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CHILDREN OF DESTINY

-CHAPTER SIX-

For miles around it was as if everything had just simply ceased to exist. The dust and debris had provided only a few vital moments of cover which Jei and Dinohyumon had used to escape. Now as the remenants of the once beautiful village dissipated into thin air, they found an entire hoard of corrupted digimon hot on their trail. Jei desperately clung to Dinohyumon's back as he ran, carrying the both of them towards the only landmark left in sight. Limbo island.

"Agh!" Dinohyumon yelled "something's biting my leg!".

Dinohyumon grunted in agony but didn't break his stride. Jei kept his eyes sealed shut, too terrified to look back at the creatures that persued them. They were mere shadows of the Digimon who had taken him in and helped him just hours ago, now forced to hunt him, driven by the will of the virus. Dinohyumon grunted again, this time almost toppling over from the pain, barely managing to keep himself and Jei upright.

"Jei, if I stop running those guys will be all over us!" he said "I need you to kick off whatever is biting me!".

Jei hesitated, still too afraid to look, but his friend was in pain and needed his help. Slowly he opened his eyes and turned down to see what was attacking them, and he immediately wished he had kept them shut.

"It... Its.." Jei stuttered "It's Veemon!".

The corrupted Veemon had latched his teeth and claws onto Dinohyumon's anckle, digging them deeper and causing him more pain the more he ran.

"I... I'm sorry Jei!" Dinohyumon yelled back "You have to kick him off or we're both going down!".

"I can't!" Jei screamed "I-I just can't!".

"Jei, if we go down there's no hope for him!" Dinohyumon shouted, "We're the only ones left that can beat this thing!".

Jei was ready to burst into tears, but he had to hold himself together. If not, the whole of the digital world and his own world would pay the price.

"I'm sorry Veemon" Jei sniffed, "I'm so sorry".

Jei kicked down with all his might, cringing as he felt the bottom of his boot hit Veemon who was still knawing on Dinohyumon's anckle below. He kicked again and finally, Dinohyumon winced as Veemon's teeth and claws came loose from his leg sending him tumbling off, immediately lost in the sea of corrupted digimon steadily catching up to them. Dinohyumon started running faster, no longer hindered by the pain of Veemon's sharp teeth. Limbo Island was finally almost within reach. Just a bit further Jei thought to himself, we're going to make it, we have to!

"Dinohyumon!" Jei yelled to his friend, "What do we do once we reach the island? How are we going to lose these guys?".

"I don't know," Dinohyumon yelled back, "but we can't give up! The digital world is collapsing and your world is next! We're the only ones left, we have to keep going!".

Things looked grim, but Jei couldn't help but feel confidence in his partner's determination. After everything that had happened, they were almost there, Limbo Island's threshold finally within reach.

"Right" Jei said "Let's finish this, for both worlds! For Veemon and Shion!".

Dinohyumon gave a determined grunt, speeding up and quickly closing the gap between them and the island. They had made it.

Even as they hit the shore of the island, Dinohyumon didn't break momentum. He kept running, searching around desperately for a place to conceal himself and Jei. The twisted landscape didn't seem to offer any protection from enemy eyes, and the only shelters in sight were nothing but wire frames and half rendered data. Dinohyumon turned around, expecting to be overrun by a crowed of corrupted Digimon, bracing himself and trying his best to shield the small human on his back.

"What the heck?" Dinohyumon panted in surprise.

They were there alright, hundreds of them, if not thousand, but they did not attack, they simply stood there, motionless and unresponsive. Suddenly Dinohyumon felt movement on his back as Jei began climbing off.

"Kid! Kid what are you doing?" Dinohyumon snapped, "It's not safe!".

"I think its okay..." Jei said stepping down onto the ground, "It's like they're frozen place!".

It was as if they had been switched off. The corrupted Digimon simply stared blankly at them, watching their every move.

"I don't like this" Dinohyumon said "They're slave to virus, they should be swarming like mindless drones!".

"But they aren't" Jei remarked "Which means...".

"We are likely walking into a trap" Dinohyumon said stating what Jei was thinking.

Jei scanned the crowd one last time, trying in vein to see Veemon among them. Don't worry Veemon Jei thought to himself, I'll save her for both of us.

Limbo Island was like something out of a fever dream. Everywhere he looked, Jei saw twisted and distorted wire frames where buildings once stood, trees and grass torn up from the soil, floating in mid air and many different landscapes all twisted together, creating a Picasso esque landscape.

"We have no way of knowing exactly what the virus core looks like" Dinohyumon said, "but it will be in the dead center of this "island", if you can call it that".

"Kotemon, er I mean, Dinohymon" Jei corrected himself "If the virus destroys everything in its path, then why is all this still here?".

"Well kid" Dinohyumon explained, "Think of it like a computer virus. It has to attach itself to something. If it deleted the file it was joined with, or in this case Limbo Island, it would also delete itself".

Jei mostly understood what Dinohyumon was saying, though he thought it to be a loose analogy.

"I see, but it's more complicated than that right?" Jei asked, "I mean, you can't really compare the destruction of a whole word to deleting data off a harddrive".

"It's all the same thing here kid" Dinohyumon said "You should understand that by know, this is the Digital World, everything you see is mere data, even me".

"Even Veemon?" Jei asked.

Jei immediately wished he hadn't mentioned Veemon. Not only did the thought of his corrupted friend weigh him down, but he could see look of guilt on Dinohyumon's face and understood the pain he felt being unable to save him.

"Dinohyumon..." Jei started, "You never told me how you were able to escape the effects of the virus and Veemon wasn't".

Dinohyumon seemed to wince at the subject, his expression growing even more tense, his eyes overflowing with guilt. It was obvious that it was a conversation he wanted to avoid, but Jei didn't understand why.

"Why is it such a big deal?" Jei asked, "What is it you're afraid to tell me?".

Dinohyumon remained silent, his expression somewhere between dread and utter shame.

"Talk to me!" Jei shouted.

"Alright..." Dinohyumon sighed, "Just please, try to understand!".

"Understand what?" Jei said in a much harsher tone.

Dinohyumon flinched as Jei raised his voice. Even with all the strength he possessed in his champion form, Jei's frustration still unnerved him. The Digimon pulled a pointed stoned from a small leather pouch he carried on his side and presented it to him. It was like polished crystal, but still jagged and sharp at the end and it gave off a soft warm glow that was almost hypnotising.

"What... What is it?" Jei asked, "What does it do?".

"Its called a data stabilizer" Dinohyumon said, "It's basically the equivalent of an anti-virus, they're rare, almost impossible to find. This was to be my payment for-".

"Your deal with the virus" Jei inturrupted.

There was a long period of silence. Jei didn't hold Dinohyumon's actions against him, he had redeemed himself in his eyes, but there was something else that he couldn't understand.

"Wait" Jei snapped "you've had this all along!?".

"Kid, you don't understand-" Dinohyumon started.

"You're right, I don't understand!" Jei shouted, "You had that this whole time and you still let Veemon get corrupted!?".

Jei was getting angrier and angrier. He had put all of his trust in Dinohyumon, in Kotemon, even after what he had done, he trusted him, but to Jei this changed everything. How could he keep this to himself? Jei thought How could he!?

"Kid, please just listen!" Dinohyumon said interrupting Jei's anger fueled rant, "It doesn't work that way! It was bound to me from the time I recived it! It can only protect one!".

Jei clenched his fist. As mad as he was, he still trusted Dinohyumon and the bond they shared.

He knew he wouldn't lie to him.

"I can't tell you how sorry I am about Veemon" Dinohymon said, "I swear if there was anything I could have done-"

Dinohyumon was cut off as he suddenly felt Jei's tiny arms wrap around him him, nearly knocking the wind out of him, which was no small feat in his current form.

"I know" Jei said trying to hold back his tears, "I'm sorry".

Dinohyumon embraced Jei, hugging his partner tight.

"We'll save him kid" Dinohymon said, "I promise".

As they trekked along the ever changing terrain, Jei could see all of the different environments converging on one another in the distance, winding around eachother into a small mountain seemingly in the dead center of the island. As he looked up to see its peak, his gaze met with a blinding white light that blurred his vision and stung his eyes. It was like looking directly at an eclipse. It was nearly impossible to make anything out, but from what Jei could see, the source of the light seemed to be a large dark sphere at the mountain's highest point, surrounded in an ominous white glow that, as bright as it was, cast no shadows and seemed to shine through even solid stone.

"what the hell is that!" Jei said trying to blink away the cloudiness from his eyesight.

"You know kid" Dinohyumon said using one of his large clawed hands to shield his eyes. "I'd bet that its exactly what we're looking for".