Digimon Adventures and all digimons belong to Toei Animation. All digimons used in this story are not fictional.

Tides of Darkness

Chapter 1 - The First Wave

By MoridinDeath

Ken raised his black D-3 towards the computer screen, which was already glowing brightly. Immediately, he felt a momentary weightlessness, the familiar sensation of entering the Digital World.

"Is everyone here?" Daisuke questioned when Ken emerged from the television portal. He was as commanding as ever, his leadership qualities remaining strong throughout the two years Ken had known him. "Okay, let's go and see who urgently needed our help. The signal is just nearby. Stay alert and look out for enemies."

Ken surveyed his surroundings. The forest, with its thick canopy and endless stretches of vegetation, made the area seem as though it was evening. Deep shadows laid everywhere, in which anything could have been hiding in.

For some reason, the forest gave him the creeps. Ken had not felt such acute danger for some time and was especially alert. Moreover, they were trying to get to an SOS signal sent out by someone, which meant that strong enemies were around the area. What if some of these enemies were sneaking behind them at this very moment…?

In this twilight environment, it would be impossible to spot an ambush.

"What's wrong, Ken? Hurry up, everyone is leaving!" Wormmon called out.

Ken caught up with the rest and checked his D-3. According to it, the SOS signal was coming from somewhere ahead.

There was a flicker of movement at the edge of his vision. Spinning quickly around, he searched the shadows warily but saw nothing. Of course, in this lighting, it was difficult to see much of anything.

"Ken, snap out of it. You seem as twitchy as a rabbit ever since we came here," Miyako said concernedly.

Ken looked around to find everyone staring at him. "I thought I saw something. Ah, never mind, let's carry on," Ken replied, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Miyako's right, I am probably just jumping at shadows, Ken thought. He could not, however, shake of the feeling of unease inside him.

Reluctantly and as carefully as he could, he drew on the power of the Dark Seed embedded somewhere in his head.

Suddenly, every color became sharper, every sound more unique and every smell of the forest air more discernable. With the power of the Dark Seed, his five senses became enhanced and he could now tell shades of shadows apart from each other with his improved vision. Ken could also pick out the words Iori was whispering to Takeru as though they shouted next to him and even smell the perfume Miyako put this morning….

He was letting his mind drift. This trick of using the Dark Seed's powers to an extent, without letting it get a hold on his mind, was something Ken had learnt last year. How dangerous and risky it was, he was not sure, but it was clearly a useful ability in this situation.

Looking around the forest again, he found that there was really nothing around. Okay, I am going nuts. It was just my mind playing tricks!

Sounds of laughter drifted towards him. Hikari was laughing at some joke Daisuke told her. So much for telling us to look out for enemies. Daisuke really does not practice what he preaches. Ken shook his head disapprovingly.

It was only then that he realized just how far ahead the group had gone. With the enhanced hearing he had, Ken thought that Daisuke had been right next to him! As Ken ran to join the rest, he suddenly saw something to his left.

There!

Between several thick tree trunks, a shadow was of a significantly lighter shade of grey that those surrounding it. It formed a humanoid figure. Just as Ken wondered if that was a human or a digimon, two slits of red appeared where the figure's head should have been.

Startled, Ken let out a strangled gasp. An unseen root caught his foot and he tripped, falling headfirst painfully onto the ground. He quickly jumped back to his feet but when he looked again, the mysterious being had vanished. Okay, cool down, that is probably just some innocent digimon since it did not attack us!

Up ahead, Wormmon looked back to see Ken catching up, panting, with his face smudged with dirt. "Ken, are you really all right?" Wormmon piped up worriedly.

Wordlessly, Ken shook his head. "I think that was just a digimon, nothing much," he told them reassuringly, letting go of the Dark Seed's power.

"You really are jumping at shadows! " Miyako teased. Ken flushed at her comment, glad that the darkness hid the redness in his face.

"Okay, guys, heads up! The signal is just ahead," Daisuke called out. It was time to be serious again. Ken focused on the job at hand.

Sometimes, viral digimons would attack children in the Digital World so their team is always on stand by in case help was needed. In the past, on several occasions, Taichi had to help as he was the only known Digi-destined whose digimon can attain its Mega form. Wargreymon was their backup in case powerful enemies like Warumonzaemon showed up, as their own digimons can evolve to Champion stages at most.

Abruptly, everyone stopped, stunned at the sight before them. Ken's jaw dropped.

The forest had simply ended in a cliff, which turned out to be part of a huge crater at least 20 metres wide. The amount of power required to cause such damage to the data of the Digital World was enormous, so great that even two hours was not enough for Server to recover the data. Even Wargreymon and Imperialdramon Fighter Mode would be hard-pressed to create such destruction.

"Oh my god," Hikari murmured. Tailmon gazed around the surroundings, scanning for nearby enemies while Patamon floated limply nearby.

Suddenly, Hikari jumped off the edge, running into the crater to what seemed like a lump in the torn earth. Everyone followed, only to discover that it was actually a green Digi-egg.

"Those kids never made it," Iori said quietly.

"We must stop those who did this! They cannot be allowed to continue such destruction or the Digital World may be destroyed!" Daisuke said grimly, shaking in suppressed rage.

Hikari managed to pull the egg out of the ground and cradled it sadly.

"Damn them!" Everyone looked at Takeru, surprised. He was not one to use such aggressive language. "I will make sure whoever did this will be deleted, actually killing innocent children and Digimons!"

Takeru had a dark look on his face. Ken had only seen that expression twice before, once when he was still the Digimon Emperor, another when they were confronting Black Wargreymon. Takeru really looked as though he might kill someone, which was quite unlike the peaceful pacifist that Ken was used to.

"Stop me? Delete me? I would like to see you pathetic children try," an unfamiliar voice said. Everyone looked for the source of the voice but could not find the speaker. Drawing on the power of the Dark Seed, Ken spotted the shadow with red eyes on the other side of the crater.

When he pointed it out to everyone, the shadow spoke," So you have started using the Dark Seed, haven't you? Only you could have seen me clearly from that distance. Be very careful that it does not eat up your mind…" The shadow laughed.

Ken let go of the Dark Seed in shock. How did he know…? Ken never even told the rest that he was able to use its powers and precious few even heard of it in the first place.

Daisuke looked at him questioningly, his eyes demanding to know Ken's reasons for using the Dark Seed again. That was understandable as the last time Ken used it, he was controlled by it, turning into the evil Digimon Emperor.

Ken had no time to answer Daisuke's unspoken question as the shadow spoke again. "Well, I guess that it is time to reveal ourselves to the legendary Digi-Destined team who utterly defeated Belialvamdemon." It stepped forward into the sunlight.

Ken rubbed his eyes, not believing what he was seeing. The enemy was merely a boy! If boys had glowing red eyes, that is.

He was not tall, with messy, brown hair held back with a black band. He wore a black outfit and did not seem too athletic. Ken saw no sign of a digivice on him or a digimon partner near him that marked him as a Digi-Destined. If his digimon could cause such destruction, was it wise for that boy to leave it behind, making himself vulnerable in the process?

In any case, Ken had never heard of a Digi-Destined turning evil, or with such a powerful digimon.

"If you are thinking that I am one of you, a … Digi-Destined," He spat out the word as though it was disgusting to him. "Then you are absolutely wrong."

The boy's eyes chilled Ken to the bone. The reddish glow seemed to intensify and the shadows around the boy were deepening, unless Ken's eyes were fooling him.

"I am a hybrid, created from a combination of human and digimon data. In this case, it was a Devimon. You can call me Deva," Deva said. "Even if you somehow survive this encounter with me, I expect that many more of our kind will be showing up. You will never get out of the Digimon World alive." He smiled at the look of stunned shock on their faces.

"Im...Impossible!" Takeru muttered. Clearly, he was remembering the time when Angemon sacrificed its life to defeat Devimon, something that had haunted him for the past six years.

"Theoretically, that is possible. From what Koushirou told me, we only exist in data in the Digimon World, so digimons and humans should be able to merge together," Iori said, seemingly the calmest of the group. "However, who could be crazy enough to do that…?"

"Daisuke, do we fight?" V-mon asked.

"Yeah, everyone had better evolve. Just in case."

Light pillars suffused the digimons and they all evolved to their Champion form except for Tailmon.

"Bah. These Champions are too insignificant. I expected more!" Deva claimed.

Ken took a step back. Either that kid was overconfident or he was speaking the truth - that he was the one that caused this terrible destruction. If so, only Taichi and Wargreymon could hope to stop him now. They no longer could DNA digivolve ever since Gennai returned Tailmon the Holy Ring, so the maximum they could evolve to was Champion.

However, Daisuke did not seem too worried. In fact, he probably did not believe what the boy had said about being half-digimon. After all, he had charged solo against Belialvamdemon and came out victorious, although under fortunate circumstances, so he probably was thinking that somehow they can get through again.

"Before I destroy you completely, hand over your digivices," Deva said. Surveying the scene, he sighed. The digimons were all in attack positions, ready to pounce on him any moment. "I take that as a negative response. Then, I have no choice." A ball of dark energy began forming in his hands as he stepped forward.

"Stop it right there."

Deva stopped. He looked as stunned as Ken felt when Hikari, shaking in rage, stood up, still holding the egg.

"Just who gave you the right to kill digimons? Who gave you the right to kill other children? Who allowed you to erase them from both worlds?" Hikari questioned angrily. She started glowing with light.

"Tailmon, Digivolve! Angewomon!"

Ken was appalled at what was happening. Where did Tailmon get the energy to Digivolve…? Moreover, Hikari's emission of light was unexpected. He had heard stories about that from Sora but he had never seen that happening before.

Angewomon now floated before the group, with a rainbow aura surrounding her. On cue, the rest of the digimons fired attacks towards her, which she absorbed with a golden ring above her, adding greater power to her attack. Her arrow turned white, crackling with energy.

"Interesting," Deva said, as he flung his ball of dark energy.

"Holy Arrow!" Angewomon fired.

The two attacks hit each other, white against black.

The resulting explosion flung the group apart in all directions. Ken was thrown by an invisible force. Feeling something hit his head, he lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was Stingmon's arm catching him as he hurtled through the air.

Author's comments:

Firstly, before flamers try to complain about any twisted facts in this story, I would like to clarify some things:

1) The holy ring is used as a catalyst for DNA Evolution but since it had been returned to Tailmon on episode 50, it means after D.A. 02, there is no more Imperialdramon, no more Silphymon and no more Shakkoumon.

2) During the attack of the devil digimons, all the chosen digimons gave Azulongmon's power to Imperialdramon to let it change modes to fighter. However, Palmon was not present and Agumon got that power back later on to fight Blackwargreymon, meaning only those 2 can evolve beyond their champion stages.

3) Tailmon still requires extra energy beyond the holy ring to evolve to Angewomon, and in this case, Hikari gave that energy to her. In the original series, Hikari also glowed with light, giving Agumon energy to evolve to Wargreymon for a few seconds, but enough to defeat Machinedramon.

4) During evolutions to Ultimate states, the Japanese version calls the process "Chou Shinka" which literally translates to "Super Evolution", which I find rather lame. Therefore, I translate it as "Digivolve" which sounds cooler.
E.g. "Greymon, Chou Shinka! Metalgreymon!"
Translated to "Greymon, Digivolve! Metalgreymon!"

5) And yes, Ken still has the Dark Seed, which I assume, he can still use at his own leisure/risk.

That should be about all. A little wordy but I hope you enjoy the story, which is about to get more exciting!

Please review …I hope that those who read this story can point out any bad or good points in my writing style in your reviews, as well as any mistakes, both in the plot or in the details. I am trying to improve my English so I will appreciate any criticisms or compliments. Thanks!

Preview: Chapter 2 - Going Solo

Daisuke, vulnerable and separated from both his digivice and partner, encounters a new Digi-Destined, who is not what he seems to be…