Note: Just to clarify, the ages are:
Joe-20 (Joe rocketted through his first 2 years at Uni, that's why he's in his third year)
Tai, Matt, Sora- 19
Mimi, Izzy-18
Yolei, Ken-17
T.K., Kari, Davis-16
Cody-15
Authors Note: More one sided Sorato (in parts) in here, also implied Jyuoshiro (yaoi) and Takari. Plus I don't own Man on the Moon by REM but the other song is mine, I came up with it myself.
*********************************************
"What?!" Ken demanded as he stepped forward, "I was supposed to be the only Digimon Emperor!"
"Well, it looks like they had other plans." Tai said as he turned back to the digimon, "How did this happen?"
"We don't know Tai, one morning we were training with Piximon and the next we were running for our lives from him and Veemon, Hawkmon, Wormon and Armadillomon." Agumon told him, everyone with solomn looks on their faces.
"It looks like we're going to have to go and save them." Matt stated, looking to everyone for support.
"I'll always be by your side Matt." Gabumon told him, T.K. and Patamon stood next to them.
"Me... Us too Matt."
"Hey, if you think you're going to get all the glory without me, you're dead wrong!" Tai exclaimed.
"If you guys are going then so am I." Sora said.
"Me too!" Kari agreed.
"I'm not going to be the only girl left behind." Mimi told them with Yolei saying,
"Neither am I."
"Tai's going so I am too." Davis commented.
"I'm going too." said Cody, Izzy and Joe.
"I'll show that wannabe not to mess with my title." Ken roared, before seeing everyone looking at him strangely, "Well, the title that I'm not very proud of."
"Then it's unanimous. We're all on our way back to the Digiworld." Tai announced before a realisation hit him.
"Uh, how are we going to get out of this one? It sounds like we'll need all of our attention in the Digiworld and the younger members still need to go to school..."
"Tai? We finished for the holidays today." T.K. told him. Everyone of the older generation looked at him.
"Don't ask us, it's the new government's policy. We get more time off school."
"At least we get as much time for holidays as you guys do." Kari said with T.K., Cody, Yolei, Ken and Davis agreeing.
"It looks like that problem's settled but what do we tell our parents? I know that most of us still live at home." Joe asked, seeing the faces around him crease with thought.
"Well, I guess we can tell our parents the truth. It won't hurt that much." Davis suggested. T.K. nodded,
"I know my mum wouldn't have a problem, just so long as I promised to e-mail her everyday."
Everyone else agreed with their rationalisations, Matt just staying out of the conversation until he said,
"Well Dad couldn't argue with me at the moment anyway."
At this, everyone's heads bowed down. They had been selfish talking about things like that infront of him.
"Well, I think we'll head off tomorrow morning. Meet at the Elementary School or where?" Matt asked, Izzy thought for a moment before saying,
"In theory we should be able to jump from my home computer. So why don't we all meet at my place and we can go from there."
"Great idea Izzy." Tai said, then turned to everyone else, "O.K. We've got 'till tomorrow morning to get ready and tie up our loose ends. And remember to tell your parents, we don't want any interuptions. Let's get ready."
Everyone nodded and said goodbye to Matt, taking their digimon with them. The last ones to leave were Sora and T.K.
"I'll pick you up tomorrow morning at 7:30 okay T.K.?" Matt asked to which his brother nodded.
"Thank's Matt. I'll see you then. Come on Patamon." and with that T.K. walked down to the street and over two blocks to his apartment building.
"You sure you'll be alright by yourself tonight Matt?" Sora asked him as she hugged him goodbye.
"I won't be alone, I'll have Gabu with me." Matt told her as he smiled, "But thanks anyway."
Sora kissed his forehead before walking out the door, saying, "If you need to talk..."
"I know your number." Matt finished and slowly closed the door after Sora was long gone.
Matt wandered around the house, tossing the laundry in it's basket, making sure nothing was going to go off while he was away and eventually started packing his bag to take to the digiworld. The first thing to go in his bag was his harmonica at Gabumon's request, saying he missed it's song. A number of pairs of pants and shorts, shirts and other essentials went in the bag until Matt decided to call it quits for the night. Getting ready for bed, he found himself staring at a picture of him and Sora that had been taken at his 15th birthday party. A silent tear made it's way down Matt's face before Gabumon walked in the room and saw his friend in pain.
"Why Matt?" the question could have meant millions of things, but Matt knew exactly what Gabu was asking.
"Because, as T.K. said, I didn't have the balls to do it." Matt replied as he sighed and threw himself onto his bed, Gabumon jumping up as well.
"I don't think that's it." Gabumon told him, "You were so close to telling Sora so many times before... I was considering opening a bottle of champagne when we were in Russia, you seemed that determined. I think it was the fact that you didn't want to get hurt anymore, you were afraid that Sora was going to hurt you just like your parents did. But if the world was supossed to be without pain, the good times wouldn't have the same effect on people."
Matt looked at his digimon, a surprised look on his face as Gabumon continued,
"Life was never meant to be easy Matt, that's why the chances that we take have the risk of becoming sour. We learn from them but what's the point of having a heart if you're not willing to take the chance of being loved?"
Matt turned his head from the photo back to Gabumon and nodded, realising that Gabu was right. But he found out too late. Gabumon was watching his friend intensly and saw Matt's realisations.
"If it's destiny Matt, it's never too late."
Smiling, Matt said goodnight and rolled over to get to sleep but one thing stuck in his mind.
'If it's destiny Matt, it's never too late.'
What had he meant by that? Was there something else that Gabumon and the others hadn't told them to do with the ancient prophecy. This question troubled Matt until he just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and fell asleep.
*******************************
"Matt! Help us!" Matt heard Sora's voice call out. He looked around everywhere but all he could see was the edge of a cliff on his right, Gabumon by his side and a menacing looking digimon on his left. The digimon looked like a black shadow, with red horns sticking out of his head, long arms that had razor sharp claws on the end and a scythe in his hand.
"What should I do?" Matt whispered to himself.
"I'll stop him while you save Sora and Tai." Gabumon said as he felt the urge to shout out
"Digiarmour Power Up!"
As soon as he said this, a blue light flashed from his pocket and headed straight at Gabumon, who was surrounded by the light. Matt shielded his eyes and when he looked back, Gabumon was no longer there instead there was a digimon that looked similar to MetalGarurumon, except he was standing on his hind legs, holding a shield with the symbol of Friendship on it in one hand and a sword with a flameing blue blade in the other.
"WolfGarurumon!" he announced before letting out a howl that nearly shook the ground they were standing on.
"Matt, save Tai and Sora!" WolfGarurumon yelled as he blocked the demon digimon from getting to Matt.
"Where are they?!" Matt yelled back, afraid that he couldn't see his friends.
"They fell into the river below!" WolfGarurumon told him and Matt ran over to the edge of the cliff and saw Sora and Tai fighting the current, trying to get back to shore.
"Hold on!" Matt called down to them and tried to determine how far up he was. It was at least a good 100 feet, can I jump that far?
'No time for backing out now Matt, you've got to save your friends.' the voice inside his head told him, 'Compared to them your life is insignificant!'
Matt took in a deep breath and stood up. Looking down he saw that he should have enough time before they would be at his point. Bending his knees, Matt threw his weight forward and jumped off the side of the cliff. He hit the water hard, but he pushed the pain away and concentrated on getting to the surface to save his friends. After pulling his head above the water and taking a deep breath, Matt wiped the stray water out of his eyes and saw Sora coming towards him.
"Sora, just hold on O.K?" Matt shouted to her as he swam over and held onto her around the waist. He looked around quickly as saw a small alcove but he knew they wouldn't make it, the only chance they had was if he could grab onto one of the rocks just behind it and pull themselves in. Using all his strength, Matt and Sora eventually made it over to the side.
"O.K. Now grab onto one of the rocks Sora." Matt told her and she obeyed. Matt, pushed her against the current and soon she was sitting on the rocks above the water line in the alcove. Sora was safe, now Tai.
Matt looked around and saw Tai coming straight towards him so he held out his hand for Tai to grab a hold of. Tai reached out and with some luck, he had a hold on Matt's hand.
"Just hold on Tai!" Matt yelled but was disheartened when he felt his grip on Tai weakening. A wave came and battered them against the rocks, when he recovered Matt found that Tai had gone and he looked around frantically trying to see where he got to. Spotting him floating down the river Matt took a deep breath and let go of his rock, hearing Sora screaming for him. Matt swam as fast as he could down the river and grabbed a hold of Tai, who was struggling to keep his head above the water. Thinking fast, Matt spotted another group of rocks that were out of the way of the current, if he could get Tai up there then one of the other digimon could pick him up. Breathing heavily, Matt used his last reserves of energy to grab onto on of the rocks and push Tai up to the top. Feeling his strength dissappear as he lost his grip on the rock and floated off down the river he could just make out Tai yell,
"Hold on Matt, we'll get you back. I promise!"
The current was throwing Matt all over the place when he looked up and saw the battle still raging up above him and he could only watch in horror as an attack was averted and hit the side of the cliff, boulders tumbling down the side and straight towards him. Matt saw one right over his head and waited for the painful impact that would kill him.
******************************
"Huh?!" Matt asked no one as he lifted his head off the floor. His eyes looked over his mattress and was surprised to see a pair of eyes looking at him from the other side.
"What are you doing on the floor Gabumon?" he asked as the digimon rubbed it's head.
"I was relegated down here when you kicked me out the bed." he stated, "Were you having a bad dream Matt?"
Matt nodded his head and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, wincing when the first few rays of light made their way through his blinds. He looked up at the clock on his bedside table and saw that it was 6:30, time to start getting ready. (Okay, I know that it's probably still pitch black at that time in Japan in December, but I'm living in Oz and the sun's coming in my room at 5 am, I'm getting annoyed at it)
Saturday, 3rd December
Matt stared blankly out the windscreen of his car as he made the short drive to T.K's place, sure enough his younger brother was already waiting and their mother was flanking him.
"Now Matt, I want you to look after T.K." their mum told him and Matt sighed,
"I always do mum."
"Also, what's the number of your dad's nurse, just incase you aren't back by then."
Matt dug around in his bag until he found his organiser and ripped out the page where he had Sandra's number on it as T.K. climbed into the passenger side.
"There you are mum. I'll see you later." Matt said as he handed it to her.
"Good luck you guys."
"Thanks mum!" the two young men and the digimon said before Matt pulled away.
"You ready squirt?" Matt asked T.K. as they drove off to Izzy's place.
"Yeah, I'm just tired I guess."
"O.K."
The rest of the trip was made in silence until Matt pulled into the driveway of Izzy's new house. Taking his bag out of the car, Matt waited until T.K. and the digimon got out before he locked the doors.
"Matt and T.K. are here!" he heard Mimi scream out as she had the door opened and was waiting for them.
"You should have raised your voice a bit Mimi, I don't think my fans in America heard you." Matt said sarcastically as he and T.K. walked past her.
"Opps, sorry." she apologised before she closed the door and lead them up to Izzy's study,
"You two are the last ones to arrive, so we'd better hurry up."
"Tai's here on time?" Matt asked with mock shock.
"He's got Kari AND Sora on his tail now remember." T.K. told him then mentally knocked himself over the head for saying that.
"Too true." Matt muttered and trudged up the stairs.
"Finally you guys are here!" Davis exclaimed, "What's wrong T.A.? Giving up on Kari are you?"
T.K. walked up to Davis with a muderous look in his eyes as he whispered in his ear, "If I ever hear you even joke about that or say anything disrepectful to my girlfriend during this entire trip, I will make sure the rest of your life will be a living hell."
Davis snorted and just turned his back to T.K., returning his concentration to the computer screen while Sora walked over to them.
"You alright last night?" she asked quietly to which Matt nodded,
"I've never felt better." and gave her a weak smile.
Sora was about to say something when Tai, who had been watching them carefully, interupted her,
"Izzy says we're just about ready to make the jump."
Matt smiled and nodded, "Well let's go then." and walked over to where Izzy, Joe, Ken and Yolei were discussing the best way of holding the connection long enough to get all of them through.
"Why don't we just split into two groups? Half of the D-3's in one and the other half in the other and we just split into the two groups." Ken asked and eventually everyone else agreed.
"The D-3's are going to be split like this, T.K., Cody and Kari in one group and Davis, Yolei and Ken in the other." Izzy announced, "Now for the rest of us... Matt and Tai will go with T.K., Kari and Cody, Sora can go with them as well. That leaves me, Joe and Mimi with Yolei, Ken and Davis. I think we'll go last so if any bugs arise, we can fix them up."
"Alright then, Digiport open!" T.K. said as he and the others held out their digivices.
The group landed with a thud on the ground.
"Ow, why did I have to be the first one to go through?" T.K. moaned as the others got off him and looked around. The thick forests were a feature that had been missing from the last time they had all been in the digiworld, the sun was also starting to set on the horizon.
They all walked of towards the forest when the T.V screen started flashing and the other group emerged from it.
"Man, we thought you guys would have set up camp already." Joe stated as they got to their feet as well.
"What are you talking about?" Tai asked.
"Yeah, we've only been here for 30 seconds, if that." Cody told them. Izzy scratched his head before snapping his fingers and exclaiming, "I've got it."
"Huh?"
"Well, we left an hour after you went through, then if you only just arrived in the Digiworld, then that means that there is a time difference between the real world and the Digiworld but this time the 4th dimension here is slower than that in the real world."
"So you're saying time's moving faster in the real world?!" Yolei asked to which Izzy nodded his head.
"I wonder if you've got any mail yet." Mimi quieried and in response Izzy opened up his pinapple laptop and started typing away as he did all those years ago.
"There's one from Gennai. It says that there will be a special package that will be arriving by air mail in a few days..." Izzy told them as they all looked around with confused looks on their faces.
"Hey, it also says that the prophecy will make itself clear in the coming days. What the hell does that mean?" Matt demanded, fear starting to creep into his mind.
"We'll just have to wait and see." Ken replied, surveying his landscape. His keen eyes spotted a small river running through the forest, a perfect place to set up camp and so started walking over to it, the others following him after questioning each other for a few minutes. As they approached the river, the ground began to shake and a crevice opened up, swallowing the young digidestined Davis, Yolei, Cody and Ken before the ground closed up over them and returned to normal.
"Oh shit!" Matt exclaimed, rubbing his head.
"What do we do now?!" Tai yelled, looking around for whatever it was that caused his friends disappearence.
"There is nothing you can do, for it is written in the prophecy." came a voice that they knew well.
"Gennai!"
"Yes, it's me. I should have sent this to you sooner, but I didn't know the Emperor would strike this fast." he said, handing Tai a small package. The leader looked from the younger version of Gennai to the package and back again, only opening it when Izzy's curiosity got the better of him and started opening it himself. The last sheet of paper was removed to reveal 8 digivices, each coloured according to that of their crest on the sides and silver in the middle.
"Prodigious, now we've all got D-3's!" Izzy announced as he grabbed the purple one.
"Actually, those are D-4's. The next generation with even stronger digiarmour and more features too." Gennai told them and pulled out 8 necklace type things out of his pocket, handing one to each digidestined.
"Tags and crests?" T.K. asked as he held his in his hand, shocked and remembering when the original ones were destroyed.
"Yes, but these have something more... they also serve as the energy pack for the armour. Also, if you place the tags into these mobile phones," Gennai said as he also handed them each a mobile phone that looked like a Nokia 3210, "then you will be able to enter and exit the Digital World at any time you wish. They also have a function of being able to convert the time in the Digiworld to real world time."
All 8 digidestined admired the new gadgets before Matt's head popped up,
"What happened to Ken, Davis, Yolei and Cody?"
"Oh, that. Well, it is said in the prophecy that they will return after the defeat of the devil and combine forces to destroy the trusted one." said Gennai to see even more confused faces.
"The trusted one?" Izzy muttered to himself, his brain running a million miles an hour.
"Enough talk, I say. Let's get going!" Tai yelled to the groans of everyone else.
"I say we stay here for the rest of the day, find out what we can about this new world and then we can go and whip some ass." Matt retorted, hoping that his suggestion wouldn't start a fight like it might have done in the early years.
"Matt!"
"Tai!"
With that the two were locked in a staring contest, both determined to make their suggestion the one used. Sora shook her head and stepped up to them.
"I think Matt's suggestion is better Tai, where would we go? We don't even know what the prophecy is all about. At least if we stay in the one place, Izzy can analyze the passage and we can take it from there."
Tai growled to himself, but then realised that it probably wasn't a bad idea after all.
"O.K. I guess you're right Sora. We'll stay here for tonight."
Gennai smiled and turned to leave,
"In that case, I'll go home and see what I can dig up. There'll be mail if I find anything." and with that, he was gone.
"Kari and I'll go and find some firewood." T.K. said as they stood up and walked off, their digimon following them.
"Let's go and get some food Joe." Mimi suggested as she grabbed his arm and pulled him in the direction of the river. Izzy opened up his laptop and got to work trying to decipher the code ignoring Tai and Matt who were standing right above him, still staring at each other. Sora gave an exasperated sigh and took Tai by the arm,
"Come on Tai, we'll see if Joe and Mimi need any help" and dragged him off to the river. Matt quickly closed his eyes to stop the tears that threatened from falling and silently calmed himself when Izzy interupted his thoughts.
"Hey, Matt! Have a look at this." the red headed man said as he beckoned his team-mate and friend over to the computer.
"What's up Izman?" Matt asked as he peered over his shoulder.
"I was searching through the copy of the prophecy that Gennai downloaded on my computer and I this passage caught my attention." Izzy told him as he pointed at the begining.
"Love's friendship and Friendship's love will combine with the force of a hurricane, forcing reckless courage to abandon the fight upon the hour of the controller. Interuption causes devastation which even Hope's light cannot cure, with the only remidy to the pain one digidestined feels is the death of a loved one, death bringing salvation and resurection to the fallen digidestined. Dependency, a curious eye and a truthful ear restore the remains that once were warriors, bringing a balance to the cause of all life." Matt read, his eyes widening as he read further down the passage with Izzy nodding his head and Matt scratching his, then stated,
"Now I thought the one about WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon was confusing, this one's even worse."
"Well, I think I've got some of it figured out already..." Izzy reported but stopped when he saw Joe, Mimi, Sora and Tai walking back with at least a dozen fish.
"Yay! Dinner!" Tentomon exclaimed as he flew around, thinking somehow that it would make dinner appear faster.
"We got the firewood!" Kari yelled as they emerged from the forest and dropped it onto the ground.
"Pepper Breath!"
"Well done Agumon, it looks like your aim's gotten better." Tai complemented his digimon as he scratched him under the chin. After rummaging around in his bag, Matt pulled out a pocket knife and walked over to the fish.
"I'll take those." he said to Sora as he took them from her hands and walked back over to the river. Picking up a piece of bark, he placed one of the fish on it and started gutting and cleaning it. After that one was done, he did the next, until all were done.
"Hey, thanks Matt." T.K. said as he took the cleaned fish from his brother and cooked them over the fire on the twigs that they had collected with the firewood. It was 15 minutes before the fish were cooked, all that time everyone was chatting and having a good time but Matt was still looking at the blood that was on his hands.
"Hey Matt? You gonna eat?" Joe shouted to him, bringing Matt out of his transe.
"Oh, yeah. I'm coming!" he called back, furiously scrubbing his hands in the water and made his way to the fire and sat down next to T.K. and Izzy.
"So, have you found out anything about the prophecy yet Izzy?" asked Mimi as she took another mouthful of fish. Izzy gulped slightly and it wasn't from the piece of fruit in his mouth.
"Uh, no. Nothing yet Mimi, I might have something tomorrow though."
Matt opened his mouth to say that Izzy had found something when the look that the holder of the crest of knowledge gave him warned him to keep quiet. Matt just sighed and went back to chewing his dinner and staring at the fire.
The rest of the food was quickly demolished and soon Patamon was yawning his head off.
"I'm tired." he squeeked. T.K. looked at him before pulling his sleeping bag out of his backpack and laying it down on the ground.
"I think I'll hit the sack as well." T.K. announced as he pulled his shoes off and got in. Patamon flying down and settled into T.K.'s arms.
"I'll go off to bed as well." said Kari, who did the same. Soon, all sleeping bags were out on the floor and the digidestined and digimon were getting ready to sleep.
"Oh, who's going to take first watch?" Sora asked, looking around at everyone.
"I'll do it." Izzy announced, "Besides, I still need to figure out more of this prophecy."
"I'll take it after that." Matt stated and T.K. said that he'd finish up the night.
"I can't believe that you're actually going to be taking a watch squirt. How does it feel?" Matt asked his brother while he laughed.
"It's wierd actually. I was expecting you to shout at me again." T.K. laughed as well.
"I'm tired. Goodnight everyone!" Mimi called out and everyone returned it.
Soon all that could be heard in the night air was the crackling of the fire and the insesent clicking coming from Izzy's computer, Tentomon quietly talking to his friend. But there was one other person who was not asleep. This person reached into their pocket and pulled out a shiny piece of metal. Placing it to their lips, warm breath was passed through it and a mournful song was produced. Izzy's short hair stood on end until he recognised the song from long ago, it was the song that had sent most of them to sleep the last time the Digiworld needed their help. Turning his head in the direction of the music, he asked the figure,
"Couldn't sleep Matt?"
Matt opened his eyes, took the harmonica from his mouth and smiled at the young man,
"No, I couldn't."
"What's wrong? You know that T.K. can take care of himself now and we WILL get the rest of the group back."
"Yeah, I know... It's just that I don't get why you didn't say anything about what you found in the prophecy to the others before."
Izzy bowed his head slightly, "Oh, that."
"Yes, that."
"The reason was that I didn't want Tai to whip your ass on the first day here." at Izzy's comment Matt looked at him with a questioning face.
"The passage talks about Friendship's love and Love's friendship, right?" Izzy saw Matt's head move in the darkness.
"Well, that's talking about you and Sora, being the holders of Friendship and Love. I'm assuming that friendship's love is talking about your love for Sora, although I'm not too sure what it means by love's friendship. The reckless courage, I'm afraid to say in this case, may be Tai. So something must happen between you and Sora to force him to abandon his fight with this 'devil' the prophecy talks about. I'm not too sure about this 'Interuption causes devastation' either but Hope refers to T.K. and I'm pretty confident that the light it's talking about is Kari. So something has had to have happened for her to try and calm the situation that has arised. The next part of the sentence baffles me, so it might warn that something's going to happen to one of us. Dependecy, a curious eye and a truthful ear could be Joe, Mimi and I and we also help in the situation but what does this 'bringing balance to the cause of all life'?"
Matt's ears were ringing as he turned his head to Izzy and looked up at the stars.
"Love."
"What?"
"The cause of all life could be refering to love. Love is what brings new life into the world isn't it?" Matt asked when a lightbulb went off in Izzy's head.
"Of course! But the dependecy, eye and ear are all sections of Joe, Mimi and I, so maybe it is these traits that we offer to whoever this happens to to restore their love..." Matt stopped Izzy there,
"I would say that it's not just one person that they help with love, it would have to be more people..." then it finally dawned on Matt,
"It was probably talking about you three restoring the love between Sora and I, and maybe Tai as well."
"What do you mean Matt? The prophecy talks about this occuring to the digidestined who's pain can only be cured by the death of a loved one. Are you saying that Sora might be killed?!" Izzy demanded to which Matt furiously shook his head.
"No."
"Then what?"
Matt sighed, he knew that he would have to tell them all sometime. He may as well start with Izzy.
"The digidestined it's talking about is me. My dad's dying from cancer."
Izzy's ears were ringing now with the words that Matt had just spoken and when he went to speak, he found it difficult to find any words,
"But... wha... when did this happen?"
" The first time we were told that he had cancer was about 2 years ago. The chemo seemed to get rid of it but it came back with a vengence about 8 months ago. That's why I had to move out of campus back home. The specialist seems to think that the tumours were caused by the microwaves that come from the T.V. station." Matt told him, a pained expression on his face.
"How bad is it?"
"Well, it spread to his spine almost after it was diagnosed again so at the moment he's relegated to either his bed or a wheelchair. I know that he hasn't got long but I just hope that he makes it to Christmas, T.K.'s birthday." Matt said in a strained voice.
"No wonder he's the child of hope." Izzy said smiling, bringing one to Matt's face as well.
"Yeah, he's lucky he get's two lots of presents that day too. Everyone else has to buy him two presents." Matt chuckled. Izzy laughed as well as he looked around, then brought his eyes back to Matt.
"Matt?"
"Yeah?"
"Um, would you mind playing me one of your songs?" Izzy asked as he looked at the fire. Matt was a bit surprised at first but smiled and grabbed his small keyboard out of his bag.
"How did you know I bought it anyway?" Matt asked.
"I figured you'd find plenty of material to write a song about here, so I naturally assumed that you'd bring your keyboard."
"What song do you want?"
"Can I have Man on the Moon, by REM?"
"Not one of my songs?"
"Well, after that can I hear Save Me? And do you mind if I sing the chorus with you?"
"Sure Izman. Anything for you." Matt said as he turned on the keyboard, set it to guitar and started to play the opening tune.
"Mott the Hoople and the game of Life
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Monopoly, Twenty one, checkers, and chess
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let's play Twister, let's play Risk
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
See you in heaven if you make the list
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby.
Are we losing touch?
If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
Moses went walking with the staff of wood
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Newton got beaned by the apple good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby.
Are you having fun?
If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
Here's a little legend for the never believers
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Here's a little ghost for the offering
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Here's a truck stop instead of St. Peters
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Andy Kaufman's gonna wrestle you
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby.
Are we losing touch?
If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believed there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believed there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool"
They stopped to see T.K. and Sora tossing around in their sleeping bags.
"Uh, maybe we shouldn't have been singing so loud." Izzy asked to which Matt waved his hand,
"Nah, T.K. got me to sing to him all the time when we were younger. He's fine and I know Sora can sleep through a blizzard."
"O.K."
"You know Izzy, you don't have a bad voice. Maybe you should make a guest appearence at one of my concerts." Matt suggested and Izzy blushed slightly.
"I'm not that good."
"Jeez, Joe did the same thing when I asked him. No one wants to do it. Apart from Mimi, I haven't asked Sora and I definately don't want Tai to. Joe told me what his voice was like when they tried kareoke at that palace."
"Well, maybe if everyone else sings at one. And that includes Tai, Matt." Izzy said, causing Matt to sigh.
"O.K. I guess we could just drown him out." and the two of them laughed as Matt turned the keyboard to an electric guitar setting this time.
"Ready?" he asked and Izzy nodded his head.
"The night is cold and lonely now
My breath is ice and snow
And I can't sleep
Just can't sleep
The wind breathes life
But not for me
All it does is bring the sound of pain
Why won't it stop?
I call your name to the night
I want you to hear me
I call your name to the night
Why don't you save me
From this hell
The sun slowly awakens from it's peaceful and heavenly sleep
Bringing forth the new day
And with it the prospect of more rage
Without control
The night comes and I am waiting
For some sign that you
Will set me free
Set me free
I call your name to the night
I want you to hear me
I call your name to the night
Why don't you save me
From this hell
The wind and rain are crashing in
Waiting for some unsuspecting soul
To walk away and face the dark
Loneliness consumes us all
But once or twice we might find some hope
To let us be
I call your name to the night
I want you to hear me
I call your name to the night
Why don't you save me
From this hell
For my life
Others will live and be set free." Matt sang the last part quietly and finished the song. Izzy looked at Sora while he was singing and knew that this was yet another song to her, he just wished for Matt's sake that she realised this soon or there may not be any more Matt left. Well, at least not the Matt that they all knew.
"I can finish the rest of my shift with Tentomon Matt, you should get some sleep before it's your turn."
"I guess so Izzy, I'll see ya in a couple hours." Matt said as he yawned and rolled over in his sleeping bag.
"'Night Matt." Izzy replied as he went back to analysing the text he had before him.
'Now I'm glad that I took Lit in high school' he thought as the text flashed before his eyes, too fast for other people to read however this seemed normal speed to Izzy. He knew that there was something else that the new crests were able to do but he couldn't quite place his finger on it.
Sunday, 4th December
T.K. rubbed his eyes as he he saw the first rays of sunlight peering over the tips of the trees. The fire had died about 20 minutes ago with the sun coming up, so he hadn't bothered to keep the fire lit yet he realised his mistake when he thought about breakfast.
"Shit." he muttered under his breath as he picked up a few sticks and placed them on the remains of the fireplace. He slowly stretched his legs as he got up and walked over to where his brother and Gabumon were sleeping. Being careful not to make too much of a sound, he softly shook Gabumon's shoulder to try and wake him up.
"Gabu?" T.K. whispered as the wolf digimon tossed it's head sleepily and slowly opened it's eyes.
"What is it T.K.?" Gabumon asked, his eyes becoming focused.
"I'm sorry to wake you up but could you maybe light the fire for breakfast? I accidently let it run down and I can't cook breakfast without it." T.K. told him sheepishly. Gabumon smiled as he sat up and sent a blue blaster in the direction of the sticks.
"Thanks Gabu." T.K. smiled and walked over to stoke the fire before waking Patamon and going fishing. Gabumon smiled back and said quietly,
"Anytime little friend."
Within 15 minutes, T.K. and Patamon had managed to collect enough fish to feed a whole army battalion and dragged the catch up to the fire and proceeded to burn half of them. With Kari's help, he managed to cook the other half to perfection and all dug into them... except Tai, who dug into both lot's.
Tai stretched and looked around him, it was just like old times. He and Matt had even fought already and he was sure that it was a new record in the time for the Digiworld. Yawning loudly, he looked over at Izzy who was only just finishing up his breakfast after spending half the night up looking at the whole prophecy.
"Did you find anything Izz?" he asked as he scratched his head and walked over to the young man, who had pulled his laptop out of it's bag and brought up another passage that had caught his attention.
"Yeah, actually I have discovered one passage that might require extra attention." he said as he yawned himself and quickly typed in a few commands.
"Here." Izzy exclaimed as he pointed to the writing. Tai read over the text, nodding his head after he came to the end.
"O.K. I think we'd better head out then. Izzy, lead the way!"
"Me? Lead?"
"You're the only one who knows how to get there Izzy." Joe said after walking up behind them and seeing their destination. Izzy sighed resignedly and got up,
"Fine, but you're buying me dinner when we get back home."
"Why don't you make it a date and go to the movies as well?" Mimi asked, which caused both men to blush furiously.
"SHUT UP MIMI!!!!" Joe and Izzy yelled simultaniously which just resulted in her cracking up laughing.
"Before this get's out of hand, I think that we might be wise in getting a move on and packing up camp." Kari suggested with the rest agreeing.
"Um, Sora, today is Sunday right?" Tai asked her hesitantly.
"Yeah, why?"
"Oh, fuck!!!" he swore as he dug into his pocket and fished out their mobile phones. Pressing the menu button, Tai scrolled until he came to the time difference function. With trembling fingers he pressed the enter key and saw that it was 4 in the afternoon in the real world.
"FUCK!!!!!!!!!!" he yelled as he started to hyperventilate, Sora realising why he was so worked up.
"Shit, what time was the try-out's Tai?"
"They start at 5. So, they're probably starting now."
"No time to talk then buddy, I'll call them and say that you're in a state and see if they..." Matt started to explain then muttered, "Ah stuff it!" and grabbed Tai's phone and dialed the number that Tai was telling him.
"Yeah, hi. I'm Tai's manager and he seems to have come down with a flu or something and so can't make it to the try out's today." Matt said to the man who was on the other end,
"Sure, just tell him to turn up on the 19th and we'll see him then." the guy answered.
"Thank you sir." Matt replied, "Bye." and with that he clicked the phone off. He knew something had happened when everyone apart from Izzy was looking at him like he had another head growing from his shoulder.
"What?!" he demanded.
"That was the fastest I have ever seen anyone talk," Tai stuttered, "and that includes Mimi."
"What was so fast about it? I've talked faster than that when I'm talking about the internet." Izzy stated, looking at everyone curiously.
"You mean that was normal to you?" Joe asked and all were stunned when Izzy nodded his head.
"I think I've found the solution!" Tentomon announced as he hovered above Izzy's head.
"I hypothise that the new crests bring to the fore extra characteristics that are used in conjunction with the traits that the person has. For example, I have seen that Izzy has been able to increase his ability to learn things, like last night, I was having trouble to make out two words at the speed Izzy was reading the prophecy yet he managed to read the whole thing. Something, I believe, that Gennai hasn't even been able to accomplish yet. That's why he was able to hear Matt."
"Prodigious! That means that the phones also create some sort of time barrier between the two dimensions when we are communicating between them." Izzy said, intregued to find out how that was possible.
"Enough of that now. What did Itzudi-sama say?"Tai asked Matt, his hands hanging off Matt's collar.
"Well, he said that if you can turn up there on the 19th then he'll see you then."
"Great. Now let's get going."
The 8 travellers wandered through the thick forest, headed in a South-south-east direction. T.K and Kari looked at each other as soon as Izzy announced the direction, both knew it was the way to Sorrow Valley and nothing ever good came from that place. Leading the pack were Tai, Sora and Mimi and their digimon who were all chatting away, next were Joe and Izzy with Gomamon and Tentomon, discussing more theories that Izzy had come up with during their walk, then there were T.K. and Kari who were silently walking along, just holding hands with Patamon and Gatomon playing a small game of tag with each other in the path's boundary and bringing up the rear was Matt. Hands in his pockets and looking at the ground as he walked on it, Gabumon walking right next to him mimicking his actions. The final confrontation was coming soon, and Gabumon knew that it wasn't just with Diablomon, the demon digimon who was created by the new Emperor, or even the Emperor himself.
Joe-20 (Joe rocketted through his first 2 years at Uni, that's why he's in his third year)
Tai, Matt, Sora- 19
Mimi, Izzy-18
Yolei, Ken-17
T.K., Kari, Davis-16
Cody-15
Authors Note: More one sided Sorato (in parts) in here, also implied Jyuoshiro (yaoi) and Takari. Plus I don't own Man on the Moon by REM but the other song is mine, I came up with it myself.
*********************************************
"What?!" Ken demanded as he stepped forward, "I was supposed to be the only Digimon Emperor!"
"Well, it looks like they had other plans." Tai said as he turned back to the digimon, "How did this happen?"
"We don't know Tai, one morning we were training with Piximon and the next we were running for our lives from him and Veemon, Hawkmon, Wormon and Armadillomon." Agumon told him, everyone with solomn looks on their faces.
"It looks like we're going to have to go and save them." Matt stated, looking to everyone for support.
"I'll always be by your side Matt." Gabumon told him, T.K. and Patamon stood next to them.
"Me... Us too Matt."
"Hey, if you think you're going to get all the glory without me, you're dead wrong!" Tai exclaimed.
"If you guys are going then so am I." Sora said.
"Me too!" Kari agreed.
"I'm not going to be the only girl left behind." Mimi told them with Yolei saying,
"Neither am I."
"Tai's going so I am too." Davis commented.
"I'm going too." said Cody, Izzy and Joe.
"I'll show that wannabe not to mess with my title." Ken roared, before seeing everyone looking at him strangely, "Well, the title that I'm not very proud of."
"Then it's unanimous. We're all on our way back to the Digiworld." Tai announced before a realisation hit him.
"Uh, how are we going to get out of this one? It sounds like we'll need all of our attention in the Digiworld and the younger members still need to go to school..."
"Tai? We finished for the holidays today." T.K. told him. Everyone of the older generation looked at him.
"Don't ask us, it's the new government's policy. We get more time off school."
"At least we get as much time for holidays as you guys do." Kari said with T.K., Cody, Yolei, Ken and Davis agreeing.
"It looks like that problem's settled but what do we tell our parents? I know that most of us still live at home." Joe asked, seeing the faces around him crease with thought.
"Well, I guess we can tell our parents the truth. It won't hurt that much." Davis suggested. T.K. nodded,
"I know my mum wouldn't have a problem, just so long as I promised to e-mail her everyday."
Everyone else agreed with their rationalisations, Matt just staying out of the conversation until he said,
"Well Dad couldn't argue with me at the moment anyway."
At this, everyone's heads bowed down. They had been selfish talking about things like that infront of him.
"Well, I think we'll head off tomorrow morning. Meet at the Elementary School or where?" Matt asked, Izzy thought for a moment before saying,
"In theory we should be able to jump from my home computer. So why don't we all meet at my place and we can go from there."
"Great idea Izzy." Tai said, then turned to everyone else, "O.K. We've got 'till tomorrow morning to get ready and tie up our loose ends. And remember to tell your parents, we don't want any interuptions. Let's get ready."
Everyone nodded and said goodbye to Matt, taking their digimon with them. The last ones to leave were Sora and T.K.
"I'll pick you up tomorrow morning at 7:30 okay T.K.?" Matt asked to which his brother nodded.
"Thank's Matt. I'll see you then. Come on Patamon." and with that T.K. walked down to the street and over two blocks to his apartment building.
"You sure you'll be alright by yourself tonight Matt?" Sora asked him as she hugged him goodbye.
"I won't be alone, I'll have Gabu with me." Matt told her as he smiled, "But thanks anyway."
Sora kissed his forehead before walking out the door, saying, "If you need to talk..."
"I know your number." Matt finished and slowly closed the door after Sora was long gone.
Matt wandered around the house, tossing the laundry in it's basket, making sure nothing was going to go off while he was away and eventually started packing his bag to take to the digiworld. The first thing to go in his bag was his harmonica at Gabumon's request, saying he missed it's song. A number of pairs of pants and shorts, shirts and other essentials went in the bag until Matt decided to call it quits for the night. Getting ready for bed, he found himself staring at a picture of him and Sora that had been taken at his 15th birthday party. A silent tear made it's way down Matt's face before Gabumon walked in the room and saw his friend in pain.
"Why Matt?" the question could have meant millions of things, but Matt knew exactly what Gabu was asking.
"Because, as T.K. said, I didn't have the balls to do it." Matt replied as he sighed and threw himself onto his bed, Gabumon jumping up as well.
"I don't think that's it." Gabumon told him, "You were so close to telling Sora so many times before... I was considering opening a bottle of champagne when we were in Russia, you seemed that determined. I think it was the fact that you didn't want to get hurt anymore, you were afraid that Sora was going to hurt you just like your parents did. But if the world was supossed to be without pain, the good times wouldn't have the same effect on people."
Matt looked at his digimon, a surprised look on his face as Gabumon continued,
"Life was never meant to be easy Matt, that's why the chances that we take have the risk of becoming sour. We learn from them but what's the point of having a heart if you're not willing to take the chance of being loved?"
Matt turned his head from the photo back to Gabumon and nodded, realising that Gabu was right. But he found out too late. Gabumon was watching his friend intensly and saw Matt's realisations.
"If it's destiny Matt, it's never too late."
Smiling, Matt said goodnight and rolled over to get to sleep but one thing stuck in his mind.
'If it's destiny Matt, it's never too late.'
What had he meant by that? Was there something else that Gabumon and the others hadn't told them to do with the ancient prophecy. This question troubled Matt until he just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and fell asleep.
*******************************
"Matt! Help us!" Matt heard Sora's voice call out. He looked around everywhere but all he could see was the edge of a cliff on his right, Gabumon by his side and a menacing looking digimon on his left. The digimon looked like a black shadow, with red horns sticking out of his head, long arms that had razor sharp claws on the end and a scythe in his hand.
"What should I do?" Matt whispered to himself.
"I'll stop him while you save Sora and Tai." Gabumon said as he felt the urge to shout out
"Digiarmour Power Up!"
As soon as he said this, a blue light flashed from his pocket and headed straight at Gabumon, who was surrounded by the light. Matt shielded his eyes and when he looked back, Gabumon was no longer there instead there was a digimon that looked similar to MetalGarurumon, except he was standing on his hind legs, holding a shield with the symbol of Friendship on it in one hand and a sword with a flameing blue blade in the other.
"WolfGarurumon!" he announced before letting out a howl that nearly shook the ground they were standing on.
"Matt, save Tai and Sora!" WolfGarurumon yelled as he blocked the demon digimon from getting to Matt.
"Where are they?!" Matt yelled back, afraid that he couldn't see his friends.
"They fell into the river below!" WolfGarurumon told him and Matt ran over to the edge of the cliff and saw Sora and Tai fighting the current, trying to get back to shore.
"Hold on!" Matt called down to them and tried to determine how far up he was. It was at least a good 100 feet, can I jump that far?
'No time for backing out now Matt, you've got to save your friends.' the voice inside his head told him, 'Compared to them your life is insignificant!'
Matt took in a deep breath and stood up. Looking down he saw that he should have enough time before they would be at his point. Bending his knees, Matt threw his weight forward and jumped off the side of the cliff. He hit the water hard, but he pushed the pain away and concentrated on getting to the surface to save his friends. After pulling his head above the water and taking a deep breath, Matt wiped the stray water out of his eyes and saw Sora coming towards him.
"Sora, just hold on O.K?" Matt shouted to her as he swam over and held onto her around the waist. He looked around quickly as saw a small alcove but he knew they wouldn't make it, the only chance they had was if he could grab onto one of the rocks just behind it and pull themselves in. Using all his strength, Matt and Sora eventually made it over to the side.
"O.K. Now grab onto one of the rocks Sora." Matt told her and she obeyed. Matt, pushed her against the current and soon she was sitting on the rocks above the water line in the alcove. Sora was safe, now Tai.
Matt looked around and saw Tai coming straight towards him so he held out his hand for Tai to grab a hold of. Tai reached out and with some luck, he had a hold on Matt's hand.
"Just hold on Tai!" Matt yelled but was disheartened when he felt his grip on Tai weakening. A wave came and battered them against the rocks, when he recovered Matt found that Tai had gone and he looked around frantically trying to see where he got to. Spotting him floating down the river Matt took a deep breath and let go of his rock, hearing Sora screaming for him. Matt swam as fast as he could down the river and grabbed a hold of Tai, who was struggling to keep his head above the water. Thinking fast, Matt spotted another group of rocks that were out of the way of the current, if he could get Tai up there then one of the other digimon could pick him up. Breathing heavily, Matt used his last reserves of energy to grab onto on of the rocks and push Tai up to the top. Feeling his strength dissappear as he lost his grip on the rock and floated off down the river he could just make out Tai yell,
"Hold on Matt, we'll get you back. I promise!"
The current was throwing Matt all over the place when he looked up and saw the battle still raging up above him and he could only watch in horror as an attack was averted and hit the side of the cliff, boulders tumbling down the side and straight towards him. Matt saw one right over his head and waited for the painful impact that would kill him.
******************************
"Huh?!" Matt asked no one as he lifted his head off the floor. His eyes looked over his mattress and was surprised to see a pair of eyes looking at him from the other side.
"What are you doing on the floor Gabumon?" he asked as the digimon rubbed it's head.
"I was relegated down here when you kicked me out the bed." he stated, "Were you having a bad dream Matt?"
Matt nodded his head and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, wincing when the first few rays of light made their way through his blinds. He looked up at the clock on his bedside table and saw that it was 6:30, time to start getting ready. (Okay, I know that it's probably still pitch black at that time in Japan in December, but I'm living in Oz and the sun's coming in my room at 5 am, I'm getting annoyed at it)
Saturday, 3rd December
Matt stared blankly out the windscreen of his car as he made the short drive to T.K's place, sure enough his younger brother was already waiting and their mother was flanking him.
"Now Matt, I want you to look after T.K." their mum told him and Matt sighed,
"I always do mum."
"Also, what's the number of your dad's nurse, just incase you aren't back by then."
Matt dug around in his bag until he found his organiser and ripped out the page where he had Sandra's number on it as T.K. climbed into the passenger side.
"There you are mum. I'll see you later." Matt said as he handed it to her.
"Good luck you guys."
"Thanks mum!" the two young men and the digimon said before Matt pulled away.
"You ready squirt?" Matt asked T.K. as they drove off to Izzy's place.
"Yeah, I'm just tired I guess."
"O.K."
The rest of the trip was made in silence until Matt pulled into the driveway of Izzy's new house. Taking his bag out of the car, Matt waited until T.K. and the digimon got out before he locked the doors.
"Matt and T.K. are here!" he heard Mimi scream out as she had the door opened and was waiting for them.
"You should have raised your voice a bit Mimi, I don't think my fans in America heard you." Matt said sarcastically as he and T.K. walked past her.
"Opps, sorry." she apologised before she closed the door and lead them up to Izzy's study,
"You two are the last ones to arrive, so we'd better hurry up."
"Tai's here on time?" Matt asked with mock shock.
"He's got Kari AND Sora on his tail now remember." T.K. told him then mentally knocked himself over the head for saying that.
"Too true." Matt muttered and trudged up the stairs.
"Finally you guys are here!" Davis exclaimed, "What's wrong T.A.? Giving up on Kari are you?"
T.K. walked up to Davis with a muderous look in his eyes as he whispered in his ear, "If I ever hear you even joke about that or say anything disrepectful to my girlfriend during this entire trip, I will make sure the rest of your life will be a living hell."
Davis snorted and just turned his back to T.K., returning his concentration to the computer screen while Sora walked over to them.
"You alright last night?" she asked quietly to which Matt nodded,
"I've never felt better." and gave her a weak smile.
Sora was about to say something when Tai, who had been watching them carefully, interupted her,
"Izzy says we're just about ready to make the jump."
Matt smiled and nodded, "Well let's go then." and walked over to where Izzy, Joe, Ken and Yolei were discussing the best way of holding the connection long enough to get all of them through.
"Why don't we just split into two groups? Half of the D-3's in one and the other half in the other and we just split into the two groups." Ken asked and eventually everyone else agreed.
"The D-3's are going to be split like this, T.K., Cody and Kari in one group and Davis, Yolei and Ken in the other." Izzy announced, "Now for the rest of us... Matt and Tai will go with T.K., Kari and Cody, Sora can go with them as well. That leaves me, Joe and Mimi with Yolei, Ken and Davis. I think we'll go last so if any bugs arise, we can fix them up."
"Alright then, Digiport open!" T.K. said as he and the others held out their digivices.
The group landed with a thud on the ground.
"Ow, why did I have to be the first one to go through?" T.K. moaned as the others got off him and looked around. The thick forests were a feature that had been missing from the last time they had all been in the digiworld, the sun was also starting to set on the horizon.
They all walked of towards the forest when the T.V screen started flashing and the other group emerged from it.
"Man, we thought you guys would have set up camp already." Joe stated as they got to their feet as well.
"What are you talking about?" Tai asked.
"Yeah, we've only been here for 30 seconds, if that." Cody told them. Izzy scratched his head before snapping his fingers and exclaiming, "I've got it."
"Huh?"
"Well, we left an hour after you went through, then if you only just arrived in the Digiworld, then that means that there is a time difference between the real world and the Digiworld but this time the 4th dimension here is slower than that in the real world."
"So you're saying time's moving faster in the real world?!" Yolei asked to which Izzy nodded his head.
"I wonder if you've got any mail yet." Mimi quieried and in response Izzy opened up his pinapple laptop and started typing away as he did all those years ago.
"There's one from Gennai. It says that there will be a special package that will be arriving by air mail in a few days..." Izzy told them as they all looked around with confused looks on their faces.
"Hey, it also says that the prophecy will make itself clear in the coming days. What the hell does that mean?" Matt demanded, fear starting to creep into his mind.
"We'll just have to wait and see." Ken replied, surveying his landscape. His keen eyes spotted a small river running through the forest, a perfect place to set up camp and so started walking over to it, the others following him after questioning each other for a few minutes. As they approached the river, the ground began to shake and a crevice opened up, swallowing the young digidestined Davis, Yolei, Cody and Ken before the ground closed up over them and returned to normal.
"Oh shit!" Matt exclaimed, rubbing his head.
"What do we do now?!" Tai yelled, looking around for whatever it was that caused his friends disappearence.
"There is nothing you can do, for it is written in the prophecy." came a voice that they knew well.
"Gennai!"
"Yes, it's me. I should have sent this to you sooner, but I didn't know the Emperor would strike this fast." he said, handing Tai a small package. The leader looked from the younger version of Gennai to the package and back again, only opening it when Izzy's curiosity got the better of him and started opening it himself. The last sheet of paper was removed to reveal 8 digivices, each coloured according to that of their crest on the sides and silver in the middle.
"Prodigious, now we've all got D-3's!" Izzy announced as he grabbed the purple one.
"Actually, those are D-4's. The next generation with even stronger digiarmour and more features too." Gennai told them and pulled out 8 necklace type things out of his pocket, handing one to each digidestined.
"Tags and crests?" T.K. asked as he held his in his hand, shocked and remembering when the original ones were destroyed.
"Yes, but these have something more... they also serve as the energy pack for the armour. Also, if you place the tags into these mobile phones," Gennai said as he also handed them each a mobile phone that looked like a Nokia 3210, "then you will be able to enter and exit the Digital World at any time you wish. They also have a function of being able to convert the time in the Digiworld to real world time."
All 8 digidestined admired the new gadgets before Matt's head popped up,
"What happened to Ken, Davis, Yolei and Cody?"
"Oh, that. Well, it is said in the prophecy that they will return after the defeat of the devil and combine forces to destroy the trusted one." said Gennai to see even more confused faces.
"The trusted one?" Izzy muttered to himself, his brain running a million miles an hour.
"Enough talk, I say. Let's get going!" Tai yelled to the groans of everyone else.
"I say we stay here for the rest of the day, find out what we can about this new world and then we can go and whip some ass." Matt retorted, hoping that his suggestion wouldn't start a fight like it might have done in the early years.
"Matt!"
"Tai!"
With that the two were locked in a staring contest, both determined to make their suggestion the one used. Sora shook her head and stepped up to them.
"I think Matt's suggestion is better Tai, where would we go? We don't even know what the prophecy is all about. At least if we stay in the one place, Izzy can analyze the passage and we can take it from there."
Tai growled to himself, but then realised that it probably wasn't a bad idea after all.
"O.K. I guess you're right Sora. We'll stay here for tonight."
Gennai smiled and turned to leave,
"In that case, I'll go home and see what I can dig up. There'll be mail if I find anything." and with that, he was gone.
"Kari and I'll go and find some firewood." T.K. said as they stood up and walked off, their digimon following them.
"Let's go and get some food Joe." Mimi suggested as she grabbed his arm and pulled him in the direction of the river. Izzy opened up his laptop and got to work trying to decipher the code ignoring Tai and Matt who were standing right above him, still staring at each other. Sora gave an exasperated sigh and took Tai by the arm,
"Come on Tai, we'll see if Joe and Mimi need any help" and dragged him off to the river. Matt quickly closed his eyes to stop the tears that threatened from falling and silently calmed himself when Izzy interupted his thoughts.
"Hey, Matt! Have a look at this." the red headed man said as he beckoned his team-mate and friend over to the computer.
"What's up Izman?" Matt asked as he peered over his shoulder.
"I was searching through the copy of the prophecy that Gennai downloaded on my computer and I this passage caught my attention." Izzy told him as he pointed at the begining.
"Love's friendship and Friendship's love will combine with the force of a hurricane, forcing reckless courage to abandon the fight upon the hour of the controller. Interuption causes devastation which even Hope's light cannot cure, with the only remidy to the pain one digidestined feels is the death of a loved one, death bringing salvation and resurection to the fallen digidestined. Dependency, a curious eye and a truthful ear restore the remains that once were warriors, bringing a balance to the cause of all life." Matt read, his eyes widening as he read further down the passage with Izzy nodding his head and Matt scratching his, then stated,
"Now I thought the one about WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon was confusing, this one's even worse."
"Well, I think I've got some of it figured out already..." Izzy reported but stopped when he saw Joe, Mimi, Sora and Tai walking back with at least a dozen fish.
"Yay! Dinner!" Tentomon exclaimed as he flew around, thinking somehow that it would make dinner appear faster.
"We got the firewood!" Kari yelled as they emerged from the forest and dropped it onto the ground.
"Pepper Breath!"
"Well done Agumon, it looks like your aim's gotten better." Tai complemented his digimon as he scratched him under the chin. After rummaging around in his bag, Matt pulled out a pocket knife and walked over to the fish.
"I'll take those." he said to Sora as he took them from her hands and walked back over to the river. Picking up a piece of bark, he placed one of the fish on it and started gutting and cleaning it. After that one was done, he did the next, until all were done.
"Hey, thanks Matt." T.K. said as he took the cleaned fish from his brother and cooked them over the fire on the twigs that they had collected with the firewood. It was 15 minutes before the fish were cooked, all that time everyone was chatting and having a good time but Matt was still looking at the blood that was on his hands.
"Hey Matt? You gonna eat?" Joe shouted to him, bringing Matt out of his transe.
"Oh, yeah. I'm coming!" he called back, furiously scrubbing his hands in the water and made his way to the fire and sat down next to T.K. and Izzy.
"So, have you found out anything about the prophecy yet Izzy?" asked Mimi as she took another mouthful of fish. Izzy gulped slightly and it wasn't from the piece of fruit in his mouth.
"Uh, no. Nothing yet Mimi, I might have something tomorrow though."
Matt opened his mouth to say that Izzy had found something when the look that the holder of the crest of knowledge gave him warned him to keep quiet. Matt just sighed and went back to chewing his dinner and staring at the fire.
The rest of the food was quickly demolished and soon Patamon was yawning his head off.
"I'm tired." he squeeked. T.K. looked at him before pulling his sleeping bag out of his backpack and laying it down on the ground.
"I think I'll hit the sack as well." T.K. announced as he pulled his shoes off and got in. Patamon flying down and settled into T.K.'s arms.
"I'll go off to bed as well." said Kari, who did the same. Soon, all sleeping bags were out on the floor and the digidestined and digimon were getting ready to sleep.
"Oh, who's going to take first watch?" Sora asked, looking around at everyone.
"I'll do it." Izzy announced, "Besides, I still need to figure out more of this prophecy."
"I'll take it after that." Matt stated and T.K. said that he'd finish up the night.
"I can't believe that you're actually going to be taking a watch squirt. How does it feel?" Matt asked his brother while he laughed.
"It's wierd actually. I was expecting you to shout at me again." T.K. laughed as well.
"I'm tired. Goodnight everyone!" Mimi called out and everyone returned it.
Soon all that could be heard in the night air was the crackling of the fire and the insesent clicking coming from Izzy's computer, Tentomon quietly talking to his friend. But there was one other person who was not asleep. This person reached into their pocket and pulled out a shiny piece of metal. Placing it to their lips, warm breath was passed through it and a mournful song was produced. Izzy's short hair stood on end until he recognised the song from long ago, it was the song that had sent most of them to sleep the last time the Digiworld needed their help. Turning his head in the direction of the music, he asked the figure,
"Couldn't sleep Matt?"
Matt opened his eyes, took the harmonica from his mouth and smiled at the young man,
"No, I couldn't."
"What's wrong? You know that T.K. can take care of himself now and we WILL get the rest of the group back."
"Yeah, I know... It's just that I don't get why you didn't say anything about what you found in the prophecy to the others before."
Izzy bowed his head slightly, "Oh, that."
"Yes, that."
"The reason was that I didn't want Tai to whip your ass on the first day here." at Izzy's comment Matt looked at him with a questioning face.
"The passage talks about Friendship's love and Love's friendship, right?" Izzy saw Matt's head move in the darkness.
"Well, that's talking about you and Sora, being the holders of Friendship and Love. I'm assuming that friendship's love is talking about your love for Sora, although I'm not too sure what it means by love's friendship. The reckless courage, I'm afraid to say in this case, may be Tai. So something must happen between you and Sora to force him to abandon his fight with this 'devil' the prophecy talks about. I'm not too sure about this 'Interuption causes devastation' either but Hope refers to T.K. and I'm pretty confident that the light it's talking about is Kari. So something has had to have happened for her to try and calm the situation that has arised. The next part of the sentence baffles me, so it might warn that something's going to happen to one of us. Dependecy, a curious eye and a truthful ear could be Joe, Mimi and I and we also help in the situation but what does this 'bringing balance to the cause of all life'?"
Matt's ears were ringing as he turned his head to Izzy and looked up at the stars.
"Love."
"What?"
"The cause of all life could be refering to love. Love is what brings new life into the world isn't it?" Matt asked when a lightbulb went off in Izzy's head.
"Of course! But the dependecy, eye and ear are all sections of Joe, Mimi and I, so maybe it is these traits that we offer to whoever this happens to to restore their love..." Matt stopped Izzy there,
"I would say that it's not just one person that they help with love, it would have to be more people..." then it finally dawned on Matt,
"It was probably talking about you three restoring the love between Sora and I, and maybe Tai as well."
"What do you mean Matt? The prophecy talks about this occuring to the digidestined who's pain can only be cured by the death of a loved one. Are you saying that Sora might be killed?!" Izzy demanded to which Matt furiously shook his head.
"No."
"Then what?"
Matt sighed, he knew that he would have to tell them all sometime. He may as well start with Izzy.
"The digidestined it's talking about is me. My dad's dying from cancer."
Izzy's ears were ringing now with the words that Matt had just spoken and when he went to speak, he found it difficult to find any words,
"But... wha... when did this happen?"
" The first time we were told that he had cancer was about 2 years ago. The chemo seemed to get rid of it but it came back with a vengence about 8 months ago. That's why I had to move out of campus back home. The specialist seems to think that the tumours were caused by the microwaves that come from the T.V. station." Matt told him, a pained expression on his face.
"How bad is it?"
"Well, it spread to his spine almost after it was diagnosed again so at the moment he's relegated to either his bed or a wheelchair. I know that he hasn't got long but I just hope that he makes it to Christmas, T.K.'s birthday." Matt said in a strained voice.
"No wonder he's the child of hope." Izzy said smiling, bringing one to Matt's face as well.
"Yeah, he's lucky he get's two lots of presents that day too. Everyone else has to buy him two presents." Matt chuckled. Izzy laughed as well as he looked around, then brought his eyes back to Matt.
"Matt?"
"Yeah?"
"Um, would you mind playing me one of your songs?" Izzy asked as he looked at the fire. Matt was a bit surprised at first but smiled and grabbed his small keyboard out of his bag.
"How did you know I bought it anyway?" Matt asked.
"I figured you'd find plenty of material to write a song about here, so I naturally assumed that you'd bring your keyboard."
"What song do you want?"
"Can I have Man on the Moon, by REM?"
"Not one of my songs?"
"Well, after that can I hear Save Me? And do you mind if I sing the chorus with you?"
"Sure Izman. Anything for you." Matt said as he turned on the keyboard, set it to guitar and started to play the opening tune.
"Mott the Hoople and the game of Life
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Monopoly, Twenty one, checkers, and chess
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let's play Twister, let's play Risk
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
See you in heaven if you make the list
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby.
Are we losing touch?
If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
Moses went walking with the staff of wood
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Newton got beaned by the apple good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby.
Are you having fun?
If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
Here's a little legend for the never believers
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Here's a little ghost for the offering
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Here's a truck stop instead of St. Peters
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Andy Kaufman's gonna wrestle you
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby.
Are we losing touch?
If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believed there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon
If you believed there's nothing up there to see, then nothing is cool"
They stopped to see T.K. and Sora tossing around in their sleeping bags.
"Uh, maybe we shouldn't have been singing so loud." Izzy asked to which Matt waved his hand,
"Nah, T.K. got me to sing to him all the time when we were younger. He's fine and I know Sora can sleep through a blizzard."
"O.K."
"You know Izzy, you don't have a bad voice. Maybe you should make a guest appearence at one of my concerts." Matt suggested and Izzy blushed slightly.
"I'm not that good."
"Jeez, Joe did the same thing when I asked him. No one wants to do it. Apart from Mimi, I haven't asked Sora and I definately don't want Tai to. Joe told me what his voice was like when they tried kareoke at that palace."
"Well, maybe if everyone else sings at one. And that includes Tai, Matt." Izzy said, causing Matt to sigh.
"O.K. I guess we could just drown him out." and the two of them laughed as Matt turned the keyboard to an electric guitar setting this time.
"Ready?" he asked and Izzy nodded his head.
"The night is cold and lonely now
My breath is ice and snow
And I can't sleep
Just can't sleep
The wind breathes life
But not for me
All it does is bring the sound of pain
Why won't it stop?
I call your name to the night
I want you to hear me
I call your name to the night
Why don't you save me
From this hell
The sun slowly awakens from it's peaceful and heavenly sleep
Bringing forth the new day
And with it the prospect of more rage
Without control
The night comes and I am waiting
For some sign that you
Will set me free
Set me free
I call your name to the night
I want you to hear me
I call your name to the night
Why don't you save me
From this hell
The wind and rain are crashing in
Waiting for some unsuspecting soul
To walk away and face the dark
Loneliness consumes us all
But once or twice we might find some hope
To let us be
I call your name to the night
I want you to hear me
I call your name to the night
Why don't you save me
From this hell
For my life
Others will live and be set free." Matt sang the last part quietly and finished the song. Izzy looked at Sora while he was singing and knew that this was yet another song to her, he just wished for Matt's sake that she realised this soon or there may not be any more Matt left. Well, at least not the Matt that they all knew.
"I can finish the rest of my shift with Tentomon Matt, you should get some sleep before it's your turn."
"I guess so Izzy, I'll see ya in a couple hours." Matt said as he yawned and rolled over in his sleeping bag.
"'Night Matt." Izzy replied as he went back to analysing the text he had before him.
'Now I'm glad that I took Lit in high school' he thought as the text flashed before his eyes, too fast for other people to read however this seemed normal speed to Izzy. He knew that there was something else that the new crests were able to do but he couldn't quite place his finger on it.
Sunday, 4th December
T.K. rubbed his eyes as he he saw the first rays of sunlight peering over the tips of the trees. The fire had died about 20 minutes ago with the sun coming up, so he hadn't bothered to keep the fire lit yet he realised his mistake when he thought about breakfast.
"Shit." he muttered under his breath as he picked up a few sticks and placed them on the remains of the fireplace. He slowly stretched his legs as he got up and walked over to where his brother and Gabumon were sleeping. Being careful not to make too much of a sound, he softly shook Gabumon's shoulder to try and wake him up.
"Gabu?" T.K. whispered as the wolf digimon tossed it's head sleepily and slowly opened it's eyes.
"What is it T.K.?" Gabumon asked, his eyes becoming focused.
"I'm sorry to wake you up but could you maybe light the fire for breakfast? I accidently let it run down and I can't cook breakfast without it." T.K. told him sheepishly. Gabumon smiled as he sat up and sent a blue blaster in the direction of the sticks.
"Thanks Gabu." T.K. smiled and walked over to stoke the fire before waking Patamon and going fishing. Gabumon smiled back and said quietly,
"Anytime little friend."
Within 15 minutes, T.K. and Patamon had managed to collect enough fish to feed a whole army battalion and dragged the catch up to the fire and proceeded to burn half of them. With Kari's help, he managed to cook the other half to perfection and all dug into them... except Tai, who dug into both lot's.
Tai stretched and looked around him, it was just like old times. He and Matt had even fought already and he was sure that it was a new record in the time for the Digiworld. Yawning loudly, he looked over at Izzy who was only just finishing up his breakfast after spending half the night up looking at the whole prophecy.
"Did you find anything Izz?" he asked as he scratched his head and walked over to the young man, who had pulled his laptop out of it's bag and brought up another passage that had caught his attention.
"Yeah, actually I have discovered one passage that might require extra attention." he said as he yawned himself and quickly typed in a few commands.
"Here." Izzy exclaimed as he pointed to the writing. Tai read over the text, nodding his head after he came to the end.
"O.K. I think we'd better head out then. Izzy, lead the way!"
"Me? Lead?"
"You're the only one who knows how to get there Izzy." Joe said after walking up behind them and seeing their destination. Izzy sighed resignedly and got up,
"Fine, but you're buying me dinner when we get back home."
"Why don't you make it a date and go to the movies as well?" Mimi asked, which caused both men to blush furiously.
"SHUT UP MIMI!!!!" Joe and Izzy yelled simultaniously which just resulted in her cracking up laughing.
"Before this get's out of hand, I think that we might be wise in getting a move on and packing up camp." Kari suggested with the rest agreeing.
"Um, Sora, today is Sunday right?" Tai asked her hesitantly.
"Yeah, why?"
"Oh, fuck!!!" he swore as he dug into his pocket and fished out their mobile phones. Pressing the menu button, Tai scrolled until he came to the time difference function. With trembling fingers he pressed the enter key and saw that it was 4 in the afternoon in the real world.
"FUCK!!!!!!!!!!" he yelled as he started to hyperventilate, Sora realising why he was so worked up.
"Shit, what time was the try-out's Tai?"
"They start at 5. So, they're probably starting now."
"No time to talk then buddy, I'll call them and say that you're in a state and see if they..." Matt started to explain then muttered, "Ah stuff it!" and grabbed Tai's phone and dialed the number that Tai was telling him.
"Yeah, hi. I'm Tai's manager and he seems to have come down with a flu or something and so can't make it to the try out's today." Matt said to the man who was on the other end,
"Sure, just tell him to turn up on the 19th and we'll see him then." the guy answered.
"Thank you sir." Matt replied, "Bye." and with that he clicked the phone off. He knew something had happened when everyone apart from Izzy was looking at him like he had another head growing from his shoulder.
"What?!" he demanded.
"That was the fastest I have ever seen anyone talk," Tai stuttered, "and that includes Mimi."
"What was so fast about it? I've talked faster than that when I'm talking about the internet." Izzy stated, looking at everyone curiously.
"You mean that was normal to you?" Joe asked and all were stunned when Izzy nodded his head.
"I think I've found the solution!" Tentomon announced as he hovered above Izzy's head.
"I hypothise that the new crests bring to the fore extra characteristics that are used in conjunction with the traits that the person has. For example, I have seen that Izzy has been able to increase his ability to learn things, like last night, I was having trouble to make out two words at the speed Izzy was reading the prophecy yet he managed to read the whole thing. Something, I believe, that Gennai hasn't even been able to accomplish yet. That's why he was able to hear Matt."
"Prodigious! That means that the phones also create some sort of time barrier between the two dimensions when we are communicating between them." Izzy said, intregued to find out how that was possible.
"Enough of that now. What did Itzudi-sama say?"Tai asked Matt, his hands hanging off Matt's collar.
"Well, he said that if you can turn up there on the 19th then he'll see you then."
"Great. Now let's get going."
The 8 travellers wandered through the thick forest, headed in a South-south-east direction. T.K and Kari looked at each other as soon as Izzy announced the direction, both knew it was the way to Sorrow Valley and nothing ever good came from that place. Leading the pack were Tai, Sora and Mimi and their digimon who were all chatting away, next were Joe and Izzy with Gomamon and Tentomon, discussing more theories that Izzy had come up with during their walk, then there were T.K. and Kari who were silently walking along, just holding hands with Patamon and Gatomon playing a small game of tag with each other in the path's boundary and bringing up the rear was Matt. Hands in his pockets and looking at the ground as he walked on it, Gabumon walking right next to him mimicking his actions. The final confrontation was coming soon, and Gabumon knew that it wasn't just with Diablomon, the demon digimon who was created by the new Emperor, or even the Emperor himself.