Story Title: Misplaced Chosen Children
Chapter Title: Even So, We Must Fight.
Series Title: Misplaced Chosen Children Universe
Author: Mathais
Rating: PG-13
Category: Digimon
Archive: Fanfiction net
Warnings: Shonen-ai, Het, Future Shojo-ai
Pairings: For now, Taichi/Sora, Koushirou/Mimi, Jyou/Yamato
Summary: In a battle, the digimon are deleted and the chosen children scattered. They begin to remember who they were again and gather, changed by the worlds they lived in. But what if people in those places don't want them to go?
Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me.
References: None
Note: This is the main story, detailing the events that pass after the prologue. This will deal with those left behind.
Translation Note: Ankouku Shinka is Dark Evolve. Basically like Greymon to Skull Greymon. I'm assuming that it can also be triggered by dark emotions as well as the wrong way of using a Crest and the power of the Dark Realm.
The funerals were held seven days later. It was a joint one: all six would have wanted it that way.
All the families of the Chosen Children, at least those of Japan, attended. Sadness and a sense of loss permeated the minds of the attended. Most didn't make it through without tears. Taichi gave a small shudder. This is wrong. We shouldn't be mourning their deaths. They should be ALIVE!
No one seemed to remember the incident. A small explosion had occurred in a park, a result of Algol's Flame briefly piercing the dimensional walls. Takeru, Ken, Daisuke, Iori, Miyako, and Hikari were presumed dead from that, instantly incinerated.
Taichi nearly jumped as some laid a hand on his shoulder. His fist stopped mere centimeters from landing on Koushirou's nose. With a defeated look about him, Taichi dropped the fist, mumbling a half-hearted apology.
"No time for that." hissed quietly the red-headed genius. "Apocalymon sent forces to the Sever continent." Taichi's head snapped up. Unwittingly, the first thought that crossed his mind was: yes, revenge! "I want to know if you can fight without making Agumon use ankouku shinka again." The Child of Knowledge's cool gaze made Taichi squash down the fire that ignited in his heart, lowering his gaze.
Can I? The formerly goggled boy wondered. Can I do this without having Agumon go dark?
"Yamato's staying behind." added Koushirou, making Taichi lift his head again.
"Huh?"
"Yamato knows that if he faces Apocalymon or his minions soon, he'd lose the weak control over his dark emotions." The hand on his shoulder became comforting as his friend guessed what Taichi was thinking. "No one will fault you if you sit this one out."
Relief flooded through his body like a wave of cool water, quenching the black flames of hate and vengeance that had burned harshly in his heart. "I'm staying behind." Courage wasn't recklessness; Taichi had learned that the hard way six years ago against Etemon. No one wanted a repeat of Skull Greymon, especially not Taichi.
"It'll be me, Jyou, Mimi, and Sora. We'll be fine!" Koushirou grinned, his eyes belying that Taichi chose correctly.
"Don't let anyone ankouku shinka." advised and reminded Taichi softly. "We can't afford any more mistakes."
The Child of Knowledge sobered slightly, nodding. He quickly vanished.
The bushy-haired teen noticed that the others had followed. Hopefully the parents chalked it up to wanting to mourn alone, in their Chosen Children circle. They didn't need more problems.
The services soon ended and, just as the Child of Courage predicted, the families filed out with understanding in their eyes, leaving Taichi with Yamato.
"You holding up?" asked Taichi softly.
"As much as I can." The Child of Friendship offered a wan smile that quickly slid off his face. "I couldn't trust myself. Just thinking about Takeru and the Death Claw..." The musician clenched his fist painfully, white showing on the tense knuckles. "I would have had Gabumon ankouku shinka at the first minion."
"Aah." Taichi made an understanding noise. "Same here."
"I couldn't protect him." Yamato sniffed, shoulders shaking with repressed sobs as his eyes darkened with grief. "I had to watch my little brother die right before my eyes - again. Except no coming back from this one." Ice blue eyes were suddenly locked onto Taichi's face, pleading silently. "How are we supposed to go on? They were our light... Our fire cannot last as long nor shine as brightly as their luminance. We have the drive, but they had the simple joy of protecting the world. What are we supposed to do?"
Taichi could only stare at Yamato, his mouth dry. Tears found their way to his eyes again and came spilling down his cheeks. "I don't know, Yamato; I just don't know."
Hopelessness was at the very core of his words. The light that kept them aloft and the hope that drove them were missing and only meager amounts of it resided in Taichi and Yamato respectively. They knew it wouldn't be enough though. Not nearly enough for what they were up against.
"Strafe left!" Koushirou yelled at Altur Kabuterimon as their opponent unleashed seven blasts of black energy. The large beetle digimon avoided it, but he moved right into the second enemy's attack.
"Desecrated Flame!" Dark flames in the form of a tempest slammed into Altur Kabuterimon, slamming him back.
The battle wasn't going good. Apocalymon had decided to mock them, unleashing twisted forms of their fallen teammates' partners.
Black Seraphimon, a demonic dark green version of Patamon's Ultimate form with an upturned crest of hope on his satchel had a dark dragon, Dark Dramon, counterpart to Tailmon's Holy Dramon.
As Altur Kabuterimon dodged another attack from the pair, Koushirou focused his attention on the others.
Garudamon was fending off Black Silphymon's energy attacks. Sora was frustrated, realizing that she was unable to have Garudamon power up a Shadow Wing in her current state with Top Guns and Dual Sonics being fired off rapidly from the black humanoid cat/bird hybrid. Garudamon managed to fly in close enough to scratch with a claw, but Black Silphymon fired back with a beam of energy from Top Gun and Garudamon had to fight to stay aloft. In that moment of imbalance, Black Gran Kuwagamon launched a blast of energy from the black stag beetle's front jaws. Garudamon chose instead to drop, avoiding the attack altogether.
Zudomon was dealing with Black Shakkoumon. It wasn't going well as Zudomon's hammer was made of Digital Chromozoid, but so was Black Shakkoumon's body, and with both flawless, they couldn't do anything to each other. Zudomon's Hammer Spark was being absorbed by Black Shakkoumon's inhalation ability and Zudomon could barely defect the Digital Chromozoid discs from Kachina Bomb. It was a stalemate.
Lilymon was doing all she could to hold off Imperial Dramon Rouge Mode's attacks. The black knight with devil wings was stronger than the rest of them, being at the power pinnacle that combined Omegamon and Imperial Dramon Fighter Mode. Currently, the only reason Lilymon survived was due to the floral ring she used to purify viruses and calm raging souls she had placed on him was hindering his reflexes. She'd have been a digitama long beforehand otherwise. Her Flower Cannon only did minimal damage to the dark warrior, but it was the best she could do.
Koushirou's eyes traveled back to Altur Kabuterimon, who was dodging attacks at a rapid rate. "Altur Kabuterimon! Fire a Horn Buster at two o'clock at my mark!" Please turn to the left and then fly down. Koushirou added silently. He waited a few minutes, watching the progressing fight. "Mark!" Altur Kabuterimon fired a beam of lightning energy from his horn at Dark Dramon, who dodged and replied with an orb of dark energy released form her mouth, an attack called Apocalypse. At the last moment, Altur Kabuterimon ducked, letting the orb hit Black Seraphimon, who was charging up a Seven Hells attack, causing the gathering energy to explode around him.
"Horn Buster!" The digimon attacked again, hitting the same point where the Apocalypse hit. That did it. Black Seraphimon burst into data.
Dark Dramon seethed in anger for but a moment, but Mimi's and Lilymon's voices reached his ears. "Duck!"
Altur Kabuterimon followed the sage advice as a cry of "Giga Death" rung loud over the battlefield. A beam of black energy launched from the orb encased in Imperial Dramon Rouge Mode's chest and annihilated Dark Dramon, Black Silphymon, and Black Gran Kuwagamon. Black Shakkoumon used his inhalation ability to absorb the beam, but didn't seem to take it well. If anything, cracks started appearing on his chest. Zudomon took this as an invitation.
"Hammer Spark!" A well-placed lance of yellow energy made Black Shakkoumon shatter.
The four chosen children turned back to the Imperial Dramon Rouge Mode. He was a little worse for the wear, but Lilymon was having trouble keeping up.
"Four Perfects cannot possibly beat someone of Imperial Dramon Rouge Mode's caliber." Jyou spoke, his tone carefully controlled. "Not unless we do something drastic."
"Hold him off for me, guys." Mimi suddenly smiled grimly, a look that didn't come often to the bubbly girl's face. Her blonde hair managed pretty well to hide the thoughts in her head. "I have an idea."
"You heard the girl!" Sora was suddenly strong again as Garudamon flashed to life, energy pouring into her. "Go!"
"Shadow Wing!" The fiery effigy of Garudamon launched into the air before hitting Imperial Dramon Rouge Mode in the back, burning one of the wings away. He roared in anger, releasing another beam. He was hampered by Lilymon's power, however, and Garudamon was able to dodge.
Zudomon and Altur Kabuterimon started repeatedly firing Hammer Sparks and Horn Busters at the back of the dark warrior. The other wing burned away and the digimon dropped to the ground.
Mimi suddenly yelled out from behind the other three. "Lilymon, go!"
"Lilymon mega shinka!" The flower digimon was encased in a green light, which dimmed soon to reveal a red version of the digimon before, though taller and the eyes were covered. "Rosemon!"
She flew forward, placing her hands on the floral ring around Imperial Dramon Rouge Mode's neck. The flowers all became brighter, increasing the strength that bound the dark digimon.
"C'mon guys, let's pool our power!" Lilymon's voice hadn't grown any deeper with the evolution. "Thorn Whip!"
She materialized a thorny whip out of nowhere, waving it with a crack at the digimon. A small piece of the chest chipped off when the attack struck.
"Shadow Wing!"
"Horn Buster!"
"Hammer Spark!"
The three attacks struck the weakened point in Imperial Dramon Rouge Mode's armor and with a final hit, Rosemon shattered the dark paladin into data.
Mimi collapsed to her knees in both relief and exhaustion. "That was..." She paused and shook her head. "We did it."
"We need to go back before our parents miss us." Sora realized and they headed off toward the gate with their digimon following.
None of the four noticed, as they supported a tired Mimi that had given her power to Rosemon, a small figure using a jar to pick up the free-floating data before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Wallace stared out into the might sky, carefully clutching his new D-3 to his chest. One side of it was a gleaming gold, the other a pure white. The stars twinkled in response to his hope as he stood at the top of a cliff. He wanted to be at the pinnacle.
"Please, come back..." He focused on bringing that light from his body out, to calling that strength within. It wasn't working though. "If our world needed a miracle, it would be now. Come back!" He raised the D-3 into the sky, light flaring out of the device. The luminance highlighted his blonde hair as he poured the light within him to call back his friends. For one brief heart-stopping moment his breath caught in his throat. It actually seemed to be working.
But the light faded with no results and Wallace was left in the darkness, pain welling up into his being.
"Damn it! I have the Golden Digimentals of Fate and Miracles! I of all people know that Fate isn't concrete! What do I need? The Digimental of Destiny?" Angry tears flowed down from his blue eyes, falling harshly to the ground. "I have Chance, Miracles! I have Fate, the end! Is this Destiny?" He slammed his fist in the ground repeatedly until blood came out of the bruised appendage. "Is it my friends' destiny to die like this? They shouldn't have to for all they've done." Sobs wracked his being once more, burning him from the inside out.
"Wallace?" Lopmon asked carefully, floating over to his partner. "You all right?"
"Does it look like I'm all right? Does it?" The golden-haired American snapped angrily. The digimon shrunk back as Wallace fell down, defeat ringing in his posture. "I'm sorry Lopmon, I shouldn't have done that."
"We understand." Terriermon floated next to them, his voice soft. "I missed half of myself when Lopmon turned dark. I felt angry at him."
"And I couldn't understand why you and Terriermon didn't join me." Lopmon agreed. "We understand your anger."
Blue tears still fell from the teen's eyes. "I know that. I know that." He stubbornly tried to wipe away the marks, but more replaced them. "It's just that... I feel like I need to do something. It seemed to work, but... I just didn't." He stopped and breathed deeply. "I want to know why."
"Then why don't we head over to Japan to find out?" asked Lopmon mildly.
Wallace's head snapped up as a small smirk found its way onto his face. "Of course. Tomorrow's the first day of break and then... Well, a little hacking never hurt anyone."
"And your mom's not expecting you back the whole week." Terriermon managed to smirk as well.
"Digimental Up! Terriermon!" Wallace held up his D-3, light shining out of it.
"Terriermon armor shinka!" The dog digimon started to glow brightly, being encompassed by a golden light. He came out as a golden cyborg dog, thin, but sturdy. "Golden Rapidmon, the Dog Holy Knight of Fate!"
"Hop on!" The digimon cried. "I promise I won't go too fast!"
"Bring us over to Kenneth! Once he hears our story, I'll get my passport validated and a flight out in no time!" Wallace was grinning as he and Lopmon soon zoomed over, courtesy of Golden Rapidmon Express.
