Author's Notes: One thing to say…GOMEN!!! I had to make sure that the material was presented in a smooth manner and it took me a lot of time to come up with some good dialogue for some of the scenes. Plus I was busy with a book report that I had to do for my mother. I still don't understand why she would want me to do something like that.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon in any form whatsoever. Alright?!?
Ascension – V 4.6
'Now let's see here…where do I find the flour again?' Takehiro Matsuki sighed to himself as he continued shopping for the items needed to bake various items in his bakery. Normally his wife would do the shopping but she has been very unnerved about Takato's disappearance. She had often went into his room and stared outside his window for hours at a time. Takehiro was quite worried but he tried not to let it bother him too much.
The government agents that had spoken to him had reassured the couple that they would do everything in their power to get Takato back, safe and sound and free of the influence that the Digimon may have had on him. Still, he would prefer to find his son first before the agents found him. At least this way, he could have a chance to try and reason with Takato and convince him to stop all this madness.
When he finally found the flour, he took a small portion. About half of what his wife usually gets for the store. Because of the abnormalities that have been plaguing West Shinjuku including not just the Digimon but other strangers as well, business hasn't been as strong. The global economy has been in a bit of a slump with people too afraid to go out to live their normal lives. The governments are at a loss of how to handle this because they don't exactly have the resources to combat these anomalies that pop out in various regions of their country so often.
'That takes care of the flour. Now to…' His cart shook as it bumped into someone else's. Some of the items in the cart had fallen out since it was somewhat packed to the top due to the fact that the bakery needs several supplies. "Oh, dear! I'm sorry!" He noticed another woman with blonde hair and violet eyes. She moved to help him pick up some stuff.
"Oh, don't worry too much about it, madam!" In no time, all the stuff had been placed back in Takehiro's cart. He then paused for a moment. "Wait…aren't you the woman in the photos that were advertising those dresses that my wife obsesses over? You know, the Katsumoto line?" The other woman them remembered what photos he was talking about. "Yes, I was the model in that shoot. My name is Rumiko."
"I'm Takehiro and I'm honoured to meet you. Wow…I got to meet a real model! How come you're doing your own shopping instead of having some butler do it for you?" She gave a light hearted laugh. "A butler is quite expensive and I'm not the type of big shot model who makes a fortune for each shoot. Not yet anyways. My mother usually does the shopping for the house but with what's been happening, it would be safer if she stayed home and I went out. And hopefully this way, I can find my daughter and find out what she has been up to lately."
"If you don't mind my asking, what happened?" The woman was silent until Takehiro apologized. "I'm sorry for bringing this up." She gave a small sigh. "I honestly have no clue what's going on. As soon as I heard what was going on back in Japan, I came home as soon as I could. I was just in time to see several men in suits chasing after a yellow fox. And that fox had my daughter on its back! Those men said that they were from the government and that my daughter is in some sort of trouble!!"
"You've received a visit too?" Rumiko gave the man a strange look. He quickly went on to explain how agents had dropped by his bakery, looking for his son. Takato had just come back earlier and went straight up to his room, promising to have a chat with his parents later. A few hours later, they had received visitors who were interested in conducting an interview with the boy. When they went upstairs to fetch him, he was gone. Nothing was taken except his most valuable Digimon cards and his deck.
"Wait…your son took his Digimon cards?" This bothered Rumiko even more. It didn't make sense that someone would take their Digimon cards with them. Her thoughts were interrupted when the market started to shake. Other shoppers around them started panicking and tried to flee the store with what they have, not caring for the fact that they would be shoplifting if they got out successfully.
Outside, people were freaking out with the on and off images of the battle between Daemon and Zeedmillenniumon. And if that wasn't enough, the amount of unwanted visitors to their town…correction, the amount of unwanted visitors to their world had just tripled in number. With only a handful of Digimon tamers in each continent, the world would be overrun in a matter of days, if not weeks.
Yamaki knew this fact all too well as he heard reports from other government agencies about these strange creatures popping up all over the place. He already sent copies of the schematics for his original Juggernaut program to every government being attacked back in May (AN: May was the starting point of Ascension if you recall in chapter 1). Once they get their programs up and running, all Juggernaut programs can link together and eradicate every single invader and Digimon on the planet. And since he was the original creator, Yamaki would be the one maintaining most of the control over the worldwide Juggernaut program. In only a few more hours the worldwide program would be ready to cleanse the planet…
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Paildramon mega-digivolve to…Imperialdramon!!!" After making the transformation to the great dragon, he got everyone in his passenger compartment on his back. Yolei then scratched her head. "So where do we go from here?" Imperialdramon answered that question a moment later. "I would have to say that I should start by heading towards the part of the sky which looks dark and ominous. Is that the right word? Ominous?"
"Hey! What's happening, guys?" They all turned in the direction of the new voice and saw an unknown Digimon flying towards them. He stopped right beside Imperialdramon. "I'm glad everyone's alright. Especially you, squirt." There was a pause as Kari gave a frustrated shout much to the amusement of everyone else. "Taichi! Man, you look so totally awesome!!" exclaimed Davis.
"Did you merge with your Digimon just like the other tamers?" asked TK. The other Digimon gently opened his right hand, revealing a quiet Neo Saiba. "Yeah…I was able to kill Neo's Digimon and he's been like this ever since. Do you mind looking after him for a bit? I don't think he'll be too much trouble for you." The boy was taken from Zero's palm and placed in the passenger compartment of Imperialdramon.
"Now that Neo is taken care of, we can focus on helping our other friends! Come on!" With that said, Zero blasted off into the direction with the darkened sky. "You heard the guy!! Up, up and away!!" shouted Davis. Almost everyone else shared the same thought. 'The goggle boys are not to get together at all.' (AN: Can you imagine what would happen if Tai, Taichi, Takato and Davis were all gathered at the same time?)
When they caught up with Zero, he was staring at the white, fluctuating bubble on the ground. There was silence until Cody voiced the question that everybody was thinking. "What is that?" Before anyone could contemplate it further, a bolt of lightning nearly hit Imperialdramon. They looked up to find the source and Ken gave a horrified gasp. Every fibre in his body was frozen in fear. "Not again…Millenniumon…"
"Whoa…that big crystal guy looks freaky! And so does that other tiny red and black figure! It's time the 100% Combination is introduced to those freaks!!" Before Zero could blast off, Imperialdramon used one of his claws to grab the holy knight. Taichi was about to ask what the deal was when he stopped as he saw the grave look on everyone's face except for Neo who still remained comatose. "It took every single bit of energy from us and the tamers to take down Millenniumon in his lesser forms. I don't even know if we stand a chance against this evolution," whispered Kari.
"Hikari…" He was speechless as the battle raged on above with neither contestant noticing the newcomers. Both were focused on winning the fight. Daemon charged his body with a powerful aura before flying towards Zeedmillenniumon in a drilling motion (AN: Similar to Bison's Mega Psycho Crusher super in Capcom VS SNK 2). He was able to shatter a part of the god Digimon's crystal but it was repaired within moments.
Zeedmillenniumon gave a sick grin with the blue face. "Having your power unconfined by the amount of data possessed by the body is so beneficial! Hm?" Daemon just started laughing. "I figured that out a long time ago. I've worked on a plan during my time of recovery to overcome the fact that the amount of power that one can possess depended on the amount of data in one's body. Guess what I found within the Dark Spore…"
The red face gave a furious hiss. "Your body is linked with every nightmare belonging to human and Digimon alike through the Dark Ocean. I see you finished the groundwork that I laid out for my side project." Daemon said nothing and focused on creating seven balls of energy. "It's not such a good idea to leave things undone once you've began! Firestorm!!"
The group winced as the digital world felt the impact of the attack. "If this keeps up, the entire digital world will be done for!!" shouted Armadillomon. Hawkmon frowned. "Forget the digital world! I'll bet that there will be catastrophic side effects felt by both worlds in all of the realms!!"
"I'm assuming that counts as a catastrophic side effect?" Everyone looked to where Patamon was pointing at. The digital world was fluctuating in different areas with many new and different Digimon coming out. And a majority of those Digimon seemed to be content in blasting random things. "Yes, that would count as a catastrophic side effect. Looks like we'll have to welcome them," muttered Gatomon.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Henry blinked once as he tried to make sense of what his other half had told him. "Come to think of it, it's time that these disguises were shed." With that, the large form of Megagargomon vanished and left only the boy wearing his usual outfit. He looked over to find his counterpart looking exactly like him in terms of appearance with the same outfit and face. The only reason he looked like him is that Henry never really gave that dark side a specific appearance. "So no matter what I do, I can't escape the fight against you. I always have to win against you in order to stay in control."
The other Henry shrugged. "Yeah, that about sums it up well. You don't trust yourself…you never trusted yourself completely. Not since that scuffle with Yukio. And especially not since your outburst that turned Takato and Rika against each other. Thus…this scenario was created so that it can be replayed over and over so you can feel secure. But even now, you feel vulnerable because you just learned the truth behind all this. Some scenario you created…" He chuckled once.
"Maybe I should have found another way to assert myself rather than take martial arts. Then I wouldn't be facing myself like this. I wonder if I ever received any words of wisdom from Sensei about facing this type of problem…' He thought back to some of the things that his Sensei has told him over the years. Things about life, things about the human soul and things about needs. He paused when he found a particular conversation that had occurred about a year ago prior to his becoming a Digimon tamer.
A younger Henry Wong was in the dojo, drinking some tea after a hard workout with his teacher. "I find it strange that people can't stop doing things even though they're bad. I mean…there are those who smoke and eat too much and they know that it's not good for them but they keep doing it anyway."
The other man placed his cup down. "It seems strange but it's understandable. When one acquires a taste for something new such as cigarettes, fast food or other things, it becomes hard to give up because a fear is developed about giving up those things. They fear what it would be like without that particular commodity that they have acquired a taste for and so they subconsciously fight against giving something up."
'Is that it? Did I like the feeling of satisfaction when fighting my dark side so much that I'm afraid of giving up that fight and the feeling that comes with it?' As he kept his current train of thought focused on that concept, he felt his body become lighter. "I've got to give up the fight…" His counterpart heard his statement and gave a cynical laugh. "You can try all you want but your subconscious will always find its way back here."
"I believe that I have control without resorting to the fight. I trust myself now not to make any more foolish mistakes in a fight." Henry blinked once and saw his counterpart vanish without a trace while the entire world exploded into white. "Hey, Henry! What's happening, buddy?" asked Terriermon in a chirpy tone.
The tamer picked up his partner and placed him on his shoulders. "Where have you been? I didn't feel you around for a while." The dog bunny scratched his head for a moment. "Uh…now that you bring that subject up, I had no idea where I was between the time that Zeed whacked us with Chrono Paradox and now."
He noticed that there was nothing around him for miles. His friends were missing and as far as he knew, Zeedmillenniumon and Daemon could have already finished the fight with the victor going on to do who knows what to the other realms. "So where do we go from here?" "I don't suppose momentai is a good answer for that question?"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
As soon as Sakuya finished her statement about the particular memory, the Digimon Queen gave a small snort. "You have a few options with memories. You can either keep it around in your head or you can just toss it like yesterday's trash but after so many years, you still can't make up your mind. It kind of makes me sick with disgust when people can't make up their minds when they have the choices clearly cut out for them. Talk about weakness."
Sakuya frowned. "Even when the choices are clear cut, each choice has their own repercussions and one must be wary of those before making a choice. Besides, who made you the authority on determining strength and weakness?" As the two bickered, Rika noticed her smaller self totally oblivious to everything and smiling happily.
'When was the last time I was able to smile like that? Curious…even with all the things that had happened, Takato always found a way to smile.' She closed her eyes. 'A person able to smile even when they have extremely heavy burdens…I wish I had that strength.' "Why are you sad?" Rika noticed her smaller self standing a few metres in front of her.
"I don't really know. All this talk about whether the memory is good or bad is just getting to me I suppose." She paused, wondering why she was telling the child all of this. As far as she was concerned, her explanation would probably just go over her head. "Maybe you should stop thinking about the memory too much or something. Let it go."
Rika froze as she saw everything start to come together and make some sense. "It doesn't matter whether I cherished the memory or abhorred it. In any case, I've been oppressed by that memory in some fashion. That was what prevented me from truly smiling and living my life. Wait…was that what prevented me from giving myself totally to Takato?" By that time, the personas had stopped arguing.
Sakuya then spoke. "That has nothing to do with the memory. Being in love is a very difficult time in a woman's life. She has to trust someone else with her darkest secrets and her deepest fears. Everything that she is will become visible to the one she loves. And that can be terrifying." Rika blinked as the three personas slowly became transparent.
"But do not worry. We'll be here with you when the time comes to make a choice." Sakuya gave one last smile. Chibi Rika still had the adorable look and the Digimon Queen had a look of indifference. It didn't matter since she was going to be drawn as a source of confidence from Rika, whether she liked it or not. "And I'll be saying 'I told you so' if you make the wrong one. Be seeing you." With that, the trio vanished and the world shimmered into white.
"Rika! Thank goodness!!" She turned around to see her partner, Renamon approaching her. The female tamer gave her partner a quick embrace. "It's good to see you again. What happened to you?" The fox Digimon explained that she had briefly overheard a conversation between two voices. A child and something that can only be described as divine and beautiful. Then the next thing she knew, she had rematerialized in this…realm.
"Alright!! At least we found some of our friends!" The two noticed Henry running towards them, with Terriermon trying to hold on. After the group exchanged quick greetings, the Chinese tamer spoke again. "We're still missing Takato and Guilmon. Any ideas where we should look? I don't know if Terriermon can make out a scent in this place." The dog bunny grimaced. "That's probably a good thing in some ways. I have first hand experience at how smelly Guilmon can be!!"
He was about to continue complaining about Guilmon's odour problem when his ears twitched briefly. "You hear something?" asked Rika. Although Terriermon had the golden opportunity to make a sarcastic reply, he instead focused on the small scratching sounds. It was a miracle that he could hear them at all. "Over there!!" exclaimed the vaccine Digimon as he pointed a paw into a direction.
The group kept running until they saw a blue shape. Upon closer inspection, it was the final member of the group, Takato Matsuki. From the looks of things, he was working on something. Rika cautiously approached the boy. "What are you doing?" On the desk was a piece of paper and various art tools such as pencils, pens, a few crayons and two erasers. One was pure red while the other one was white.
There was a drawing on the paper which had all of the tamers and the other Digidestined together, celebrating life or something like that. But just as he was about to start putting on some finishing touches, the red eraser came to life and violently erased the picture he was drawing, replacing it with destroyed buildings and the sensation of death everywhere. He tore the paper apart and crumpled it, adding to the growing pile behind his desk.
The boy sighed. "Every time I try to draw a picture of a beautiful future, Chaos erases it and it's replaced with that horror you just saw. It looks like no matter what I do, Chaos dominates me and I unleash its fury upon everyone else." She noticed the look on his face and recalled that she had a similar one not too long ago.
"You're not being oppressed by a memory, are you? You're being oppressed by Chaos. What happened?" Takato started tapping his pencil on the paper. "I asked Megidramon to show me everything and I couldn't handle it. Now that Chaos destroyed my vision of the future, I have to come up with a new one right here. The problem is that Chaos always destroys those visions too. My own eraser hasn't had much effect erasing what Chaos creates."
'Takato asked to see Chaos in all of its glory and now, it's taken a hold of him. It's occupying his every thought and unless I do something, it'll continue to oppress him.' He sighed again and started sketching something out. "I honestly don't know if I should bother continuing if Chaos always erases everything." Rika gave a frown. "Just draw."
As he continued to sketch, Terriermon blinked once. "Hey…how can he be this good of an artist at this age? Shouldn't he be making comic books or something?" Henry thought for a moment before coming up with an answer. "I think the drawings only look this way because his mind is picturing everything for him."
The drawing was of a church and there were people around applauding who was getting married. He started to draw the lucky couple and this triggered the red eraser to start moving. Rika noticed this and started to talk. "Takato…even though you may carry this destructive and terrifying power within you, I trust you with my life. So does Henry and the Digidestined. You don't have to fear yourself. Let it go."
The red eraser slowed down and then stopped just before it could touch the paper. Takato continued sketching while the colour started coming automatically. There was a faint blush on Rika's cheeks when she saw the drawing of the groom who looked strangely like an adult Takato Matsuki. 'Is that what goggle head may look like?' He paused for a moment. "Hey. If you don't want to be with me…who's going to be the woman in this picture?" He pointed to the blank spot beside the groom.
She gave him a soft look. "You can draw me in as that woman." He looked at her in surprise. "I have some things to face on my own before I can be with you. But at the moment, I feel that I want to be that woman in the picture by your side." Takato smiled and was about to continue when he paused again. "Um…I wonder if there's a special bride tuxedo or something. I know how you don't like wearing dresses…"
Rika rolled her eyes and lightly smacked the boy. "It's a special occasion, goggle head! I won't mind wearing a dress for a while on that day!! This is a wedding we're talking about here!!" He mumbled an apology before finishing the drawing, with a picture of Rika in a stunning bride's dress. "Seems a bit too big. The last thing she wants is to trip and make an ass of herself…HURK!!!" Terriermon soon found himself being strangled by the female tamer.
The drawing table disappeared and Takato fell on the 'ground' with his rear. "Takatomon!!!" At the same time, the red dinosaur came out of nowhere and tackled his tamer affectionately. He had been able to come back with the merging of his viral instincts from Megidramon and his childlike innocence from Gallantmon. "Good…you all made it."
The entire group looked up to see the Crimson Sakuyamon descending from the top. "If you had taken any longer, then the psyches may have broken out of my containment field." Noticing the blank look on all of their faces, she went on to explain. "Chrono Paradox sends the victim into the mind itself. Their darkest and most terrifying thoughts, memories, fears and nightmares are brought up and shown to the victim. As the unfortunate victim tries to go through the mental obstacle, the psyches from the attack itself go through the body and essentially eradicate it, leaving the victim in limbo and trapped in an eternal nightmare. When I contained the psyches, I gave you a chance to escape your personal nightmares…which you did."
"Thanks for giving us a chance…whoever you are," stated Henry in a polite tone. The other figure nodded curtly. "Now it's time to make a choice. Zeedmillenniumon and Daemon are out there on a rampage which could threaten to unravel reality itself. They have to be stopped. Therefore, the power that resides within Takato…Chaos, can be unleashed to collapse the current quantum plane, taking Zeedmillenniumon and Daemon with it. Then she can use my power to rebuild the plane from scratch."
"Time out for a second there. You're saying that Rika can use your power? From what I remember, Gallantmon Chaos Mode downloaded Grani into Guilmon's code so that means your evolution can't be reached by her," said Terriermon. She shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I finally know what I am. I'm a physical incarnation of the other power that had collided with Chaos."
Takato gasped. "So Rika's the other one we've been searching for…" While the tamers got used to this revelation, Sakuyamon continued to speak. "The other choice is to bind yourselves with your Digimon. It won't be like bio-merging. This will be completely different. You will have great power at your disposal but it may not be enough to save everything."
The goggle boy spoke again. "I have to say…that the first option is pretty lousy. It's a sure fire way out but frankly, I would rather not have to use a reset button when there's a small chance to save everything and keep things the way they were." He then gave a smile at his friends. "Let's go be heroes, guys." As the spirits of the group rose, the Crimson Sakuyamon glowed briefly. "If that is your choice, then good luck." She disappeared into Rika's body.
Both tamers took out their D-Arks and noticed the kanji for Heaven and Chaos were flashing across the screens. The blue and red circles surrounding the screens also had the carved kanji signs on them flashing softly. Henry and Terriermon slowly stepped backwards to give their friends some room. They then heard a deafening scream as several psyches had broken free and were making their way towards the group. "Not much time before they get here. Any time now, guys!!" shouted Henry. The other two tamers held their D-Arks out.
"ULTIMATE FUSION!!! DIGITAL ASCENSION ACTIVATE!!!"
I hope this makes up for the many…many weeks of inactivity. I'm just happy that I got some good dialogue and was able to update this on the one year anniversary of the beginning of this book. You know what to do if you wish to leave any comments. Later!