Author's Note: Thank you to Chinaman8 who pointed out that I submitted the wrong document initially for this chapter. It's fixed now.
Chapter 33: Daemon's Earring
"What do you think is taking her so long?" Tai asked. He was really beginning to worry. "What if she couldn't find him, and now she can't get back?"
"Don't say stuff like that, Tai," Sora said. "I'm sure she'll be back any minute now."
"What is the Dark Ocean?" Michael asked. We were somewhat surprised that he didn't know, but it made sense that he wouldn't.
"It's another parallel world, kind of like the digital world, only without any color. It's where all kinds of negative emotions form," ken explained to him. "Not all of us have been there. Only Kari, Will, TK, Yolei, and myself."
"Did Will ever tell you about it, Shark?" Michael asked in English.
"About what?" Shark responded. Of course, he hadn't understood the rest of the conversation.
"The Dark Ocean. A separate world that his crest can apparently take him to," Michael explained.
"What, the colorless place?" Shark asked. "If that's it, then he took me there once, when we were alone together in the woods. After a few weeks he told me that his crest was taking him to a weird place every few nights, so I went with him. You callin' that a Dark Ocean now?"
"Well, that's what they've named it," Michael said, indicating the Japanese digidestined. Shark just rolled his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall.
Suddenly, the space in the corner where Drakamon was curled up began to twist and turn dark. Drakamon sprang up in surprise and slithered quickly away. The warp turned dark black, and then slowly began to return to color, with two all-too familiar figures taking shape as the darkness vanished, Kari, still in her hospital gown and barefoot, and Will, gripping her hand tightly with one hand and his crest and tag with the other.
Michael stepped towards Will, his intent rather obvious to everyone. Kari smiled at Will and then stepped away.
"Will," Michael began. "I, I guess there's nothing we can say that can change what happened. We acted rashly; we didn't even stop to think about how much we had already been through together. I want to make it right, though. Please, can you forgive us?"
Will began to smile at last. "Yeah, I think it's time to move on," he said, in English, though. The little boy behind Michael peeked around him hopefully.
"Does that mean we're a team again?" Ricky asked in English.
"I guess so," Will replied.
Michael then turned to Shark. "Shark, I'm sorry for everything I've said about you. You come off a bit odd sometimes, but you're a good person, and much more understanding than I am."
"C'mon Prep, at least give yourself a little credit. You suck at judging people but at least you figure it out eventually," he grinned. "And I still haven't gotten that race outta you yet."
"I think everything's taken care of now," Mimi told us all.
"In that case, do you think we could all go home and get dried off," Joe said.
"That sounds like a good idea, Joe," Matt said.
"Kari just has to be cleared to leave," Tai reminded us.
"I'll go get the doctor," Sora volunteered.
Outside, the rain was finally beginning to let up. The streets in some of the lower areas of the city were still class four rapids, but for the most part the city would be able to survive the flash flooding. Not that it mattered to any of us, we were still completely soaked.
It took almost an hour before the doctor would concede that some kind of miracle had healed Kari's stomach. When she finally walked into the waiting room, we had already determined where the American digidestined were staying. Michael said they would find a hotel, but Tai wouldn't allow that. Shark would still stay with Will; Michael would stay with Izzy, Ricky with Ken, and Jesse and Laura with Mimi. Sora had volunteered us, but the fact that she didn't speak English would have caused too many problems.
"I can't really explain it, and that makes me wary," the doctor said. "If there is even the slightest recurrence of pain, come back here immediately."
"Don't worry doctor, I'm sure I'm fine," Kari said.
"I'll look after her," Tai promised.
"Alright then, hurry home kids," the doctor said as he walked out of the room.
"Mom and Dad are going be surprised when they see you," Tai smiled as he and Kari joined the group. "So everything's all set up?"
"Yeah, as soon as Izzy gets off of his computer," Sora laughed.
"I just thought I'd check up on my emails real quick before we left," Izzy said. "You never know when something important might come up," Izzy said happily. He looked back at his monitor and a look of surprise suddenly came across his face.
"What is it Izzy?" Matt asked.
"It's Gennai. He says that we need to go to the digital world right away, and that there's no time to lose!" Izzy exclaimed.
"Are you serious?" Davis asked.
"Completely. I'm sorry guys, but it looks like we've got one more thing to do today," Izzy said.
"Give me a break," Davis moaned.
"Did he say what the problem is?" Tai asked.
"No, he only said that we shouldn't waste any time," Izzy set his laptop down on a chair in the waiting room. "I'm not real keen about leaving my laptop here, but it's the fastest way to the digital world."
"Veemon and I will stay here and guard it," Davis offered.
"In your dreams, Davis," Yolei said. "This is important, and we're all going." She stepped forward and held her D-3 up to the screen.
The little green light on the program Izzy had opened blinked on, and everyone crowded around. Despite being exhausted and still soaking wet, we all stepped through the gate into the digital world.
"Well, it's nice to see that you responded promptly," Gennai said. We were surprised to see him so soon. He rarely ever greeted us when we traveled to the digital world.
"What's the big deal, Gennai?" Matt asked.
"Well, I suppose you could say I found something very interesting over there, in that clearing," Gennai replied. "I want you to go and talk to him. Find out what happened to him and then come back here to talk to me."
"Why couldn't you have talked to him yourself?" Davis complained.
"Because I don't have a digimon to protect me, and I feared that it could be some kind of trick.
"Alright, who is it?" TK asked.
Gennai frowned, "Demidevimon."
"What?" we all said simultaneously.
"From the look of things, he's hurt badly. I came upon him while wandering through the woods, and he requested that I send for you. I'm not sure what he's planning, but I thought it best that you handle it," Gennai explained.
"But Demidevimon died, Venommyotismon killed him!" TK recalled.
"Perhaps Myotismon managed to revive him with the dark crest while I was captured," Will said.
"Regardless of how he got back here, he is here, and he wanted to see you all," Gennai said.
"It's probably a trick. I'll bet Daemon is hiding in the woods somewhere," Gatomon said. "Demidevimon was never anything but trouble."
"We should at least go see what he wants," Mimi said. Everyone looked at her. "I mean, we should be careful, in case it is a trap, but don't you think it would be silly to just ignore him? If nothing else, he can give us some important information, perhaps."
"Mimi's right. Trap or no trap, we could learn something important by talking to him. We know he's fairly weak, so he's not much of a threat," Tai said.
Tai then proceeded to lead the way to the clearing, with Agumon following closely behind. We all slowly went after them, curiosity finally getting the better of us.
"This is stupid," Gatomon said. "Demidevimon never does anything but cause trouble."
"Whoa," Tai said upon entering the clearing. We all rushed ahead to see what had surprised him. In the middle of the clearing, beneath a few bushes which were slowly beginning to lose their leaves, the aptly described black bowling ball with wings and talons was crumpled in a bloody pile. There were disgusting burns all across his body, his wings were sliced up like confetti, and his left eye was swollen shut. He was gasping for breath. Blood flowed freely from the many open wounds across his body, and I actually felt pity for the little digimon who had always caused so many problems for us in the past.
"Oh no," Sora said, reaching out towards him.
"Don't touch!" Demidevimon yelled, flailing a claw at Sora's hand.
"But you're hurt. We can help you," Sora said.
"No, you can't. Nobody can help this," he gasped out, his breathing badly labored.
"But . . ." Sora tried to protest again.
"Quiet! Do you want me to tell you this or not?" Demidevimon screamed, wincing in pain at almost every word. Sora was quiet.
"What exactly happened to you?" Tai asked the little digimon.
"Daemon," Demidevimon choked out. "He came to kill Myotismon. He took the army too. I was going to be his servant, but he said I was too loyal to Myotismon. He threw me out of the castle and . . ." he groaned again, flailing his broken wings in uncontrollable spasms.
He calmed himself down again, although his breathing came harder than ever. "Now don't think . . . that I like you . . . I still hate every one of you . . . but Daemon I hate more . . . he's looking for an artifact . . . an earring . . .it got lost in the . . . human world . . . it will make him stronger . . . that's what he's really after . . . the crazy digimon and storms . . . they're just a . . . distraction . . . ah!" he erupted in spasms again, but when Sora tried to pick him up, he swiped his talon at her hand again.
"Stop it!" he said, choking on the words. "At Christmas . . . last year . . . when all the . . . gates . . . all over the world . . . opened." He groaned again, and was now gasping for breath. "The earring fell through . . . into the human . . . world . . . nobody knows where."
"Just how powerful is this earring?" Izzy asked.
"If he finds it . . . he'll be able to . . . transform . . . into . . . Magnadaemon . . . he'll be . . . invincible," Demidevimon said. Then another bout a seizures took him, twisting him around on the ground as he groaned in pain.
"Please, let us help you," Sora begged him. "You just helped us, now let us help you."
"I didn't . . . help you," he managed to gasp out. "I got revenge . . . on Daemon . . . for this . . ." he fell over and stopped moving. Slowly, his body began to disintegrate into data and dissolve into the atmosphere.
We all watched as the data of the little digimon floated away into the sky. We were all silent for a long time. All that remained was a small stain of blood on the ground under the bushes, splattered on the fallen leaves of early autumn.
"You know what, Biyo," Sora whispered to me.
"Yes Sora?"
"Maybe there really is some good deep down inside of everyone . . ."