The Crystal Gate

Part Fifteen: Progress and Promises

Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, including all characters, is not mine. I make no money from this. Plot, however, is mine. Mostly. Don't steal, don't sue, don't forget to moo.

Moo.

"Miyako!" Hawkmon was calling to her, for she was still shielding herself behind her magic. Leomon, having abandoned his attack on XV-mon for one who was more land-bound and vulnerable, slammed his massive sword into the invisible wall again and again. So far, it had not cracked, but it would not hold forever, and it didn't seem as though the digimon was likely to tire any time soon. "The Digimental!"

"I can't!" Miyako gasped, for each time the sword slammed into the shield her magic grew a little weaker. "I can't do it and hold the shield at the same time and if I lower the shield…."

"You'll die!" Leomon finished, and roared his anger once more as he lowered his sword into the barrier once more. This time, a crack appeared in the shield, and although it was doubtful he could see it, the lion-digimon could obviously sense it, for a grin spread wide across his furry face and he slammed the point of his sword into the crack. Miyako gathered her magical energy, but Leomon was strong, and he used both his paws to push the wall open as though it were made of little more than paper.

"Now you die!" Leomon roared, and swung his sword again. Miyako, feeling weak from having her magic forced away, could barely move, could hardly see. There was that strange sensation in her chest again, and a ringing in her ears.

"Hawkmon evolve!" shouted the small bird digimon, and for a brief moment, all battle stopped and even Leomon paused in his attack, startled by the bright light.

"Aquilamon!" shouted the new digimon, a giant, powerful bird, and then, before Leomon could recover, shouted again. "Blast laser!"

A bright light slammed into the lion's chest, throwing him backward some distance so that he fell into the ground, sending up a cloud of dust. Miyako felt her vision clear as the dust dissipated. Leomon got to his feet, apparently uninjured, but now she could see that a strange black mark had appeared on his chest. No – not a black mark – it was as though the skin had flaked away and some inner core were revealed. Had she seen this before?

Leomon did not give her time to study his wound, however, for he leapt into the air and flung himself toward his new opponent, who easily dodged his attack, though he lost a few feathers from the blade of the sword. Miyako watched as her evolved partner took to the sky for an aerial attack, staring after them for a moment, still questioning what her magical senses were telling her, trying to work out the meaning of what she was feeling.

A loud explosion startled her as a ball of fire slammed into the ground nearby. She turned her head to see that Meramon had managed to set most of the surrounding trees aflame, and the fire was slowly spreading to the forest beyond. 'Maybe I should put out the fire,' she thought absently, glancing toward the stream. Almost before she could finish the thought, however, she heard a cry of alarm, and saw that a crowd of Lopmon, each carrying a heavy stick, had emerged from the burning forest and surrounded Ken and the boy he had been trying to protect. Ken took up a long, stick of his own and waved it toward the Lopmon, who were mostly undeterred by this action.

Without bothering to waste time debating the issue, Miyako narrowed her eyes, focused her magic, and raised a shield around the two humans and the boy's partner Agumon, who appeared to be completely unaware of it. The Lopmon, too, seemed not to notice the barrier, for a moment later they rushed in to attack and all involved were completely astonished when their clubs and bodies bounced off of an invisible wall. After a moment of astonishment, Ken recovered and glanced toward her with a strange expression that she couldn't read the meaning of.

The Lopmon crowd took a few moments to recover from their wounds. Those who had not attacked and thus were not injured were joined by those who had been only mildly damaged and they resumed their circle, raising their clubs and glaring with their eyes.

This potentially eternal stalemate was broken by two things. The first was that Daisuke, who'd been relatively unharmed so far during the battle, had taken up a long stick of his own – one end of which had been set afire by the Meramon – and dived into battle swinging his makeshift weapon. The result of this was more effective than expected, for the Lopmon were taken off guard and he actually managed to throw a few of them into the forest beyond before he was overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. There were, Miyako realized when she quickly counted, twenty-one Lopmon, which matched Ken's initial count of twenty-four enemies altogether.

The second thing that broke the stalemate and also saved Daisuke from being engulfed in a sea of Lopmon was that another fireball slammed into the center of them all. Unfortunately for the Lopmon, this set a few of them on fire, and four of them deleted almost instantly. The rest scattered for a moment and then, when the flames had died down, they resumed their attack on Daisuke. In the interval, however, Miyako had expanded the shield so that now they couldn't attack him, either, however, and so they were further damaged when their bodies once again bounced off the invisible wall.

"Don't be stupid!" Daisuke shouted across the clearing to Miyako, who was visible through the flames, the crowd of Lopmon, and the occasionally interfering combatants who flew or ran or otherwise battled their way through the clearing. "You can't hold this forever!"

"You want me to let you die?" she shouted back. "Sorry, but I won't!"

"X-Laser!" shouted the voice of his partner, and a bright white light slammed into the already badly damaged Meramon. His skin, like that of Leomon, had flaked off in various parts, revealing large black holes in the center of his body. With a scream of anger and pain, the remainder of his skin fell off in pieces and disintegrated, and then the black center of it deleted.

"You…killed it?" Shijo questioned, eyes wide as he stared at the space where the Meramon had once been.

"Digimon don't die, they're deleted," Agumon corrected, but his eyes, too, revealed his shock and surprise. "Deleted and reformatted."

"Yeah," Ken said, not looking toward the boy or his partner, "but that was no ordinary digimon."

"X-Laser!" XV-mon shouted again, and a half-dozen or so of the Lopmon surrounding them deleted in the same way, their skin flaking off and falling to the ground before a dark inner core within deleted.

There was a loud crash nearby then as the Airdramon that Stingmon had been battling crashed into the ground, screeching its pain. For a moment the bug digimon hesitated, and then he attacked for the final time. "Spiking finish!" he called, and a long spike slammed into the center of the serpentine body before it, too, deleted in the same manner as the others.

The world around him had faded, and for a moment Takeru was left in the center of a dull black nothingness. He began to panic, his heart racing in his chest, and then he realized that the small crystal was still in his hand, and he looked down to find that he could see it, despite the darkness. It was emitting a quiet, dull glow.

A glint of light caught his eyes and he looked up to see that another crystal, exactly the same as the one he held in his hand, was hovering in the center of the darkness, and another was hovering a short distance away. The crystal in his hand was humming even louder than before now, and it seemed as though some outside force was pulling on it, trying to get it of his hand. Instinctively, Takeru tightened his grip and blinked. When he'd opened his eyes again, he saw that four crystals were now in front of him, hovering in midair, forming a circle. Sparks of power were flowing between them like tiny bolts of lightning, and a few of them were leaping into the crystal in his hand.

Briefly, he wondered if he should place the crystal in the center of the circle, but almost as soon as he had thought that, he pushed it from his mind. He remembered then what had happened in Motomiya, what the sorceress had said she wanted that crystal for – to release the vanquished. He didn't know what that meant, but something about that woman had made it seem to be a bad idea.

It was becoming increasingly more difficult to hold on to the crystal. Takeru tightened his grip on it, feeling the muscles in his hand moan in slight pain, still sore from the original wound that object had caused a few days before. He ignored the pain as best he could, feeling the cut reopen in his hand, and wrapped his other hand around the first. The tug became stronger, and he braced himself with both legs, feeling as though he were caught in a tug of war. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear someone calling his name, faintly.

"Takeru!"

The wizard's voice startled him into wakefulness as though he had been sleeping, but it had been no dream. Takeru looked up and saw that the blackness had disappeared, that he was now in the cluttered office in Hida, Koushiro staring down at him with a strange, confused expression. One arm was on each of Takeru's shoulders, for he had been shaking him awake. When he saw that Takeru had opened his eyes and come back to the world, he let go and stepped back.

"What was that?" said another voice from behind them. Iori had appeared in the doorway, his usually calm face twisted into an expression of confusion and concern. He was breathing heavily, as though he'd run clear across the mansion to get there.

"Did he fall asleep?" Tentomon wondered, hovering a short distance away. "That's what it looked like, like he fell asleep in the middle of Koushiro's sentence. Sometimes people fall asleep listening to him, but not usually in the middle of a word."

Koushiro sent a brief glare toward his partner, who seemed undeterred by this malice. "No," Takeru said before the wizard could offer either theory or threat. "No, it was no dream."

"What was it then?" Iori questioned, stepping into the room. "Some sort of magic, I'd guess, but why did I feel something, too?"

"Well that's easy," Armadimon said confidently, having followed his partner. "Because you're connected, now."

"We're what?" his partner echoed.

"You felt something?" Takeru questioned. "What?"

Iori nodded, his face twisting into a more severe frown than before. "I was in the kitchens, mopping," he reported, "when I felt strange a cold that seemed to come from nowhere. A few of the others said that I looked strange for a moment, and didn't respond to what they were saying, and then it passed and so I came here."

"Did you feel anything?" Tentomon questioned of Armadimon, who shook his head and shrugged.

"A brief cold," Koushiro said in answer, his eyes taking on a thoughtful, faraway look. "I wonder…."

"That sorceress," Takeru mumbled, and shook his head to clear his mind. "I think I ought to get back to the palace." He glanced down at the crystal in his hand and saw that fresh blood was now smeared on the surface of the object. If he'd hoped it would give him some sort of answer, however, he was disappointed, for the crystal had fallen silent once again and was now stubbornly behaving like an ordinary rock.

"No," Koushiro disagreed, his eyes still suggesting that his mind was a great distance away. "I think we all should return."

The clearing in the forest was quickly becoming home to a larger fire than before, because the fire had engulfed the surrounding trees. The flames were on the opposite edge of the stream, too, so that the best means of escape would be on the river.

All the attackers had been deleted. Arachnemon had not appeared, and her magic had faded. Aquilamon de-evolved all the way back to Poromon, a tiny pink blob of a digimon. Feeling as relieved and thankful as she ever had, Miyako sank down on to her knees and took her partner in her arms.

A cold breeze darted through the clearing, making the flames dance, causing everyone to shiver briefly. Daisuke threw aside the burning stick he had been carrying and glanced toward the water with they eyes of one who will do what must be done because there's nothing else that can be done, even if it is not what one would like to do.

"We can't leave the forest to burn down," Miyako said then. She'd gotten to her feet and moved a few steps closer to the water, away from the flames which were slowly encroaching.

"You can stop it?" Ken asked, one eyebrow raised.

"And if you exhaust yourself doing it?" Daisuke wondered absently, still watching the stream with an expression of great reluctance.

"Well then, leave me here to burn," Miyako returned. She'd already shut her eyes in an expression of concentration. The wind was gathering speed, the flames dancing with great speed.

"Will she exhaust herself?" Ken asked, glancing toward Daisuke with an expression of mild alarm. The wind was whipping quickly through the clearing now and whatever it was Daisuke said in response could not be heard over the sound of the gusts. Shijo threw his arms over his head to shield his eyes from the dirt and embers in the air. Squinting between his arms, he saw that the wind was causing the water in the stream to rise up into the air.

"Look!" he shouted, loud enough to be heard over the wind.

The wind had been directed above the water, spinning in two miniature whirlwinds which gathered the water within them and lifted it into the air. Already, drops of water were spraying from the tiny tornados, splashing on to the flames nearby. A strong gust of wind flew through the clearing, sending dirt and dust on to the flames, dousing some of them and seriously damaging the rest. Another burst of wind and the spots of water became larger, so that large amounts of water was spraying about and soaking the area nearby, drenching those who stood nearby.

When the magic had faded a short while later, everything and everyone within the clearing was soaked through. Drops of water dripped from the leaves, falling to the ground with quiet plops that sounded like raindrops. Feeling less exhausted than Daisuke had predicted but tired nonetheless, Miyako fell down to her knees again, Poromon still in her arms, splashing in a shallow puddle that had formed at her feet.

"Wow," Shijo said in a low whisper. His hair had fallen, limp and wet, in his eyes. A cool breeze made him shiver. "Amazing."

Daisuke looked again toward the stream, now calm, and sighed.

Large puffy clouds changed from white to orange and then deep shades of pink and purple as the sun sank below the horizon. The sky, too, had faded from bright, pale blue to a darker shade and then to a deep violet. Cool breezes danced over the land, rustling the leaves of the trees and making the waves of grass dance to unheard music.

Inside the palace walls, the light was steadily fading, and the lamps were being lit. Feeling for various reasons the desire for solitude, Taichi managed to excuse himself from a sociable dinner by claiming to have a headache. He then managed to excuse himself from any unnecessary medicating by casting a rather fierce glare in the direction of any doctor who suggested otherwise. Jyou had wisely and immediately understood the meaning of these glares and suggested diplomatically to the other doctors that all that would be needed would be a bit of rest and quiet.

Truth was, however, he was not in the mood for sleep or rest anymore than he was in the mood for a large gathering of people that were certain to be present for the evening meal. He paced absently about his room (uneager to risk venturing even into the hallways for fear of being sent back to bed or forced to engage in conversation) for some time before wandering out to the balcony. He felt restless, probably, he reluctantly admitted to himself, because of Sora.

Yamato would have said that he was brooding, but Yamato was either fighting a battle with paperwork or enduring the niceties of formal conversation at the table, and so Taichi felt no guilt about standing on the balcony and watching the sunset without seeing it. He was actually beginning to feel a bit of a pain behind his eyes.

There was a faint tap on the door behind him, and he hoped no one had come to check on his claim of a headache. For a moment, his mind raced, but then the door opened slowly, and he realized there was no time to quickly leap into bed and pull the covers up to his chin and pretend he was trying to sleep. It was too warm to be covered in blankets, and he had not yet removed his shoes.

"So, you're not really sick?" Sora questioned, having stepped only half a step into the room. She was smiling faintly, as though she understood his deception and was perhaps planning to blackmail him in some way. "Or are you busy with something you don't wish disturbed?"

So startled was he, first by the presence of another human being in the room and secondly by her words, that he said nothing for a moment, and simply stared at her with his mouth hanging open, feeling stupid. Sora was studying the floor at her shoes for a long time, and then, aware that he'd said nothing, looked toward him curiously.

Distantly, an insect chirped, and Taichi shook his head, slowly coming to his senses. He took a step forward, away from the window, and found his voice with the movement. "No…not busy," he said. Almost as soon as the words had come out he became aware that he'd been staring, and he looked away, feeling suddenly uncharacteristically sheepish and shy.

There was a gentle click as Sora shut the door behind her and he heard the soft whisper of her shoes on the thick, warm carpet. "I don't want to bother you...," she said. "Maybe I should…."

"No," he interrupted, before she could open the door and leave. "You're not a bother, Sora. Never a bother."

A brief silence passed, broken by the insects chirping outside the window. A cool breeze caused the thin drapes to dance on their rods. Neither of them moved.

"I've been thinking," she said, her voice quiet, as though she were afraid to break the silence that was the night, "about what you said before."

Taichi stuffed his hands in his pockets and threw a quick glance in her direction before he returned his attention to his shoes. "O-oh?" he managed to say, trying and failing to sound or appear casual when his heart felt as though it were pounding in his ears, interfering with his thoughts. His mind had become a complete blank.

"I've been thinking a lot," Sora said, and again he could make out the sound of her shoes on the carpet, of her skirts swishing as she walked.

"Have you?" he asked, glancing up again, and saw that she was standing much closer than he'd expected. For a moment, the pounding in his head stopped altogether, and he wondered if his heart had stopped beating completely or if he'd simply gone deaf. "Have you come to any…?"

"Yes," she answered before he could finish asking. "If I'm still the one you want, then yes."

Her eyes seemed larger than they had before, or perhaps it was only because they were opened wide and so much closer than they had ever been. Taichi vaguely wondered if he had died, because his body didn't seem to be responding to anything he was trying to tell it to do. Or perhaps it was only that he couldn't think of anything to tell it to do. He found that he was moving, but he wasn't quite aware of why or how.

"Am I?" Sora questioned, and he realized that he had taken her hands in his – or maybe she had taken his, he couldn't be sure.

"Yes," he answered immediately, his voice sounding hoarse and distant. "Yes," he said again, with more volume than before. "Did you think I would…?"

"Maybe," she said, glancing away sheepishly. "I daresay I don't claim to know what's in your heart…."

"You are," he insisted. His hands had consented to be controlled once more, and he squeezed hers to make his point.

I will say it before anyone says it for me. I don't write romance for a reason, the reason being that I'm horrible at it. That said, the Taichi-Sora soap opera has to be put in here because it's a necessary part of the story, believe it or not. Everything has a reason. To balance it, a bit of action. Hope it wasn't too painful for you.

Thanks for reading.