MK25: WEEE! I love summer!
Grady: you may be a teen, but you're a kid at heart
MK25: And the best part is MY SISTERS ARE GETTING OUT THIS YEAR! YAY!
Grady: Thou doth left me speechless…
MK25: HEY! No old English!

Chapter 14: The Haunting Past

The digidestined lay on the ground, many of the bloody from the battle. In front of each of them was Beastmon. He started to approach Gavin, who looked straight into his eyes in disbelief. "Why…?" Was all he could make out before the final blow was dealt.

Grady gasped and awoken in a cold sweat, frightening Gavin for the second time in the night. "JEEZ!" Gavin almost screamed, but caught himself and quieted down. He looked back to see his friend panting with fear. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I don't want to talk about it." Grady said coldly. He looked at the fire for a few moments. "Gavin," Gavin turned to him. "You miss being home, don't you?"
"What do you think, man?" Grady said sarcastically.
"For some reason, I got mixed feelings." Gavin looked questioningly. "Sure, I miss my bed, my games, my family, but here, I feel like I fit in. Like this is where I truly should be. This place has changed me in ways I could only imagine, and yet I never wanted to change. It's weird, yet good all the same." He sighed and looked out.

The sun started to rise up as he finished his little speech. Grady stood up. "As soon as everyone is awake, we leave." He started to dig up some dirt and buried the remnants of the original fire.

A young boy was awakening in an odd room. He was in a sort of operating room. He surveyed the surroundings to realize that he was not alone. When he looked ahead of him, he saw two men standing in front of him, dressed in white robes. He couldn't make out their faces because they were covered with weird facemasks. He started to thrash about, but he was tied down, and at the mercy of these men. They approached the boy and injected an odd liquid into his neck that caused considerable pain to him.

Chris eyes slowly awoken as the suns beams came into view through the veil of the trees. It blinded him as he rose from where he was sleeping. 'Why won't those memories leave me…?'
"Well, look who's finally awake!" He turned quickly to see Gotsumon teasing him. "It's about time, everyone else is ready to go."
"Oh, quit giving him a hard time!" Luna butt in. "I'm sure his shift in watch was very tiring."
'You don't even know…' Chris thought. He stood up, still a little tired. "All right, let's go."

They had reached a clearing in the forest. Grady had passed through it a couple days ago, but the other didn't know that, until he stopped and the rocking looking at some strange characters.

"Dude," Gavin stated. "What're you doing?"
"When I passed through here, I noticed these strange glyphs on this stone. The stone was where my new sword was, so the glyphs must be related. Speaking of which, can you guys come over here for a few minutes?"
The rest of the digidestined came to the large rock. "I need to ask you," Grady started. "Can any of you read this stuff?"
Everyone except Luci said "No." Luci stared in awe at what was in front of her.
"This…this language…" Luci muttered.
"You can read it?" Grady asked.
"All I know of it is that it's been forgotten for thousands of years. How well-preserved it is is amazing!" Luci stated. She then turned to the two Scythemon. "I'm sure you two can read this." She stated.
"Well, let's see it." Lightscythemon said. The two digidestined stepped aside for them to determine what it says. "If thee can use my sword, than thy be not who they thought they were. Thee are I, for only I can use thine divine blade. That's what it says." Lightscythemon said.
"Wait!" Waterscythemon butted in. "There's something at the bottom. It's kind of eroded though."
"T…s…y…o-n. That's all that's left of it."
"It's a riddle, but not a riddle." Grady stated. Everyone else stared at him oddly. "Think about it. It states clearly who can you use the sword, but the pieces of the name make whoever can use it up for grabs. For all we know, it could just be an anagram."
"No, It looks eroded."
"What if whoever wrote this, or carved, in this case, forced an erosion?"
"No sense in argue-." Karina was interrupted by Grady pulling out his sword.
"Shh." He hushed the group. "Listen…"

Some cupped their ears, others just listened, but they all here the same: The crunching of grass and twigs. It was getting closer faster. Grady held his sword in a defensive position just as the creature that was in the distance a few seconds ago tried to nail one of his claws into Grady's throat. He pushed his sword to launch the assailant off. The creature jumped off, and landed straight on the ground.
The rest of the team was shocked at what they saw. They saw what appeared to be Grady when attacking with Elecmon. Some rubbed their eyes in disbelief, but they still saw the same thing in front of them. Grady was unfazed by the sight. He pointed his sword toward the imposter.
"Who are you and who are you working for?" He stated sternly.
"Is it not obvious who I am? And as for who I'm working for, let's just say it's who you betrayed."
"You shut up about that!" Grady lunged to attack. He tried to nail him with a straight downward slash, but that was blocked when the imposter grabbed it and tossed it. But before it hit the ground, another imposter grabbed it. This one, however, looked like Gavin.

'Crap. 2 to 1, I'm screwed.' "Elecmon, little help." His crystal glowed, and a familiar figure appeared when it subsided.
The imposter chuckled at this. "You this will change anything?"
"Yes, I do." Grady said simply. Both imposters lunged to attack, but Grady jumped and did a split double-kick in both their faces. When he landed, he groaned in pain at the stunt he just pulled. "Note to self, never pull that trick again." He whispered to himself as the battle re-ensued.
The Grady imposter aimed for his throat, but Grady grabbed it with both his hands before it got a death-grip. Unfortunately, this required all Grady's attention, allowing the Gavin imposter to try to stab him in the back. It never connected, because a large rock connected with his head and knocked him down 20 some feet. When Grady looked back to see what happened, he was left open of the imposter's vice-like grip to come at his throat. However, Gavin was charging at Grady's imposter with his sword drawn. He took a few slashes at him, but each was dodged like nothing. Gavin's imposter came up for the ground and whistled very high-pitched. Grady's imposter growled at this.
"You call me Ukkonen, and he's Fuoco. Remember our names, because you will see us again."
Grady's imposter said this before teleporting in a flash. Grady and Gavin transform back to their original forms and Grady got a good stare at him.
"What, in the world, happened while I was gone?" He said, angered.
"I was gonna ask you the same thing." Gavin remarked.
"You know what's a better question?" Will interrupted. "Who threw that boulder? It couldn't have just appeared out of nowhere."
Everyone looked confused at the question, Except for Chris. 'I've been keeping it for too long. Time to unveil it to someone I can truly trust.' He thought
Chris's hand move behind him. As he kept his hand there, dirt and soil clumped into an orb with a much smaller orb circling it. He brought it around and said aloud, "The earth is such an amazing thing, is it not?" Everyone turned to Chris to see what he was holding. "Everything at our feet, the moon in the sky, even the stars, supposedly created form the same substance. All completely understood and controllable, yet mystical and odd."

"Exactly how long were you planning on keeping this from us." Biyomon said as he landed.
"I kept it to myself because it was their kind that made me the way I am." He nodded toward Gavin and Grady.
"WHAT!" Everyone screamed.
"It was Humans that made me and my sister suffer for 10 years. The painful experimentation, the constant watching, the forced training sessions!" He clenched his fists in rage and tears rolled down his cheeks. "When they turned my sister into the 'monster' that she was once before, I killed them all. I drained their blood and used it as ink to write on the already bloodstained wall 'You will never hurt my sister again'! They really thought that they could get away with the crimes they committed. They forced me to live a live of thievery and lust because of what they did to us. I swore on my life that I would protect her from this unforgiving society. That's all I could do, because she could never live a normal life. All she knows is hate and sorrow, and yet, she still shows forgiveness to anyone. I killed for her, and she never stopped what I did, even through she knew it was wrong. She didn't even try to. My only regret is that I couldn't protect her when the town found her in our hideout…" Chris fell on the ground, crying and holding his face. Luna walked over to Chris and hugged him ever so lightly.
"There, there. Just let it all out. Just let the tears flow, and let the pain flow out with it." She whispered to him while patting him on his back, trying to soothe him. Chris looked up at Luna and said in between sobs. "You remind me… of my sister. She was…the only person…I could go to…during our hardships. She helped me…when no one was there to." He then dug his face into Luna's chest, where he cried until nightfall.

MK25: I still can't believe the past for him.
Grady: You have an amazing mind.
MK25: It's hard to hold back the tears reading what I wrote.