Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
A/N: Well, first thing's first, I was unfortunately very busy last week so I didn't get a chance to update anything, but now I am back with a new chapter! After this chapter, there will be two more and then we'll get to Ryoko's family and the big talk. Oh, and for those of you who are reading my Kingdom Hearts story, I plan on posting that at the end of this week. If not, it will hopefully be up Monday. Thanks everyone for your patience!
Following the Footsteps of Destiny
Chapter 122: Lucemon's Secrets
Kari Takaishi
Odaiba, Japan, Earth
"Wait, Izzy! Before you say anything, there's something I have to do!" Matty interrupted, waving his arms to get the computer expert's attention.
Izzy blinked in surprise and scratched his head. "Really? What's so important that it can't wait a few minutes?"
"This." Matty suddenly leaped to his feet and moved cautiously towards the computer in order to avoid stepping on anyone's toes. As soon as the younger twin reached Taniko's side, he threw his arms around her in a big hug and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Taniko's whole face turned bright red and she stared at Matty as if he had lost his mind. "Matty! What...what was that for?"
Matty grinned at the embarrassed look on Taniko's face and gently ruffled her long, dark hair. "That was for helping us out earlier. You're a smart kid, Taniko. We never would have gotten as far as we did without you."
Taniko glanced at Matty from under her eyelashes and managed a shy smile. The female genius had always been great with computers, but when it came to romance, she had absolutely no experience whatsoever, and clearly Matty's rather odd behaviour had caught her completely off guard.
I don't think I'm even going to ask.
Kari smiled at her son in amusement and glanced at Izzy, but as usual the computer expert was too busy fooling around with his laptop to notice anything out of the ordinary. Mina had noticed right away, though, and she raised her dark eyebrows before turning to look at whatever it was Izzy had pulled up on the screen of his laptop.
"I bet you thought I wouldn't really do it," Matty said, gazing triumphantly at Dai.
"Like I said before, it's better than kissing Izzy!"
"What do you guys think I am, some sort of trophy?" Taniko grumbled, crossing her arms and making a face.
Matty gave the female genius another hug and a reassuring smile. "No way. You're awesome, Taniko. You're also more fun to hang around than Ema is!"
"Hey! I'm more interesting than Taniko! She might be a genius, but I'm still cuter!"
Taniko rolled her eyes at Ema and glanced uncertainly at Matty, but the younger twin didn't seem to notice. Instead, he turned to look at Ema and shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever, Ema. I think Taniko's a pretty cute kid no matter what you say."
"Matty! And you had the nerve to get mad at me for keeping secrets from you," Mickey scolded, sending his twin a disapproving look.
"What? Hey, wait! That's not what I...I don't...not like...Mickey!"
Matty scrambled over to the older twin's side, but Mickey quickly squirmed away from his brother before Matty could hit him in the chest. Kari gave both of them a stern look, and they grinned sheepishly at her before moving over to sit next to one another again. Almost immediately, Matty began to whisper softly in his twin's ear, and the two of them smiled at each other. Mickey said something that made Matty's whole face turn bright pink, but instead of getting all worked up about it, he merely rolled his eyes and gave the older twin's shoulders a tight squeeze. Taniko glanced curiously at the two golden-haired Digidestined and frowned slightly, but apparently she decided not to open her mouth because she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the computer screen as if nothing had happened.
"Well, I'm glad all of our digimon are safe. I was worried about Gomamon. Sometimes his big mouth can get him into a lot of toruble," Joe said, changing the subject.
Kari nodded in agreement and smiled slightly. "Gatomon's the same way, but Benjamin and the others knew what they were doing. You'd think we would have learned to trust them after all this time."
"I don't know if I'm ever going to fully trust Gennai," Yolei muttered. "He really likes to live on the edge, and for once it finally caught up to him!"
"Hey, Izzy, who do you think the Ruler of Darkness really is?" Cody asked hesitantly. "He sounds really dangerous."
Izzy frowned thoughtfully at his laptop and shrugged his shoulders. "It's hard to say. Even Gennai doesn't know exactly who he is, and I have a feeling that's going to make our fight against him much more difficult. How can you defeat an enemy you know almost nothing about? I have a feeling he's a digimon we've never met before, but what his true purpose is, I have no idea. Obviously he wants to take over the Digital World, and possibly the human world as well, but how exactly is he going to go about accomplishing his goal? Sorry, guys. I might have a lot of questions, but I don't have very many answers."
"That means we're back to square one," Palmon said glumly.
"Not necessarily. I may not know who Vampiramon's master is, but I think I know someone who does."
"You're kidding!" Dai shouted at the top of his lungs. "How can you possibly know something like that? Spill it, Izzy! We need to know."
"Lucemon."
Mickey flinched and slowly lifted his head. "How would...would Lucemon know?"
"Think about it. Luciamon and Lucemon used to work for Vampiramon's master, right? They might not know everything about the Ruler of Darkness, but they definitely know more than Gennai."
"You're right. I bet Luciamon knew the Ruler of Darkness pretty well. That was the impression I got when she talked about her past just before she died," Ryoko said quietly. "I bet she even knew his real name."
"My thoughts exactly. I think Luciamon wanted to tell you about the Ruler of Darkness herself, but she died before she had a chance to do so. That's why she told Mickey to find Lucemon."
Mickey bit his lip and slowly nodded. "She did say Lucemon would be able to explain everything."
"But if that's the case then why did Luciamon tell us she didn't know who the Ruler of Darkness was before we entered the castle?" Takara asked, looking confused.
Fluttermon beamed at her partner and hopped into Taysuke's lap. "Isn't it obvious, Kara? Luciamon only told us that to protect her true identity. She didn't want us to know about her past until the right moment."
"So all we have to do is find Lucemon and we'll have the answers to our questions," Sam mumbled to himself.
Izzy nodded in agreement and wrapped his arms around Mina's shoulders. "Precisely."
"Poor Luciamon. I feel so bad for her," Taniko sighed.
"It's not fair. Why do the good guys always have to suffer?" Ema complained.
Rosa sat down next to Kenzo and reached out to ruffle Ema's shiny, blue hair. "I know it's hard, but Luciamon will come back eventually. It might take a little time, but you know what they say. It doesn't hurt to practice a little patience."
"I guess that means part of our next move is finding Lucemon," Kenzo said slowly. "It's the least we can do for Luciamon after everything she did for us."
"I won't break my promise," Mickey said stubbornly.
T.K. smiled fondly at Mickey and nodded his head. "No wonder Luciamon liked you so much."
"I have a question," Noah interrupted, looking a little uneasy. "What exactly was that creepy shadow thing you guys met up with in Vampiramon's castle?"
The Powers of Darkness.
Kari glanced anxiously at her husband, but T.K. pursed his lips together and refused to answer. After a moment of silence, Ken slowly lifted his head and managed a weak smile. "Both T.K. and I think it came from the World of Darkness."
"You mean the Dark Ocean?" Matty gasped.
T.K. frowned at Ken and let out a deep sigh. "I guess you could say that. Like I said before, the Dark Ocean is basically part of a world where all your dark thoughts come to life. I've been to the Dark Ocean, and so has your mother. Ken was there as well, along with Yolei. The first time your mother was there, she was attacked by a bunch of shadows who looked like Divermon but refered to themselves a Scubamon. There is no digimon in the Digital World called Scubamon."
Kari nodded in agreement and smiled at her sons. "That in itself should have made me realize I was walking right into a trap, but I was scared and unable to think straight. Thankfully your father was able to help me find my way home again."
"You...you've been to the Dark Ocean more than once?" Mickey squeaked. The older twin clapped a hand over his mouth in horror and clung tightly to the sleeve of Matty's navy blue hoodie.
"Yes, I have. It's like your father said. The World of Darkness brings your dark thoughts to life in the form of things you are familiar with. In my case, they took on the form of digimon."
"They may not have been real digimon, but I believe their Undersea Master was," T.K. muttered.
Mickey and Matty stared at their father with their mouths hanging open, but T.K. did not bother to explain the meaning behind his words.
"Aunt Kari, you said our dark thoughts take on forms we recognize, so why didn't that shadow in Vampiramon's castle become a digimon or something?" Ryoko asked calmly.
Kari gazed thoughtfully at the ceiling for a moment and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure, but I think it's because that shadow wanted you guys to know exactly what it was. I beileve it was warning you not to move any deeper into the castle, but Mickey and Matty got rid of it before it could get violent."
"But how?" Mickey and Matty asked at the same time. "How did we get rid of it?"
Kari beamed at her sons and held out her crest. "Your light."
Mickey blushed, and peeking around Matty's shoulder, he glanced uncertainly at his father. "Dad, about the Dark Ocean, what-"
"Mickey, I think maybe we should leave that conversation for another time. Izzy, why don't you tell us the plan for tomorrow?"
Mickey meekly lowered his eyes to the ground, but Matty wasn't so humble. The younger twin glared furiously at his father before turning his attention to Mickey and giving his brother a reassuring pat on the back. Sam hadn't said a single word throughout the entire conversation about the World of Darkness, but despite that the raven-haired Digidestined's dark blue eyes were as round as saucers and he was staring at his parents as if he had never seen them before.
"Well, Gennai wants us to meet him by the gate at the edge of the forest on File Island, and I think it would be wise to do that first before we go running off to find Lucemon or the Spirit Chips. His information could be very useful to us and it just might be the key to getting our hands on the very things we're so eager to find. Once we've spoken to him, we'll be abe to move onto the next part of our plan."
"That's makes sense. So...who's coming with this time?" Davis asked.
Izzy frowned at the former Digidestined leader and crossed his arms. "Well, I know one thing, I'm definitely coming with."
"So am I," Matt interrupted, glaring at Izzy as if expecting the computer expert to disagree.
Ryoko looked a little alarmed at the thought of being in the Digital World with his father, and the uneasy look in the golden-haired Digidestined's bright blue eyes brought a smile to Kari's face. She had a feeling her nephew was going to be on his best behaviour tomorrow.
"I'm coming, too!" Mina announced.
Davis opened his mouth to speak, but Izzy shook his head and held up a hand for silence. "Sorry, Davis, but I think it's only fair if I send people who haven't had a chance to see their partners yet."
"But-"
"Sora and I will go," Tai said, glancing slyly at his best friend. "I can't let Matt have all the fun."
Izzy smiled to show his approval and turned to face the computer. "Sounds good. I'll give Tentomon and the others some time to get back to File Island before I contact them and let them know what's going on. Five of us are more than enough. I don't want our group to be too big. DarkAngelicmon and the others will already be able to spot us easily enough without seeing the whole team."
"Especially since they've probably already guessed we'll appear on File Island the next time we go to the Digital World," Glimmermon piped up.
"File Island isn't exactly a very big place. It won't be too hard for them to find us," Minomon agreed.
"Exactly, which means we have to be on our guard at all times," Izzy warned. The computer expert held out his laptop for everyone to see and pointed to a glowing yellow dot on the screen. "This is the gate where Gennai wants us to meet him. I suggest we all meet in this room tomorrow and we'll go from there. Anyone who wants to come for moral support if they have the time is more than welcomed to join us. Taniko, I'll leave the computer work up to you while I'm gone."
"Don't worry, Dad, you can count on me!"
"I'd help too, but Yolei and I really need to be at the store tomorrow," Ken said, clearly disappointed.
"Cody and I will be able to make it tomorrow for moral support, but we might be a little late," Rosa offered.
"What about you, Mom?" Matty asked.
Kari gave both her sons a regretful look and tickled Rina's side. "I have some things I need to get done at the school tomorrow, but I think I'll be free to come the day after tomorrow. I hope Gatomon won't be too upset."
"She'll live!" T.K. laughed. "Izzy was the one who put me out of the running."
"I'm coming as soon as I have a chance," Yolei said firmly.
"I wish I could come," Mimi sighed.
Dai frowned and tugged on his uncle's arm. "How come you're not coming, Uncle Joe?"
"I want to, but I have a bunch of appointments scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Don't worry, though, I'll make the time to come."
"Oh." Dai managed to hide his disappointment behind a smile, but Kari could tell he had been hoping his uncle would come along.
Joe must have realized the same thing because he wrapped his arm around Dai's shoulders and tugged gently on his nephew's goggles. "Hey, you know I'll keep my promise."
"I know."
"I'll be coming too, Dai, as soon as I have a chance, and you'd better behave when I do!" Noriko said disapprovingly.
Dai jumped at his mother's tone, and all of a sudden he looked more alarmed than Ryoko had. "Er...that's okay, Mom. If you're really busy and all..."
"I may not be coming tomorrow, but I am coming, Daichi Motomiya!" Noriko glared at her son and promptly threw up her hands in despair. "Why do I even bother? You're never going to listen to me no matter what I say! Well, at least you're safe. Thank goodness for DemiEmbermon."
Daichi's partner beamed at Noriko and glanced hopefully around the room. "Is it time for supper yet?"
"I still can't believe you guys saw Noah and I when we were babies," Miya said, glancing at the four more experienced digimon.
"It just seems so weird!" Noah laughed.
Palmon smiled at them and nodded her head. "I guess it does. You guys were really cute human babies."
"Food, please?" DemiEmbermon piped up.
Kari laughed, and lifting Goldmon into her arms, she quickly got to her feet. "I think that's our cue to get moving."
"Remember, we meet back here tomorrow," Izzy added.
"Yeah, for those of us who can, which doesn't include me!" Yolei complained. "I want to go to the Digital World!"
"At least you have a chance," Mimi muttered.
Kari started down the stairs, with her husband in front of her and her children trailing behind, and stepped out into the cool night air. She had no idea what was going to happen in the Digital World, and although they had the makings of a solid plan beneath their feet, she still could not help feeling as if they were teetering on the edge of darkness...