Disclaimer: I do not own digimon
Chapter 7:
"Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty! Now get up and start running TK, yep yep!"
He sighed heavily as he pushed himself off of the ground and got up to his feet. His entire body ached in protest to his movements as he started running.
He had been training with Piximon for five days now and it had been brutal. Piximon had been pushing his body to the limits during his "training." He had lost count of the number of pushups, sit-ups, and miles he had ran since it all started, and his body ached just thinking about it. He didn't think Piximon's training would be anything as physically demanding as this.
He must have slowed down because Piximon yelled at him, "Pick up the pace boy! You're running as slow as a Snailmon!"
The urge to stop and hit Piximon was tempting, but Tsukaimon flew up next to him and said quietly, "You can do it TK!"
He would have quit if it wasn't for Tsukaimon. Despite Tsukaimon's quiet nature, his partner still cared for him as much as Patamon did. This had made him believe that Tsukaimon was indeed Patamon and that thought comforted him.
After a couple of miles, Piximon told him to stop and take a break. His thighs were burning from the uphill run, so he took a seat and tried to catch his breath.
They had left the thick of the forest a couple days ago and now were approaching some sort of mountain range. As they neared the mountains, there were fewer and fewer trees. There was a slight incline to the land as well. Off in the distance he heard what sounded like water flowing. He slowly got back to his feet and headed towards the sound of water.
He was right because in a clearing there was a small river flowing slowly. The water looked clear and he could even see an occasional fish swim by. He got onto his knees and put his hands in the water. The cool water ran through his fingers, washing the dirt that had accumulated on his hands. After washing his hands as best he could, he cupped his hands together and drank. The water tasted as refreshing as the water looked, though that could have been because of how thirsty he was. He took another drink and his dry mouth started to moisten, quenching his thirst.
Tsukaimon and Piximon caught up to him and both drank from the river as well. After he was satisfied, he pulled his shoes and socks off and dropped his feet into the water. He rested his elbows on the ground and leaned back, his body starting to cool down from the run.
"Piximon, what is the point of this training?" he asked.
Piximon responded, "It is only with good physical shape that one can also be in good mental shape."
"But all I've been doing is running and doing pushups; this isn't helping me at all."
"This training is helping you more than you think, but you are right. Maybe it is time we take a break from the physical aspect of our training and move on to the mental aspect."
'Finally,' he thought to himself. Maybe now he would be able to start trying to use his abilities.
"Firstly, it is important to understand what exactly is the source of your power. Now, as you are a digidestined, your powers come from the digivice and the crest. But, the powers of the digivice and the crest come from the individual digidestined. Each digidestined has a specific characteristic that they represent, and when the digidestined expresses this characteristic, then the power of the crest and digivice are activated and can be accessed."
"But I'm different from the others, right?"
"Yep yep. You were intended to be the digidestind of hope, so the hope inside of you was supposed to be what powered your digivice and crest. But something happened so that your hope was taken away from you. This has affected your digivice and crest as well, and now your digivice and crest seem to be activated by your feelings of darkness."
"So, in order to use the power of the digivice and the crest, I must use my dark feelings?"
Piximon sighed, "Yes and no. You see, your crest is still indeed the crest of hope, and, according to Gennai, if you were to exhibit feelings of hope, then the intended power from your digivice and crest would be accessible. But somehow your digivice and crest can be used when you have feelings of darkness as well."
"But that's a good thing isn't it?" he asked, "Why is Gennai so opposed to this side of my digivice and crest."
"It is because this is not the intended use for your digivice and crest. Your digivice and crest were created to use the power of hope, not the power of anything else. For example, Tai's courage would not be able to make Agumon digivolve if Tai was using your crest. So the fact that you are using darkness with your digivice and crest is a contradiction. Gennai worries that there will be unforeseen misfortunes if you were to continue using your digivice and crest with darkness. Also, Gennai believes you won't be able to fulfill your responsibilities as the digidestined of hope if you use the dark powers."
TK nodded, allowing the information Piximon had told him to settle in.
"Ok, now I know where the power comes from. So what do I do to access this power?"
"I think you know the answer to that, yep yep."
"Well, I know it's the dark feelings inside of me, but how come I can't use them now?"
"TK, think back to all the times you and the others have used your digivices and crests. He obeyed Piximon and thought back to when the digimon had all digivolved into their champion forms and even, for Agumon, his ultimate form: Greymon, Garurumon, Birdramon, Togemon, Kabuterimon, Ikkakumon, Angemon, and MetalGreymon.
"Ok..."
"And now think back to the times when you used your dark powers."
He remembered attacking Kokatorimon, protecting Piximon against Tyrannomon, battling DemiDevimon, and defeating the Yanmamon. He then started to see the pieces come together.
"They all were battles," he realized.
Piximon nodded, "Each of these times, you, one of your friends, and/or your digimon partner were in trouble. So, the same requirement is needed to access your digivice and crest."
He was glad that he had figured this out, but something was still bothering him.
"How are we going to train if I constantly have to be battling to even use my digivice and crest? We're not going to battle the entire Digital World are we?"
"No, of course not. There are other things we can do to help train you, yep yep."
"It doesn't involve more running does it?"
Piximon laughed, but he wasn't as amused as Piximon was.
Piximon then cleared his throat and asked, "TK, do you think darkness is evil?"
The question had caught him off guard and he didn't know how to respond. He thought about Piximon's question, and the more he thought the more confused he got. Growing up, he had watched many cartoons where there were bad guys and good guys. The bad guys typically lived in dark places, like caves, or haunted castles. The cartoons also seemed to show that wherever there is darkness, there is some type of evil. So his initial answer was 'yes,' but he thought about it some more. He had dark feelings inside of him and even wanted to use them to help protect him, his partner, and his friends. This wasn't 'evil' was it? Or maybe he was turning evil and just didn't know it.
"I... I don't know. I mean, yes, evil and darkness are kind of the same thing, but I have some darkness inside of me and I don't think I'm evil. I don't know. What do you think, Piximon?"
Piximon wore a quizzical look and responded, "I am not sure either. I used to think that evil was the same thing as darkness. After all, the powers of darkness are threatening the existence of our worlds. But now I am starting to think that evil and darkness are not the same thing."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, when you used your darkness back at my house against Tyrannomon, you protected me from Etemon's attack. I don't believe protecting me was evil; it in fact was a good thing. But that good thing was done by your darkness."
TK nodded, "I see what you mean. And against the Yanmamon, I used them to save me and Tsukaimon."
"Exactly, yep yep. So that tells me that darkness has the potential to do both good and evil."
"Does that mean that the darkness inside of me can do both good and evil?"
"Yes, and that is what Gennai is so nervous of. You have used your powers for good so far, but you could also use your powers for evil as well."
TK shook his head, "That can't be true."
"Haven't you already attacked your own brother?"
He dropped his head in shame as he remembered that time at the sphinx when he had attacked Matt for intruding on his and Izzy's conversation. He remembered the look of fear Matt had in his eyes when he had done so, and it unnerved him.
"But you have used your powers for good as well! You see, we have already seen that your darkness has two sides to it. The key to your power is what side you are using it for, good or evil."
"So how do I keep from using my powers for evil?" he asked, a little scared of the fact that he could do something evil.
"I'm not certain, but I believe it all has to do with how you control the darkness. Take Devimon, for example. Devimon used the powers of darkness to try and take over File Island. By the end when he was battling with you at Mount Infinity, he had gone completely out of control and had practically become mad. You must learn to not lose grip of your darkness and not let it take over you."
He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the answer, but he asked, "And what would happen if I did lose control?"
Piximon hesitated and was about to reply when a recognizable voice spoke up, "You will lose yourself."
He, Piximon, and Tsukaimon all turned around quickly to see that Gennai had appeared in one of his classic rainbow holograms.
"Gennai!"
"Hello digidestined of hope, hello Piximon. How has your training been going?"
"I've gotten TK worked up into really good shape, yep yep."
He nodded in agreement, "It was the worst."
"And I see you were just in a deep conversation."
"All part of the training," Piximon said nervously.
"Let's hope that it was, Piximon."
"What do you mean by I'd lose myself?" he asked.
"Let's just stay that evil and darkness sort of have a magnetic effect on each other where they are naturally drawn together, while light and darkness have the opposite effect. And once darkness has been engulfed in evil, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to escape the evil. This is the reason you must not dawdle with the darkness, for it is far too dangerous, right Piximon?"
"Of course, Gennai."
"Right. Now, there is a reason I have contacted you. TK, you need to return to the others and fulfill your responsibilities as a digidestined."
He groaned in disgust at the thought of returning to the others. It wasn't that he didn't want to see them again, but he had been learning so much on his own. He didn't have to worry about what the others thought of him or how he acted around them. When he was alone, he could be himself, and he enjoyed it as much as he could.
"And if I don't want to go...?"
"Then you will go anyways. There is an eighth digidestined in Japan, and Myotismon has found a way to travel to your world. He plans on finding the eigth digidestined and destroying him or her before they can activate their crest. You and the others must follow Myotismon back to the Real World and unite with the eighth digidestined."
An eighth digidestined? He rolled his eyes in annoyance; this just meant there was going to be another person that he had to worry about.
"Where are the others right now?" he inquired, not really interested, but he wanted to know that they were at least ok.
"I have contacted them recently and they had just escaped from Myotismon's attack thanks to Sora's crest causing Birdramon to digivolve. I told them of Myotismon's plan and your responsibility of finding this digidestined before Myotismon does. They all are heading to Myotismon's castle right now."
Thanks to Piximon, he had been able to learn more about this Myotismon character. Apparently he was an ultimate level digimon that resembled a vampire. Myotismon was very strong and very evil, according to the pink fluffball. He even remembered Piximon mentioning Myotismon having a hideout of some kind, which must have been the castle Gennai alluded to.
"How soon can you be to Myotismon's castle?" Gennai asked, turning to face Piximon.
"I can have TK there by tomorrow afternoon. I figured you would want him to go there anyway, so we were already heading in that direction, yep yep."
"Good," Gennai said, satisfied, "And one more thing, TK. I told the others about your situation."
"What?" TK exclaimed, "What'd you do that for?"
"They have a right to know what is going on. Matt would have strangled me by the neck trying to get me to tell you how you were if I had not been talking to them with this hologram and was actually there with them. That's not the point. The point is that your friends are worried about you and are eager to see you soon."
"Great," he mumbled to himself; he couldn't wait for that to happen.
"Is that it Gennai?" Piximon asked.
"Yes, that is all. I have a feeling I will be seeing you and the others shortly. Safe travels!"
Darkness surrounded him from every angle. The only light around him came from the fire they had started before going to sleep. The fire radiated a light that repelled the darkness from creeping in too close, but outside the fire's aura the darkness was deep. A cloudy night sky prevented the stars' lights from shining down to the ground. Everything was eerily quiet, save for the crackling of the fire. A light breeze caused him to shiver from a sudden chill.
He wasn't sure, but he thought that before he came to the Digital World he would have been scared to be sitting in the dark like he was. But now, he didn't find the darkness to be scary. In fact, he felt comfortable being in this environment; it felt like he belonged here. That being said, he also felt drawn to the light of the fire. It felt like he had a battle raging on inside of him, the battlers being light and darkness.
"Hope is both light and dark, TK."
He instantly sat up straight, looking around curiously for the voice. It wasn't Tsukaimon or Piximon, so he was nervous, but the voice did not sound confrontational, so he wasn't too worried.
"You won't find me out there," the voice spoke again.
'Then where are you,' he thought to himself, still looking around to find the source of the voice.
"I am you, at least a part of you," the voice responded.
He was shocked that the voice had responded to his thought. 'Great,' he thought, 'now I'm hearing voices in my head.'
"You're not going crazy TK."
Once again he was shocked that the voice had responded to his thought and this made him suspicious.
"You don't need to worry. I will not harm you, TK; I am here to help."
'Wh.. who are you?' he thought in his head, hoping that the voice would respond and that he wasn't crazy.
"I told you, I am a part of you, TK."
A memory ran through his mind. He was back at Infinity Mountain and Angemon had just been deleted. He was on his knees, mourning his partner's death. Then there was a voice inside his head trying to get him to lose hope in Angemon returning. He agreed with everything the voice had said about him, but he couldn't believe that Angemon was gone forever.
"I am not the same being as you are thinking," the voice spoke, interrupting his thoughts, "But I am a part of you because of that being."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"It's hard to describe in words, but, essentially, I am darkness."
The voice wasn't making any sense to him. "I still don't understand."
"Who I am exactly is not important. What is important is you, TK."
"What are you talking about?"
"TK, there is a dark being trying to engulf all of the worlds, including the Digital World and your world, in total darkness, and he needs to be stopped"
"Why would you be opposed to this guy, since you are, as you say, darkness?"
"TK, there is much more to darkness than the evil desires of some digimon. You are starting to see the beauty of the darkness, the power of the darkness. As I'm sure you are starting to find out, darkness is neither good nor evil by itself; it is the intentions of the user of darkness that make it good or evil. There are many that use the darkness for evil, and this has given darkness a bad reputation. But, as you have shown, darkness has the potential to be used for good, for protection."
"Yes, but I still don't understand why you are opposed to the worlds becoming dark."
"Balance, that is the answer, TK."
"Balance?"
"Yes, TK, balance. A world of complete darkness or complete light would be catastrophic. Imagine a world where you only feel anger, sadness, turmoil, and there is no happiness, no light to counteract these feelings."
He thought about that and shivered at the thought, "That would be awful."
"Yes, just as a world where you only feel giddy, cheerful, joyful, and no sadness, no anger, no sorrow to mellow the light. What is enjoyable would lose its pleasure because there would be nothing that brought sadness or grief to compare it to. You see, the darkness and light are always in conflict with each other; where one is the other cannot. But, you cannot have one without the other. There is always a shadow in the midst of the light, and a little light can outshine even the most intense darkness."
He allowed what the voice had told him to sink in before he continued, "So there needs to be balance, I get that, but why are you only talking to me? What about the other digidestineds?"
"Courage, friendship, love, sincerity, reliability, knowledge. All of those are capable of both light and dark, but they are the most pure in the light. Hope, though, remains the same, whether it is in light or darkness. As I said earlier, hope is both light and dark. Only you are capable of using your digivice and crest's true power without corruption when using darkness. You have already seen what happened when courage tried to use the powers of darkness."
Courage? Friendship? Was he talking about their crests? He must have; that meant courage was another name for Tai. But when had Tai used dark... SkullGreymon.
"That's right, TK. Courage could not control the powers of darkness and was easily overwhelmed by them. You, however, have the capability of using the powers of darkness while controlling them."
"So, what do you want from me then?" he asked.
"If we are to stop this being from ruling over the worlds with darkness, then the only way to stop him for good is with darkness. I need you to continue using the powers of darkness. But I must warn you, there is a great power in darkness, and it takes a strong, resilient being to control the darkness. You must learn to use the darkness without losing yourself; if that happens, you might not be able to find yourself again."
He wasn't exactly sure what the voice meant, but he could tell that he was serious by the tone of the voice. "Ok, but how exactly am I supposed to do that?"
"Hope. If you are able to hold on to your hope in the midst of the darkness, then you will be fine. It looks like you have your first test. Good luck."
The voice faded away and he was confused.
"No, come back! What do you mean by test?"
There was no response. He listened as hard as he could but he didn't hear the voice. Instead, he heard a noise that sent chills down his spine. Angry growls like that of a wolf could be heard nearby. He looked around his surroundings and spotted multiple sets of red eyes circling around him.
"Uh... Tsukaimon? Piximon?"
He heard the two digimon start rustling.
"Wh.. what is it TK?" Piximon asked.
"We've got company," he answered simply.
At this, Piximon and Tsukaimon became fully alert and took defensive postures as they surveyed the area.
"Gururumon," Piximon muttered.
"Do you mean Garurumon?"
The nearby digimon's growls intensified.
"No, I mean Gururumon. And apparently they don't like being mistaken for their look-a-like."
"Chaos Blaster!"
One of the Gururumon decided to pounce. It was then that he was able to get a good look at the digimon. Gururumon looked very similar to Garurumon, except for the fire-red eyes and black claws. He also noticed a slightly different pattern on the digimon's fur.
Gururumon launched his attack, which greatly resembled Garurumon's Howling Blaster, save for it being the same color red as Gururumon's eyes.
"Magical Tail!" Piximon exclaimed while moving in front of the attack and twirling his spear so quickly that it became a blur to his eyes. Gururumon's attack bounced off of Piximon's spear shield, and as Gururumon started to fall closer towards Piximon, Piximon took his spear and slammed it into Gururumon, causing the wolf to howl in pain as he hit the ground hard.
"Animal Bite!"
He quickly turned around to see another Gururumon charging at him with his jaw opened wide, revealing many sharp, razor teeth.
In that moment, all he could think of was how mad he was that these digimon had decided to attack him and his friends for no reason at all. He didn't want to just protect himself from them; he wanted the Gururumon to be destroyed, to be punished for their actions.
Instantly his crest started glowing and a black barrier appeared between him and the attacking Gururumon. As soon as the Gururumon hit the barrier, black electricity shot through Gururumon's body, causing him to yelp in pain. The barrier then disappeared.
He felt tired after what had happened, but his anger towards the Gururumon continued to boil dangerously hot.
"Tsukaimon," he said cooly, which surprised him because he felt like his insides were shaking with anger, "Digivolve."
A black beam of light shot out from his digivice towards Tsukaimon, who became engulfed in the dark light. He tried to see his partner change forms, but he couldn't see through the darkness. Finally, the black light faded, revealing a monster.
In place of Tsukaimon was now a huge black dragon digimon. The dragon had dangerously sharp red claws, four piercing red eyes, fierce white teeth, and inky black wings. The beast was quite scary looking, but TK was just relieved that Tsukaimon hadn't digivolved into Devimon.
"Go get them!" he ordered.
The digimon obeyed and charged at the Gururumon who was still recovering from lunging into his barrier. Gururumon had no time to react as his partner sliced through his body with his blood-red claws, shredding the wolf into little pieces of data, which evaporated into the night sky.
"Chaos Blaster!" another Gururumon yelled, launching its attack at his partner from behind.
"Watch out!" he warned, but it was not needed as his partner quickly flew up to dodge the attack and then turn around and land back on the ground facing the Gururumon.
"Red Eyes!"
His partner's eyes narrowed and stared right at Gururumon. The Gururumon was staring right back and growling, but did not move a muscle. Eventually the Gururumon stopped growling and just stood there, almost like he was frozen in that spot.
"Crimson Claw!"
His partner took this time to launch his own attack, and he shredded the Gururumon into pieces, like he had with the other.
In the distance he heard a "BIT Bomb!" and turned only to see an explosion. He quickly covered his eyes, and only when it had stopped did he open his eyes back up.
Everything was quiet again, just as it had been before. He didn't spot any more of the Gururumon anywhere, leaving just him, Piximon, and his partner.
His anger still boiled inside of him, but started to dim down as the threat was now gone. His partner started glowing black and turned back into Tsukaimon. Tsukaimon was falling to the ground in exhaustion, so he sprinted to catch his partner before he hit the ground. He sighed in relief when he had Tsukaimon safely in his arms. The little digimon was unconscious right now, but didn't appear to be in any pain.
He didn't know what to make out of his partner's digivolution. A part of it had scared him, but another part excited him.
"So Tsukaimon digivolved into Devidramon. I can see why Gennai does not want you using the powers of darkness."
"What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"Devidramon are nasty digimon. They are blood-hungry and demonic. They may only be champion digimon, but I would not want to mess with one."
"Devidramon," he said in awe, looking down at his partner, "Thank you."
Piximon said that he should get some sleep. He objected, but Piximon insisted and even said he'd take watch duty the rest of the night. It was slight, but he felt that Piximon was almost... afraid of him, as if something during their battle had uneased the pink fluffball. But he couldn't pay any attention to that, as he too was exhausted from the battle. He found a spot to lie down a little bit away from the fire so he was in some of the darkness. He closed his eyes to fall asleep and heard the voice return, "You did a good job tonight TK. Rest up, you'll need it for your upcoming battles."