legs of the more powerful digimon, holding their positions and keeping smaller but more agile enemy forces from harassing the larger IDEF digimon. They were grimy, faces blackened by the constant smoke that filled the battlefield, sometimes covered in blood and bandages that once might have been white. But they were waiting on him, and the weight of the responsibility settled in his stomach like a large, uncomfortable bowling ball.
You ready? He asked quietly, receiving nods in answer, and he allowed himself to have a small grin. Then let's do it, eh?
Deltamon rushed out first, just in case there was any surprise waiting for them at the end of the narrow alley. He pulverized a Woodmon that was caught looking the wrong way, but that was the only enemy digimon close enough to hinder them. They had emerged in the side of a rush against the French Foreign Legion's positions at the top of the broad street, and most of the digimon there were sticking towards the middle, looking forward. They were concerned with the frontal attack they were about to make, not with the possibility of flanking maneuvers.
Next thing they understood there were two dozen Champions among them, along with their human partners, fighting as hard as they could, battering the enemy to pieces before they could rearrange to attack them. Behind them came the soldiers. Then Daniel was submerged in the continuing flow of battle, and there was only the moment. His only glance of anything besides twisting bodies surging against him was one crystal-clear vision of a golden boy moving across a street in the distance.
A voice broke through Tai's reverie. He snapped out of his exhausted trance in time to see Davis shaking him. It was just sunset, and Tai was so tired he could practically feel his arms falling off. He had been fighting all day, and lost count of the times that WarGreymon had turned back into Agumon from lack of energy. But now the expression on Davis' face told him that something was up. The other digidestined, grouped here, slowly became aware that something was happening.
What's up? Joe asked sleepily as Davis shook him too.
Ken's coming. Davis sounded like he had just been strangled, and the glances that he kept shooting over his shoulder enforced that impression.
What do you mean by ...Ken's...coming... Tai's voice trailed off as if he had just let it sail off a waterfall without him, and his jaw dropped so low that it probably would have been humorous if it had not happened in concert with everyone else.
Ken was coming, walking with a singleness of purpose that was so obvious, so astounding that every digidestined in the area immediately felt shocked. It was not the way he was moving, in a straight line toward them that astonished them. It was the way he walked through anything in his way. Even as Tai watched, the remainder of a Ford sedan suddenly crumpled up into a ball as if a giant hand had squeezed it, and Ken walked through the space it had just occupied. His eyes were unfocused, staring ahead through Tai and the others, and a telephone pole that had fallen down blasted apart, clearing the street in front of him. Tai wondered absently if Ken could actually see him with that unfocused gaze, and then realized that he really did not want Ken to be able to see him. He finally understood why Davis and the others had been unnerved, to say the least, by TK's sudden transformation. Yolei was walking about ten meters behind the black haired digidestined, and looking intimidated.
Ken came to a sudden stop only a meter away from Tai, and then his eyes cleared suddenly, and he was Ken again, even if he was standing in the middle of a straight path of destruction.
If his voice shook, nobody noticed it, and the smile he gave was gentle and clear as a bell. I'm ready.
TK smacked a Bakemon in the head with his glowing staff, no longer surprised when the digimon disintegrated under the golden blow. Not much was surprising him anymore, and he was in a dream-state. He could barely remember or understand what he was doing, his hearing dulled as his other senses enhanced themselves. Behind him there was a subtle change in airflow as MagnaAngemon sliced something apart, and the rain of digital data as whatever it was came apart on top of him. Then there was another pocket of calm, as Kari and Angewomon took point, raining silver arrows down on red glowing eyes and blackened heads.
TK felt himself come out of the dream-state with a shock. He grabbed the shoulder of a French boy he barely recognized, but knew was a leader of sorts and yelled in the boy's ear.
Give me a line, twenty meters across, at a backwards angle from that street corner. See if you can force them to go north right now! We can hit them as they cross the plaza to the north. But take your company and fall back now! TK did not even know if this boy had a company anymore, and, as he looked down, he knew what removing that company, no matter how small, would do to the thin line that was still holding, but he did not have a choice. He had to prepare for the future, and that line was going to hold for much longer anyway. The boy saluted and yelled some things and a group of ragged digimon and humans began to run away.
TK waded forward, nearly falling over a group of dead human bodies that lay clustered in the middle of the street, jumping over the wreckage that had been an armored car, before making it to the German captain in charge of this particular piece of the Line.
All right, start falling back in five minutes. That will give us time to set up another line behind you. Hopefully we'll be able to cover you from there. Now get moving! TK yelled, and the captain saluted himself as TK ran forward to the few digidestined still holding this portion of the line, one of them still holding the tattered remnants of an IDEF flag. Their digimon were almost buried in a sea of blackness, but they were still holding.
All right troops, let's give our boys a few minutes to do something with. TK yelled as he hoped into the shelter with them. He caught a glimpse of digimon in another section of the line staging a lightning raid at the same time, and he charged into the confusion, to be lost in the battle once more.
Get the reserve company moving! General Alexander yelled. Tell them to meet the retreating line...two streets back from where they are now. Take advantage of the height of the office buildings. I want constant sniper fire on those digimon as they approach. Let's move it! Catherine immediately turned around and shouted the same thing in French. General Alexander stopped for a moment to curse his luck. Here he was, the man in charge for the most desperate city battle since Stalingrad, and half his troops were kids. He was not badmouthing them, they were as good a group of fighters as he had ever met, but he had joined the army to save the children, not to send them into battle.
The fight, from what command information they had managed to assemble, had degenerated into a brawl. From the reports he was getting, they had been pushed back, while only inflicting acceptable losses on their enemies, and they were just about to get trapped against the river. But trained observers had also reported that, while the line itself was pushed pretty farther back, there was definitely fighting going on in front of them. Isolated army groups held individual building complexes; grounded digimon fought each other and raiding parties swept through enemy lines, exchanging fire with their opponents in hailstorms of oblivion. Everywhere there was the crackle of lightning, the thunder of the gun.
We're losing the right flank. Catherine reported grimly for a moment as the radiomen kept yelling at them.
I know. And I can't do a damn thing about it. And Sir Thomas Alexander knew despair.
Tai ducked out of the way as Ken brought both of his hands up. In one hand his D3 was burning so brightly that Tai could have easily mistaken it for the sun if the light had not been pure white. In his other hand there was only a flare of pink light, a torrent that raced through the elder digidestined and reinvigorated him. Ken himself seemed to be glowing from within, his hair rising as if an internal wind was blowing it away from him, his eyes once again unfocused. But the light in his hands was anything but. It was perfectly focused, and Ken brought forth the strength from within that had once housed nothing but darkness. His D3 exploded with energy, and the sky shifted to respond.
At first, there was nothing, not even a hint of a change. But then the sky swirled, the faint light from sunset changing, subtly torquing as the sky itself began to waver. And then the darkness pealed back, tearing apart, revealing massive holes through the space-time continuum. There was nothing there, they were only gates to nothing, doors that led nowhere, but they were the start of the real test. His face furrowed in concentration as his hands began to shake, as the D3 in the midst of them rattled, almost falling apart itself.
Tai felt his own heart move to join the boy, and he raised his own hands to help, and at that moment, he felt his courageous act provoke a response within. The light from within was warm and comforting, heating him slowly from the inside out, and then it stretched through reaching fingertips into his own D3. For a moment he was tempted to blink in consternation, as he could not remember drawing the device from its usual place on his belt, but he forced the impulse back. He wanted to risk nothing that could interrupt the timeless magic that was suddenly coming to the fore.
Matt stood also. He was amazed privately at the number of them still alive. His occasionally pessimistic viewpoint had gotten the best of him again, but he still believed that they had gotten lucky. The power of friendship had let them survive the battle for New York, and he was not about to start doubting it now. He, along with digidestined from a hundred countries had stood firm, had refused to fall to their enemies. And now he was standing there, in the center of everything, and he let that light shine out from him.
Mimi, her innocence forgotten, lost in the bloodshed of the battle of the Line, covered in grime and blood and sweat and tears, felt for a moment as if she was watching something more precious than innocence. This was Ken's solid refusal to fall, to give in to the forces that taunted him with powers beyond his own. This was a single man standing, glowing against the horizon, silhouetted against the fall of night. And her heart went out to join his as he let the light flare from him.
Joe had nothing to say. Ken was facing inner demons that staggered him, things that Joe did not even want to know about. But he knew all about running away from what was inside. There was not even a flicker of cowardice in his feelings now, and he raised one hand to mirror Ken's gesture, and his crest flamed with light, adding his own strength to the tower that Ken was becoming.
Davis knew he was not bright, but he failed to recognize his singular gift sometimes. The fact that, when the going got rough, his moral compass was as steady as a rock. The universe could have been built around Davis's picture of it, and could not have found a more stable anchor. Maybe it was that guidance that led Davis to place one hand just on Ken's back. As his hand touched Ken's left shoulder all present could feel the solid flow of strength from Davis to Ken, the river of Light that now was flowing into the boy still taunted by the darkness. Some of the strain eased from Ken's face, his sweat ceased to flow in rivers, and he looked comforted. The sky began to open, and this time they could begin to see shapes that spoke of land and air and sea.
Then Yolei, having no doubts about her purpose here, placed her own hand on Ken's right shoulder. The sky shuddered under that, and slowly the Dark Ocean began to come into focus, blazing ever brighter and brighter in the sky.
And light from a thousand digivices sent brilliant flares into the darkness, and with them the veils of night were repealed, and the Gate stood open. It obscured the entire northern part of Manhattan island, a massive doorway into a world of dark surf and sand, of darker foam. A thousand digidestined, tired, hungry, exhausted, but still somehow full fo energy and light clustered around Ken, the light from their digivices showing the way. More digidestined were gathering all the time, with every minute and every second the light was growing greater.
Ken yelled as the light spilled forth, flaming like the output of a thousand torches. Drive them back! Drive them into the gate!
All right! Tai yelled to make himself heard. Matt, take a hundred digidestined and go east, make sure to press them on the riverside. Mimi, I want you to take the western half, take Team Eagle with you and another hundred digidestined. Harrison and Joe, split up. Take the marine digimon with you and make sure that none of them manage to escape to either side of the island. Lock them in. Once we're sure they can't escape, we can drive them into the Gate. All the rest with me. We'll make a line between Matt's squad and Mimi's, and then charge them right up the center. Got it?
A thousand digidestined shouted.
Let's go! And Tai led his tired troops back into the crush of combat.
Izzy paced again, first one way and then the other, always keeping his mind busy, but his feet were becoming tired. The desert showed no signs of changing, and the Sphinx kept watching him with the patient eyes of a cat. He tried to ignore that emerald gaze, but was having scarce luck. Still the Sphinx did not interfere, something for which Izzy was grateful.
Obviously this test has something to do with my crest. Izzy spoke aloud after an hour of silence. The Sphinx made no reply, but swished its tail. Swish. Swish. Swish.
That means that something I know should be the key. I refuse to believe that the test could be impossible, which means that I must, somehow, know the answer. Not that this means anything, but the answer is somewhere inside of me. So, logically, by applying the rules I've learned I can come up with the answer. Swish. Swish. Swish.
But which rules do I apply? After all, I'm fairly certain that this isn't a logic puzzle. Hmmm....well, first you apply Occam's razor. The simplest solution is usually the correct solution. Swish. Swish. Swish. Okay, but what do I apply it to? Is it useless? No, it isn't. Got it. All it means is that whatever answer I come up with won't be too complicated. I suppose that means that I can forget any sophisticated physics answers or anything. The answer is simple.
Which answers are simple? Well, because is about as simple as you can get, but I don't think that it's correct. What about why not? Hmmm....same problem. What other simple answers are there? Because I said so? Too close to because. I suppose that there are many answers to this question. All right, I know that there are many answers to this question, but only one of them is right...or is it?
Izzy paused for quite a while, waiting for something new to come to him, the glimmer of an idea beginning to shape itself in his mind. Then he shook his head as if to clear it. But the meaning of life depends on the person, doesn't it? I mean there are six billion people on Earth alone, and everyone sees things a different way. So it would seem that there are as many meanings of life as there are people, but that's not a good answer really. Because it seems to me that the meaning of life for one particular person changes as time goes on. The way I view life today is not the same as I viewed in ten years ago. At the same time, the way I view life now is slightly different from the way I did yesterday, and tomorrow I will know something different from all that. So, we change, and our views change with us. So there is no flat-out answer, is there?
We're all like blind men, groping out way to an unknowable truth. And since it's unknowable, since it's so vast, then whatever direction we go in is still valid. There are an infinite number of meanings, but eventually they converge to one.
And that's the point. Despite all my knowledge and skill, despite all I can learn, and all that I have the ability to know, there are still things that are beyond me. All knowledge has its limits, but those limits are always closer to me than I think. There are many things that I cannot be certain about, and all of them must be foremost in my mind. One cannot know without knowing that there is much that one does not know. Which is the answer to the riddle.
The Sphinx was gone.
The desert was gone.
Izzy settled down on one of the plump, cushioned chairs in the vast library, opened the nearest book, and began to read.
We're running out of places to run! Kari called as fate brought her and her boyfriend together for one precious moment, golden light and pink-tinged white intermingling.
I know! TK screamed back moments before the press of battle broke them apart again. He had picked up an impressive cut across his jawline, and he was bruised and bleeding in a dozen places, but he was gamely holding on, rallying the troops where he arrived, leading them to safety or death. He was exhausted, tired and ready to drop, but he would not give up. Still, it had not done them that much good. They had been methodically pushed back until they were almost against the buildings they had tried so hard to protect. From his position only a handful of meters behind the front lines, TK could already see the Arch of Triumph, the huge landmark now pockmarked where some stray digimon had probably fired upon it.
Orders sir? A battered man wearing the captain's uniform of the Royal Marines looked up at TK, covered in soot and grime and blood.
TK's stomach roiled once as he watched a digidestined caught on the wrong side of the line explode into bloody fragments, and he took a moment to get it under control before responding. Then emotion was submerged in a tidal wave of exhaustion, exhaustion so deep it even overcame the pain of his injuries. How long can you keep holding here?
Maybe another fifteen minutes at this rate, but the ammo's starting to get a bit low.
TK swore. He had not managed to put together enough logistic support to reinforce his front lines. In fact, unless General Alexander had been pulling miracles out of his hat, there were no more reinforcements. I'm going to check if the second line is set, but if it is, you're going to have to get back there in under a minute, before they can follow us.
Got it. The captain nodded.
What's the plan? Sora ran up, panting. In the background, TK could see Garudamon doing the complicated flips she could do when not burdened with her human rider.
We try to give ourselves enough time to fall back to the second line, and plan B. TK replied calmly.
We have a plan B? Sora panted. That's nice for a change.
Right. We've been leading them here all day. The center has been giving ground steadily in hopes of drawing them into the center of the city, where most of their troops could be cut off from their flanks. The problem is that it hasn't all been our idea. Our center simply couldn't hold against that many digimon. We had hoped to have reinforcements here, but I think we've used them up just to hold them this long. TK looked around. I don't know if the second line will hold any better than the first, especially if we can't find a way to disengage.
Better than nothing. Sora shrugged.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. TK murmured.
They've broken through! A panicked voice shouted from the front. Other voices began to yell, breaking off occasionally with sickening suddenness, and TK whipped around.
Oh hell. Sora breathed out. An entire portion of the line had essentially disintegrated, and now a wave of darkness had broken through, punching its way through the front lines. Digimon roared and stamped, and digidestined and soldiers alike, bereft of the protection of their fellows, began to fall back, running away from their foe. The entire line trembled, a dozen men retreating in one way, a dozen in another.
Fall back! TK yelled, and the line began to move. Fortunately the forces of darkness were confused just enough to miss what was going on, and in taking and trying to clear unmanned defenses, they were just a bit behind the retreating army. Nevertheless they bounced up almost immediately to give chase as soldiers ran past open parks and exposed areas, drawing the main enemy after them. Chaos reigned on the battlefield. Men fell and were swallowed up by the darkness, but still the darkness came on, as the light fled backwards. For a moment TK despaired of managing to separate the two groups, of keeping from killing his own men. The enemy charge had split his army into two sections, one withdrawing to each side of a broad set of avenues, letting the enemy run freely down the street, driving a wedge between them. Even with an army unified physically, there were difficulties with defending once they had been pushed as hard as the IDEF had. Now it appeared that there was no chance at all.
Then there was a disturbance near the Arch itself.
As TK saw what it was, his heart sank.
The horde ran through New York. They did not know what lay ahead of them, in that portal of darkness, but because they could see in, it probably was not oblivion. And that was what awaited them here, standing in the way of the largest surge of soldiers that they had ever faced. Digimon charged them, leading point for huge groups of humans, armed with the weapons that cut and tore at flesh, that chewed the mighty digital warriors into so much scrap. There was not much more that they could do, the armies of digidestined were too much for them, and the IDEF had managed to push them back.
They were far from home, and they had become homesick. These were not the soft humans they had been told would fight them, these were battle-hardened warriors, and in the eyes of their imagination they had grown, become giant monsters with cold eyes and steel muscles. They had killed, but they were suffering too much to afford to stand here. For them, they had no purpose here, and they did not wish to die.
As one, they retreated into the portal, guided, pushed and prodded by the forces still defending the city.
TK's grandfather stood there, in the middle of the road, right beside the magnificent Arch. He was holding an arm close to one side and, looking closely, TK could make out blood staining the side of his clothes. But he still looked tall, full of life, and he had his trademark Devil-may-care grin on his face. He was also holding what appeared to be a full sized machine gun under his arm. Startled somehow by this human standing where the others were running, the enemy digimon stopped slowly, and stared, incredulously, at the older human who smiled back at them.
Time slowed down. In that moment of distraction soldiers checked their headlong advance, calming themselves down, turning to see what was going on. Every instant that this distraction brought was priceless, worth more than anything TK had ever bought before, but he felt a sinking sensation in his stomach, as suddenly he had a feeling of how this would turn out. Even as his desperate companions and soldiers turned and regrouped, horrific visions of what would come to pass flashed before his eyes, and he understood that it was too late to do something.
Vive la France!!! Takeru's Grandfather screamed with a voice that carried across the grounds, echoing almost like a gunshot, and then he brought the barrel of the gun up. The recoil of the first shot might have dropped another man, but he was braced against a monument to the victories of the French, and braced against an indomitable will and spirit, and TK thought that perhaps nothing could have knocked that old man down. His hair seemed to gleam, almost blowing back the way it did when he was riding his beloved bike. And then the first shot rang out.
The muzzle flashed. First once, then again, and then a hundred times, maybe even a thousand. Those digimon who had paused to watch him suddenly rocked back as their first ranks staggered as those bullets cut into them. Suddenly they began to scream, some in rage and some in pain and terror. Then they surged forward, an unstoppable tide of bodies, trampling toward the lone gunman, submerging the Frenchman in an ocean of death, until the sound of his gun faded away.
And TK went insane.
He charged, screaming, coming down from the side of the thrust, his staff swinging around him like a golden aura, a nimbus, protecting him from the blows of evil. But no evil digimon with a choice would confront that avenging angel. He was a figure out of legend, a being of chaos and death, shining with the glory of the sun. They were not prepared to face this creature, this harbinger of death in all his glory. And they fled as he came.
Behind TK, MagnaAngemon charged forward, wings straining with the effort. It might have looked foolish for a moment, that reckless charge, but the angel was not about to let his partner fall while he could do a single thing to stop it. He soared into battle, chasing down those who looked prepared to attack his human partner, leaving blasts of digital data scattered all over the ground. More digimon fell back, not eager at all to come within the arc of his sword. He howled, a battlecry that could have stilled the hearts of any demon, and at its sound, the enemy wavered.
Kari charged because it was TK at risk, and Angewomon floated next to her, keeping the digimon away from her partner with the blasts of silvery arrows that punched through enemy ranks almost effortlessly. They added their screams of rage to the sound.
Next to them a squad of Royal Marines charged, because this was TK after all, the golden general who had led them through a battle that now resembled a scene from hell. They charged because he was charging, and with them they brought the death of their remaining bullets, and their own howls echoed through the streets. And the boy with them, the young digidestined from Warsaw charged as well, barely understanding what was happening, followed along, because they had been keeping him safe. And with him he carried the blue-and-silver banner of the IDEF.
And, standing only a few meters away, Daniel Ollivander and European Legion London charged as well, because they could see the banner advancing, and, with their friends and allies advancing, they were determined to protect them. They were battered and tired and worn down, almost to stubble, but they were still digidestined, determined protectors of the world. They were not going to stand around while others died for them. And with them charged the remains of a German company, rifles cracking as they ducked and dived their way across the urban battlefield. From their center waved another IDEF banner, silver and blue glinting as the light sparkled off their weapons.
On the other side, across from the enemy General Alexander and Catherine skidded to a halt, with Kiwimon right behind them, staring at the sudden scene unfolding. It took them only a moment to understand that the enemy had made a major penetration, but Alexander had seen problems like this before, in textbooks if not in the field. The enemy had forced units through the gap, and now they were strung out, spread out as they had charged forward. Where once the IDEF had been almost split apart, now it seemed ready to envelop the enemy. The only problem would be in inspiring the soldiers, who were both exhausted and beaten, into making the charge.
And then the banners on the other side of the horde started to move.
What the hell are you waiting for? General Alexander thundered at the nearest man he could see. Are you going to make them do all the work?
At that moment, the great silver bulk of Shakkuomon began to move down from that side, advancing on the formidable enemy with a small group of digimon and humans rallying around his gigantic floating feet. One of them could be seen wielding a silver sword in dizzying swoops.
In the distance Catherine could see Colonel Galvanay, now covered in grime. He had his mouth open and was yelling something, but it was inaudible over the din of battle. But his message was unmistakable, and those soldiers around him began to move, slowly at first, and then faster and faster until, like an avalanche, they had driven their army before them and bitten deep into the enemy horde. Along with them came digidestined, some caught in the sudden surge of battle, others racing ahead of their own troops with their digimon leading the way. The battle, once chaotic, was suddenly worse, a blind melee as forces from both sides rushed down on the suddenly entrapped horde.
TK could see almost nothing. One moment there was MagnaAngemon and Kari and Angewomon behind him, the next they were gone in a surge of enemy digimon that covered his view. The next the surge parted under the steady, unremitting blows of his staff and a new vision emerged, soldiers using everything from their bayonets and the stocks of their rifles to their last remaining bullets to hold the enemy from them. Then they were gone behind the shadow of an enemy Tyrannomon, and when he passed beyond that massive digimon he saw Deltamon's three heads belching out fire at any digimon generally unlucky enough to look in their direction. Behind him there was a constant storm of fire and light as the rest of the London team kept pushing the enemy farther and farther back. Then they too disappeared into the storm, and their place was taken by images of more soldiers and children, fighting back to back, shoulder to shoulder, as the battle raged around them, circling them in death and sharp claws, but failing to overcome them. Sora emerged for a moment at the corner of his vision, swinging a baseball bat she had found with a viciousness and strength that had made her a terror on the tennis court, her eyes focused with intense concentration as she tried to stay between her enemies and the other children. Then all was gone into the swirl again.
Suddenly there was freedom from the crush, like a blast of sunlight and fresh air as the world came back into normal focus. There was the panting figure of Cody, holding his sword in one hand, and grinning widely at TK, and the huge metal form of Shakkuomon, head twisting back and forward rapidly, raking red eye beams over his enemies so fast it almost gave TK a neck cramp. TK looked back over his shoulder and suddenly realized that he had carved a path straight through, cutting the enemy advance in half, and that his followers were carving their own path further and further into what had once been an insurmountable darkness.
How's it going TK? Cody asked, still grinning.
Not bad. Now stop talking and start fighting. TK turned back into the battle.
I better. Cody shook his head. The way you're going there's not going to be much left.
Better for us. Someone, an adult TK did not know, yelled, and then he charged forward, screaming, holding a broken pipe as a weapon. TK looked up and down suddenly, trying to figure out how the battle was going, and noticed, for some reason, that the pipers had picked back up again. The swirl of bagpipes seemed, for some strange reason, appropriate to this choice of venues, and he spared a moment to give a quick salute, unseen but heartfelt, to the pipers. Then he turned, shouldered his staff and moved back into the battle.
THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE! Izzy yelled as he came out of his comatose state. His scream managed to wake up an exhausted Ken who had been collapsed next to him in the cold comfort of ImperialDramon's back.
What is it? Tai had not really been sleeping well, and Izzy's exclamation woke him up immediately. What's wrong?
I'll tell you when we get to Paris. It's too late to do anything about it now. Izzy shook his head. Too late indeed.
Have they gone? The voice was weak, tired. TK clutched his grandfather's hand, his elder face covered in lines and wrinkles that TK had not noticed earlier. He was drawn and sallow, and his beloved biker jacket was covered in blood. His own blood. Still braced against the arch his knees were buckling, but he had wedged himself too tightly to fall down.
You beat them. TK could only whisper and smile once, shallowly, but not without feeling.
And France? The older man's eyes bulged open, as he took yet another bone-rattling gasp of air. Those standing there could see the importance of the question in his now-faded eyes.
She still stands. You have helped save her. Colonel Galvanay was there, and he laid a hand on the older man. You will be remembered as a hero.
Always remember TK His voice drew out for a moment, and he managed to give a weak smile, and TK understood. Then he stared at the sky for a moment. His next words came out slow, but with the force and perseverance of a young, healthy man. I died on my feet.
And he did.
The battle had changed. Everyone recognized it. Had the IDEF kept fleeing, had humans and digimon continued to retreat the forces of darkness would have driven them back into destruction by now, or would have had forced them into desperate last stands. But they had not. TK's charge, the sudden rush of men and digimon supporting them had thrown doubt into the faces and hearts of the enemy. Their enemies seemed invincible, they simply would not lay down and die. And now they were coming back for more.
Now they charged forward, filled with a new spirit, and their second wind. Digimon slashed through enemy ranks like they were made out of tinfoil, and their human allies blasted through the enemy with any weapon they could find. The Dark digimon were exhausted as well, they had been fighting all day, fighting all the time, and they could feel exhaustion settling in for them too. Nobody had much strength left for fighting, but the sudden infusion of willpower had given the IDEF a mad power that their opponents could no longer rival. They disintegrated, first one by one, then by the hundreds, then the thousands as more and more digimon poured down into the gap, as more humans closed to suicidally close ranges and the pounding began all over again. Fistfights had even broken out in the battlefield as dozens of humans and digimon danced around each other.
Sora, now wielding a staff carrying an IDEF flag instead of a baseball bat, whirled like a mad dervish, sending enemy digimon flying from her in a huge arc. She was standing in the middle of a mostly cleared square, but her presence in the battle was lending the mighty Garudamon more strength. Everywhere she struck enemy digimon reeled back from her, only to be set upon by others, others with their passionate strength returned to them. She felt oddly like laughing, laughing in the face of death, as the surge of strength broke through them all.
They drove the enemy backwards. Meter after meter, inch by inch, until at last they had pushed their opponents through the streets of the city, past malfunctioning streetlights, through a darkness made more frightful then any nightmare by the continuing clash of combat. And slowly, pushed beyond their limits, the enemy retreated before humans and digimon working together nearly flawlessly, always moving forward, their enemy always moving back. There were still screams, pitched battles, desperate last stands. There were still deaths; men, women and digimon collapsing where they stood, blood that coated the streets, a faint sheen of data covering the walls. But the course of the battle was already set.
When the clouds of morning finally broke the first convoy of reinforcements from America arrived, hundreds of digimon and digidestined as well as fully equipped soldiers. But there was little left for them to do, except for one bearer of bad news.
He what? TK exclaimed.
Khartan intends to use his abilities to launch a first strike on Citadel, wherever that is. Apparently it's close enough to reach from here, even if they cannot open a gate directly. It's defended normally, so they can't reach it through a standard gate. Izzy looked pale and disturbed for once.
But you can't just open a gate. Patamon soared over TK's shoulder and landed on his head. They're natural occurrences, right?
That gate singularity that Utopia was constructing. That's what he wants to use, right? It doesn't need a pre-existing gate. Ken mused quietly.
Yes, but it doesn't work quite like that. Izzy fixed them all with a desperate look. If you think of it, all these parallel universes are floating in some sort of void. It's like we're all boats in the ocean.
We've been there before. TK returned shortly. Khartan sent us there on the first day that this all started.
Yes. Exactly. The Digital World is close enough to our universe that they touch at multiple points, but the path between here and Citadel is much longer. Khartan would need to enter the void to reach Citadel, but he can't create his own gate there.
Why not? Tai asked.
When you open a gate, you bring a bit of the world you left into it. Each world can have different laws of physics, but some concepts remain the same. The surge created by opening a gate by yourself, the energy draw would change the laws of physics in this world probably just enough to destabilize the singularity. That happens, and you can kiss the world, and Khartan, goodbye. Izzy did not look particularly worried about that.
So he has to go through an existing gate. Tentomon did not seem surprised. And he can't use the singularity because it is only one way.
Izzy took a deep breath to calm himself. But there's a side effect of using the void to do this. Inside the void, the laws of physics are broken. There's normally not any matter in there, and what enters stays there in the same form it entered in. The void is unchanging, eternally.
Those bodies we saw in Utopia's headquarters, those must have been people they sent through into the void. They couldn't handle the shock and they froze. Tai exclaimed.
Probably. But there's no gravity inside the void. Izzy added grimly. That's where the problem starts.
Oh hell, I think I see where you're going with this. Ken stared off into the distance as if he was thinking furiously.
So far I haven't seen a road sign yet. Matt complained.
Okay, do you know anything about black holes? Izzy asked.
No, not really.
The short and simple version is this. Izzy looked around in vain for something to draw on. A black hole has enough gravity to warp space-time. If you think of space-time as a flat surface that light roles across, sort of like a puck in an ice rink, then a black hole creates a dip that the light gets stuck in. That's why they're black. There's a point after which not even light can escape from the black hole. That boundary is called the event horizon.
I saw that movie. Davis whispered light-heartedly.
But in the void, there is no gravity. There is no warping of space, no event horizon. The singularity is naked, with nothing to contain it, a ball of almost solid photonic matter sitting in the middle of space. The only thing that keeps it intact is that there's no change in the void.
But when it crosses over into normal space Ken murmured.
Exactly. At the very moment the singularity bridges the gap, the moment it enters the other universe, it will not have bent space-time around it. It won't even be a singularity for that millionth of a second. It will just be a lot of light compressed into a small ball. And then it explodes.
A one kiloton bomb. Ken sounded horrified.
How big is that in real terms? Tai asked, quickly sizing up the looks of horror on the faces of both of the geniuses.
Let's see. Izzy began to scratch imaginary numbers on a piece of wall with Ken murmuring in his ear. For a few minutes all they could understand was a constant exchange of numbers and figures as the two worked at the different sides of the equation, throwing facts and figures at each other.
Our best guess, modified by angular momentum transfer and the collapse of the singularity in on itself, looks like a bulk release of about two times ten to the fifteenth power in terms of tons of TNT. Just for comparison purposes Izzy thought for a moment. It's about a hundred billion times larger than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
There was a moment of profound and absolute silence.
You're kidding me. TK spoke after a moment.
Not really. That thing gets through, and it could be all she wrote. Izzy sighed again and stared at where he had written his figures as if they were somehow to blame for this.
So then we have to stop him before he gets to the void. Gatomon was insistent about that. Do we know where he's going to do that?
You need a special gate. Izzy looked suddenly very tired. One that once went somewhere, but now goes nowhere to enter the void. A gate that was blocked.
But where would you get that? Kari asked. There aren't many gates leading nowhere.
Can't you think of one? Izzy's face flinched slightly, the corner of his mouth twitching. Not even one blocked gate?
Oh crap. Ken whispered quietly.
BlackWarGreymon sealed the Tokyo gate! TK slammed a fist into a wall.
Uh, guys. Michael suddenly stuck his head into the door of the new command room. You might want to see this.
This if Fuji Television, broadcasting right now from an undisclosed location in Japan. Right now we're the last free broadcasting network left around, thanks to some quick hacking into the computer systems, but I don't know how much longer we can keep broadcasting. Mr. Ishida's face was drawn, lined with worry. You see, as of five hours ago, the government of Japan was toppled by a large-scale conspiracy. As Japan has done little to prepare for the attacks that are now coming all over the world, the political scene has been incredibly confused for the past several days. In order to bolster the defense of Japan, the Japanese government has officially incorporated the structure of the Utopia Corporation, whose arms manufacturing division has stored on Japan a large amount of military equipment.
Unfortunately we must report that this is not the entire story. Utopia is working with those forces that have unleashed both attacks on New York and Paris. Although we do not have broadcastable evidence, we have many different eyewitness reports agreeing on this issue. Furthermore we have become aware that they were the ones who forced this measure through the Diet, and who have acted to secure their political power through unconstitutional means. Those opposing the change in power have been imprisoned or executed, and armed Utopia Corporation personnel are patrolling the streets of Tokyo to break up any sign of protest. Even as we speak forces consisting of foreign and native troops, as well as dark digimon are moving into Tokyo and other major Metropolitan areas in the hopes of taking the country firmly into their control.
We don't know how much longer we can keep broadcasting. Troops from all over Japan are moving, intending to shut us down and keep us from getting this out. We'll evade them while we can, but we don't know what their final goal is. For some reason they seem to be preparing for something, but we are so far unable to decide what it is. We only know one thing, whatever they want, it's big. They've made alliances with pure evil to get this started, and we don't know when they'll stop. So if any of you want a world left when this is over, send us any help you can as soon as possible.
From Japan, this is Fuji Broadcasting, signing off.
This isn't the same as helping out an ally. General Hayes pointed out, chewing on a pen. He wanted a cigarette, but he had kicked the habit years ago, and he was not carrying any. What he really wanted was someone to come along and relieve him of the sudden, pressing responsibility of being senior American officer on the scene. You're talking about moving halfway across the world, engaging and invading a country that has so far been out ally based on a single report.
It's not a false report. Japan's reaction proclaims this. Colonel Galvanay slammed his fist into the desk. Can we truly sit here and tolerate this evil in our world?
Do we have a choice? None of our governments is in the position to declare war, even once, even a small war. The decision is out of our hands. General Alexander pointed out.
We will not tolerate evil, whatever its stripe. Colonel MacLeod gave a gently pointed reminder.
This isn't us. We work for the government. They don't work for us. It won't help anybody if we end up becoming tyrants ourselves to prevent tyranny elsewhere. Hayes responded.
I feel much less reasonable. Sergev narrowed his own eyes dangerously. Russian dead lie out there, having died in the defense of the city of Paris. They have fallen fighting invaders from another world. We will not allow those invaders to go unpunished.
You cannot go to war without the support of your nation. And your nation is in now position to support anyone. Alexander replied sadly. None of us are truly ready for this.
But the point remains the same. General Hayes turned toward a window. Can we afford not to go?
The children are going. MacLeod reminded them gently. I have no doubts about that. They're just kids, but they fought as bravely as hardened veterans. They have risen from a hundred nations to take a stand. They saved the cities of Paris and New York. Without them all our fancy fighting material and tactics would have been about as useful as scrap iron. We owe them a debt.
Can we live with ourselves should we send them out to die alone? Galvanay wondered.
Hayes felt a smile quirk across his lips, and he turned to the sound of footsteps as a group of tired, bedraggled, but still determined children entered the large Versailles stateroom they were discussing in. His eyes took in the children there, not children anymore, men and women who had earned their maturity over the bodies of their fallen comrades. He took a look at the one called Tai, who had thrown himself ceaselessly into the breach in New York, striking again and again with a determination to save them all that had astounded his men. He had won their respect, all of their respects, by his dauntless courage and his skill in leadership. Beside him, whispering quietly with the long, black-haired boy was the other, the blond kid who the men in Paris had reported fighting like a demon. A man who, not yet old enough to shave, had already demonstrated the tactical and strategical skill necessary to save a city, and perhaps to win a war. He thought of what they had already risked, and smiled. A countryman of mine once promised to make the world safe for democracy. I do not intend to forgo on that promise.
As a representative of the French Republic I, Colonel Jacques Galvanay do, on behalf of the French Foreign Legion and the Armed Forces of France, declare my intent to uphold our debt of honor. We will stand firm and win through, whatever the cost.
Once my country had leaders that promised a shining new era, who gave us a dream of a better world, a world of peace and plenty. Sergev smiled himself, staring at the ceiling. Even today that dream lives on. Enough people have betrayed it for their own personal gain. I will not join myself to their ranks.
General Alexander nodded at all three of those who had spoken. As senior officer present of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, I, General Sir Thomas Alexander of Her Majesty's Armed Forces do, under the discretion granted to me as a field officer under the rules of military conduct and the NATO charter, accept responsibility totally and independently for the acts that I am about to set in motion. A NATO country has been attacked by a foreign power. Although we have beaten back the attack, I am choosing to take this moment to pursue the beaten attackers back to their home base, a country that has become hostile to us. I will, by any means necessary, deprive that power of their unlawful tyranny and restore the properly elected government of said nation, even if that means commitment of force of arms.
What's going on? Ken Ichijouji blinked.
Ladies and Gentleman, as of right now the NATO High Command, acting in concert with the authorities of the InterDimenional Expeditionary Force, are initiating an operation code-named Normandy.
Tai asked.
A part of France. It's where the Normans came from when they invaded England. Izzy explained quickly. It's also where the allies invaded Europe during World War II.
Which is why we've given that name to the mission. General Alexander pointed to a map of the world that was lying on the table. We're planning the largest amphibious invasion in history, coordinating armies from a dozen countries in an all out assault to take back Tokyo by any means, and prevent these forces from gaining a foothold in our world.
We'll catch political hell from it. General Hayes pointed out, grinning. Unless we win of course.
You don't have to do this. TK complained.
We're not about to let you go wandering off on your own. MacLeod pointed at them accusingly. Who knows what kind of trouble you'll get into. More to the point, what we've seen so far indicates that our entire species may be at risk. If we have a chance to stop them, we should. No matter the cost.
What's the plan? TK raised an eyebrow.
we don't know yet. General Alexander admitted, laughing nervously.
What do you mean? Izzy exclaimed.
You see, command is going to be crazy in all of this. So we thought that we would trust operational command to someone who knows how digimon fight, what they do, and what we can expect from them. Also, we wished to have a commander from the unit giving the most to this campaign, and with the greatest familiarity with the local territory possible. Plus, someone who enjoys the confidence of the general staff. And that left us only with one option.
You mean Kari grinned suddenly, resisting the urge to break out laughing at the sudden expression in TK's eyes.
We do. General Alexander handed a folder into the blond man's unresisting hand. Welcome to Supreme Command of Operation Normandy, Takeru Takaishi.
T minus Ninety-Eight Hours.