Chapter 26
Ten Faces of Evil: Part 1
For the third time in the past two weeks, Tai woke up in the same body that he fell asleep in. He could remember jumping into the glowing portal, but everything that happened afterwards was a complete blur. He didn't know why he thought he could remember anything; he never remembered the trip between worlds before, so why would he now?
He looked around and saw that the others were lying next to him. "Kari! Takato, Sara, guys, are you okay?"
They slowly started to wake up. "Yeah, I think so," Kari said, "What happened? Are we back home?"
Everyone began looking around. They were lying on a rocky landscape, and the sky was dark and almost completely black. "Where are we?" Takato asked.
"Is this your world?" Rika asked.
"It can't be," Kari said in shock, "There's nothing here, it's a wasteland! It can't be our world."
"Milleniumon is very powerful," Ryo said, "With his help, they could have turned an entire continent into dust. But, I think you're right, Kari."
"What do you mean, Ryo?" Sara asked.
"I'm usually able to feel my dark double, and I know that he can feel me. Now while that doesn't let either of us focus into each other's exact location, I can't feel Dark Ryo at all. He's not here, so I don't think that this is your world."
"Maybe they already left here?" Sam suggested.
"Maybe," Derwood said, "But we were right behind them, how could they do this destruction so fast?"
Everyone looked over their shoulders at their new silent partner. "What about you?" Tai asked, "Do you know anything?"
Emperor Tai crossed his arms and stared at his double. "I was tricked, remember? I don't have any idea what their plans were. All I knew was that Dark Ryo wanted to rule all reality."
"How?"
Emperor Tai smiled at him. "When I got my power, it's what I wanted."
"How come you didn't go along with them?" Rika asked, "I mean, I heard what you wanted from them, but still."
Emperor Tai crossed his arms. "I have had my fill of evil rulers."
"Is that why you came with us? Because you wanted to change your past, or are you planning to kill us all in our sleep?"
Emperor Tai smirked at her. "I can tell we're not going to get along."
"Maybe we should start looking around," Sara said.
"I guess that's the best we can do," Tai said, "Let's go."
The group walked through the wasteland for hours until they reached a large octagon shaped building. There were two tall octagon shaped towers attached to each side. "What's that?" Kari asked.
"It looks like a fortress or something," Takato said.
"Maybe someone's inside that can tell us where we are?" Sam suggested.
"I don't know," Rika said, "It looks like it's been abandoned for a long time."
"I think I see a door," Ryo pointed to two double doors on the side of the building that were open. "Should we go inside?"
"Might as well," Tai said, "Come on, but be careful."
They entered inside and walked down a long and dark hallway. The walls were decayed and debris lying along the floor. "What the heck is this place?" Tai asked.
"It does look familiar," Kari said.
The group walked past a room that looked like a lounge room. They continued down the hall until they looked into a courtroom, then a row or prison cells. "I know where we are!" Sam shouted. She pointed at Emperor Tai, "It's the Digidestined Complex from your world!"
Emperor Tai looked around. "You're right! But how did you know that?"
Sara looked to Sam. "We were here before, weren't we?"
The blond girl nodded. "Yeah, but you were never in this part, how did you know what the prison section looked like?"
"Yeah," Tai said, "I was here, and I didn't even recognize it."
"We're missing the obvious question," Derwood said, "What happened here?"
"Maybe we should look in Davis's office," Emperor Tai said, "There might be some clues there."
The group walked back down the hall and found their way to Davis's office. Inside they couldn't find any clues. "Well this was a waste," Rika sighed.
"We can't waste time here anyway," Takato said, "We've got to find Dark Ryo and Milleniumon." He turned to Ryo. "Can you get us there?"
Ryo shook his head. "I don't know why, but I don't seem to be able to control any of my temporal energy."
They heard a small scream and when they spun around, they saw Sora standing in the hall.
"Sora!" Tai and Emperor Tai shouted.
The redhead stared at the group. "Who are you?!" she shouted, "What are you doing here?"
"Calm down!" Takato said, holding up his hands, "We're not here to hurt you."
Sora looked at the group and caught her breath. "You really scared me." She stared right at Emperor Tai. "You're alive?"
"We're sorry," Sara bowed, "What happened here?"
Sora sighed. "We were attacked! It was horrible, they came without mercy, and destroyed our base!"
"Who?" Emperor Tai shouted.
Sora mentioned down the hall, "Come on. I'll show you." She walked down the hall, and the others followed.
Emperor Tai whispered to Tai. "Did you notice that she wasn't that surprised to see either of us? Or Kari?"
Tai nodded. "Yeah, you're right."
"And if this enemy destroyed the base, where are the others? And why is she walking around in the open?"
Tai crossed his arms. "Something's not right here."
Sora lead them into a room that looked like an auditorium. She ran onto the small stage. "Stay right there, I'm going to turn on the projector."
"The projector?" Emperor Tai asked, "What for?"
"I'm going to show you." She pressed a few buttons behind the podium and the projector screen started to show pictures of the Digidestined security cameras. The doors leading out into the Digital World suddenly blew open and a wave of darkness swept inside. The Digidestined on the screen began to scream in pain as the darkness swept over them. The dark force started to blast holes in the wall and the entire complex shook.
"What's going on here, Sora?" Emperor Tai demanded.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"You're not very convincing!" he shouted, "You weren't surprised to see that I was alive, you weren't surprised to see that Kari was alive! And you're showing us footage that never could have happened! This complex has a nearly infallible security watch! I doubt a wave of darkness could approach the front doors without a group of Digidestined guards waiting for it! And you're grinning while you watch the death and destruction!"
The others were in awe as Sora started laughing. "I guess I can't fool you can I? I wasn't surprised to see you because I already knew that you survived your execution!"
"What? How?"
She started giggling. "I knew you were coming all along, and I've prepared something special for you! You're going to pay for what you did here, your all going to pay!"
"All of us?" Rika shouted, "What did we do?"
Sora pointed at Tai and Kari, "These two, along with Sara and Sam, ruined my plan to kill your parents!"
"My parents?" Emperor Tai gasped, "You wanted to kill Mom and Dad? But..but why?"
"To even the score!" she shouted, "You killed Matt, not to mention thousands of defenseless digimon! If only my assassin had killed your parents, then this wouldn't be necessary, but that Tai and Kari, along with their two friends, stopped my plans! Now it's time for revenge on all of you!"
"What about us?" Derwood demanded.
"Takato, Rika, Ryo, and Derwood, you are all guilty of helping them!" she shouted. She held up her hands and two digimon walked out of the back of the stage and stood at her side.
"Agumon," Emperor Tai said, "It's..it's you… And Gabumon, you're here. But Sora, what happened to Biyomon?"
She grinned. "That pink flamingo was a little too wimpy for me, so I got rid of her."
"You're not the Sora that I remember.."
"No I'm not!" she screamed, "I am what you made me when you killed Matt!" She held up her hands and her clothes started to change. Her orange sweater flowed down her body into a sleeveless black dress with a ragged hemline. Her jeans became black tights and the sleeves of her sweater merged behind her to form a ragged cape that ended at her waist. "I am now the Digimon Queen!"
"Digimon Queen?"
"That's right!" she said with glee, "And your punishment will now begin!"
"What punishment?" Takato asked.
"You will be sent through five worlds, with two of my loyal Digidestined in each world. You will, unfortunately, have to change bodies as well. Each one of you will change worlds as you sleep, and while Tai and Kari will actually change bodies, the others will have their bodies changed. Too bad Tai, I know you were getting use to that one."
Tai frowned. "What worlds?"
"You've been to three, and two that will blow you away! You will need to fight each one of the Digidestined there in order to progress." She smiled, "If you manage to make it through each world, you'll have the pleasure of fighting against me. If you can even beat me, then you're free to go. But be warned, if you die, hahaha!"
"What about those of us that don't have Digimon?" Derwood asked.
Sora smirked. "You'll soon be receiving your own partner."
"Why are you doing this?" Tai shouted.
"To make you pay!" she laughed. She raised her hand and the room started spinning. "Good luck!" she laughed.
Tai tried to stay awake, but he felt his eyes start to drop. He couldn't stop it, he soon fell asleep.
When Tai opened his eyes he was surprised to find that he was actually okay. He had a fear that Sora had killed them, but he was alive! Now the only problem was figuring out what world he was in. He looked around and felt something in the pit of his stomach. He was once again lying in a crib. He was a baby again.
He was so upset that he started crying again. He stopped when he heard the door open. He turned his head and saw Kari wearing a yellow pajamas running inside. "Tai," she said, "We're back in this world!"
Tai would have nodded, but he couldn't.
Kari sighed. "How did we get stuck in this thing, anyway? We've got to get back to our world before Milleniumon destroys it." She smiled slightly, "I bet you want to get out of there, don't you?"
Tai glared at her.
"I'm not going to lift you up again." She ran over to the door and shouted. "Mom, Tai's awake."
"All right, I'm coming."
Kari stepped aside as Mrs. Kamiya walked inside and smiled at her baby son. "Good morning, Tai." She lifted him up and walked over to the changing table. "Kari, why don't you watch some t.v. until I make breakfast?"
"Uh, okay." She ran into the living room and sat down in front of the television. She heard her mother walk out and put Tai into the playpen, and then walked into the kitchen. Kari snuck over to Tai. "Don't worry," she whispered, "Sora said that the others would be here too. We just have to find them."
Mrs. Kamiya walked in and lifted Tai out of his playpen. "Breakfast is ready."
Kari shut the t.v. off and ran into the kitchen. While she ate, she giggled at seeing her older brother sitting in a high chair and being feed but their mother. After breakfast, Kari watched more t.v. until her mother said, "You'd better get dressed. Sora's going to be here soon."
"Okay Mommy!" she said. She jumped up and ran into her room. She saw that there was an outfit lying on the bed for her and frowned. Her mother must have left it there. She took off her nightgown and pulled on the coveralls, t-shirt and stockings. She walked back out and saw Sora was already standing in the hall, with Tai in the stroller. "Hi Kari!" she waved.
Kari forced a smile. "Where are we going today?"
"Well, I thought we might go back to the park. How's that?"
"Okay, I guess," she said.
Sora smiled. "That's a very pretty dress you have on. I had something like that when I was your age."
"So did I," Kari muttered.
"I'll be home from work a little later tonight," Mrs. Kamiya said.
Sora nodded. "Okay, we'd better go."
When they reached the park, Kari saw that there was a group of cheerleader girls around nine or ten owing and awing over a soccer player who looked a lot like a ten year old Michael. Two of the cheerleaders were ten-year-old versions of Mimi and Yolei. An adult man dressed in a business suit that looked exactly like Joe. He was sitting on a park bench, reading a newspaper. Matt and Tk were there too, and they looked normal. They were playing basketball on the court.
Sora set up their picnic blanket next to the cheerleaders. When they saw baby Tai, they ran over and started making a fuss over him.
"He's so cute!" one of the girls said.
"Is he your younger brother?" another one asked.
Sora shook her head. "I'm just his baby sitter."
Mimi and Yolei started to tickle his stomach. "Can I pick him up?" Mimi asked.
"Just be careful," Sora said.
Mimi lifted Tai up and started rocking him back and forth. Yolei started tickling the base of his feet. Kari felt disgusted at the 'cute' scene, so she ran over to the swings. She was surprised to see that the rest of the group was there. Derwood, Sara, Sam, Takato, and Ryo were there all five years old. She saw that there was a orange haired girl standing with them, one that looked very mad that she was wearing a frilly yellow dress.
"Rika," Kari said, "You look..nice."
She crossed her arms and glared at her. "I'm going to kill that Digimon Queen for doing this to me."
Kari looked at them. "Where's Emperor Tai?"
"Right here."
The kids turned and saw Emperor Tai walk over, but as his normal age and clothes. "How did you get out of having your body changed?" Derwood asked.
Emperor Tai shrugged. "Probably because of the amount of time I spent changing worlds. Or it could be that the Dark Ring that I created to keep me from changing has merged with me. In any event, I'm not going to be changing. Where is my 'other?"
Kari mentioned over her shoulder to where the cheerleaders were still cooing over Tai. "He's probably enjoying himself."
Takato growled and slammed his fist into the swing. "Darn it! What are we doing here! We've got to stop Milleniumon and Hypnos, we can't get caught in this…game!"
Ryo placed his hand on Takato's shoulder. "We'll get through this, just keep calm."
"Speaking of which," Rika said, "What about those Digidestined that we have to fight?"
"I saw a few of them," Kari said, "Mimi and Yolei are playing with Tai, Joe's reading a newspaper, Matt and Tk are playing basketball and Michael's practicing soccer. Sora said that two of them would attack us, but which two?"
"And who's going to fight?" Derwood asked, "That Digimon Queen also that said only two of us would be fighting? I know some fighting moves, but I'm not going to be of much use against a Digimon."
Ryo shrugged. "I guess we've just got to wait until.."
They heard the group of cheerleaders start to scream. They ran over and saw that Sora was holding Tai tightly as the cheerleading girls were still screaming. Kari and the others saw what they were screaming about. Hovering in the sky were Joe and Michael.
"What's going on?" Sara asked.
"Look at their arms!" Sam shouted, "Dark Rings!"
The Dark Rings started to glow and both of them stared down at the Kari and the others. Joe's eyes started to glow and the adult regressed in age until he was a teenager. Michael, however, grew in age until he was a teenager.
"Hello, Tamers!" Joe called, "We are your opponents in this world."
"That's right," Michael said, "Kari and Sam, you will have to fight us."
"What?" Sam shouted, "Us?"
"Yes," Joe said.
Kari shook her head. "But, how am I supposed to fight?"
Joe raised his hand and a flowing circle appeared. A figure shot through it and slammed into the ground in front of Kari. When the brown haired girl saw who it was, she gasped. "Gatomon?"
The small cat looked up. "K..Kari, is that you?"
"Yes!"
"What happened to you?" she asked, "You look like a little girl..wait a minute, you were acting like a little girl before. What's going on here?"
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"Be quiet!" Joe shouted, "Let's get started!"
Gommamon appeared in front of Joe and Betamon appeared in front of Michael. Both digimon flowed into their partners. Joe's fingers became webbed and a spiked shell appeared on his back. Michael's body became more serpent like and a long tail emerged from his waist.
Kari stared at her hand and her digivice appeared in her hand. "All right!"
Sam jumped next to Kari and Gatomon. "Okay, I can fight without a digimon. Gatomon, are you ready?"
Gatomon shook her head. "I don't know what's going on here, but if Kari needs me, then I'm ready."
The five-year-old Kari hold out her digivice. "Now Gatomon!"
"Gatomon digivolve to Angewomon!"
Joe and Michael landed on the ground and stared at the three girls. "Alright," Joe said, "Kari, you and I will be fighting."
Michael turned to Sam. "That leaves you and me."
She just nodded and formed claws from her fingernails. She jumped forward and tried to slash Michael, but he fired a blast of water at her. She flipped over and rolled into a tree. Michael whipped his tail around to hit her, but all he was able to do was destroy the tree. Sam had safely moved out of the way.
The others watched as Angewomon and Joe battled along the ground. "How can this be happening?" Emperor Tai asked, "There's no way that Sora could have this kind of power. How could she have knowledge of other realities? How could she have brought the other Digidestineds here? She infected the Digidestineds of this world and turned them into their duplicates from my world! She can't be able to this!"
Sara looked to him. "Joe and Michael are both wearing Dark Rings, maybe she got her new abilities from your fortress in your world?"
"How did you know about my fortress?" he asked.
Sara was going to respond when they heard the cheerleaders cry out. They turned back and saw that Angewomon was firing arrows at Joe, but he was blocking them with his hammer. He finally swung his hammer at her, creating a blast of lightning that sent Angewomon in the ground.
Michael was batting his tail at Sam, and she was trying to attack it with her claws. He was able to hit her, making her land next to Sam.
Kari sat on the sidelines and watched. She had to figure out a way for them to win the fight without hurting Joe or Michael. She didn't know what would happen, but she was pretty sure that the Joe and Michael of this world would die. Wait.."Angewomon, Sam!" she shouted, "You've got to destroy those Dark Rings!"
"Of course!" Emperor Tai shouted, "Those Rings! Why didn't I see that before?"
Angewomon and Sam nodded at each other. Angewomon fired her arrows at Joe, while Sam shot a purple blast at Michael. Both of the Digidestineds tried to dodge, but the attacks were dead on. Angewomon's arrow hit Joe's Dark Ring, and Sam's attack destroyed the Dark Ring on Michael's shoulders. Both of their bodies started spasming, and soon Joe returned to an adult, while Michael returned to a ten-year-old.
"I'm glad that's over," Kari breathed in relief.
"Kari!"
She turned around and Sora, with Tai in her arms running towards her. "Kari, what's going on here?"
"Um, you see…"
Sora stared at Kari for a few seconds, then shook her head. "Kari, what happened? I must have blacked out for a second."
Kari opened her mouth to respond, but saw Sara and Ryo run over to her. "Hi, Miss Sora," Sara bowed.
"Do I know you?"
"Yeah," Ryo said, "We're Kari's friends, remember?"
Sora shook her head again. "Yeah, I guess."
Kari stared at Sara and Ryo, then realized that they had used their weird power to erase memories. She looked around and saw that everyone, including Joe and Michael, were acting like nothing had happened. She felt a shiver go up her spine. She hoped that they wouldn't use that power on her.
Sora put Tai back on the blanket. "I'm just going to sit down for a little bit." She sat down in her chair and closed her eyes.
Kari turned to Gatomon. "It's good to see you, but what were you saying before?"
The cat nodded. "Okay, when I woke up this morning, you were acting really weird, like you were a little girl."
Kari turned to Sara and Sam. "When I change worlds, does the Kari of that world go to my body?"
Ryo nodded. "Yes. While Sara and Sam helped you and Tai, I was keeping an eye on the Kari's that entered your body. That's where I was all of this time."
"What about Tai?" Emperor Tai asked.
"Since you now inhabit his body, they have been entering the cat body that's still in that world. I've always made sure that they never remember anything."
Takato ran over. "Wait, do you know Milleniumon?"
Gatomon spoke, "I ha-" She wasn't able to finish as a circle appeared in the sky and started to pull her into the sky. "Kari!"
"Gatomon, come back!" she called, but it wasn't any use. Gatomon returned into the circle and vanished.
"She must have gone back to your world," Ryo said, "We've got to get there!"
"We will," Takato said, "We will."
The group spent the rest of the day pretending to be five-year-olds as they played on the swings and the jungle gym. All except Derwood, who was too serious to have any fun and Emperor Tai, who was still a teenager, so he stayed out of sight. Soon, Sora came over and told Kari it was time to leave.
"I guess I'll see you in the next world," Kari said as she waved goodbye and ran over to Sora.
After returning to their apartment, Kari and Tai spent the remainder of the afternoon living their roles until it was time for bed. Tai was already in his crib, and Kari was outside looking at him. "I hope that in the next world, you'll be able to help me more."
Tai just stared at her.
Kari giggled. "I know that you can't talk, but I bet you're pretty mad at me, huh?"
The door to Tai's room opened and Mrs. Kamiya walked in. "Kari, it's time for bed."
"I'm coming Mommy," she called. She ran out of the room, and Mrs. Kamiya turned out the light. Tai closed his eyes and was soon asleep.