Redux I: Reality Redux
By ArchangelUK & Digicowboy

ArchangelUK and DC do not own Digimon, or anything else much for that matter. As a matter of fact, we ourselves are owned in part by Toei. Lousy soul-stealing cel frame.

Chapter 34 - Chasing Wingy
By Digicowboy

The entrance to the temple was, quite accurately, dead. The air was thick with deleted data, motes of the defeated moving slowly in the ancient air of the once inviolate holy place.

That was all changed now. The once impressive doors, higher than any man could reach, were now scattered liberally around the landscape, both inside and out the great hall. Wrecked pillars and columns were everywhere. Since the purpose of these pillars was presumably to hold up the ceiling, this was probably not a good thing. The air resonated to the ominous creaking of tortured stone, and mortar and crumbled slab combined to fall from the walls and ceiling in thick suffocating clouds, heralds of collapse to come. The ruined temple stood as a monument to the wrath of the Gatekeeper, and its shattered structure spoke eloquently of death and destruction.

Yet, despite that, or possibly because of that, someone was approaching. His battle was finally, for the moment, over, but his friend's wasn't, as far as he knew. And what kind of friend would he be if he didn't lend him a hand?

A smart friend. He though wryly. It was true that Angelus could almost certainly look after himself – this was a guy who held the energies of not one, but two cosmic entities inside himself, wielded a truly fearsome broadsword, and was last seen by the Digidestined in full-on, Gatekeeper mode. Something of a Berserker, apparently. And that was exactly why Alzari was worried about him, he supposed. An Angelus out of control was not an Angelus anyone would welcome with open arms. And despite everything had happened to them in the last few wonderful, hellish weeks, he still couldn't disassociate Angelus The Gatekeeper, from Archangel, the guy he had spent many happy hours online talking with. Well, bickering amicably with. And if Archangel needed his help, he'd sooner die than disappoint him.

Yes, well. Best not dwell too long on the 'die' aspect of that one. The way he was feeling, it was quite possibly a avenue he'd be exploring sooner than he particularly wanted to. His cuts and gashes, not to mention the unbearable pain in his chest of shattered ribs, torn flesh and his own blood congealing on his skin, were bleeding more than he liked. But then again, if the Universe operated on what he liked, Aeth wouldn't have beaten the tar out of him. Come to think of it, if the Universe operated on what he wanted, this whole fiasco never would have happened. He shrugged. If Frosty Jacks were wishes, Tramps would all live in fabulous mansions. Sincerely hoping that that was an indication of the amount of blood lost, and not just a thought he would have had anyway, he staggered on.

He still wasn't very good at using the staff, and given his state at the time, he shouldn't have been altogether surprised when his tear had dropped him not at the entrance of the temple, but almost a mile out into the surrounding desert from an unexpected height of seven feet above ground level. Still, it was a real inconvenience, especially considering the fact he had managed to knacker his right ankle upon landing on some less than cushioning flat rocks, which on closer inspection had turned out to be some far-flung wall from the temple. But that had been some time ago, and he had almost reached the entrance to the temple, or what remained of it. Raine, fluttering overhead anxiously, darted into the cavernous entrance and then out again, concern somehow apparent in his chittering and creeling.

Alzari passed through the door, leaning heavily on the staff, looked around, and whistled, impressed. Either, he concluded, Angelus had been here and done a real number on the place, or he was in the wrong temple. Given that as far as he knew there was only one temple like this in the entire Digital world, he rapidly dismissed option number two.

"Hello?" He called out in the interests of discovery, and received nothing for his trouble but some rather interesting acoustics in his returning echo. The whole structure, at least here, was obviously structurally unsound. As if to emphasise his point, the ceiling above him chose that moment to release another shower of crumbling stone and dust. Alzari merely sighed and closed his eyes as the debris settled to the floor all around him, making him resemble a statue of himself. He beat the worst of it off, and wearily set off on his way. Maybe it was just the pain clouding his thinking, but he was more or less resigned to the fact that this was going to be one of those days. At the other end of the hall, he encountered several passages, branching off in multiple directions. Being as he couldn't follow the all, and that he was feeling very tired, he looked up at Raine, circling overhead like a faithful Vulture. Responding to some unseen call, the small creature swooped down to perch on Alzari's head. His long serpentine neck curved down until he was looking Alzari inquisitively in the eyes, albeit upside down.

"Raine, can you find Angelus? What passage did he go down?'"

The Dragonet cheeped knowingly, and launched itself off of his head, near driving Alzari's neck into his chest. He may have been young, but you certainly felt it when he launched himself off of you. Raine swooped around the tunnel entrances, diving in and out of sight each time he explored one, looking perhaps for some scent or fragrance Alzari couldn't detect. When he had flown a little way into each one, he flew back to Alzari and landed on his shoulder.

"Well?" he said, a hint of impatience entering his voice. Raine yawned into his face, curled his tail around his owners neck, and promptly fell asleep. Not helpful. Evidently he'd have to either figure it out or take a blind guess. Closer inspection revealed that of the ten possible passages, only one wasn't buried in at least two centimetres of the dust of years. Passage number five, then, seemed like the best choice. He slogged on, his paces frequently punctuated by a litany of "Ow. Ow. Ow."

It was a long passage, and it didn't seem to lead anywhere other than further on. He was just wondering whether or not he should go back, when he saw a light further on down, and he quickened his pace.

The light came from a torch mounted in a wall bracket. This being the Digital world, it didn't seem to die down or need fuel, but gave off a steady, illuminating glow. On the wall opposite it, a mural of carved stone was displayed. Alzari gave it a cursory glance on the basis that it was more interesting than unending, featureless stone wall, and then started. He was fairly sure he recognized the people depicted therein. One of them was Gennai. The other was Angelus. The two figures stood back to back, swords turned against an endless wave of darkness that reached out to them with clawing hands. Their faces were set and impartial. Alzari knew very little indeed about carving rock, but this was evidently something that had seen a lot of work go into it. Of course, knowing the Digital world, who was to say they weren't here when the temple was created out of nothingness? If you knew how to bend the rules, the Digital world might as well be a big malleable ball of clay. He moved on. In due course, he came to another torch, and another mural. In this one, the figure of Angelus was more prominent, his face righteous and unforgiving. Gennai, he thought, looked somewhat disgruntled. Equally, from the dark hordes, a figure was becoming more apparent as a separate being. He carried on. After a few more murals, he realised that was he was passing was more or less a timeline. Once you'd figured that out, it was a bit easier to understand. Over the years, Angelus had become more and more prominent, and Gennai's figure stayed the same shape. His face, however, was gradually affecting an expression of dissatisfaction, jealousy, and even anger. The figure from the darkness took on shape over time, until a third prominent figure joined Angelus and Gennai in the mural. He recognized it all too well as Arnakmon, the former Keymaster. He shuddered involuntarily as he gazed upon the all too lifelike relief of the huge entity.

The next series of murals saw a progression of battles between Gatekeeper and Keymaster and their outcomes. Alzari wasn't at home with numbers at the best of times, and these certainly didn't count as the best of times, what with the pain and the bleeding and the fatigue and all, but from what he could tell, they seemed to win about half each. More or less. Give or take. But he had pretty much known all that before, so what he was really looking at was Gennai, who's features were by now twisted into an expression of inarticulate fury. He suspected that he probably hadn't been making that face at the time, but it was probably a fair indication of Gennai's general mood at the time. He continued to walk and watch the murals. All of a sudden, the corridor took a sudden turn, as did the murals. From here onward, he noted with a feeling of more than unease, someone had taken a great deal of time and effort to desecrate each and every image in a very special way.

Someone had chipped Angelus's head off in every image, with great care, leaving a blank space from the neck upwards. If the graffiti artist was who Alzari thought it to be, it was somewhat past the macabre stage. Worry began to gnaw at his stomach. Previously, he had always assumed that Angelus was more than capable of looking after himself, whatever the situation – was he not a God, more or less? – but against the power of this ages old, festering hatred, against planning that spanned beyond his own lifespan, even Angelus could have serious problems. It was even more imperative that he find his friend, as soon as he could.

"So what now?" Davis asked, breaking the long silence that had surrounded the Digidestined ever since Angelus and Ben had left. They were numb, uncertain. Tai and Matt had improvised a shroud for Sora, who had been, against all their insistences, taken away by the authorities. Nobody else, it seemed, remembered the dreadful ruination of the city that had seemed so very real, and the Digidestined wandered the streets in a daze, their partners close to them. It was a while before anybody answered.

"I guess we wait and see." Shrugged Izzy despondently. "Since we don't know what happened to them, or where they went, we can't tell when they'll be back, or even if they'll-"

"'No." Mimi said in a voice thick with emotion and conviction. "They'll come back. I know they will."

"I sure hope so, Mimi." Sighed Joe, keeping a careful eye on Kari, who was still inhabited by the now silent Light, the representation of the largely benign design of the Universe. Their friend's pupils were still widely dilated, and no real expression showed itself on her face or in the depths of her eyes. TK, Tai and Gatomon were worrying themselves sick about her, but they couldn't get any response out of her. Joe's own theory was that The Light had its attention elsewhere, but was unwilling to vacate it's host body on this world just yet, so evidently it intended to return, and to return soon. In the meantime, it probably wouldn't hurt to get her somewhere quiet and calm where she would be away from the ebb and flow of urban life. It would be good for his friends, too. They needed somewhere to go to begin to absorb all that had happened. As for Joe, he pushed his own grief and turmoil aside, mental and emotional both. His friends needed him, and he had to look after them. There would be time enough later to sort it all out in his head. They had tried earlier, and without success, to enter the Digiworld, but it looked like they were stuck here for now. No matter who had tried, the gates remained resolutely closed. And so they walked, as Joe tried his hardest to think of somewhere calm and quiet that would be relatively free of people at this time in what was, to most people, a completely normal day. So far, he had been drawing a blank. From inside his backpack, Gomamon sighed. As if the death of Sora hadn't been enough, Biyomon had been nowhere to be found. Joe couldn't see any way to see this situation end happily. The Digidestined rounded a corner, and Joe almost bumped into a woman who had been standing there.

"Sorry." He mumbled, and then looked up as the details of the woman's clothing jogged something in his memory, "'Miss Takenouchi!" he gasped.

"Jasmine will do just fine, Joe." She smiled wanly. "Come with me, all of you. It's very nearly over, and I need to take you to where you have to be." They followed.

At that moment in time, Alzari was devoutly wishing he had someone to take him where he had to be. Several minutes ago he had started to hear raised voices faintly in the distance, and the clash of steel, and he had accordingly picked up the pace. However, when he had rounded the next corner, he realised he had stumbled into a veritable rabbit warren of tunnels and passages. He had desperately struck out at random, there being no helpful dust to aid his choices, and he was almost certain he was getting increasingly lost in the labyrinthine passages. His vision fluttered in and out of focus, and he'd lost so much blood that he was only a few steps away from forcibly dragging himself along the unforgiving floor. His breath came in ragged gasps that felt like they were tearing his lungs apart. If anyone came across him now with hostile intent, the only resistance he'd be able to offer was puking his guts up over their shoes. Suddenly, he realised that he hadn't heard anything for a few minutes, and that could only mean two things. Either he had, in actual fact, been going down the wrong passage and he had passed out of earshot whilst immersed in his thoughts, or, one way or another, the fight was over. Neither prospect filled him with wild hope to any extent, but it was too far to turn around, so he trudged on in a haze.

He was tired.

A few minutes later, the tunnel widened out into a larger space. The temple, it seemed, had extended far past what he'd been told. He looked around bleary eyed, not really taking in architecture or anything of the sort. And then he saw something that, as far as he was concerned, put the tin lid on the whole affair. He gagged futilely, feeling that threatened vomit rising in his throat. It was ultimately useless though, and he near doubled over, the contents of his stomach pouring from his mouth in heaving convulsions. The staff fell from his hands to clatter on the floor, and he staggered a few steps away from the horrifying spectacle before darkness overtook him as he slowly fell forwards, his body having given all that it could. His head hit the floor with a reverberating smack, and as Raine screeched and screeched overhead in fear and confusion, a dark shape detached itself from the shadows.

And advanced...

Who won the fight between Angelus and Gennai? Will DC ever manage to get a reliable floppy disk? What terrible monstrosity awaits in the temple and what is the true objective of The Light and Jasmine? Tune in next time for more Redux: Reality Redux!

ArchangelUK 0:o)
Digicowboy c):o)
Sponsored (In no way at all) By - "Free your mind... do you have a valid licence for possession of that mind sir?"