VENGEANCE

Chapter 19 – Discovery of a Recent Past

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Davis, Yolei, Cody and Ken were at the airport, along with their partner digimon who all reverted into their In-training forms. While around the area they were living the digimon were widely accepted, the airport was a place where there were a lot of people outside Odaiba who might not had seen any digimon. Not wanting to take any risk, DemiVeemon, Poromon, Upamon and Minomon had to stay in silent in their partners' backpacks. At first they complained about this, but Yolei immediately ended all the complaints with all the chocolate bars she had taken from her family's grocery store.

They were all waiting for Kari to arrive. Earlier the girl had informed them of her return, but she didn't ask for them to wait for her. It was actually a small surprise they had for her, but with an ulterior motive. T.K. however had flown over to France with his mother and Patamon two days earlier.

"Announcing the arrival of Flight 123A from Hokkaido!"

"That's Kari's flight!" Yolei said, delighted. All of them quickly walked over towards the gate where the passengers from the announced flight would come out. After half an hour, people started to walk out from the gate and the sight of a red-eyed brunette quickly caught Davis's attention.

"Hey Kari! Over here!" he shouted, waving frantically with both hands. Kari saw them, and returned the wave. She was clutching Gatomon against her body, and the feline Champion digimon could easily pass as a stuffed cat toy. She then indicated towards her parents and Tai of her friends' presence before walking over towards them, her face beaming.

"Welcome home!" Yolei said, and hugged her DNA partner tight.

"I didn't know all of you are coming!" Kari said happily, returning the hug. She then proceeded by hugging all of the boys.

"Not all of us, T.K. went to France with his mom a couple of days ago," Cody noted, blushing slightly after being hugged by the older girl. Kari nodded and told them that she was informed by T.K. by e-mail when he had arrived safely at France.

"Hey no fair, Gatomon doesn't have to stay inside the backpack!" came a muffled complaint from Davis's beg.

Gatomon, in her stuffed toy act, couldn't help but to smile. "Well DemiDevimon, it helps a lot if you can blend with the crowd," she said smugly.

"I've got some souvenirs for you guys," Kari said before her parents and Tai approached them.

"We're going home now Kari, but why don't you give us your luggage and follow your friends? I'm sure you have a lot to catch up with," Mrs. Kamiya suggested. Before Kari could agree, the rest of the team quickly nodded their heads vigorously.

"Sure!" Yolei said, her voice slightly high-pitched. Kari noticed that Cody and Ken glared at the lavender-haired girl slightly, while Davis looked nervous. Instantly, Kari realized that them being here wasn't just to surprise her. Something was definitely up, and Kari suspected that it had something to do with the digimon and the Digital World.

"Well... we'll see you later then," Tai said, one of his eyebrows slightly raised before pulling their parents away from Kari and the Digidestined. He then turned around and gave Kari a meaningful nod, followed by a wink. Kari replied by waving her hand slightly and turned to face her friends.

"So... I guess there's another reason of you guys being here?" she asked slowly.

Davis nodded and gave her a sheepish grin.

"Actually, earlier this day we were called to meet Gennai and HolyAngemon. HolyAngemon told us that his three disciples have news that we just might want to hear. He also said that we should try to bring you along, if possible."

"Oh," Kari said as the five of them walked out from the airport. They were heading towards a secluded place, which happened to be a small garden in front of the airport. "Shouldn't we contact T.K. as well?" she asked while releasing Gatomon from her hug. The others did the same with their partner digimon.

"Not unless we really need him," Davis replied. "We don't want to disturb him from his vacation. Besides, HolyAngemon only mentioned you."

"I wonder what is this all about," Kari wondered.

"We don't know, but I'm sure we'll get the answer if we go to the Digital World now. If it's okay with you, of course," Yolei replied. "You don't feel like having jet-lag, or other things like that, do you?"

"I'm sure I can manage," Kari said with a smile. "It's only a two-hour flight."

"Well then, let's get going," Davis said, and opened a Digi-Port. All of them quickly entered the gateway before anyone could see them, as the garden was a public place although it was rather secluded. The Digi-Port took them straight to the inside of Asuka Laboratory, where Gennai, HolyAngemon and his three angel disciples were waiting. During their journey to the Digital World, DemiVeemon, Poromon and Upamon had all digivolved back into their Rookie forms.

"You made it," Gennai greeted them. "Welcome."

"So what's the big emergency?" Davis asked.

"We will just go straight to the point," HolyAngemon said. "My disciples will explain everything to you everything as they were the ones who had met him."

"Him?" Ken asked, confused.

"All will be explained," Gennai assured them, turning towards the three angelic disciples and nodded slightly.

Angemon, Piddomon and D'Archmon stepped forward, and Angemon cleared his throat slightly before relating to the Digidestined of their encounters.

"We were sent by our teacher and Gennai to look over the matter on the northern quadrant of this sector a few days ago when this lab could not establish a connection with the cities there. When we arrived there, the three villages of the north were already conquered by the Chaos Force, under the lead of Chaos Seadramon," Angemon informed them, and glanced left towards where Piddomon was.

"That snake had already conquered Emeraldo City near the northern mountains and the Tree Top Village inside the forests earlier. We spent a few days watching over the two captured cities and found that both were heavily guarded. There we managed to discover Chaos Seadramon's plan on conquering Marina Bay Village near the sea as well. Immediately we decided to intervene and upon arriving there we got into a huge fight with Chaos Seadramon's henchman, WaruSeadramon. Normally by working together the three of us could take on an Ultimate digimon, this WaruSeadramon seemed to be a lot stronger than any average Ultimate. We were having trouble fighting that crazed snake, and were losing if it weren't for him," Piddomon continued and looked at D'Archmon.

D'Archmon continued relating the story with her melodious voice. "It was really unexpected, but as Piddomon had told earlier, we were losing the battle when suddenly a tornado appeared out of nowhere. It was heading towards WaruSeadramon at an unimaginable speed and went straight into its mouth. Then we saw that the tornado was destroying WaruSeadramon from the inside... beginning from the head and ended at its tail where the tornado emerged. However the tornado was beginning to stop swirling and a digimon appeared from the eye of the tornado. It... it was Chaos Wargreymon!"

"It can't be!" Davis said disbelievingly. "He's a Chaos General! How could it be him helping you guys destroying the WaruSeadramon?"

"He must have had another motive," Yolei deduced before looking at Kari to ask for her opinion. However the brunette was silent, as if lost in thought.

"It was Chaos Wargreymon, and he easily destroyed WaruSeadramon. At first we thought he was going to destroy the three of us for interfering, but there was something really different about him," D'Archmon continued.

"What do you mean?" Cody asked.

Piddomon shrugged slightly. "For starters there was a strange purple jewel embedded on his chest plate."

"But it was him himself that was different. He no longer looked... menacing," Angemon said thoughtfully. "I think all of you remembered quite well how did Chaos Wargreymon looked like as all of you had fought him face to face. I've never met him but I've seen him in one of the battle footages recorded by the laboratory."

"Are you saying that he didn't look evil?" Gatomon quipped.

Angemon nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what I am saying."

D'Archmon walked over towards Kari and Gatomon and put a hand on Kari's shoulder. "The strangest thing was," she began to say. "Chaos Wargreymon asked us to pass a message to you, Kari. He said that he wanted to meet you, and that he'd remembered everything about you."

Kari was silent, slowly taking in what D'Archmon had just said. However her mind was reeling fast, thinking. 'Remembered? What did he remember, and why does he want to meet me?' The event when Chaos Wargreymon had spared her during their earliest fight came back to her mind. Up till that moment, she was confused of what was the real reason of Chaos Wargreymon's hesitation to kill her. She was furthermore perplexed when he seemed to know her when she had told him her name.

"Kari?" Yolei's voice broke Kari's thought. "What's on your mind?"

The Digidestined of Light shook her head slowly and smiled. "Not much, just thinking about what D'Archmon had told us."

"Are you going to meet Chaos Wargreymon?" Ken asked.

"I wanted to, but how?"

"He said that he'll find you," Piddomon answered. "From the tone of his voice I'm sure that he didn't mean any harm."

"It is unwise to make such assumption, Piddomon," HolyAngemon said sternly before gazing in concern towards Kari. "However if you want to find Chaos Wargreymon, I'd advice that you do not go on your own."

"Of course we won't let her go alone!" Davis said. "All of us will go together."

Gennai nodded in agreement. "That would be good. However now I have to ask you a favor, Digidestined. Earlier, Piddomon had told you that the Chaos Forces already conquered Emeraldo City and Tree Top Village at the northern quadrant. I've sent Piximon and GrapLeomon to assess the situation there. There's no doubt that Chaos Specter will strengthen their hold on those two places, I wouldn't be surprised that the Chaos Generals themselves will be guarding Emeraldo City and the Tree Top Village." (GrapLeomon had recovered from the battle on the File Island earlier, and had been recuperating until recently)

Davis's expression became slightly sober. "Oh man, I can remember all too well how Harmona Town was damaged from this attempt of conquer. My body's still sore after spending two days helping the townsmon repairing their town and village."

"Didn't the others help?" Kari asked, concerned.

Ken, Yolei and Cody smiled sheepishly. "We would," Yolei said while glaring at the mock-cowering Davis. "The only setback was that he decided to inform us about that ONLY after he'd finished."

"Not to mention, he'd forgotten to tell us that he and Veemon had successfully Transdigivolve up until yesterday," Cody added with a slight scowl.

"Aw c'mon, you three know that you were busy with other matters," Davis responded defensively. "Besides, it was nothing Paildramon couldn't handle."

"But..." Ken began to say before Kari interrupted him.

"You two Transdigivolve into Paildramon?" she asked with interest. Davis then explained to her and the other Digidestined of how he'd managed to Transdigivolve and their battle with Chaosdramon.

"Sounds like this Chaosdramon might be another digimon that we should keep an eye on," Gatomon said after Davis finished his explaination.

"Totally," Veemon agreed. "That guy's insanely powerful, but somehow his ability to retain his Mega form is quite limited for the time being. He's MetalTyrannomon for now, a henchmon of Chaos Piedmon apparently."

"Not really," Gennai said. "I've received word from the newly-elected leader of the Tyranno Clan of the Tyrannovalley – MasterTyrannomon – that this MetalTyrannomon you're talking about is a traitor of their clan. Apparently he wanted the position and the power of the leader of the clan, but failed, so he fled and joined Chaos Specter's forces. Not to mention that he'd sold the secret location of Tyrannovalley in exchange for power."

"Secret location? You mean that this Tyrannovalley is hidden?" Ken asked.

"Yes, it is hidden from other digimon. In fact there are many hidden places in this world of ours. However the Tyranno Clan is our ally, and its former leader was a friend of ours, which would be referring to me, Piximon and HolyAngemon. So the three of us knew of the location as well," Gennai answered.

"However words has it that this MetalTyrannomon is currently not in a favourable condition with Chaos Piedmon or Chaos Specter himself," HolyAngemon added.

"Wow," Kari said suddenly. "Seems like lots of things happened when I was on a holiday."

"Tell me about it. I didn't go for a vacation but I missed out as well," Yolei said, glaring at Davis again. "I was busy helping out with my parents' grocery store."

"So what do we do now?" Cody inquired.

As if on cue, suddenly the main screen of the laboratory flickered. Images of Piximon and GrapLeomon then materialized on the screen, both looking gravely worried.

"Gennai, we've received word that Chaos Seadramon and Chaos Piedmon will personally monitor the activity happening at Emeraldo City and Tree Top Village. The two of us are approximately five miles away from Emeraldo City. We've just saw hordes of Chaos Forces digimon going towards Emeraldo City. Apparently they are the followers of Chaos Seadramon." Piximon said.

"That's bad news," Gennai responded. "Chaos Seadramon is an extremely powerful Mega digimon. Don't go to Emeraldo just yet, I don't think two Ultimates can match an enhanced Mega digimon."

"We'll come up there to help you guys," Davis said firmly.

"Don't forget us," D'Archmon added with a grin, indicating to herself and her two male fellow disciples. "We're ready to help out."

"That'll be great. We will focus on freeing Emeraldo City first, it is not advisable for us to split up to attempt freeing Tree Top Village as well," GrapLeomon said. "Our combined power might be enough to drive Chaos Seadramon away."

"I was just about to suggest that," Davis said, his face fell slightly as the transmission was terminated.

"All right, I think before all of you go to Emeraldo City, maybe you should know some facts about where you are going," Gennai suggested, and quickly explained. Emeraldo City was a moderate-sized city, smaller than Asuka or Seiryuu. The city prospered mainly from the fact that there were abundant supplies of emeralds there. All the buildings were made of from the emeralds, and while emeralds were usually turquoise in color, the emeralds there came in different shades of turquoise, blue and green. Rookie and Champion digimon of nature and metal species mainly inhabited the city.

"With Paildramon and Angewomon on our side, we might just be able to win the battle," Gennai finished. "It would be better if T.K. and Patamon are here as well, as MagnaAngemon is very useful when a large number of enemies are concerned but as they are on a holiday now."

"We'll do our best, we'll call T.K. only if it's really necessary," Ken said, and the others agreed. Davis then asked Kari whether she's really up to fight, and the girl simply replied that she missed becoming Angewomon after more than a week of absence.

"What about you, Cody? Don't you have Kendo practice to attend to for the upcoming tournament?" Davis proceeded, looking at the youngest member of the team.

Cody shook his head with a chuckle. "I think I deserve a break once in a while."

"I wouldn't call battling evil digimon as taking a break," Armadillomon quipped cheerfully. "Although I wouldn't miss it for the world as well."

"Same goes for me and Wormmon," Ken said quickly before Davis could ask him. Yolei immediately followed suit.

Together, the Digidestined opened a gateway towards Piximon and GrapLeomon's location. Followed by the three angels, they entered the portal together. Upon arriving, they saw that they were inside a colourful forest with odd-looking lavender trees and gemstones formations every few metres. Piximon was sitting on one of the gemstone formation, while GrapLeomon was standing near the small pixie. The Digidestined noted that GrapLeomon was a lot smaller and shorter than he was during the skirmish at File Island. He was now as tall as Leomon used to be. They exchanged greetings quickly before a loud screech came from the sky.

Looking up, the Digidestined saw a crimson buzzard-like creature flying swiftly towards a direction. The digimon was nothing like they had ever seen before, and luckily it didn't notice the Digidestined and the others. Keeping silence, all of them watched as the strange digimon flew further and further away.

"What was that digimon?" Davis wondered out loud and consulted his Digimon Analyzer. Strangely, the analyzer didn't give out any information.

"Unidentified," the analyzer said simply.

"Unidentified? What do you mean unidentified?" Davis said loudly in confusion.

"Is it broken?" Cody wondered.

Piximon shook his head. "It's not possible, Gennai had taken great care to include each and every digimon in the Digital World. The analyzer database is always up to date and on working condition."

GrapLeomon looked towards the direction where the strange digimon had flown. "Whoever or whatever that creature is, it was flying towards Emeraldo City. It must be one of Chaos Specter's henchmon," he said, with a voice that was noticeably a mix between Leomon's noble voice and Ogremon's devil-may-care's one.

"Anyone remember how the creature looked like?" Davis asked before noticing that Ken was staring towards the sky, his expression pale. "Ken, are you all right?"

Ken nodded slowly. "That creature looked like a giant skeletal bird with a pair of large wings with black feathers. It's body was red and skeletal, and has claws on its feet," he answered while recalling every details about the creature from his memory.

"Wow Ken, we only managed to catch a glimpse of that creature, yet you managed to remember its every detail," Yolei said, awed by the details of Ken's descriptions.

"I remembered every detail about that creature because I've met him before," Ken whispered with a frown. His pale face looked troubled.

"Do you know that creature, Ken?" Davis asked carefully.

"Yes," Ken said grimly. "That creature is non other than Velgamon. I've met him during my early days as the Digimon Emperor. Velgamon is the beast form of a digimon called Duskmon. Duskmon, as I remember, could switch back and forth to Velgamon whenever he wanted." Ken stopped when he noticed the blank expressions from his teammates and the digimon.

"We're kinda lost, Ken," Kari said. "You mean, that creature we just saw is called Velgamon and he could become Duskmon, right?"

Ken nodded his agreement. "Duskmon is a human form of Velgamon, but he looked totally different," he said and motioned for everyone to sit down, while Wormmon sat on his lap. "The memories of my past are still hazy in certain parts, and they came a little at a time. Up until our battle with Daemon six months ago, I was only able to remember the origin of my Dark Spore, which was what Daemon wanted."

"It seems to me that Ken is able to recall more of his memories when he is about to face it in the future," Wormmon quipped.

"I agree with Wormmon. When we saw Velgamon earlier, I suddenly had some flashbacks about him, and how I met him. You see, the technologies I had while I was the Digimon Emperor... if it wasn't for Duskmon I wouldn't be able to easily conquer the eastern quadrant of the East Sector. That time, I only had a vague idea of how big is the Digital World exactly."

"I thought you came up with all of them yourselves? The Control Spires, the Dark Spirals..." Davis said before Ken raised a hand to stop him.

"The Control Spires were Arukenimon's idea, or MaloMyotismon, I'm not so sure about that anymore. The spirals were my only idea actually, as they had vital connections with my Dark Digivice-D3. No, Duskmon gave me something bigger," Ken said quickly before stopping to catch his breath. Then he continued, "He gave me my fortress."

"What?!" all the Digidestined nearly shrieked. "You mean, the flying fortress which we'd destroyed last time?" Davis asked.

"Yes... the same fortress where I made Kimeramon, the same fortress where you discovered the Digi-Egg of Miracles..." Ken's voice trailed off as he took something out from his pocket. It was a small piece of plastic, slightly pink in color and had the emblem that looked like a rose engraved on it. Slightly broken in the edges, and smudged with dirt and soil, all the Digidestined recognized it as the Crest of Kindness.

"The Crest of Kindness!" Davis gasped. "But I thought that it was destroyed when your old fortress exploded?"

"I thought so, too, but somehow it made its way unnoticed back to me. I noticed its return a long time ago, after the battle with MaloMyotismon. Since it was broken I don't think that it would work ever again, so I didn't tell you guys about it. Izzy told me sometime ago that the other crests were used to seal the Digital World from being intruded; making the Crest of Kindness the sole crest around. That's why I've been carrying the crest around, who knows what would happen in the future? This world is certainly full of surprises."

The Digidestined laughed upon Ken's remark, but didn't comment anything. They merely egged Ken to carry on with his story. Davis said that he wanted to know more about Duskmon and Velgamon.

"About Duskmon... For a moment, I was in league with him but other than his name and his fighting style I don't have a clue of who he was, his history or his origins. However by seeing him fight, I can say that his prowess rivals any average Ultimate digimon. Velgamon is supposed to be a stronger mode, but Duskmon rarely switched to his bestial mode that time."

"If he was that powerful, why did he join forces with you?" Cody asked, his eyes narrowed a little showing that he was a little skeptic, but needless to say he believed what Ken was telling.

"He needed me to enter a cave to retrieve a scroll which had a... prophecy... written on it," Ken replied slowly, trying to recall more details. "The prophecy... of time. He couldn't enter the cave as it was protected by an ancient power, which prohibits those who were tainted with darkness to enter. I don't know how I managed to enter it without harm, as Duskmon told me that any evil being that dares cross the entrance would simply be destroyed by the ancient power. Somehow, I wasn't harmed."

"That simply meant that you were not evil," Yolei commented with a smile.

Ken chuckled appreciatively upon Yolei's comment. Wormmon then decided to speak up his opinion. "Ken was eight at the time, and he was too young. That was why the cave didn't destroy him. Had Ken been older that time, the cave would..." Wormmon gulped upon thinking about the possibility.

"I don't want to even think about that," Ken said, scowling. His expression wasn't pale anymore, and looked just like his usual composed self. "By retrieving the scroll, Duskmon gave me the fortress and left me be. However I didn't use the fortress until I was much older and grew accustomed with the sudden enhancements from the spore."

Ken then got up, and looked determined. "If Velgamon is heading to Emeraldo City then I can get more answers to my questions if I face him. I'm ready."

"Then let's do it," Davis said.


DTV – Thanks for reviewing. I can't say much about your inquiries, but all will be explained later in this fic, and in The Legends of the Digidestined series. About the plural of digimon issue, it's my bad actually; I'm so used to writing it as 'digimons'. I'll try to avoid this mistake in future. Your theories of Chaos Wargreymon's history... well, Kari won't know it until the end of the series, so I can't comment about it right now as the story still has a long way to go. Thanks again.

Gerjo – Thanks for the review. Chaos Wargreymon is becoming my favorite character too, not to mention he is a key character in this story. Watch out for him, things are going to be more interesting for him. And about Chaos Specter, yes, there's a lot more to him than meets the eye.

Veemon – Yep, it is a mistake on my behalf. Thanks for telling me about it.

Psychorabbit – Thanks for your review. About the team not being together all the time, actually it's to give me an opportunity to focus on one character at a time. For the past few chapters I've isolated Davis for a while to write more about him, it is similar to what I did to Kari some time ago.