Reality Redux
By ArchangelUK & Digicowboy

We do not own Digimon, just this life size replica of the Hindenberg, three yards of elastic, two ejector seats one of which doesn't work, eight spoons of different sizes and cutlery sets and a bottle of shark eyes covered in strawberry jam.

Chapter 30 - Angels Of The Rebirth

"This is bad, very bad." The Gatekeeper observed.

"Nooooooo you think?" Davis said sarcastically and Angelus glowered at him, wondering to himself if it was possible to do what he was thinking of doing to Davis with those stupid goggles on his head. For the purposes of not harming poor little innocent minds like Cody's, (okay so Cody was a bad example but nevertheless) he decided against it as it would probably be a NC-17 moment he didn't really want to implement. So Yolei clopped him around the head instead.

Indeed it was bad, for you see Angelus, Ben and their friends were now apparently standing in front of Infinity Mountain. This wasn't that bad when you considered that was the location he and Ben needed to get to, what was not so good however was the fact he was standing in the middle of a high street in Tokyo with the mountain appearing right out of the very road in front of him.

"Could someone please tell me why Infinity Mountain is rising out of the road?"

"Total Unification." Izzy whispered, in answer to Kari's question.

"That's bad right?" Veemon looked towards Ben and the Traveller nodded, a grim look on his face. Sora squeezed Angelus's hand and he squeezed back.

"This isn't such a bad thing, we need to get to the Temple of Light and that resides where Devimon used to be based. We've been fortunate that Infinity Mountain appeared where we did, come on everyone we need to get up there and I mean NOW." Angelus put his arm around Sora and spread his wings, two flaps and they were airborne Sora gave a little squeak of surprise but Angelus simply tightened his grip.

Ben simply willed himself into the air, and somewhat astonished that it actually worked levitated after his friend who must at this moment be both Gatekeeper and Keymaster. That thought worried him immensely; the prophecy said there were always two, Keymaster and Gatekeeper. Now there was but one, he shunned these thoughts however as he suddenly began dropping like a stone. Pursing his lips together he resumed his concentration on staying aloft and made his way, as did everyone else towards the Temple of Light. TK and Kari flew up with Angemon and Angewomon. The majority of the rest flew with MegaKabuterimon and Aquilamon, the only other two Digimon able to digivolve again that could fly. Biyomon naturally flew under her own power.

The journey was reassuringly quick, yet was also strangely eerie. The creaking and splintering of the ground below them did little to calm their already shot nerves and ease the aching of their wounds. Angelus and Sora naturally landed first, followed by the swift winged Aquilamon with his charges. Ben landed rather unceremoniously on the hard stone floor and had to use his staff to help himself up to a vertical base.

The group ran through the open temple door, past the large conference hall of the Sovereign Digimon deep into the centre of the structure. The roof began to ominously start dropping dust and small rubble pebbles onto them from above as they followed Angelus who seemed to be being drawn to something inside like a moth to a flame.

"Angelus!" Sora protested as she tried to keep up with the winged one who was literally dragging her around the labyrinthine temple. "Do you know where you're going?"

"I know." Was all he said as the group finally materialised into the centre chamber.

"Whoa." Gomamon muttered, the chamber was huge, a massive golden room which seemed to radiate warmth and light. In the centre was a kind of altar ovular in shape, which curved upwards turning it into almost a cone. Angelus and Ben looked at each other and rushed towards it, the others in hot pursuit.

"We haven't got long." Angelus said, drawing his sword and with his free hand beginning to removing the centuries worth of sand like dust. Ben looked agitatedly around the room; the walls seemed to be humming with static electricity.

"How long?" The Traveller demanded, looking desperately at the diesis for some kind of instructions. Angelus looked over at the wall and pursed his lips together; he closed his eyes for a moment then lashed out a hand in the walls direction. The air shimmered for a fraction of a second then the wall seemed to vanish, in fact that wasn't the case the wall actually became transparent. The same happened to the one behind it and the one behind that and the next and the next until they could see all the way outside. The sight was not pretty. Lightning snaked through the sky and the wind roared, outside the Tokyo skyline was dark but very visible was the almost static like silhouettes of other buildings. These were buildings from the DigiDestined world, which were beginning to rip through the barrier just like Infinity Mountain had done. Mimi held a hand to her mouth as numerous Digimon began appearing in the street alongside residence of the 'other' Tokyo all were shocked, frightened and began to panic as the lightning started striking down into buildings and the street itself.

"NOT long." Angelus yelled and brushed the last of the dust away to reveal the true beauty of the golden altar of the Rebirth. There was a series of four holes in the pure gold table, two of which were merely indents, one was rectanguar and the last was circular approximately 3 inches or so in diametre.

"What are we supposed to do?" Said Gabumon, the others looked bewildered unsure as to what else they could do now except hope Angelus and Ben could solve the puzzle before them.

"What was in that prophecy Gennai told you?" Ben said, the Gatekeeper ran a hand through his hair and gritted his teeth together in annoyance.

"Damnit..." Angelus rifled through his pockets before finding what he was looking for, he slowly brought out his hand and as he opened it a golden slightly box shaped orb materialised. "The Traveller shall produce a Miracle." Angelus tossed the DigiEgg of Miracles to Ben and the Chosen Traveller slotted the egg into the indent in front of him. Immediately the egg became engulfed in light and a clicking noise almost like that of a lock turning could be heard.

"Where's the other one?" Ben asked anyone who cared to listen, but Angelus was already bringing his hand out of his pocket a second time.

"The Gatekeeper shall choose his own fate." The Digiegg of Fate materialised and was soon slotted in as well. A second beam of light encompassed the taller egg and the chosen two turned their attention to the two holes, one rectangular and one circular.

"The staff!" Angelus said pointing.

"The sword!" Ben said at the same time, with an overly dramatic finish both were slammed home into their respective slots. Two beams of light enveloped the weapons....

And nothing happened.

They waited; the wails of terror from outside became more audible.

Still nothing.

"Are we supposed to do something else? Say magic words or something?"

"Maybe... look at the pattern on the floor, does it look familiar to you?"

"It looks like something out of Oh My Goddess."

"Or a crop circle." Angelus muttered, but it did indeed look like the Ultimate Magic Circle he had seen in that particular show. A massive display of barely visible rune symbols triangles and circles littered the floor around them.

"Was there anything else in that prophecy Angelus?"

"No just some line at the end that meant nothing much."

"What did it say?"

"Um, the chosen pair shall look their deaths straight in the eye, the deaths of their friends and of their loved ones. Yet the Gatekeeper will choose his own Fate and the Traveller shall produce a Miracle and the Rebirth will bring...." Angelus stopped abruptly and glanced over at TK.

"Bring what?" Ken demanded, almost yelling at the elder male.

"And the Rebirth will bring Hope and Light forever and eternally."

All eyes shifted to TK and Kari, TK swallowed. "We have to do something?" Ben nodded. "What?" Ben shrugged, but Angelus had his eyes closed in thought.

"Okay, you two have to kiss each other."

"What?" Ben blinked,

"What?" Tai and Matt chorused,

"WHAT?" Davis screeched, "Y-You m-mean they've gotta..."

"Kiss." Angelus repeated, Tai moved forward and went into B.B.M as Kari called it, Big Brother Mode.

"Hey whoa, wait a minute! My sis ain't gonna kiss some guy just cause you say so even if it is T-"

Tai was cut off as the altar exploded in a golden light and began spinning like a top, a whining drone like an aircraft engine powering up thumped through the room and everyone had to cover their ears. In the midst of this though two teens were kissing each other seemingly blissfully unaware as to what was going on around them, for TK and Kari this was their first kiss and they were damned if it was going to be wrecked by anything or anyone. Tai was going red with rage but the spinning Rebirth energy that was gathering in the centre of the room rapidly drowned his words out. Matt didn't know whether to laugh or cry but he felt content for the time being to simply be in pain from the din.

Some time later it would be debated as to whether it was really necessary for TK and Kari to kiss for Rebirth to be initiated but no answer would ever be found. It was though at this point when the floor became alive with light, the rune script on the floor glowed and the letters started to move and rotate. The pattern began to ripple and the circles erupted into columns of shiny gold, outside everything shook and then became deathly quiet. Yet the rumbling continued, it was simply no longer possible to hear as the air rippled constantly, preventing sound from travelling. The sky seemed to be shaking and for a brief moment the others could see outside the forest and fields around where Infinity Mountain was supposed to be, then they caught a glimpse of the Pseudo Earth before their view once again became of Tokyo. Around and around this little montage of images flew getting faster and faster as the podium spun quicker and glowed brighter until it was going so fast the speed tricked the eye into thinking it slowed down then spun in the opposite direction. Electricity surged through the chamber and everyone dived for cover as the altar exploded into flame, a tower of golden fire which ripped through the top of the great temple into the sky. Soon they felt their wounds begin to heal and utter peace if only for a moment filled their minds, all except one The flame washed through the clouds and across all three worlds and everything that had been destroyed by the events of the Keymaster was erased and born anew.


Lying on a carpet in a Tokyo building a portly man in a suit sat bolt up right, finding as he was on the floor of his boardroom. Yamashita patted himself to make sure he was real, checked his pulse then deciding he was alive helped himself to one of his many large cigars lighting it with trembling hands and began puffing away on it as if his very life depended on it. There was a knock on the board door and the man jumped in fright hiding under the table as his secretary Megumi walked in.

"Sir, are you okay?"

"Um. Maybe."

"Oh I see it's some kind of new management technique right?"

"Um, yes, yes Miss Megumi. One should always have their mind open to new experiences."

"Of course sir. Your three o'clock is here by the way sir." The secretary bowed.

"T-Thank you. Send them in." She bowed again and he dumbly bowed back before puffing away in panic. His thoughts were derailed however when his head animator came in.

"Good news sir!"

"Good?" The executive began to sweat.

"I've just heard the animatic has returned to normal!"

Yamashita beamed, "That is wonderful news, the interference has stopped."

"What interference?" He blinked,

"The two boys - Angelus and that Ben boy."

"I'm sorry sir I don't know what you're talking about, I meant the animatic of the next season has been returned to normal following that printing accident with the animation team who repeat their forgiveness for their most grievous error. As such I take full responsibility."

"Printing error?"

"Yes, sir." The head animator was now not just confused but very confused. "It was in my report sir."

"Yes, yes of course it was." Yamashita straightened his tie, smiling as he did so. He'd been given a second chance, for whatever reason, to live his life again. Not make the same mistakes as he had before. It must have been the work of the Chosen Two, his beaming smile only succeeded in disturbing his worker more. He shook his head sadly, "Have you any ideas for a possible series after this one?"

"N-not yet sir."

"Well, let me get you something to eat. I want to run by a story idea by you."

"Story idea?"

"Yes, think of it as a crossover between our world and the two worlds we know already in the series. Now you see, there are these two boys about 18 or so and one day"


And so the glow spread between the Three and slowly began to push them away from each other, soon the ties that bound them began to strain until finally they snapped. In that instant Infinity Mountain was back surrounded by forest and fields and Rebirth was over as quickly as it had begun. Slowly the band of Digimon and humans were able to remove fingers, hands and in the case of the ever-prepared Izzy actual earplugs from their ears as the podium began to slow down. The whirring stopped, the glow faded and after another minute or two it silently (with very little fuss for something that had been rotating so rapidly) came to a standstill.

Ben blinked, "Was that it?"

"You sound disappointed Ben." Mimi replied wiggling a finger in her ear and with her other hand helping Palmon to stand.

"That was more than enough for me." The plant Digimon groaned, "I thought I was going to wilt under all the glare."

"You're a plant I thought you would have liked all the light."

"Yes but too much can kill plants too." Palmon said in an 'explaning to a small child' voice then dusted off her leaves. Angelus stretched his wings, while Joe went around and checked everyone was okay.

"My ears are ringing." Cody moaned, Armadillomon meanwhile was curled up in a ball and wasn't going to uncurl for anything. So Cody gave him a kick, which seemed to do the trick.

"Ow, watcha do that for!" Armadillomon said angrily, "I was having a nice nap there."

"You slept through that?" Cody slapped his hand to his forehead.

"Well I was still tired from getting walloped by Arnakmon if you don't mind. Hey Veemon are you okay?"

"What?"

"I said are you okay?"

"What???"

"Ah no he's been deafened." The hard-shelled Digimon groaned, Veemon just looked at him in confusion.

"Huh, speak up!"

"Only temporarily Armadillomon." Joe said, examining Yolei's eyes carefully. The girl was complaining of feeling slightly dizzy. It was at that moment that Angelus withdrew his sword from the pedastal and both the DigiEggs shook.

"What was that?" Angelus said slowly, backing away a step only for the eggs to shake again, this time the DigiEgg of Miracles fell off the pedastal and bounced down onto the floor. A small crack developed down the side but this was nothing because the egg started to glow once more and begun to move purposefully towards Ben. The DigiEgg of Fate also began to glow and rock backwards and forwards, a network of tiny cracks began to form in its golden surface.

Mimi squeaked and tried to climb up on Ben's shoulders away from whatever it was that was rolling towards them. Ben huffed in annoyance and almost fell backwards; the glowing DigiEgg rolled end over end towards them then stopped a foot away from the Traveller's shoe.
Ben deposited Mimi back on the ground and went to get a closer look when a pair of simultaneous cracks were heard in the Rebirth Chamber. The eggs flared as a claw came out of one and a clawed paw another, everyone backed away nervously Angelus pointed his sword at the DigiEgg in front of him as it rocked twice violently then fell of the altar also.

A small smash was heard, as the egg broke open entirely, a small yelp of pain and a growl of annoyance came from the pile of eggshell. Cautiously Angelus with the tip of the sword flicked the main piece of shell away and as he did the creature appearing from the DigiEgg of Miracles flew up out of it and landed on Ben's shoulder. Mimi screamed and hid behind Joe and Ken, only to receive a sharp kick in the shin from Cody who she'd inadvertently squashed into the wall.

Tai made a mental note to speak to Cody about his developing penchant for kicking people

Ben wasn't sure what he felt right now but he was sure a change of undergarment might be in order. It wasn't until he actually opened his eyes he realised the magnitude of his situation.

"Raine?"

Angelus looked at the 'thing' on Ben's shoulder and was startled to find it was a small dragon, or a dragonet being a youngster. Ben laughed and Mimi peeked out from behind Ken.

"Raine?" She echoed and everyone looked around at her.

"Raine?" Was the universal question, which was met with only a cheery response from the Traveller.

"Raine!" Ben smiled and the little winged lizard gave his cheek a lick then snorted a tiny puff of smoke.

Gatomon sighed in annoyance, "Okay we've gathered the thing's called Raine!" the cat said loudly. "Can you please tell us a bit more than that?"

"Raine." Ben said in awe, "My older self had a Digimon partner, this little dragon, my partner wasn't Myotismon after all." Raine gave a little yawn and a snort/honk noise as an affirmative.

"He can't talk." Veemon pointed out.

"Who cares?" Ben patted Raine's head then looked over at the remains of the second DigiEgg by Angelus's feet. "But that means..."

Angelus reached down and picked up what at first glance looked like a ball of snow-white fluff, to be fair a second and third glance would have gotten you the same result. He walked up towards the rest of the group and as he stopped a tail flicked out and caught him on the nose.

"Hey." Angelus said smiling, "You waking up little one?"

From the fluff a pair of eyes appeared and a mouth that yawned mightily displaying four prominently sharp canine teeth. Angelus put the Digimon back on the floor and it shook itself awake displaying not just a tail, teeth and eyes but four legs, clawed paws and a sleek body with the faintest trio of blue stripes on it's fur.

"It's a snow tiger." Izzy said grinning, Angelus stroked its head and the tiger cub licked his palm appreciatively. His hot breath condensing in the cool air of the chamber.

"Cute little fellow." Sora said tickling him under the chin.

"Careful Sora, Angelus might get jealous." Tai snickered, Angelus nodded at Kari and the girl elbowed her brother in the ribs.

"Any idea just who this is?" Angelus asked Ben but the Traveller shook his head.

"My future self gave me no information on you, I haven't a clue who this is." The tiger's breath continued to make little clouds of condensation; in fact it seemed to be doing it deliberately then tried to bat it with his paw.

"Heh, I think I'll call you Frost." Angelus grinned and Frost gave a little growl of approval. "Well, why don't we see what Rebirth really looks like - what I mean to say is, lets get out of here and see what's going on!"

Outside of Infinity Mountain, on the crest of a gentle hill two figures watched and waited. In the distance tiny ant like figures were flying through the air preparing to land in the field below.

"You know what you're doing don't you?" Aeth said quietly, "You're putting paid to potentially dangerous loose cannon."

"You can congratulate me afterwards." Said Gennai, drawing an arrow from his quiver and kneeling down on top of the hill.

"Go on my friend, you're time is at hand."

"The Prophecy will be fulfilled." Gennai smiled, "This day heralds the beginning of a new era, The Three are set free through the act of Rebirth and we will rise to our rightful positions. Unchallenged and all powerful the Traveller and the Warrior of Light, the only Warrior of Light just as The Light decreed."

A smile tugged at Gennai's lips as he positioned the arrow on the string and pulled it back, Aeth breathed in deep allowing the sensation of magic and goodness that still lingered in the air from Rebirth to flow through his being. The smell made his body tingle with the sense of something very important about to come to pass, next to him Gennai's eyes narrowed as he looked along the arrow to aim it at his target.

"Indeed Gennai, now the true nature of our roles is revealed to us we can govern both realms in peace and idealism. To the correct rules and regulations, there will be no more war for we are righteous. The Travellers that were scattered by me shall now be forced to abide by my will, with their Alzari-elect dead and his friend I am their only hope for salvation."

"And with my victory I shall make the perfect Digital World. I will create the perfect society - MY society." And Gennai loosed the arrow from his bow.

The forest.

They'd done it.

The worlds were free.

"We did it!" Davis whooped and hi-fived Tai, TK pulled Kari into a hug and smiled when Yolei wrapped her arms around Ken from behind causing the boy to go bright red. Laughter and joy echoed throughout the plain as the grass began to reappear and reality reorganised itself. Mimi laid her head against Ben's shoulder; he in response wrapped his arm around her waist.

"So it's over?" Gatomon asked, turning to face Patamon who was grinning from ear to ear.

"I suppose it is." The orange fuzz ball breathed a sigh of relief, "Say Gatomon?"

"Gatomon." The cat said sticking out her tongue, Patamon rolled his eyes.

"No silly, I was just wondering if you were free tomorrow night."

"Why Patamon are you asking me out?"

"Um, not really. I mean yeah, kinda but-" Patamon stopped suddenly all nervousness vanished and he straightened. He looked about anxiously for something, Gatomon's smile faded.

"What is it?"

"What... is that whistling noise?" But no one seemed to hear him.

Sora giggled convulsively and ran from her place next to Matt over to Angelus, who returned his sword to it's scabbard and caught her as she flung herself at him. They looked into each other's eyes and Sora's arms encircled his neck, at that moment in time Angelus had never been happier. If he were to describe it himself, he would have had no hesitation in using the word content. He grasped her by her slender waist and held her up and swung her round in sheer delight.

Time seemed to stand still on that moment.

He wished it could last forever.

It didn't.

Angelus didn't even hear the noise of the arrow, he didn't even realise anything was wrong until he heard a dull slightly wet thump. Their eyes still looked on each other but he knew something was wrong, her grip seemed to be slipping from around his neck and the others seemed to be looking on aghast. Sora's strength seemed to have left her and he stopped twirling her around, slowly he lowered himself and Sora to the floor up into a sitting position resting her against his knee. He'd lost the power of speech, and she tried to whisper something to him but for some reason couldn't. A small lone tear wandered down his cheek and she with a thumb wiped it away, no tears, she didn't want her last moments with him to be seeing him unhappy or in pain.

But there was nothing she could do about that.

Not now.

Not ever.

Aeth looked at Gennai whose face was grim, the arrow flew straight and true a terrific distance for such a weapon but it was not of mortal origin. It sought out it's target, to puncture him through the back and pierce his heart with the sharpened digizoid head. Then the plan went wrong, oh boy, did it go wrong. Sora ran up to Angelus and the couple embraced, her momentum swinging her around him.

Swinging around him 180 degrees.

Swinging around him into the arrow's path.

The DigiDestined gathered around them on the ground, Biyomon was weeping and Sora patted her on the head. The bird dedigivolved into Yokomon, then into Nyokimon soshe stroked it soothingly. She glanced around her friends who were mostly not crying, the shock was great. Angelus tried to say something but still couldn't, Sora mouthed something that his numbed body and mind recognised as three words 'I love you' and she became still.

Angelus's eyes filled with water, yet the tears would not flow. He held her close and buried his head in her shoulder, the others wept.

The ornate arrow was still sticking out from her back.

Some of those gathered sought comfort in others, TK held Kari tightly while she cried into his shoulder; Mimi buried her head into Ben's chest unable to look at the body any longer. Joe whispered soothing words in her ear but to little effect, Matt and Izzy tried to hold Tai upright. The face of the DigiDestined leader was ashen, his eyes seemed to have become sunken, glazed over, it was the blank mask of shock. His legs were unable to move, all his muscles had become paralysed any trace of strength had vanished from him. Yolei kneeling on the ground by Ken bawled into her hands, while poor little Cody stood dumbfounded trying to vaguely comprehend the gravity of what had just happened. Ben while holding Mimi also felt numb; his sister whom he'd loved as much as Angelus and known for just as little a time was gone. So many things went unsaid, he'd... he'd planned to take her home with him to the real world; it was perhaps where she belonged. That wouldn't be happening now though.

Through it all Angelus just stood unmoving looking downwards on Sora's still form, beautiful even in death he mused silently. Slowly he reached down and with the stabbing of a thousand daggers ripping his heart asunder closed her eyes with the palm of his hand. His hand was shaking, shaking in both sorrow and anger. And as he stood up the anger inside him grew, it fed upon itself fuelling the fire with his memories of them together, how happy he was and how it was all ripped away from his grasp.

"Digivice: Command Line - Targeting." Angelus barked, startling his friends. The DX digivice slowly and somewhat unsteadily rose into the air, beeping at a regular pace as it rotated in a 360-degree arc around the group. It scanned for life signs - potential enemies, weapons and any object approaching them. The beeping increased drastically when it found something, then a beam of red light shot out of the digivice in the direction it had stopped at. At the same time the DX produced a hologramatic image on the floor below it, a picture of two people one of which possessed a bow and was desperately trying to get a red 'A' shaped target with wings on to not rest on his heart. Angelus didn't bother looking but listened to the gasps of his friends, Ken stammered out what the rest where thinking.

"T-That's Aeth and Gennai."

"It can't be." Yolei mumbled, "Why?"

"Why would Gennai do something like that?" Ben demanded, "And Aeth, what has he done to us?"

"I'll tell you." Said a flat but familiar voice, the group faced Kari who's eyes held a vacant expression.

The Light had returned...

To Be Continued...
Please Review!

Sora: *dead*
DC: Who's gonna do the announcement now?
AAUK: Ah, didn't think of that.
Yolei: I'll do it! Will things all turn out perfecto for Aeth and Gennai or will they feel the wrath of Angelus and Ben? Tune in next time for more Redux I: Reality Redux!
AAUK: ...*opens trapdoor underneath hamster-pocket girl*
Yolei: *screams and vanishes*

ArchangelUK 0:o)
Digicowboy c):o)
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