Regeneration
888
Hikari leapt awake. Morning light filtered out from under the door gap at the end of her room. The shadows swept around the room, ricocheting off of the dresser and desk, refracting off the corners of her bedroom splintering into a rainbow of darkness. She took a deep breath and then realized that she wasn't alone. She looked up. At the foot of her bed someone was sitting. Her blood run with ice as she recognized the silhouette.
"You left me…" the shade said quietly.
Hikari's heart tightened as the figure turned.
"Daisuke-" Hikari whispered. "I'm sorry, the doors closed we couldn't…"
"I'm still here…though." the shade said, as he warm brown eyes looked up at Hikari morosely.
Hikari shook her head. "No, you aren't real, this is a dream…"
"Yeah, I know, that's not what I mean." The shadow moved towards her. He reached out to her and grasped her arm, she could feel the fabric of her pajamas tighten against her arms. "I'm still here…"
"Daisuke, no!" Hikari closed her eyes. "You got caught up in whatever happened over there you're-"
"No I'm not!" the shadow almost shouted. His eyes seemed to go wild for a second and then he took a deep breath and closed his eyes and loosened his grip. He opened his eyes. "I'm still here, I don't know how, I don't know why….all I know is that I'm still here, trapped in the dark…"
"This is just a dream, this is just a dream-" Hikari whispered to herself as.
"You guys have to come and get me, before it's too late, something, something is going on, something not good!" the shade shouted over her chanting. "You have to believe me!"
"I've had too many of these dreams to know that they can be messed up!" Hikari returned and opened her eyes and glared at the shadow. "You could be anything, heaven knows I've gotten screwed up by Myotismon and whatever is in that ocean…"
"And you know that sometimes these dreams are more than dreams!" The shadow said quietly, calmly. He leaned in gently and kissed her on the lips. He broke the kiss and looked at her kindly. "I'm still here, you have to believe me…"
Hikari shook her head. "You aren't real, none of this is real it's just a dream!"
"Hikari are you going to go?" the shade asked.
"The doors are closed, no one can-" Hikari started.
"Hikari are you going, the rest are going?" The shade said.
"What are you talking about?" Hikari asked looking at Daisuke.
The door at the end of the room banged loudly. Hikari jumped and looked at it and when she looked back to Daisuke the boy was gone. The door banged again-
Hikari started and leapt up. Her blanket was curled tightly around her arm. She shook her head.
"Kari, I'm going to the wake, are you coming? Everyone will be there…" she heard Taichi's voice call through the door.
Hikari felt the wooziness of wakefulness fade. She could feel her heart sink as she reached for her arm and disentangled it from the blanket. She reached up to her lips, feeling for the lingering warmth of the kiss. The excitement and hope of it started to fade as she realized that all of it was dream. She instinctively reached for Gatomon to stroke the white feline, and her hand found nothing but emptiness. She curled up in her blanket and pushed herself into the corner of the bed and started to cry again.
888
"Mr. and Mrs. Motomiya, Jun, I give you my deepest condolences." Taichi said as she bowed in front of the bereaved.
Mr. Motomiya patted Taichi on the shoulder. "How is your sister?"
"She's taking it hard." Taichi said quietly.
Kari hadn't left her room since they had come back, and she wouldn't speak or respond to anything. She wouldn't even come to the funeral. Taichi looked up at the photo of Daisuke, it was a school photo, he was in his uniform, smiling.
"Tell her that we would love to see her, some time." Mrs. Motomiya said quietly. "She was such a nice young lady."
"Thank you." Taichi said quietly as he bowed again.
"The others are in Daisuke's room…" Jun said as she pointed down the hall.
Taichi nodded quietly and turned and snaked his way through groups of mourning family members and chatting friends. He'd catch snippets of conversations.
"How very strange that he'd drown in such a way!" one old woman whispered.
"They really should get guard rails up near that aqueduct!" another woman said.
"I thought he had one of those electronic pets; where was it?" grumbled a man quietly.
"It must have got caught up in that freaky black out, like all the rest…" Someone else said. "Amazingly tragic luck that…"
"And they never found the body-" A third person said. "How horrible…say it got caught in the current and is somewhere out to sea….poor thing…"
Taichi froze for a second. He frowned wanting to respond, explain that it wasn't luck, that Daisuke didn't die because of some clumsy accident, that his corpse wasn't lost at sea. He took a deep breath through his nose. The government had been adamant that nothing about what had really happen would get out. The officials said it was bad enough that the Moment of Silence, as the blackout was now referred, had nearly destroyed international trade for a brief four minutes, but to let everyone know that it was because the Chosen Ones failed, was at the very least considered most inconvenient for everyone involved. The other digimon, the ones that had been in the Human World at the time of the reboot, died. There was no better way of putting it. He'd heard from others, that their digimon simply stopped, froze in mid-act and then exploded into crimson data that melted into the air. There was no fanfare, no countdown, no chance to say goodbye. Just one moment best friend forever, next moment cloud of that forever friend's digital ashes disappearing on the wind. Suffice it to say, there were many children who, for lack of a better phrase, lost their shit. That wasn't to say it was any easier for the Chosen Children. They'd never got to say goodbye either. Their partners had been infected and driven insane, and then worse yet they were forced to flee, knowing that those partners were going to be erased, and then on top of that was Daisuke's…
Taichi shook his head and proceeded to Daisuke's room. The room was full. They were all there, except for Hikari.
"So you couldn't get her to come?" Sora asked quietly as she looked at Taichi.
Taichi simply shook his head. "She won't even speak, she just lays in bed and stares at the ceiling…."
"Give her some time." Iori said quietly. He looked up at Taichi. "This isn't easy, for anyone, but time helps."
"I think, I think she blames herself-" Taichi said as he found the wheely chair by Daisuke's desk and sat down. "You know because she couldn't stop Shakamon-"
"She can't blame herself for that!" Takeru said loudly. "None of us could do anything. None of us…"
"At the moment, truth doesn't matter." Iori said quietly, he looked up at Takeru. "When you lose someone, you'll find a million things that you could've done to stop whatever happened from happening…"
"He's not wrong-" Ken said, finally, as he looked down at where Iori was sitting. "I mean when I lost Osamu…" Ken closed his eyes and shivered. He opened his eyes looked over to Taichi. "Just don't leave her alone too long…"
"At least, you know, it's over-" Mimi said quietly.
The other's all looked at the teenager sharply.
"How can you-?" Yamato started but Sora grabbed his arm tightly.
"I mean, you know, Daisuke died trying to save us, and it worked-" Mimi replied, her eyes were all puffy, tear stains where just drying on her cheeks but Taichi could see new tears bundling in the corners of her eyes.
"Stupid goggle-head…" Miyako said. She was wearing a black dress. "He's probably being smug and thumbing his nose right now, knowing we're all crying about him…"
"I rather doubt he'd have it any other way-" Jyou said quietly. He looked up at the ceiling and blinked, and then removed his glasses as he lifted a handkerchief to his eyes. "It's weird, I miss him. I miss all of them… Gomamon would be making some stupid joke about now…and everyone would laugh…"
"Agumon would be begging to be over at the buffet table out there-" Taichi said smiling quietly.
"No, Poyomon and Upamon would already be in the buffet line, eating everything…" Iori said quietly.
"All of our partners would-" Sora nodded.
"Patamon would be carrying stuff to be out of reach of the digimon that couldn't fly…" Takeru said smiling.
"Gabumon would have at least asked permission before just going after the others…" Yamato said quietly.
"DemiVeemon would be leading the pack, dragging Minomon behind him-" Ken said looking down at the floor.
"Salamon would be tutting quietly, sitting on Kari's lap, as she watched Poyomon scarfing down, but honestly she wouldn't be far behind-" Miyako said quietly.
"Daisuke would be snatching food out of their mouths and trying to put it on his plate." Ken said, smiling weakly.
His lips pursed slightly and leaned against the banister of the bed and gripped the foot of the bed tightly. He took a deep breath. Iori reached out and grasped Ken's hand.
"It'd be a fine mess." Taichi said quietly, smiling sadly at the collection of digi-destined. His eyes fell on Koushiro who had had his head buried in his phone during the entire conversation. "Dude…really?"
Koushiro lifted his head. "I'm sorry, it's just, I've been monitoring the, well, the Digital World…well, trying to anyways, I can't get any resolution, plus there isn't much to speak of at the moment..."
"What do you mean monitoring it?" Mimi asked. "It was deleted…"
"No, it was only re-intialized." Koushiro explained. "Basically Shakamon rebooted it to its manufacturers' settings. Everything's been coming back online, slowly, but surely."
"Wait- does that mean?" Miyako looked at Koushiro.
"I mean, everything was reset, it'll effectively be like we were never there." Koushiro said quietly. "So-"
There was a knock on the door. Everyone turned to see it was Mr. Nishijima.
"Hello everyone-" the young man said fairly solemnly. He was in a black suit and tie. He squeezed into the room and surveyed it quietly and then looked to the children. "How is…everything?"
"Everything is looking better!" Mimi said. "Izzy said the Digital World's coming back and we can see our partners!"
"I-I-" Koushiro gaped at Mimi as everyone else slapped their foreheads. Koushiro fumed slightly and took a deep breath. "I said no such thing!"
"Hmm-" Mr. Nishijima said quietly. "Still monitoring things from home then Mr. Izumi. I thought the brigadier told you to stop?"
"There's nothing wrong with monitoring its progression." Koushiro said defensively. "It isn't like we can go there. The digital port system doesn't work anymore. The D-3s won't even activate at the gates…."
"Yes, an agent did say your parents' took you up to the campsite…." Mr. Nishijima said quietly.
"So you're still watching us?" Jyou grunted as he gave the young man a side-long look.
"Why? It's not like we're important anymore…" Yamato grumbled.
"For your own safety." Mr. Nishijima said politely. "At least until we can determine that no more threats are coming for you."
"Where's Ms. Himekawa?" Ken asked quietly looking at Mr. Nishijima.
"Oh, Maki, yes-well….she's taken some leave-" Mr. Nishijima said quietly. He nodded, it looked to Taichi as if he was doing so more to convince himself than the children. "I just wanted to see how you're doing…is Hikari still-" Mr. Nishijima started, Taichi narrowed his eyes. Mr. Nishijima nodded, "-ah, yes, of course she is….would you give her my condolences and those of Ms. Himekawa."
Mr. Nishijima turned and slipped out of the room, closing the door behind him. Taichi glared at the door for a minute before turning to the others. They were all asking Koushiro a barrage of questions.
"The real question is, how long until it's back to the way it was when we saw it?" Taichi asked quietly.
"Hard to tell…" Koushiro replied. "The first time around it took years for the Digital World to develop based upon a template from our world. It was built up naturally as the world got more sophisticated digital technology. This time though it's getting a direct feed from the in place digital infrastructure of our world, it's like the Digital World is getting steroids. The development is much faster than even the return from Apocalymon…which wasn't even a full reset."
"Yeah but how long until our digimon are back?" Yamato asked.
"I told you, it's not like that!" Koushiro said. "Not, exactly anyways. Our digimon may just be reborn, but without any concept of us, we'll have never been anything to them. We'd have to re-forge all of our relationships with them from start…and that's if it was even possible to get back to the Digital World…which it may not be, and even then we don't even know if our partners would even want us back…"
"Palmon couldn't forget me, I'm unforgettable!" Mimi said cheering. "We could really see them! This is great, the best news ever!"
"I never said that!" Koushiro yelped loudly. "Everyone please, calm down!"
"You can't just drop that kind of bomb on us man, and expect us not to be excited." Yamato said, shaking his head.
"Izzy's right, though." Taichi said quietly. Everyone looked up at him. "Things might be different. No need to get your hopes up…"
"Permission to do so anyways!" Takeru said lifting his hand. "It is like, my one job…"
"Only if you keep things realistic." Taichi said quietly, smiling. He looked to Ken. Ken looked to Taichi.
"What?" Taichi asked as he looked to Ken, the others' badgering of Koushiro was raucous in the background.
Ken pushed away from Daisuke's bed and walked over to Taichi. "I have just been thinking… I have some experience with…you know…losing people." Ken said quietly. "And I have some experience with the crazy stuff that Hikari has gone through with homeostasis and the Digital World…and I was just…well, Daisuke wouldn't want her to be sad like this…and I could…help…maybe…"
"If you can get through to her…" Taichi said quietly. "I'd be happy if you could help…"
"I might stop by tomorrow then." Ken said quietly, "if that's ok…that is."
"Sure, I'll tell my parents." Taichi said quietly. "So this is exciting right?"
"If I could get Wormmon back, that'd be great…" Ken said quietly. "I'd even adopt Veemon, too…for Daisuke-"
"Yeah, for Daisuke-" Taichi said, and he reached out with both arms and hugged the lavender haired teen much to the younger boy's surprise.
888
"Yeah, Izumi is still connected, somehow." Daigo said into the phone as he drove. He listened to the other end. "I don't know how…we've restricted his access to UNIT protocols. Either way they know that the Digital World is reforming. I don't want them jumping to the Digital World without us first figuring out what's going on…the restoration could be unstable, or worse…" He listened to the person on the other end speak. "So, those other kids were active too? I figured whatever was going on wasn't over yet." He listened to the speaker, as he came to a stoplight. "They all accessed the same website at the same time? What was the website? I see…" Nishijima's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he listened. "The Jaenus scan came up with nothing huh? I guess it could be coincidence -" There was a laugh on the other end of the line, "no, I don't believe it either…" The car behind him honked loudly. Daigo blinked and looked up and saw the light had changed and continued through the intersection. "The kids are still fine right? I see, better than when they were first retrieved…yeah, another coincidence that they suddenly become more talkative and energetic after going on that website…scan it again, there's no way that this isn't part of everything…" Daigo turned a corner. "Look, I'm going to have to let you go, I'm nearly to my destination…" Daigo looked up at the apartment. "Yeah, she's still a little under the weather, I've been helping her…look, keep me appraised of anything you find…I'll talk to you later, yep, bye…"
Daigo closed his phone as he pulled into the parking garage. He parked and quickly walked across the street to the apartment complex. He showed his identification to the door man and continued to the elevator. He went up the thirteen floors and out the door into a corridor of doors. He walked to the third one and took a key from a key ring and unlocked the door. He opened the door. Maki was lying on the couch in the living room, staring at the television.
"How was it?" she asked almost robotically.
"Fine, though the kids don't like that we're still watching them…" Daigo said as he sat down. He looked over at Maki. "That Izumi kid is a pain…"
"He's a genius, they usually are." Maki said quietly.
"He's still getting access to the Digital World monitoring systems…" Daigo replied quietly. "He's going to get their hopes up. I'm afraid they'll do something stupid-"
"Yeah-" Maki replied quietly. She sat up and then stood, and then started clearing away the coffee table which until them was covered in litter from chips packets and newspaper. "Wouldn't want that to happen-"
"Look, in the end, we're not really out anything-" Daigo said quietly, as Maki walked to a small kitchenette and threw the garbage away in the trash can. "I mean we already-"
"I just don't want to talk about it." Maki said sharply.
"I know, but maybe you shou-"
"Or maybe not." Maki growled glaring at him. "When are you going to stop coming over anyways? I gave you that key for emergencies only! There's no reason for you to come here, it's not like I'm going to suddenly disappear anymore."
"Is that right?" Daigo asked quietly. "You quit your job…you don't just quit a semi-clandestine government agency…"
"I didn't have a reason to work for them anymore." Maki returned. She narrowed her eyes. "Why are you still there?"
"Because, someone has to protect those kids." Daigo returned. "And it may as well be us."
"Yes, we did such a marvelous job of that!" Maki returned. The woman shook her head and walked to the refrigerator. "Plus there's nothing to threaten them anymore. If the reset is working like we theorize, the digivices won't be compatible with the new portal systems…not for a long time yet…the barrier is probably at full functionality…nothing's coming here either…"
"The other world is evolving at an expedited rate." Daigo said quietly. "I heard the kids, they are making plans about a trip back…"
"The gate system is different than the world, it doesn't evolve like the world, it's still in its old format." Maki said quietly.
"That's why we need you to come back, Maki-" Daigo said quietly, "you understand the subtleties of this whole thing far better than any-"
"Because my brain was hijacked by the thing that makes the network." Maki sneered quietly, as she looked back at Daigo from the fridge. "I only worked for UNIT for one reason. To get the others back…now that I've seen the truth of what happened to them, I don't need to work there anymore…I got that kid killed for nothing. I couldn't even save any of them-"
"You couldn't have known." Daigo said quietly. "There is no way you could've-"
"It should've been obvious…" Maki said as she slammed the door of the fridge shut and leaned her head against the metal surface. "You know what the worst part about it is?"
"Maki-"
"If I hadn't listened to you…" Maki growled. "all those years ago if I hadn't listened to you… We should've went back, Daigo! We should've went back immediately!"
"We nearly died getting home! You were dying, Shakamon left you a dribbling mess! I couldn't just let you go back to that world!" Daigo said softly but sternly.
"But they were there-" Maki said as she lifted her head and looked to Daigo. "I could've dipped into Shakamon's mind and scooped them out, restored them, brought them back…." Maki clenched her fists. "But we got trapped here! All that time….we sat over here, growing up…. too much time passed…they got integrated into the system, their data got shredded, twisted and snarled…now they're gone…"
"That's why you need to be back at work, now." Daigo said quietly. "There's a kid in the system…somewhere, it may not be too late yet…you are so depressed that he died for no reason, but you said it yourself, he can be saved…you were right…we can fix-"
"There's no way to get to the Digital World-" Maki said shaking her head, "and I'll be damned if we are going to go the way we did last time…that was a onetime trick. And even if we could get to the Digital World, you'd have to find the kid, and extract the data and reconstitute the body…it's simply too much."
"You didn't think it was…" Daigo said.
"Yeah that was when I thought I could get direct access to Shakamon's mind…and even then…" Maki said quietly. "Shakamon's fixed whatever problem had her freaked out; we missed our chance…"
"I don't think it's over yet." Daigo said quietly. "Those kidnapped kids are doing things, and it doesn't smell right…plus maybe there's another way to restore the boy."
"Not my problem anymore-" Maki said quietly as she pushed away from the fridge and walked out of the kitchen to the front door of the apartment, opening it. "Remember, I'm a former agent of UNIT…which means I don't have to care anymore."
Daigo sighed quietly. He stood up and walked to the door. "Please just, think about it for a bit. Please?"
"I thought about it for fifteen years, I think that's long enough." Maki replied. Daigo sighed and walked out of the apartment. Maki closed the door behind him. She leaned against the door and closed her eyes.
888
"Hikari-" Ken said calmly, quietly to the closed door. He stood in the hallway of the Yagami apartment. Taichi was standing at the end of the hall watching as were Mr. and Mrs. Yagami. He blushed slightly. "Hikari, I'm going to come in…"
Ken reached up and grasped the door handle and turned it. He pushed and the door opened. He wasn't entirely sure what to expect on the other side. Hikari was sitting in her bed in yellow pajamas, her arms hugged around her knees. Mountains of tissues were heaped around her. She was clutching a framed picture. The room was only lit by the sunlight through the window. Ken swallowed slightly and gently closed the door behind him.
"Hikari, how have you been?" Ken started quietly. The girl looked up at him, quirking an eyebrow. Ken blushed slightly. "Right, sorry, that was…unfortunate." Ken sat gently down at the corner of the bed. "I know, that the others have been here, I know that you haven't really left this room since…well…since…" Ken sighed quietly and took a deep breath. "I know it's difficult, but we can't dwell…" Ken said quietly he closed his eyes and felt the hot trickle slice down his cheek. "We can't dwell on our losses. I've been where you are, when I lost my brother…my world shattered, and well then the Digital World happened…and that didn't help. I loved Daisuke, he was like a brother to me, I think I might have loved him as much as anyone else in the world; and I lost him and I lost Wormmon…at the same time, just like you and Gatomon…and part of me is scared too, that I'll do something horrible, but part of me fights that because I know Daisuke and Wormmon wouldn't want me to turn my back on everything I have now…" Ken sat quietly and then looked up at Hikari. The girl was holding out a tissue. Ken smiled and took it. "Thank you…" he dried his tears. "The worst thing that I ever did was dwell on Osamu's death…I blamed myself…and to be honest everything I did was trying to bring him back because I thought if I could bring him back it would make it better. Becoming the emperor, building Chimeramon…it drove me insane but Wormmon and Daisuke…brought me back. I can only hope that in the face of this that I can stand up to the truth of it and move forward especially now that it looks like the Digital World is regenerating." Ken took a breath and looked Hikari in the eyes, the girl had a confused look on her face. "You have to accept that they are-"
"He's not gone-" Hikari said quietly. Her voice was hoarse from lack of practice. She looked around and whispered to herself. "It wasn't all just a dream-"
"Hikari he is, they all are…" Ken said quietly. "I know it's hard to believe-"
"No, he came to me-" Hikari said quietly. Ken looked up and saw the girl close her eyes and furrow her brow. "In this dream, he came, and told me not to give up, not to quit believing that he's still there…"
"The Digital World was reinitialized, everything in it was deleted and scrubbed, and reset." Ken said shaking his head slowly.
"I saw him!" Hikari replied hoarsely.
"Those are dreams, they aren't-"
"THEY ARE!" Hikari shouted and then coughed as her voice caught itself she reached for a framed picture on her bed stand. "They are all still there…" Hikari showed Ken the picture. It was a photo of all of them on an old trolley in a park. "I can feel it…" Hikari said quietly as she hugged the photo to her chest. "I didn't believe it either, not at first I've had so many weird dreams but-"
"Hikari, Koushiro said-" Ken started.
"I don't care." Hikari said shaking her head. "We have to go back. Daisuke is there still, waiting for us. Our partners are there, waiting for us!"
"If this is true we need to tell everyone." Ken said quietly, not sure how far to indulge this conversation.
"The others- will think I'm just insane." Hikari said, looking away from Ken.
Ken reached out and gently grasped Hikari's hand. "No, I believe you, they will, too. I promise. But you have to come out and join the rest of the world. Can you do it?"
Hikari opened her eyes and looked at Ken and slowly nodded. Ken smiled and stood up slowly. Hikari followed him out of the room. Ken blushed as Mrs. Yagami rushed him and hugged him and then crushed her daughter in a massive hug.
"Good job, man…" Taichi whispered as he patted Ken on the back. "How'd you do it so fast?"
"I trust her when she says that he's not gone-" Ken said quietly, as he looked at Hikari.
"What?" Taichi said as he looked at Ken and then looked at Hikari. "Dude you can't-"
"With all we've seen, is it so impossible?" Ken said quietly. "Plus, Daisuke was always capable of the most impossible miracles…why not just one more…"
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AN: The Adventure advances…..