Chapter 8: Prepare

"Like this?"

"No…palms down. Yes, like that. Now I need you to concentrate."

Hikari was listening intently to Shin's instructions, she wasn't sure if she could do what Shin was asking but she was going to try her best. Tai knelt opposite her; his arms were beginning to tire from being held out for so long with Hikari's hands hovering over them. Lying on a soft pillow between them was Koromon, still the dull grey and being perfectly still.

"I'm really sorry…I should have realised it when Tai barrelled into me. It's all me fault." Joe lamented in the corner, his knees were drawn up to his chin and he hugged them with his arms. After Shin's explanation they had gathered up the digimon and laid them out on the pillows, only Tsunomon was nowhere to be found. It was then that Joe remembered he had been retrieving him when Bastard threw Tai at him, in Joe's shock at the time he hadn't realised Tsunomon had been thrown too far from the others to be caught up in Shin's transportation.

"It's ok Joe I'm sure he is still there, Mimi and I will look after him while we wait for Palmon ok?" Koushirou offered trying to alleviate some of Joe's guilt; Joe only nodded glumly in reply.

Sora, Takeru and Mimi sat in a semicircle around Tai, Hikari and Shin. Sora had been watching with immense interest at first but now she was becoming impatient; she didn't blame Hikari though, Shin's explanations were hard to understand.

"It's really very simple! All you have to do is turn yourself into liquid, pour out of your palms and think only about Tai. I'll do the rest." Shin bubbled happily; none of them had any idea about the liquid part.

"Do I physically change? Or is it just a feeling?" Hikari questioned further. Shin cocked her head to the side with a perplexed expression; completing her apparent thought process by popping her fist into her left hand.

"No not physical, just pour it all out. For me it's kinda like whoosh." Shin revealed.

"Whoosh?" Everyone except Koushirou blanched exasperation evident on their faces.

"I think what she is trying to say is that you should focus all your feelings toward Tai into your hands and transfer, or 'pour', it to him through the small space between you." Koushirou clarified.

Hikari looked at him thankfully, she still wasn't entirely sure but the way he had put it made it sound easier. She scrunched up her face in concentration and focused on the link between them and her feelings for Tai. A faint pink glow began to surface at the base of her palm; Shin bopped happily and crossed her arms over Tai and Hikari's, she giggled as the light from Hikari intensified and shot out, hitting Tai's outstretched palms before dispersing and showering over Koromon.

Hikari smiled joyously, it was working! She grunted when, without warning, it no longer felt like she was giving the light but more like something was tugging it out of her.

Tai looked up at her apologetically, he wished he could be contributing more to this rather then putting the entire burden on his little sister, but they needed something to combat their new foe.

Koromon started to glow a mixture of orange, pink and white. His body began to twist as his data morphed and stretched. Everyone watched unable to look away as his body elongated until it was about 55 inches long, the light exploded abruptly revealing a sheathed claymore. The sheath was brown with yellow string crisscrossed over it and the hilt was a dark orange, with the symbols of courage and light carved on either side. Tai stared in fascination as Shin lifted it with obvious trouble and held it out to him.

"Here you go! The form the digimon took should be the most compatible with you! There's even better news though, just try wielding it!" Shin gushed.

Tai nodded lamely at her, his jaw was still hanging open since he still hadn't quite regained his wits. She did say they were converting the data but…he hadn't expected this. He grasped the hilt, standing up he pulled the sheath off gingerly and held up the blade for inspection. It was bright silver and if he tilted it he could see the almost transparent design of a flame within its steel.

"Tai…? What's going on?" Tai jumped causing the others to give him questioning looks. "Koromon?" They gasped as he spoke; Tai's formerly confused features smoothed out into one of his trademark grins.

"Koromon! Boy am I glad to hear the sound of your voice again! Are you feeling ok it didn't hurt did it?" Tai asked.

"Umm…no it doesn't hurt but I feel different. I can't move. And something's REALLY off…I'm not hungry." Tai laughed heartily at his friend's foolish distress. The others were still giving him strange looks so he grinned at them, holding out the sword. "Can't you hear him? Koromon's ok!"

"No they can't, the only one who can speak openly with the digimon when they are in this form is their partner. What you are hearing is Koromon speaking directly through the link you share." Shin explained. Tai clucked his tongue in response, addressing the others as he spoke. "Well he's fine, a bit concerned that he isn't hungry!"

Mimi and Hikari joined Tai in a gleeful laugh at his remark. "I don't really get it but if we get to fight together I'm all fired up!" Koromon remarked to Tai, if it was possible Tai's grin spread even wider as he made a swipe through the air.

"Ok next is Takeru, then I will teach you both about invoking." Shin stated. Tai and Takeru exchanged a puzzled look as Takeru placed Patamon on the cushion previously used by Koromon and extended his arms in the same fashion Tai had used.

Bright lights flashed and buzzed throughout bustling Shinjuku, people crowded the streets fighting against the many crowds to return home after a hard day's work. None noticed the three people standing aloft atop one of the many tall skyscraper buildings, if they had they would have thought nothing of it, odd things happened almost everyday in this busy city.

Zui fiddled with a strand of her short, cropped raven hair. After finally being able to maintain a body of her own she had realised that the extraordinarily long hair she used to possess was incredibly inconvenient and had chopped it into a more acceptable length, but now she vaguely missed the feel of it against her back. Her face was identical to Shin's, only her eyes glowing a dull red instead of a shimmering white. Her body, however, couldn't have been more different. Her curvaceous form was clad within a dark purple flowing dress which frilled out just barely extending past her generous hips. The dress was held up by two thick black ribbons curving over her ample bosom and meeting in a chunky collar around her neck. The black knee high boots she wore were laced with a deep purple ribbon.

"So let me get this straight, you haven't announced yourself or sent any demands. Are you sure this is how you want to go about things? I thought you wanted this land as a so called 'gift'" She haughtily addressed Ethan who had propped his leg up onto ledge of the roof they occupied and was smirking down at the regular commotion below.

"Oh well yes but…this is a bit more for me you see. I'm really not very good with people, my wife's more of a people person then me, so I'm really not quite sure how I would handle being a dictator. It truly is frustrating." Ethan replied.

Zui pursed her lips in frustration. It truly was frustrating, this idiot had helped her immensely so she really did want to grant him one wish, but he couldn't seem to make up his mind! The first thing he asks for is a whole country but now he wasn't even sure if he wanted that and even if he did he didn't know how he wanted to go about it. Zui pinched the bridge of her nose and tapped her foot angrily; this whole thing was beginning to give her a headache. She had no idea how this world worked, she had known what Japan was when Bastard had asked for it only because he had told her about it. She assumed it was just like the digital world where all she would need to do is suck the life out of it, but noooo it was this huge place chock full of people that Bastard couldn't decide what to do with.

"Let's just get this over with, I have things I need to do." She stated, closing her eyes and folding her hands in front of her, the air around her crackled with dark electric volts buzzing and whizzing about her form. Her eyes snapped open and a large dark bubble flew out from her, engulfing the whole of Shinjuku making it impossible to see the city from outside the dome. She took a few deep breaths, it had been a bit harder to create this space then she had anticipated. Ethan made to help her steady herself but she waved him off, instead snapping her fingers.

Yamato, who had been standing motionless staring off into nothing until this point, was now swiftly closing the space between them and lifting her into his arms. She beamed, cooing happily as she draped her arms around his neck twirling a strand of his hair between her fingers and resting her head on his shoulders. He remained staring ahead, his eyes a glassy shadow of their former selves. His blood covered shirt had been replaced with a simple black button up T-shirt and his black jeans had been swapped for deep blue ones.

"Ahhh to be young again, I believe I should leave you two alone seeing that I have a party to attend. You sure you won't join me Zui?" Ethan enquired, turning his gaze back down to the world below which had began to try and figure out what had happened to their city.

"No. I'm waiting for a party of my own. They should be here fairly soon…it'll be fun." Her tone was dark and foreboding, Ethan shuddered a little. He loved it when she spoke like that, he couldn't believe how lucky he had been to find her. She had liberated him from his humdrum existence allowing him to become what he had always wished he would be.

Below people were avidly discussing what could be going on, many had produced their phones and cameras to take pictures of the strange new addition to the sky. A small male child clung to the hem of his mother's skirt, tears filling his eyes as something landed on the ground before them creating a deep indentation, whipping up a cloud of dust and debris. A man approached the crater cautiously, peering over the side he looked unbelieving for a split second before his head separated from his body, blood spewed out of the open wound and rained on several people close by. Before they could scream a black blur shot past them, their bodies fell apart into several pieces flying through the air splashing blood onto others and thudding against them. The boy stared numbly at the man who stood before him; the man was ripping his mother's heart out with his bare hands. She fell to the floor in front of the boy curling up on herself. Ethan stooped down to the boy's level, absently digging his fingers into his new prize. He broke into a feral grin as the boy cried out.

"Smile…it's a fiesta!" Ethan announced gleefully before running a sharply curved dagger upwards through the boys eye.

"Alright again!"

"Wait Tai don't go that way! I don't want to hit the building!"

Tai obeyed Takeru's command and doubled back, they were practicing in the large zen garden adjacent to Shin's home. Takeru sighed and lowered his weapon.

"T.K what's the matter? You want to take a break?" Patamon tried to comfort his partner who merely shook his head and began firing again.

Sora sat on the porch watching their progress. Shortly after completing Takeru's weapon Hikari had collapsed, he had caught her before she hit the floor and Shin had assured them all that all she needed was some more rest. Mimi and Koushirou had already gone back to the site Palmon had been taken to see if they could find Tsunomon and wait for Palmon's return. Joe had remained inside to tend to Hikari and the other digimon when Shin had shown them to the garden. Sora thought back on Shin's explanation…

"Now that you have your weapons all you have to do is activate them, much like digivolution. When you manage to activate them all your skills will be upgraded for a short time. You should be able to exhibit all of the potential strength and speed your digimon have." Shin said, she continued when she saw they understood. "All you need to do is use your digivices just as before, just hold them against your weapons and they will fuse."

Tai and Takeru did as they were told; the bright light of evolution consumed them and their weapons. Tai looked astonished as he examined the weapons new form. The blades edge flared with deep orange flames, the hilt had fused with his digivice and a thick orange ribbon coming from it had flowed along both his arms to attach to a newly formed shield that had been place in his left hand. It was a miniature version of Wargreymon's giant one.

Takeru was examining his weapon with approval. When it had formed it was a small brown bow barely bigger then his arm, now it reached just past his waist when he prepared to fire; it was the same colour as patamon's fur and had large golden feathers flaring out on either end. Each of the three feathers on the top of the bow held a symbol for hope and the three feathers on the bottom the one for light. The section he held had his digivice adsorbed into a small nook below his hand, a thick gold rope extended from it and was wrapped around his forearm tightly. His other hand was wearing a rich golden glove which looked as though it had been stuffed with feathers at the wrist.

Tai and Takeru looked at each other, they could both feel that it wasn't just physical appearance that had changed. They jumped away from each other with inhuman speed, facing off across the expanse of the garden. Tai felt strength flood through his arms and he tossed Takeru a playful smirk. Takeru felt exceptionally light and returned the look.

"Care to try these out?" Tai baited.

"It would be my pleasure." Takeru responded.

Sora watched with envy as Takeru and Tai zipped around the garden, they were almost moving too fast for her to follow. Takeru's glove was able to produce arrows of pure energy and he was firing them in quick succession at Tai how cut each one down with strikes and stabs from his sword. "I guess Patamon and Koromon are helping a lot just as Shin said." She mused as she reflected on how Shin had explained that their digimon were going to instruct them on how to move during battle since just because they had new weapons it didn't mean they were experts at fighting.

"They are doing really well." Sora stopped following their movements to glance at Shin who sat down beside her.

"Yeah I knew they wouldn't have much trouble." Sora replied, her tone was mainly proud but it carried a hint of disappointment. Shin smiled understandingly at her.

"I came out here to get you all…it's time for you to go back. Zui's begun to move." Shin spoke

Sora turned her head to her as a questioned danced out. "How do you know? I thought you said you couldn't see the real world."

Shin tilted her head towards her before speaking. "I couldn't. I can only see into it when I have a human influence, thanks to you all being here I can see…that's why Joe has offered to remain."

Sora raised her eyebrows at that. Shin just carried on. "If he stays here I can open up a portal for you to return and be able to open it again to let you get back once you complete your mission. After that you can all leave…" Shin looked sadly to her hands.

"We can come to visit you know!" Sora tried to comfort the poor girl but Shin shook her head.

"No you can't. I would have to establish a connection with Hikari again…I don't think her mind could take it if I did that too many times even if she knew what was happening. But that's ok! Meeting you all is a dream come true by itself!" Shin quickly tried to sound more upbeat when she noticed Sora start to look upset.

"I'm sorry Shin…but we should talk to Tai and Takeru now, we need to go right away I don't want to leave Yamato with Zui any longer then necessary." Sora said as she lifted herself up. Shin grabbed her wrist causing her to turn back; Shin had shaded the top of her face with her hair hiding her expression from Sora's view.

"Wait…I came to you first because I wanted to speak with you. Zui…she isn't really all that evil." Shin bit her lip and fidgeted uncomfortably when Sora's sympathetic look turned to rage. "Hear me out! Zui…she's just like me. She doesn't know why she was made…her fate is worse then mine. I'm praised and loved, she's always been despised. Really her base emotions are more like a spoilt child; angry with the world because of what she is…she was trapped in that dark cave all alone for an eternity. When you and Yamato gave her the power to escape I think she clung to him…her only light in a dark and cruel world. I know you have to seal her again just…don't hate her okay?" Shin's voice almost cracked as she let out the last few lines.

Sora knelt down to Shin's level and cupped her head with her hands. "I'm sorry Shin but that's a big ask. I don't know if I can…she has done some terrible things and I don't believe anyone who can do that is all that innocent. Zui must pay for her crimes but…I promise I will try to see it from your point of view." Shin smiled; wiping away her tears she fluttered to her feet and called out to Tai and Takeru who deactivated their weapons to follow her back inside where Shin directed their attention to the tv. All they could see was a large black dome.

"That's Zui's work, I don't know what she is planning to do in there but I can get you in." Shin waved her hand in front of the screen producing a faint white light. Hikari had woken up and was now clasping Takeru's hand, Sora and Tai faced the screen. They all bid Shin and Joe goodbye before Tai extended his digivice toward the terminal.

"Wait for us Yamato…we are coming for you!" Sora thought as they were transported to their new destination.