T.K, Tai, Joe and Ian were all standing outside of the temple that they had recently just arrived at. T.K and Tai had been arguing the whole way. Joe and Gomamon had walked the whole way talking to Patamon and Agumon. Ian however had remained silent. He had been sharpening his spear the whole way there. Guilmon had been watching intently. The four of them looked up at the door to see something carved.
"To get passed here all of the crest holders including hope must say their names. When all four names are said then the door will open and you may go in to get your crests." Joe read out, he then looked back at the others. They all nodded apart from Ian who looked kind of worried. T.K and Tai looked over to Ian.
"What's the matter Ian?"Guilmon asked. Ian then looked down at Guilmon. He looked back up at Ian confused. He wasn't sure why Ian was like this.
"This is the easiest challenge we have been faced with yet! Get a grip man!" T.K shouted. The group looked over at T.K recently he had been acting strange. They knew he wanted to be with Kari again but they had all been spilt off. What about Axel and Cody who had both disappeared as well. What about all of those people who were stuck in the other universe. All these thoughts were flying through Ian's head. He had lost it. Sure he had once tried to kill them all once but he was working with them now. He started to think that T.K was both the strongest and the weakest.
"Ok then T.K then tell me something, what is my second name? Oh wait you don't know that, why don't you know that? You've been too worried about Kari. You have to understand she is a person. She knows how to defend herself. All of us do. We all have strengths and weaknesses, it's the way we handle them who makes us who we are. But for some reason you can't leave Kari alone for twenty minutes, because of the way you were acting we even lost Cody. I bet that light absorbed her so she can have her own adventure, protected from the one monster she is to blind to see. You..." Ian said in a rant to T.K, Tai was nodding along with Ian. He sounded correct. T.K however was annoyed just from that accusation.
"You can talk you jerk off. Come on proof to me why I should listen to you! If I remember correctly you tried to kill us all, in fact you tried to kill us all!" T.K shouted at Ian. He went to punch Ian but was stopped by Guilmon. Guilmon had even started to Digivolve.
"I turned over a new leaf, but none of you seemed to care about me, I even fought with Saint like forty times that guy wants you dead hell he would've made mince meat out of Axel if I wasn't there oh and before you say me and Axel are friends we don't really know each other. Sure me and Axel met up when he attacked but that was it. Axel lived his own life you know. He has a girlfriend, best friends a family. I just wish I had asked that girl all those years ago. She was perfect for me. However before I got a chance she got adopted by a family. When I asked her if I could have her address she said that she was going to be moving to Russia." Ian said. He then fell to his knees. He hadn't told anyone anything like that before. Guilmon stopped Digivolving and sat next to Ian. T.K and the others then all sat down.
"Hang on Ian, why didn't you tell us any of this before?" Tai asked. Agumon was sitting next to Tai, Gomamon was sitting in Joe's arms and Patamon was sitting on T.K's head.
"Why would I tell you anything about my personal life? Why should I bother, Axel's just as bad as me. He hasn't told you anything about himself has he. Should I tell you why? You guys make it hard for anyone new to come in." Ian stated. Tai and Joe looked at each other worried. Could this be the reason why Willis had tried to betray them. It couldn't have been for the same reason.
"What about Willis? You're not going to end up like him are you?" Joe asked. Ian then shook his head.
"Why would I do that? I have to protect all those people back home. I have to protect her." Ian muttered out. T.K then looked over at Ian. It was as if Ian couldn't hear himself. T.K then thought that Ian was being a bit of a hypocrite.
"Hang on I have a question, what makes me different to you, you'd be doing the exact same thing if that girl you mentioned was here..." T.K said. He sounded angry but confused. Ian then laughed a tiny bit. He then came to a stop.
"Nah we're so different. You're way more protective then I am. Actually you are a little too overprotective. It's sort of unhealthy, take a look at Matt and Sora and Izzy and Mimi, they are so happy around each other. However you seem to over worry. Remember you are the holder of hope and not protection. Axel should be worried about how safe everyone is going to be." Ian said with a little smirk at the end of his sentence. T.K then smiled a bit he then looked down at the ground and shut his eyes.
"What if it's too hard? What then will she stop loving me?" T.K asked. He sounded really worried. His voice was going high and low pitched all over the place. Ian shook his head.
"No she won't, if anything you'll find that she'll love you even more it'll make her feel good because you'll have given her an extra bit of freedom. I'm not saying don't be protective, I'm just telling you that you should be a little less." Ian said. T.K smiled. Someone had given him so good advice. He then looked back at the others.
"What's your second name then Ian?" T.K asked. Ian then stroked the back of Guilmon's head.
"It's Ian Conflict." Ian said cheerfully. The others then smirked.
"Taichi Kamiya." Tai said.
"Joe Kido." Joe said.
"Takeru Takaishi." T.K said with a smirk on his face. The door then started to open. Ian looked in shock, he had been tricked by them.
"You guys sure are smart but I have a few tricks up my sleeves." Ian said, trying to make himself sound smarter than T.K. They then walked into the temple.
The inside of the temple was in ruins. It felt like it had been destroyed for a reason. Ash from torches lay smoothly on top of the bricks in which this temple had been made with. Footsteps tracked on the floor, the floor was so dirty that you couldn't see the floor tiles made with the temple. Abandoned broken swords and spears lay on the ground.
"I wonder what happened here..." Patamon said as he flew along next to T.K. Gomamon was being held by Joe so that he didn't track to much dust.
"Maybe there was an insane blacksmith in here. It'd make sense." Gomamon sarcastically said. Ian decided to pick up one of the weapons. He then saw that the weapon had been sliced in half. Whatever had broken it must've been very strong.
"Whatever broke this must've been so strong. Metal doesn't break like that. Whatever came in here must've had a lot of force to be able to do anything like this." Ian said. He then dropped the rest of the weapon.
"But surely weapons would break." Tai said. Ian then picked up both sides of the weapon. Both sides were both very sharp. Ian then looked over to Tai holding the two bits.
"As you can see there has been a clean cut right through the middle of them. Whatever did this just broke the metal on impact. If it broke from overuse then there wouldn't be a clean cut in the middle." Ian said as he explained why the weapon was broken. He then again threw the weapon to the ground. The group continued to walk through. They came across door with the hope symbol on it. None of them had looked back.
"When me and Izzy went through we had already been attacked." T.K said. He held his crest up to the door but it didn't open. T.K turned around and saw Ian, Joe and Tai but behind them there were three shadowy figures, each one of them resembled Joe, Ian and Tai. The three of them turned around with their Digimon. They saw the three shadows. Each one of them was holding a different weapon.
"So do we have to do?" Joe asked. The four of them looked at each other confused. They moved down and saw a stone tablet. Tai went up to it.
"What would each of these weapons be used for if war didn't exist?" Tai read out. It seemed that their first challenge had hit them, it was a question about war. Tai looked over to see the three shadows holding a bow, a sword and a mace.
"How are we supposed to know about that?" T.K asked. He sounded worried. Ian then went up to each of the weapons. He looked back at the group and smiled.
"I love this challenge all of these weapons serve different purposes. For example did you know that the bow was used for hunting at first whether it was for food or game. They did use it for war but their primary use at first was hunting for food." Ian said he seemed to be enjoying himself. The shadowy figure then gave Ian the bow. He passed it over to Joe.
"Why are you giving me this?" Joe asked. He looked really confused.
"I think we're going to need them later on." Ian said. He then nodded at Joe. Tai was standing next to the shadow holding the mace.
"I thought these were only used for war..." Tai said. Ian then shook his head.
"They were also used for ceremonies. Sure they are rarely used anymore but they still are sometimes." Ian said. The shadow creature then gave the mace to Ian before he disappeared. Ian passed it over to Tai.
"So what was the sword used for Ian?" T.K asked. Ian then shook his head. He didn't know the answer.
"I have no idea..." Ian said. Joe then stepped forward.
"Maybe it's a trick question, maybe they didn't use it for anything else. I've only ever heard in stories that it was used for the military. If it isn't a trick question then you guys can kill me." Joe said. He sounded so sure. The group then all nodded at each other. The shadow then held out the sword. T.K went over to it and picked it up. The three shadows then disappeared and the door started to open.
"Well there we go. Seems like you didn't need me after all." T.K said. Tai then grabbed T.K's shoulder.
"No your Digivice is glowing, we needed you to open the door." Tai said. He sounded a lot more cheerful. T.K quickly looked down and saw his Digivice was glowing like it did before. The four of them then walked in, with all of the weapons in their hands. Ian was the only one without a weapon from the shadows. When they got inside they saw a huge amount of water around them. However it was red, most likely stained with the colour of blood.
"Before we move on I think we should take a rest. Today hasn't been so bad yet." T.K said. The four of them sat down in the middle of the room. Their Digimon soon followed.
"Ian how did you know so much about weaponry?" Guilmon asked. He looked up at his Digimon partner cheerfully.
"When I used to be an orphan they gave us books to read. I always got the books about weapons." Ian said. However he didn't seem like his happy self.
"Ian what's the matter?" Joe asked. Ian looked up at them all. He then turned briefly away.
"Her name was Emily Eden. She told me her parents used to love her and each other before they went all abusive on her. I can remember the night she came, I was about four. She was only three and her parents had abused her so much. She needed someone to protect her, to always ensure she was safe from harm. I learnt the hard way that being overprotective can have a negative effect on people. We were aged eleven and I was going to tell Emily how I felt about her. Then I saw her with that family. She seemed so happy around them. I couldn't tell her then otherwise she'd spend the rest of her life wondering..." Ian said to the rest of the group. The tone of his voice made it sound like a lie but they couldn't be too sure. All of them looked at each other confused.
"Why did you tell us this?" T.K asked. He didn't sound angry or confused.
"I felt I should explain my story a bit more you know. I don't want you guys to think of me as someone who will double cross you like Willis did." Ian said. Guilmon then looked up at him. He hadn't even seen this side of Ian before.
"Do you mind me asking what did she look like when you last saw her?" Tai asked. He sounded generally interested.
"She had long blonde hair with brown highlights in them. She used to pull her hair into a ponytail. When we went to school we would always sit next to each other. I was like her guard. I can remember one class work assignment we got where we had to draw out our own town. She drew her house right next to mine and told me that she'd always want me there." Ian said. He closed his eyes and smiled, as if he was remembering a good memory.
"Guys we should move on my little sis needs us." Tai stated. T.K and Joe got up and started to walk off with their Digimon. Ian however remained sitting there. The group looked back. He hadn't moved at all.
"Ian c'mon we don't have all day!" T.K shouted over. Ian remained sitting there. Joe had seen this kind of behaviour before. It was a while back when Joe, Tai and T.K had returned to the Digimon world and were trying to stop the dark masters. But it couldn't be the same thing.
"Ian what's the matter?" Joe asked as he walked over. He looked down to see that Ian had tears dropping from his eyes.
"It's nothing, let's get going!" Ian said wiping the tears off of his face. He then walked forward out of the room. The others all followed him. They were all confused about what was happening. They just shrugged it off and continued walking. T.K looked at the wall to see something written on it.
"You can only protect me so long?"T.K read out the writing looked a lot like Kari's but it couldn't have been she hasn't ever been to this temple. The others looked back at him confused. He had clearly lost it because he was talking to a brick wall.
"Hey T.K have you got a screw loose?" Tai asked. T.K then shook his head. The group walked over to him and looked at the wall. Nothing was on there. It was as if he had gone insane. Tai then ran forward a bit and saw a stone tablet.
"Welcome to the next challenge, the walls will now close and two of you must survive the rest of the night without food and water. Two of you will see the past and you must ensure that the correct thing happens. The walls will open at six o'clock in the morning." Tai read out, he then looked back to see the wall had shut behind them. The others all then looked back at the same time.
"Oh great a night with you guys. I'm going to kill myself by the end of this..." Agumon sarcastically stated. The Digi-destined all sat down. The four of them all started talking.
"So what is the first thing you guys are going to eat when we return home?" Tai asked. Joe pushed his glasses up a bit they had been falling off from all of this walking they had done.
"I'm going to get a meal at the Italian restaurant with Izumi. She's so wonderful, I wish I wasn't away from her now. But hey when we return back to Earth we will be won't we." Joe said in high hopes. Tai and T.K nodded. But Ian was busy looking away from them. He'd been acting weird recently. Not only had he been acting so distant but he had also opened up to all of them as well.
"Ian what's bothering you so much." T.K asked. It was as if Ian felt guilty about something. Ian pretended not to acknowledge him and pulled up the sleeve on his left arm. There were so many cuts on it. Ian then pulled out his javelin and put it to his wrist. Tai quickly stopped him before he could go any further.
"What are you doing Ian? What are you insane?" Tai asked as he looked down at Ian confused. Ian then started to laugh a bit. He then came to a stop and looked seriously up at Tai.
"Each of these cuts is to remind me of Emily. Each day I haven't been able to protect her I cut myself a little. It makes me feel a little bit better y'know." Ian said; his voice gave the impression that he was a little confused. Tai shook his head.
"Ian you don't see me hitting my head in with that mace do you?" Tai sarcastically said. Ian pretended not to listen and continued to sit there. T.K then went over to Tai and pulled him back a bit. A light aura went over the two of them. Tai and T.K then both disappeared. Ian looked up as if he knew the whole time that this was going to happen.
"Good luck my friends..." Ian said. He then shut his eyes and put his head against the brick wall and nodded off to sleep. It was going to be a long night ahead of them.
T.K and Tai looked up to see that they were in a city. People were walking around. There weren't any Digimon around. T.K then stopped one of the people who was walking by.
"Hello can I ask where are we?" T.K politely asked. The person looked back at him and laughed. He then walked off as if it was nothing. Tai had found a sign saying where they were. They were in Britain. He then pointed it out to T.K and they started to walk around.
"So why do you think we are here?" Tai asked. They continued to walk on when a child bumped into them. He was wearing a green face scarf and had a red scarf on him. He was holding some bread in his arm. They had both seen this clothing before. It was none other than Ian's clothing.
"Sorry about that but my friend is in trouble!" The kid said he then ran off. Tai and T.K looked back they had just met a younger Ian. But they were just in the temple of war. Why were they here now?
"Tai I think that was Ian..." T.K said. He sounded very confused however. Tai and T.K then found a phone booth. They saw some books and looked for an orphanage. They finally found one. It was on a street named Venom Street. Tai then realised they were still young as well. They had remained young.
"How are we going to look around? We're still ad-..." T.K got interrupted by Tai.
"We are still young T.K you're still eleven and I'm fourteen. If we stroll there then maybe we'll be able to meet Ian and find out a little about him. The two of them walked around for a while looking for that street. They soon came across a house that looked half destroyed. It had the name of the orphanage on it. T.K looked over at Tai.
"I feel sorry for anyone who lives there. It looks so horrible, I mean look it's falling apart around them." T.K said. He then saw two kids walk out of it. It was Ian, he had his face scarf off. He still had his black hair but he had a black eye but this time he was wearing his blue scarf. He was with a girl who had blonde hair with brown highlights. She didn't look like she had been hit. Ian then saw T.K and Tai standing there. He then walked over to them followed by the girl.
"Who are you two, I don't usually run into people I don't know twice in one day." Ian quickly asked; his voice gave the tone that he was ready to attack them. The girl then grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Ian we don't want to get in a fight. Remember what happened last time when she saw you fighting? She punched you in the eye and told you if you did it again she'd do something much worse. I couldn't lose you Ian." The girl slowly said; her tone of voice made her sound very upset, almost as if he was a member of her family. She then pulled herself in for a hug with him. She embedded her head into his chest. Ian then looked back at the two Digi-destined.
"Why are you two here? To poke fun at us?" Ian quickly asked. The tone of his voice sounded so untrusting. T.K then shook his head.
"No we were just strolling by when you two walked out. What made you walk out of there?" T.K asked and explained. Ian then looked down at the girl. Tears were dropping from her eyes. She looked so upset.
"I'm being adopted... But I'm moving to Russia. This is my last chance to talk to Emily before I leave." Ian said. The girl still had her head embedded in his chest.
"I'm going to miss you so much Ian... I-I lo-..." The girl was interrupted by Ian before she could finish.
"Please don't tell me that before I leave. Emily can I speak to these guys alone?" Ian asked. Emily looked back at him and kissed him on the cheek. She walked back in. Ian then looked at Tai and T.K and smiled at them.
"What's the matter then?" Tai asked. Ian then looked back at the two of them and smiled.
"I know I shouldn't trust you but I don't know why but I do. I need to make it look like we are fighting. That way when the Russian family come out and see me they'll hopefully hate me and take Emily instead, she deserves a home much more then I do." Ian said. His plan sounded insane but from the looks of it he was positive that he wanted this to happen.
"Ok then dude we'll make it look real but you'll owe us one day in the future." Tai said. Ian then looked up at them. They then heard the door open. Ian ran up to Tai and made it look like he was trying to punch him. T.K then pretended to try and pull him off.
"You three stop it!" An old woman shouted; the tone of her voice would make anyone scared. They came to a stop and saw an old woman standing there with another two people. Emily ran out and pulled Ian away. The old woman then marched over to T.K and Tai. There was something about her that was just scary. Neither of them could tell what it was but it really was scary.
"Hello?" T.K muttered out. He was really scared, he had never seen a woman like this before. If he had to live with her then chances are he would have to pull out his own eyes and cut off his own ears.
"What do you two think you're doing?" She asked. She sounded really mad. That kind of voice could bring the dark masters to a halt. Tai then realised that Ian wanted the girl he was with to go to Russia, it'd be a lot safer there then here. Tai then thought up the perfect lie.
"Well me and my friend were walking past. You see this guy is trying to date my sister. We were having a talk about if he would care for her and how long would he stay with her. When this numbskull comes out at me and punches me in the stomach. My friend tried to pull him away but he over powered him. That guy is trouble!" Tai shouted. He sounded angry. T.K just felt so lost. Tai had made that all up on the spot. The two people who were with the old woman looked at her.
"Excuse me, we were wondering if we could change who we were taking away..." The man asked. The old woman then sighed and looked back at Ian and Emily who were in a hug.
"There is only one other person who fits your criteria." The old woman said. She started to cackle like an evil old witch. Emily pulled her head from Ian's chest and looked at the old woman. The couple then looked at each other and nodded.
"What is her name?" The woman from the couple asked.
"Her name is Emily, Emily Eden. She is a bright young girl who has been here since the age of three. Her family used to beat her. Maybe you two could look after her." The old woman said. The couple then walked over to Emily and grabbed her arm and walked off with her. T.K and Tai then both realised Ian had lied to them. He was suppose to be the one moving, he was the one who stopped the confession and he was suppose to be the one who moved. The old woman then picked up Ian and threw him in front of T.K and Tai. He had cuts and bruises all over him.
"Ian you caused this to happen. With your little fight with these idiots, maybe one day a family will be so unlucky that they have to adopt you. But until then you'll still be that bastard child who was brought here because his mother died while she was giving birth to him. Your father Ian Conflict would be ashamed of you, I'm bet he's glad he never met you!" The old woman shouted. She then walked back into the orphanage and slammed the door behind her. Ian fell to his knees, he looked like he was going to cry.
"We're so sorry Ian..." T.K said. Ian looked up at him and smiled.
"No don't be... You did exactly what I wanted you to do, you are at no fault. Emily will always be protected now. She can finally live the life she always wanted. My feelings don't matter." Ian nobly stated. T.K and Tai then walked off. They soon found themselves back in the room with Ian, Joe and all of their Digimon. Patamon flew into T.K's arms while Agumon ran over to Tai and got a pat on the head.
"Where have you guys been, I've been worried that you guys would be gone forever. You've been gone nearly all night. Ian's been asleep the whole time. Him and Guilmon sure make a good team. They've both slept through the whole night." Joe said. He had a smile on his face. He was happy to see his friends again. They then heard a noise coming from behind them. Ian had woken up.
"Ian why did you give us all of those lies we went to your home town. It sure seemed like hell." T.K quickly said. Ian then nodded with a smile.
"Thank you for that you guys. If you hadn't of come that day Emily would've lived in that hell hole for longer. I just wish I could've seen her once more just once you know..." Ian stated. He then closed his eyes. A single tear dropped from his eye and landed on top of Guilmon. He then started to Digivolve again. The others all looked at the Digivolving Digimon. He finished Digivolving and was now Growlmon.
"We need to get out of here Ian!" Growlmon shouted. Ian then nodded. However Agumon looked jealous. Tai looked down at his yellow reptile friend.
"Time to prove I'm the fireball on top!" Agumon shouted. Agumon then started to digivolve as well. Soon enough he had turned into Greymon. Growlmon then looked over to Greymon.
"We need to get out of here, I'm tired of waiting!" Growlmon commanded. The two of them started to pound on the wall but it was no use. However Greymon couldn't care less, he had to prove he was better than Growlmon. Greymon suddenly felt a burst of energy. He looked over at Gomamon. Greymon then turned back into Agumon. Gomamon jumped out of Joe's hands. It was time.
"Are you ready Gomamon. Warp Digivolving sure is hard but it's worth it." Agumon said. Gomamon looked up at him and pulled a cheesy smile.
"Then how do you pull it off?" Gomamon sarcastically asked. The two of them started to warp digivolve. Once Agumon had finished they saw the familiar site of WarGreymon but with Gomamon they were unsure what would come up. Gomamon had finally finished Digivolving. He had digivolved into Plesiomon.
"Way to go Gomamon I mean... Whatever your name is!" Joe shouted.
"It's Plesiomon. I'm the mega digivolved version of Gomamon." Plesiomon stated. WarGreymon, Plesiomon and Growlmon then knocked on one of the walls. It started to open and the group continued to move on. They soon found themselves in front of another door it had the symbol of hope on it. The two mega Digimon were too weak to stay in their mega forms to long so they had returned to Agumon and Gomamon. Even though Growlmon was a lower class he was also too weak to say in champion form and turned into Guilmon again.
"Wow nice symbol. Can't wait to see what's on the other side." Tai sarcastically said. T.K then held his Digivice up to the door. The door then opened the group then walked into the room. There were three stands. Ian saw a stone tablet.
"To get your crests you must put the holy weapons you have into the stands. The crests will then appear." Ian read out.
The group then all put their weapons into the stands. Light then started to beam up to the top of the temple. Soon three crests appeared in Tai's, Joe's and Ian's hands. Ian's crest had a picture of a spear and a sword on it. They all put them around their necks. They had finally beaten this temple. They then appeared in the base camp Izzy had set up. Everyone looked up at them.
"Welcome back you guys. I took a look at which temple is nearest thanks to you guys a map appeared on my computer. Anyway, I looked at the temple. It's a combination of friendship and love. But whatever the symbol is the key suggests it's Davis's." Izzy calmly said. Mimi was asleep in his arms. If he had said anything in his usual way then chances are she would've woken up and would've thrown a tantrum. The four then sat down in front of the fire. Matt was sitting there alone he looked like he was trying to think of something that was important to him.
"What's the matter Matt?" T.K asked as he sat down. Matt was holding out a black box. It had Sora's name written on it.
"I'm feeling scared T.K... Me and Sora are next... Sure we'll have Davis with us but I can't put her into trouble... Plus I wanted to pro-..." Matt suddenly stopped talking and looked down at the box. T.K then patted his back.
"Just tell her how you feel Matt. She loves you. I think she wants you to propose to her." T.K reassuringly said as he patted his back. Matt then walked off. Patamon then sat down he looked upset as well.
"T.K I'm worried about Gatomon. Why can't she tell me how she feels about me?" Patamon asked. T.K then sighed.
"Why does everyone ask me for advice when Kari isn't around? It just makes me feel more upset. Anyway give her time Patamon, maybe she just can't except the fact that she is ready to be with someone." T.K slowly said. He was slowly falling to sleep. It had been a long time and T.K needed to have a small sleep. However he knew he would have to leave soon. Still the temple of war had proven to be a hard challenge. Would all the other temples be that hard?