Chapter 12 Recap

In the middle of the plaza stood a large meticulously hand-crafted statue of the 6 of us who came here before, plus all 10 Legendary Warriors. There was a circular platform, with a circle/hole cut out in the middle of it, and all 10 elemental kanji were located on the platform, glowing from some unknown source. In the cut-out portion of the platform, the same light that powered the kanji, came up from the hole and into the air, maybe 10-15 feet high, no higher, and formed a funnel of light. All 10 human spirits stood in a circle above their respective kanji, facing outwards. Lastly, there were statues of the 6 of us that had previously ventured here 7 years ago, standing in front of the kanji and Warriors, one arm outstretched and holding an object that closely resembles our D-tectors. The craftsmanship and effort that was obviously put into making this is positively astounding.

"…stupefacente..." I murmured in awe, completely gobsmacked by the whole thing. The others were in much a similar condition as I.

"I wonder who made this." Kouichie mentioned off hand.

"I dunno, but whoever it is, they're amazing!" JP muttered, still taken in awe by the sight.

"Yeah.." Tommy mechanically agreed.

"I hate to break up your guys' little session of self-righteous praise and wonderment, but we kind of came here for a reason, ya know?" Dick drawled sarcastically, snapping all of us out of our euphoria.

"Dick, you're being a Richard again." I chastised him.

"My sincerest apologies, Princess." He bowed low for added dramatics.

"This must be the memorial the Gotsumon mentioned. It's quite extensive." Yutaka commented.

" Think they'll add us to the memorial too?" Shinya asked the group as a whole.

"Of course we will, but only after you do something worth memorializing." A voice said from behind us. We all whipped around to see who spoke, and were pleasantly surprised to see Meteormon standing behind us.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon...Do own Dick and Lena.

CHAPTER 13

"Meteormon!" the 6 of us exclaimed happily.

"Welcome old friends, long time no see." He greeted joyfully.

"How've you been Meteormon?" Kouji asked, walking up to him to shake his hand. "I hear you're Elder Meteormon now, what's up with that?"

"After you kids defeated Lucemon and returned the fractal code, our village prospered greatly and our population blossomed. We had many tourists and visitors come to our village when digimon learned of our involvement with all of you and the war against Lucemon. They especailly got excited about the old monument that held the beast spirit of Light, apparently Bokomon really played it up in that book of his." He chuckled heartily.

"Your village has really grown industrially Meteormon, you should be very proud of your people and yourself." I told him kindly.

"None of this could have happened without you kids fighting the good fight for all of us digimon. Where was i? Oh yes! We had a constant influx of tourists for several months, which led to a few years, and the revenue we got from that allowed us to prosper and grow within our village. We were able to open a school for children digimon as well, which then brought in a larger population, and lots of my people were able to open up specialty businesses and trade between our village and the surrounding villages, such as Fortune Teller Village, boomed."

"A couple years after growth and expansion boomed, we received a special visit from Bokomon and the Celestials, MagnaAngemon, Angewomon, and Antyllamon, and they told us of an idea they had been playing with. They mentioned how even though the Legendary Warriors have saved this world many times and are highly revered amongst the digimon of this world, there is nothing that exists to memorialize their efforts or actions in bringing peace to our world. With my people's reputation as excellent and skilled craftsmen, the celestials requested we be in charge of the creation and construction of the monument."

"I readily agreed, because who wouldn't? It was a great honor for my people to be recognized for skills and crafts by the three rulers of our world and asked to make quite possibly one of the most important artifacts our world – a memorial that represents not only the involvement, credibility and heroics of the Legendary Warriors, but the involvement, credibility and heroics of the Human digidestined as well! It was a great deal for my people and me, so i chose only the best among us to partake in the creation of the memorial. And after 5 long years, the Memorial was completed and put on display in the Town Center for all to see."

"This is amazing, thank you Meteormon." Takuya thanked him, leader voice turned on.

"Meteormon, if you dont mind, we have some questions to ask you." Kouichie requested.

"Of course, not at all! Please, follow me to my office in the Town Hall, we can talk privately in there." We all followed him to the building dictated Town Hall and were greeted by several Gotsumon along the way.

"Secretary Gotsumon," he addressed the Gotsumon sitting outside of his office. "Please alert the public, all 10 Legendary Warriors are our guests today and a town-wide celebration banquet should be put together asap for tonight at sunset. Everyone is invited."

"Yes Elder Meteormon" The secretary, wearing a skirt, jacket and glasses, rushed off quickly to alert the appropriate Gotsumon of the immediate plans.

We all entered the office, and he motioned for us to sit down in any available seats. Yutaka chose to stand against the wall by the door, Tommy and Shinya occupied a tea table with accompanying kneeling cushions. JP, Dick and Kouichie took up the lounge seats located in the sitting area of the room and Kouji and Takuya motioned for Lena and I to take the seats at the desk while they stood behind us, and Impmon sat on the arm of my chair.

"Right, you had something to ask me now?" Meteormon asked after we were all situated.

"Yes sir, it's kind of concerning, and i'm not exactly sure how well i can explain this, so bear with me."

"For the past 2 weeks, Kouji, Kouichie,Tommy, JP, Takuya and I hid in an underground maze, a catacomb of sort, that was created by AncientKazemon for her and AncientGarurumon to use once a year on the night of the Triple Full Moon. Are you following so far? Good. Kazemon, Garururmon and Sphinxmon hid something powerful called the Crests in a secret chamber in the catacomb that only appears on the night of the Triple Full Moon, and Kouji and I were given the task of retrieving those Crests on the night of the TFM. We were successful, however, the next day we ran into a bit of a, situation." I started the story, and just as we planned, Lena would tell her part next.

"W'ile my sister and 'ze o'zers were 'iding in 'ze maze, Yutaka, Shinya, Richard and I entered 'ze D-world for 'ze first time, but i entered it seperately from 'ze o'zers and was alone for a couple days before i stumbled upon an entrance to 'zis maze. I entered 'ze maze not long after Zoe and Kouji left 'ze TFM room, and shortly after entering 'ze maze i was attacked and chased by a group of digimon. I didn't know w'at 'zey were nor did i care, i just wanted to survive. 'zankfully, during 'ze chase, i stumbled upon my sister and kouji and 'zey were able to 'elp me." Kouji then picked up where she left off.

"You see sir, this is the part that will be difficult to tell you. The digimon that attacked Lena were-"

"Gotsumon?" Meteormon interrupted his speech. We stared at him in surprise and he sighed deeply, propping his elbows on his desk, clasping his hands together and resting his head on his hands, looking forlornly at the surface of his desk.

"2 weeks ago, a group of 4 or 5 young Gotsumon left the village to gather meat apples and other supplies from the neighboring forest. For a couple years now, The Demon Lords have been at large, at first they did petty things, like demand and collect taxes from the villages, then they demanded young digimon be brought to their location for training to become warriors and soldiers, and it escalated from there. They used fear tactics to get what they wanted, and sent underlings to do their bidding. In the past year they've been very insistent on finding the spirits of the Legendary Warriors, going so far as obliterating entire towns and villages, completely wiping them off the map. It is unknown where the residents of these towns are located or if they're even still alive."

"The worse thing they have done thus far though, is corrupting the digimon with their evils and powers of sin. Many digimon, not just the Gotsumon, have become victims of the influence of the DL's evil whims. The DL's prey upon young digimon who are easily swayed, and when they catch them indulging in one of their sins, they use that grip on the sin to break the digimon's free will, and place them under a spell that can control them. This is how the DL's have racked up such a large army of supporters, because they have been controlling the digimon they catch indulging in their sins. The Gotsumon you encountered in the maze, I'm afraid, were corrupted by Daemon because they felt hatred towards the DL's for their evil influence and control over the world and its inhabitants." Several shocked gasps echoed around the room. Who knew the Demon Lords could be so strong?

"That's horrible! How can they do something like that?" Tommy exclaimed.

"They're the Demon Lords of Sins, they don't quite care for niceties and goodie two shoe virtues." Impmon quipped. Suddenly, the attention of every occupant in the room turned to Impmon.

"You…" Takuya started, quickly walking towards him. "Did you know about this?!" He demanded pointing his finger in Impmon's face.

"Of course I knew about dis, but not to dis extent. I was under de impression dat only Daemon, being de most powerful of de DL's could do dis, I had no clue de others could as well. Believe me, if I knew, I would've told ya. It's not like I ever tried to do it myself, dat's not exactly my cup of tea. I only 'joined' the DL's so I could spy on them for de Celestials and, should they ever return, de Ancients." Impmon had a frown on his face, obviously not being able to comprehend how powerful the DL's could get without him knowing, and right under his nose too. I nudged his side, and gave him a reassuring smile, hoping to ease his doubts and worries.

"Zoe I can't believe you let him come with us." JP spoke coldly. I frowned at how my friends were so easily swayed to believe Impmon to 'still' be evil, even though he's already proven his loyalty in more than enough ways.

"You guys leave him alone, he's on our side not theirs." I defended Impmon because I knew he could be trusted, despite what everyone else says.

"Everyone leave Impmon alone. If he ever does something to betray us, then you can say your 'I told you sos' otherwise, leave it alone. Besides, we have bigger problems. Remember how Lucemon was able to corrupt Cherubimon and how difficult it was to purify him, and even then the only way was to revert him back to a digi-egg? Think about if they had a whole army of corrupted digimon. They take the digimon when they're young and easily sway-able, they probably get them to digivolve to a high level, and if they have an army high level corrupted digimon, we may not be able to save them all, we may not even be able to defeat them all."

"Perhaps they used Cherubimon as a test subject, to see if it is possible for the other DL's to corrupt digimon as well, and not just Daemon." Kouichie suggested.

"Well, they succeeded, that's for definite." Takuya mumbled. I thought about Cherubimon and Lucemon, and the tainted warriors.

"'Ze way I see it, no'zing 'as really changed. We still need to save 'ze worlds, and we still need to activate 'ze Crests, just now we 'ave a better idea about w'at we are up against." Lena shrugged casually.

"She's right you guys. We've done this before, and back then, the odds were stacked against us as well, this really is no different, we simply need to try harder and fight smarter, and work together." I supported my sister, because she was right, nothing's changed except that now we know more about what we are up against. After discussing various plans and discussing our next few moves, it was dusk, and we were interrupted by a knock on the door. Meteormon gave an affirmation for whoever it was to enter.

"Elder Meteormon? Preparations have been made for a banquet just as you asked, and it is currently awaiting your arrival. Also, all village members are present and accounted for. Do you require anything further?" the female secretary Gotsumon asked.

"Please lead our honored guests to the celebration, I will join in just a moment."

Gotsumon lead us out of the Town Hall and into the streets of the village, past the monument and a couple streets down until we arrived at the park I had seen earlier.

"Welcome Legendary Warriors, our most honored guests, to Warrior Park. Please make yourselves at home and enjoy the festivities to the fullest extent!"