Intertwined Destinies
Previously in Intertwined Destinies:
The digidestined and Jade have left File Island and have arrived on the continent of Server with Whamon's help. The only thing they need to do is gather the seven crests that are scattered throughout Server, and once they have the crests their digimon partners will be able to digivolve to the Ultimate level. The crest of Courage (Tai) has been found, as has the crest of Reliability (Joe). Tai's personality took a turn for the worst and now his positive relationship with Jade looks like it's gone forever. Greymon was forced to dark digivolve into SkullGreymon and Jade drained him of his power, forcing him to then de-digivolve into Koromon. Now Mimi has her crest of Sincerity, Matt and Izzy have their crests of Friendship and Knowledge, and Jade has regained her memories of her first adventure in the Digital World.
With Etemon on their trail, they need to keep moving. They need to work together now more than ever, for true danger awaits on the horizon. Will they have the strength to overcome it? The next chapter of their adventure awaits...
Chapter 13: Prisoners of Fate
Jade woke in tears. She remembered, she remembered everything. Her Tom was out there somewhere, and he had been alone for so long. She remembered that he never liked the other digimon, and that the only one he was ever nice to was her. She was terrified now, and everything that Gennai had been telling her since her return finally made sense. Gennai was afraid of Tom, he always had been, but without Jade calming him down he had become even worse than Lucemon had ever been.
Because she hadn't remembered Tom, and how dangerous he could be, without her memories she would have been in danger if they ever came across him. But now that she remembered, she knew that she had to find him. If he knew that she was in the Digital World, it meant that he was either ignoring the Shadow World or jumping between the two looking for her. So every time she used her power enough for it to register he would start traveling to find her. The digidestined would be in danger if he caught up with them.
Jade got up off the bed she just realised she was resting on and hooked her tag and crest around her neck. She slipped it under her shirt so that it wouldn't be noticed unless she wanted it to be noticed. She then moved to the table and took the photo out of its frame and putting it in her bag. She wanted to keep it close to her, now more than ever. She needed to find these digimon, and talk again to Andromon now that she understood his actions that little bit more. He knew her, not as the Sovereign, but as Jade.
She left the small wooden house and started to walk back to the colosseum type building that Piximon claimed as his home. He had built it after she had been deleted, but she still knew all about it. She had been the one to design it, sort of. When she had gotten tired of playing in the trees she had drawn a picture of the type of house she thought Piximon should live in. Obviously, he had liked it and had it built, with a few changes as he attempted to decipher her childish scribbles.
The sound of a fight attracted her attention and she looked towards the outer barrier of Piximon's home. She could faintly see a Tyrannomon destroying the jungle, Greymon fighting him, and a hole in the barrier. She could use her power without transforming into Phoenixmon, even though it was more difficult, but at the moment transforming meant attracting Tom's attention, and the digidestined weren't ready for that. Her hands clasped together, her eyes closed, and she concentrated on the barrier, focusing on repairing it. Data particles formed and grew and before too long the barrier was whole again.
The last thing that Jade heard before it closed was Etemon's cry of denial and frustration. She smiled and sat down at the top of the staircase. She figured that the children and digimon would make it up to her in about an hour, which meant that she had time to mentally review what she now knew, and recover some of her energy. Piximon would know that she was awake because of her actions, but whether told the others or not was a mystery to her.
What she needed to decide now was whether or not she should stay with the digidestined, or go and find Tom. Was she ready to leave the digidestined? Were they ready for her to leave them? How would she find Tom? Should she wait until all the crests were gathered? And then there was thought of the eighth egg that she helped to protect. Currently there were seven digidestined, but there were supposed to eight. Why hadn't the eighth child arrived at the same time as the others? Why were there only seven digimon waiting? What had happened after Gennai carried the digi-eggs to safety?
"What am I missing?" she asked the silent sky. "What is the plan? Why are the dark digimon slowly taking over? Why hasn't Tom taken steps to control them?"
There was no answer, not that she expected there would be. For now, she decided, she would stay with the digidestined until they found all the crests. Once they had done that she would reassess her options and then more than likely rush off to find Tom.
"Jade!"
Jade turned her attention back to the staircase, surprised to realise that a lot of time had to have passed for the digidestined to reach the top. She grinned, however, and willingly allowed Joe to pull her into a hug. She was happy that Joe seemed more confident with himself, and she remembered how much of a basket case the boy had been at the beginning of their journey. Each of the children had grown as they travelled, and while some of them would probably still act a certain way, they had all matured.
As Matt and Izzy came closer to her, their tags started to glow as if calling out to her. If she could hear them talking, they would be saying something along the lines of: 'look, we've been found too!' As it was, she could hear what the crests were and how to unlock their power.
The crest of Friendship – will shine when true bonds of friendship have been understood
The crest of Knowledge – will shine when wisdom and understanding become one
"That was strange," Mimi stated as she looked at the two glowing tags to Jade's smiling face.
"What are they?" Izzy asked eagerly. He pulled his tag and crest from under his shirt into the open air so that everyone could look at it, and was quickly mimicked by Matt. Jade glanced at them, even though she didn't need to see them to know what they were. Matt's crest, the crest of Friendship, looked like a circle with a wavy line going through it. It had a soft appearance. Izzy's on the other hand, looked like a pair of lopsided glasses, with one lens slightly larger than the other.
"Matt's is the crest of Friendship," Jade explained. "And Izzy's is the crest of Knowledge."
"Izzy's makes sense," Matt said straight away. "But Friendship? That I don't understand."
"All crests will make sense when they glow for you," Jade hinted with a smile. "For you, when you understand exactly what friendship is your crest will shine for you. And Izzy, when you truly understand what is before you, then your crest will shine."
"I do understand," Izzy said, his head tilted to the side curiously. "What am I missing?"
"You will know when you find it."
"How are you feeling Jade?" Sora asked, drawing attention away from the crests.
"A lot better," Jade told her. "Let's eat and then we can find the next crest!"
Her eyes flickered up to Piximon and she nodded at him. He had done what was expected of him, and she was grateful, but now they needed to go. The fate of the world wouldn't wait for long, and she had something important to look forward to on the horizon.
While they were eating Piximon pulled Tai away from the group. Eyes followed them as they left, especially because Agumon had been told to stay behind, but Tai went willingly enough. They didn't go far, just far enough to be out of sight and hearing range. Piximon settled down on a rock, but Tai remained standing, staring out over the jungle and into the desert.
"What were you feeling, when Greymon digivolved?" Piximon eventually asked.
"What?" Tai asked in reply, honestly curious about the direction of the conversation.
"I'm not judging you, but I need to know," Piximon elaborated. "Think back."
Tai did as he asked, thinking about the colosseum. He thought about the cage, Etemon's boasting, Jade's screaming, and the moment Greymon dark digivolved. He thought about the emotions he had been feeling, and as he thought he spoke each emotion out loud.
"Helplessness…anger…fear…horror…inadequate," the last word was whispered but Piximon was still able to hear it. "I turned my friend into a monster who couldn't stop himself before Jade drained him of his energy."
"Fear and anger can make us do horrible things," Piximon told him seriously. "But it wasn't just fear and anger that felt, was it? Your helplessness from being trapped, your inadequacy from being unable to do anything…but these are emotions that can be overcome."
"What do you mean?" Tai asked, his eyes focused on the horizon. Piximon flew up and settled on the wall next to him.
"The power that comes from your anger and your fear, pales in comparison to something as terrible and destructive as the power of hatred. It is dark and cold, and it can do unspeakable things when allowed to burn. You hate Etemon, and it was that hatred that allowed the dark digivolution to occur."
"But-!"
"It makes sense, you don't need to justify yourself to me. I have been watching you since your arrival on Server, and Gennai has told me about your adventures on File Island. You hate Etemon, as you hated Devimon, for trying to kill you and your friends for the sole reason that you are the digidestined, a role that you were thrown into without anyone asking you first."
"I don't care about myself!" Tai told him, his voice rising in volume slightly. "But the others haven't done anything to deserve the pain and fear that we've faced every day since we arrived."
"And you think that you deserve having someone hunt you down to kill you?" Piximon asked without judgement. "You think that what's happening to you is fair?"
"I'm a screw up," Tai told him with conviction. "Nothing I do is good enough for anyone. I get people around me hurt."
"You protect people around you," Piximon added to his list. "What were you thinking when you were yelling at Etemon?"
"That if I could distract him long enough, the others could escape. If he was focused on me, he wouldn't be attacking them."
"Do you hate him?"
"More than I hated Devimon," Tai muttered. His eyes filled with tears but he didn't let them fall. "I hate him. We haven't done anything against him, but from the moment we arrived he's been trying to squash us. What did we do to him? Why us?!"
By the end he was screaming out across the jungle. Piximon let him scream out his frustrations and rage, before bringing his focus back to him. It was really important that he pass on what wisdom he had, otherwise the digidestined would be destroyed before they had a chance to live.
"It is a very rare thing for anyone to go through life without hating someone or something," he whispered, his calm voice penetrating Tai's mind. "However, it is not healthy to hold onto that hate. Hatred is a poison, it will slowly kill you until there is nothing left of you, just an empty husk or a shell of who you used to be."
"What do I do?" Tai asked miserably.
"Release it," Piximon breathed hypnotically. "Feel the emotion, acknowledge the emotion, and then let it go."
"It can't be that easy."
"It's not," Piximon assured him. "From the stories I've heard, your mother had the same problem."
"My mother?" Tai asked, turning away from the horizon finally. "What about my mother?"
But Piximon didn't say anything more. He just flew off to where the other children were and told Tai to come back when he was ready. Tai leant back against the stone wall and thought about what Piximon had told him. It was true that he usually bottled up his emotions, but surely that wasn't what caused him to go blind with rage? Maybe Agumon was right, maybe he should talk with someone about how he felt. Tai nodded to himself, when he could he would see if Joe wouldn't mind be ranted at. The older boy seemed fairly calm most of the time, and he was always watching the others like an older brother looking after younger siblings. It was almost hard to believe that Joe was the baby in his family.
With that thought in his mind Tai walked back to the group with his hands in his pockets. When they stopped for the night Tai would corner Joe, and maybe Matt and Sora as they usually harped on about him taking better care of himself, but he would do that later. For now, he would enjoy spending time with his friends.
"Thanks Piximon, we've learnt a lot from you," Matt acknowledged with a bow as they set out to leave.
"Yeah, we've learnt to scrub floors and starve half to death," Joe stated with a straight face. Jade giggled and hugged Gomamon closer to her chest. The little digimon would travel in her arms for a while before using up some energy by walking alone. Secretly, Gomamon just wanted to make sure that Jade was alright after her disappearance earlier. She felt different to all the digimon, and they were concerned about the change.
"Joe!" Mimi scolded before turning to Piximon apologetically. "That's just Joe's stomach talking."
"Far from over your training is," Piximon told them seriously, nodding at the apology, and staring at each of them as he continued. "Remember, life itself is a training session. Learn all you can."
"Right," Tai and Agumon agreed. Jade nodded as well before turning as the others started to walk down the stairs. Once they were out in the desert she would point out which way they needed to go, but until then she would pretend that they were playing in the forest. Actually, maybe she could convince TK to play with her as they journeyed. She sped up a little so that she was walking with the younger boy and as soon as they were off the stairs the two of them and the digimon were running through the trees, acting like children instead of the prophesised saviours of the Digital World.
That night, a few hours after they left Piximon's secret home, the children stopped and set up their little camp. Tai pulled Joe away from the group to have a talk with, the digimon created a little camp fire with TK and Jade, and they told stories for as long as possible. Mimi and Matt joined them before too long, but Izzy and Sora sat a little way away from the group. Sora was watching Joe and Tai, curious, but seeing as it was a serious conversation she stayed away.
That night the digimon and children were telling horror stories to each other. With her memories back in her head, Jade remembered a nightmare that she had had the first few weeks in the Digital World. She decided that tonight she would talk about it, but pretend that it wasn't her nightmare. She also added a few details in to make it scarier.
"A long time ago there was a small family who lived in a little town," she began. "There was a daddy, and a mummy and a baby. They were happy and safe. Then one day everything changed. A man had come to their town looking for them. They had something that he wanted and he wasn't going to go away until he got it. He walked up to their front door wearing a thick black cloak with a hood to hide his face. He didn't knock, he just kicked the door down loudly.
"The daddy told the mummy to take the baby and run away, but the mummy didn't want to leave the daddy. She went upstairs with the baby to hide, the sounds of a fight echoing from downstairs. Then the fight stopped. The mummy froze with the baby against her chest, her eyes went really wide. She put the baby in the crib and turned to face the door. Footsteps echoed on the steps, slow and steady, and the mummy knew that the daddy was gone.
"Then the door exploded in and the mummy screamed. The cloaked man laughed, and it was cold and creepy. The mummy ordered him to leave, but he didn't. He yelled at her, and the room filled with a green light. The mummy was gone, and the baby was alone. The man laughed, and the baby could see him finally. His eyes were red and his face was white, but he was evil. He laughed again, and the room filled with a green light again. The baby screamed back, and the man's laughter changed to a scream of fright.
"When the light faded, all that was left of the house was a black hole. For years afterwards people would walk passed the house and sigh sadly. They knew that evil had come to their town, and that the evil had never left. The man still haunts the crater, and late at night the town can hear his laughter and the cry of the baby."
"That's a scary story Jade," TK told her with a shiver. He pulled the blanket that he and Jade were sharing closer to his body. "What happened to the baby?"
"Never seen again," Jade whispered. "It's your turn Tentomon. Do you have a scary story?"
"I think that one is going to give us all nightmares," Tentomon told her. "Does anyone mind if I tell a not-scary story?"
There were headshakes all around, so Tentomon launched into a story about the time that he and Izzy discovered a maze. A lot of the story was made up, but it did serve to dull the fears that Jade's story had created. Matt and Mimi looked at each other in concern while Tentomon spoke, and Matt vowed to talk to Jade about it at a later date.
During Tentomon's story Jade fell asleep, and while her dreams were filled with cold laughter and green light, when the sun rose the next morning she was running up the front of the group with laughter trailing behind her.
Tai walked side by side with Joe, and that was mainly at Joe's insistence as he was worried about him. They had talked for hours the night before, and when they returned to the group the only ones still awake were Sora and Matt. The four of them sat together, but neither Joe nor Tai spoke of what they had spent hours discussing. That, more than anything, had given Joe Tai's undying trust and respect.
"How are you feeling today?" Joe asked in a whisper.
"Better than I thought I'd be," Tai whispered back. "Thanks for listening."
"Anytime you want to talk, I will listen Tai," Joe promised. "I'm glad you came to me."
Tai flushed slightly, embarrassed at having needed to talk. But he couldn't deny the benefits. He felt better than he had since before arriving in the Digital World, and aside from the mild nightmare he'd had during the night, he felt more at ease and ready to face whatever was ahead of them. There was only one thing that he knew would make him feel immortal, not that that was a good thing. He wanted Jade's trust, and he knew that he would be spending the rest of his life attempting to make it up to her.
Thinking of Jade, Tai's eyes lifted so that he was staring towards the front of the group. Jade was alone, but that didn't mean that she was bored. It looked like she was dancing, the way that she was flying over the ground with every jump and step, until she suddenly stopped and stared off to the right.
"What do you see Jade?" Matt called out to her, having noticed her abrupt halt. Jade didn't verbally answer, she just pointed up the side of a hill to where there were a bunch of black cables coming together. The black cables meant that it belonged to Etemon, but as to what it was…they had no idea. Izzy rushed off to have a look, his expertise with technology coming in handy now. The others followed behind him so that they were all surrounding the…thing.
"What is it Izzy?" Tai asked after a few minutes of Izzy playing with the cables. "Is it some kind of power generator?"
"Even better," Izzy told him without looking up from what he was doing. "Etemon has hardwired the entire desert, creating an extensive computer network. My guess, this is one of his remote data access terminals."
"Great, let's crash it," Tai suggested whilst rubbing his hands together in expectation.
"It could be a booby trap," Sora cautioned, though Jade knew that she wanted to destroy it too.
"If it is Etemon's, I say we cross the wires and mess it up good," Matt voiced, agreeing with Tai.
Izzy pulled out a wire from one of the sockets and attached it to his computer. Jade leant over his shoulder and watched, curious about what he hoped to achieve.
"What are you going to do with that?" Tentomon asked, referring to the cable. Izzy answered him in a mumble, thinking out loud but not caring if anyone was listening to his explanation.
"I wonder…it's entirely possible that our computers have compatible systems. And if they do I can tap into Etemon's network."
"Cool," Jade said simply. TK appeared at her side, also curious about what Izzy was doing, but his attention was on the top left corner of the screen. He pointed it out to Izzy.
"Hey, you have mail."
"Oh, that was quick," Izzy observed in surprise. "Who even knows I've logged on?"
"Oh no, it's Etemon," Joe cried pessimistically. Jade giggled softly and Joe sighed at her. He clearly wanted the others to take the situation a little more seriously, and at least consider the danger that they could be in.
"Open it, it's probably just spam," Tai ordered, moving to stand behind Jade and TK so that he could watch. Jade slid to the side and stood just in front of Joe. Tai looked hurt, but Jade didn't look at him.
"Right," Izzy agreed, not seeing the change in positions behind him, and opened the email. At once a small metallic voice echoed from Izzy's speakers, and they all listened with a range of emotions from curiosity, to alarm, to consideration.
"Help me. S.O.S. Mayday! I'm being held prisoner. Help me escape and I'll guide you to the crest you seek."
"Do you think he's for real?" Sora asked. "I mean, who could it be?"
"Let's find out," Matt suggested. "Where do we need to go?"
"You want to go after the strange being who is calling for help?" Joe asked in alarm. "It could be Etemon attempting to lure us into a trap where he will then separate us and harvest our bodies to be used in his experiments. He's tempting us with a crest because he knows that's what we're looking for and he knows that we'll go for straight away. We don't need help finding the crests!"
"Calm down Joe," Sora ordered. "I agree that it could be a trap, but what if it's not? Someone could really be in trouble. We should help them."
Joe gapped at her, but the others all seemed to want to go after this strange little digimon who was luring them onwards. Jade took his hand sympathetically, and led him after the group so that he wouldn't be left behind. He was silent for only a short amount of time…and then he started to panic.
"Oh, I don't like this. I don't like it one little bit. I don't like the look of it, I don't like the smell of it, I don't like –"
"Don't have a brain cramp Joe," Mimi told him with a tinge of worry in her voice. "You're turning green around the edges."
"Yeah, someone asked for our help," Tai reminded him, also concerned. "We gotta at least check it out, right?"
"I still don't like this," Joe moaned.
"According to my laptop, we should be getting close," Izzy informed them. He was in the lead because he had the directions on his laptop, but they were still going in the same direction that Jade had been leading them in before the found the data terminal. They were now in between rocky cliffs, and the high walls provided some shade from the sun.
TK's tag suddenly started to glow. He and Sora had pulled out their tags in the hope that one of them would lead them to the digimon who needed to be rescued. TK gave a shout of delight and held up the tag to see which way they would need to go. His head darted every which way, and Jade smiled as she watched him. She alone saw Tokomon dart off to the side, but upon his quick return he drew the others' attention to him.
"TK! Come over here. Look what I found."
"Look! Another crest!" Sora stated needlessly, staring at the rock wall. The eight humans and seven digimon ran closer to the wall, and Jade stared up at what could have been a child's drawing of someone in a dress with spiky hair. No arms, no legs, no face…except for the fact that it had a head, hair, and body. This was the yellow crest, and as soon as it started to shrink she knew what it was.
The crest of Hope – will shine for those who have unshakable faith
"Awesome, my own crest!" TK cried in delight.
"Congratulations," Tokomon told him.
"Now TK, don't think this means you get to stay up any later," Matt cautioned him, but he was smiling. TK skipped over to Jade and held up his new crest so that she could see it better.
"What is this one?" he asked in excitement.
"Hope," she told him. "Never lose faith."
"In what?"
"In everything," Jade whispered with a smile. "Never give up, or lose hope, and always believe that everything will work out in the end."
"Sora's crest is the only one left to find," Izzy interrupted, staring at TK's crest in contemplation before looking at the others. "Maybe if we rescue this guy he can lead us to it?"
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Tai asked as he punched his hand into the air. "To the rescue! Dah da da da, da-dah!"
"What's that?" Mimi asked, ignoring Tai's attempt at holding a tune. Everyone followed her line of sight and stared at the tunnel that had been revealed as soon as the crest of Hope had been removed from the wall. Izzy was the first to walk in, having seen what the others hadn't noticed immediately. His eyes lit up with excitement as he stared at a bunch of runes of the walls and roof. Jade skipped in after him, staring at the walls curiously. She recognised the digi-code, but what was written was an ancient form of what Lucemon had taught her. While the digi-code that was written before her was accurate in its representation, what she had been taught was the data-stream.
Everything in the Digital World, whether it is organic, material or animal, had their own specific data-stream. It was this data-stream that allowed Jade to harness certain energies to create digi-eggs (like she had done with Angemon), or permanently delete a digimon (like she had done with Devimon). This written form stumped her, as she much preferred being able to access the information she wanted via touch. Having the information immediately downloaded into her mind, she found, was much more efficient and left little to no room for error in the translation. She compared it to having someone talk to her about a topic, or reading it. She could hear it, Izzy could see it.
Izzy erased a rune from the wall and light flooded the cave they were in. Jade nodded slowly, and marvelled at Izzy's brain. This was an archaic language, one that only the oldest digimon could be bothered to read now, and Izzy had figured it all out in the short amount of time they had been in the Digital World.
"This is amazing," Izzy exclaimed. "Do you know what I'm thinking?"
"I have a feeling that you're going to tell us," Mimi quipped instantly.
"You see, it's quite possible these hieroglyphs are not a form of writing at all, but rather code," Izzy started to explain. Jade paid close attention. "Computer code…if you change a piece of the code, you change the programming."
Izzy erased another rune and this time a holographic map formed a short distance further into the tunnel cave. Jade was impressed, and she walked a little closer to the hologram to understand what Izzy was hypothesizing.
"Like that, for example," Izzy stated as everyone gasped.
"Wait, back up," Joe requested. "Are you telling us that this whole place is like one giant computer game? That none of it is really real?"
"Oh, it's real alright," Izzy warned him. "You know, I'm thinking that everything we see and everybody we meet in this place, are actually pieces of data or programing given physical form."
"Now wait a second," Matt jumped in. "If you're right and this thing is just one big computer, then how did we get here? Did we squeeze in through the floppy drive?"
Jade giggled as the image materialised in her brain.
"No," Izzy said with a soft laugh. "We're just kilobytes of data too, I mean, the versions of us that are in here."
"If I'm just data, why do I still feel like I'm flesh and blood?" Tai asked.
"And I still need to go to the little girls' room," Mimi added.
"You don't really," Izzy told her. "You just think you have to."
"Oh, well, I hope you're right because –"
"Where's the real us?" Matt interrupted. "Where are our flesh and blood bodies?"
"I don't know," Izzy told him unconcerned. "I suppose we're back at the campground still. Yeah, we're alive back there. We exist simultaneously with our other selves. We're in a parallel digital universe like the digimon."
"Does that mean I don't have to worry about brushing my teeth anymore?" TK asked curiously, his question quite serious. Izzy, alone, took TK's question seriously.
"We've got bigger things to worry about now TK."
"Although, do us all a favour and don't stop brushing," Matt corrected, sending a sharp look at Izzy to back him up. Izzy understood with a sheepish nod.
"Yeah, please," Izzy he said before focusing entirely on his computer. Jade made herself comfortable on the ground and leant back on her arms so that she could stare at the map of the Digital World. Behind her Izzy started to mumble to himself, pushing different buttons on his keyboard and thinking out loud.
"O oh, he's in computer dork mode, this could take a while," Mimi recognised, though her tone had TK and Jade giggling. TK sat next to Jade and they watched as the map shrunk and morphed into another map, but this one was spherical and looked like a planet. The others gasped at the display of advanced electronics, but Jade just focused on the point that Izzy was trying to make.
"I've called up a holographic map of the Digital World, you can see how physically similar it is to the planet Earth. In fact, there are a lot of parallels with our world."
"That's terrific, Izzy," Matt indicated. "Great time for a geography lesson."
"Pay attention and you might learn something," Izzy told him, his tone scolding even if he never took his eyes away from the display. "If I enter the email address of the person who contacted us, I can find his location in the Digital World here. Now, look, that email address is from a web domain in our world, I've logged onto it a thousand times."
"Is there a point to this somewhere?" Tai asked.
"Is the person who sent it in our world or the Digital World?" Sora added, and both ignored Tai's question.
"That's just the thing, he's in both," Izzy answered. He brought up another world map, but this one was of Earth. He removed all land masses and left behind a bunch of white lines. This was important, and Jade sat up straighter. "Here, the Digital World is on the left, and the wold we know is on the right…and if I overlay them like so…"
"The white lines match up perfectly," Sora realised. "What does it mean?"
"That's the world's digital network," Izzy told her, excitement leaking through as he finally got to explain the theory he had been working towards since File Island. "Through those lines every computer on Earth is connected to every other computer. The Digital World is the physical embodiment of the data passing through them. Guys, we're seeing something that no one else has ever seen, that no one even knows about. The digital shadow world that lives alongside our own, and they're not just parallel, they're physically linked, so anything we do here will have effects on the other."
"For real?" Matt asked in shock.
"Intense, "Joe breathed.
"Yeah, and here's the coolest part. Wherever this person is in the Digital World, I think I can take us there just by entering his email address and clicking on it, like accessing a web page."
"Hey, all this techno talk is making my head spiny," TK complained. Matt came over to him and knelt down so that he was staring at the two on the ground.
"Computer guys can never just do something TK, that'd be too easy," he explained as if revealing a well-kept secret. "They gotta spend all day telling you how they're going to do it."
Conversations started up around the group, but Jade didn't listen to any of them. Izzy was really smart for his age, but the one bit of knowledge he didn't have was that the seven children before her were not the first humans who had ever entered the Digital World. She wasn't even the first human to enter, that right lay with the five original digidestined. She wondered if she should tell the resident genius, but decided against it because he seemed happy with the conclusions he'd drawn. Admittedly, she didn't know everything about the existence of the Digital World, only that it wasn't the only world that existed in parallel with Earth.
"Bingo!" Izzy announced with delight as he hit the last few commands into his computer.
"I hate bingo," Mimi told him. "It's so confusing with all those different letters and numbers. Hey, look, a door."
Mimi was right. Where the map had originally been was now a doorway to another part of the Digital World. Jade darted forward before anyone could tell her not to, and stared at the desert that stretched out before her. She knew, even if it looked the same, that they were in another part of the desert that was a fair distance from where they entered the tunnel cave.
"Our electronic pen pal is right out there," Izzy explained as she ran off.
"Or it could be a trap!" Sora stated with alarm as she ran off after Jade.
"No way," Izzy refuted as he followed her. He was clearly trying to be reassuring. "We're just kilobytes of data so I uploaded us as bits of file attachment –"
"Ok, ok, I believe you," Sora told him a calmer tone as she stood beside Jade looking out across the desert. Tai walked passed them and out into the desert, before informing everyone that they were standing in the mouth of a sphinx. His declaration had everyone moving forward just so they could see the sphinx as well. Jade looked to the left of the sphinx's mouth and gaped as she saw a structure that defied gravity.
An upside-down pyramid.
"Whoa, check this out," Tai breathed as he too spotted the pyramid. He pulled out his mini-telescope and focused it on the movement at the base-tip of the pyramid. "Heads up, Etemon at nine o'clock."
"I think I left the water running back at the sphinx," Joe stated calmly before walking back into the tunnel and not stopping until he was outside in the canyon again. Jade skipped to his side and sat next to him with a cheerful grin. He looked at her with a sigh, but she knew that he was grateful that she was with him and not out within Etemon's reach. He started to pull food out of his bag that the others could grab as they returned.
"So our prisoner is being kept in Etemon's lair," Matt stated as he dropped down opposite Jade and Joe. He grabbed the nearest bit of food without looking at what it was.
"Where's Sora's crest Jade?" TK asked as he sat next to his brother. "Is it nearby?"
"It's inside the pyramid," Jade told him with a frown. "Someone must have found it and brought it there. Maybe Etemon found it on his travels and brought it back, and that's why he wants you guys. Maybe he thinks that the crests will give him more power to take over the entirety of the Digital World."
"So we have to go into the pyramid regardless of whether or not we're going to try to rescue this 'mon," Tai summarised.
"You don't want to rescue him?" Sora asked in surprise. "You sounded pretty determined earlier."
"That was before I realised we were walking straight into Etemon's Headquarters," Tai defended himself. "I think it's a majorly bad idea."
"But we need to find Sora's crest," Izzy told him.
"Are we sure that Sora's is in there?" Joe asked, a tad hopefully. "There are still three that need to be found, right Jade?"
"Two," Jade corrected, shaking her head slightly. "But I'm pretty sure that Sora's is in the pyramid. The other one feels different and it's a really pale pink. The one in the pyramid is red and it's reaching out for something close by."
"What happened to the third?" Mimi asked curiously, sitting down delicately.
"I have it," Jade said, pulling out her crest with a brilliant smile. "Piximon gave it to me. He said that it was mine the last time I was here, before I left. Gennai gave it to him to keep safe."
"Do you remember the last time you were here?" TK asked excitedly.
"Bits and pieces," Jade told him. "I remember the Dark Masters, well, only Piedmon. He was the leader, I think, and he was the one who deleted me."
"He killed you?" TK asked with wide eyes.
"Yep," Jade said with a nod. "It hurt a lot, which is why I lost my memory."
"Is he the digimon that Gennai was afraid of?" Matt asked.
"No," Jade said, tilting her head slightly. "He's afraid of another, one who could easily level the Digital World if we're not careful. I'll go looking for him later."
"Alone?" Joe clarified in alarm. "I don't think so. If Gennai's so afraid of him it's for a very good reason."
"I died in his arms," Jade told him with a frown. "From all accounts he didn't take it well."
"By Azulongmon's whiskers!" Agumon suddenly realised. "He was the one I saw when I hatched."
"Who did you see Agumon?" Gabumon asked curiously. "I don't recall seeing anything like what they're describing."
"That's because it happened before you guys hatched," Agumon elaborated. "I've never heard a digimon scream like that before. I felt like crying because he clearly wasn't. He disappeared and never returned to File Island."
The digimon were silent as they worked through what Agumon was telling them, and Jade slid over so that she could hug the little dinosaur. She could only image what sounds the baby Agumon had heard, and it chilled her to her bones as she tried to image that being the first thing she heard after being born.
"We still need to go into the pyramid," Matt said after a minute or two of silence.
"I have a really bad feeling about it," Tai told him again. "Like, someone's going to get seriously hurt, bad feeling. I don't think we should all go in."
"That I'll agree to," Matt told him. "I think that TK, Jade and Mimi should stay here."
"If you think that's best, I agree too," Mimi told him.
"Great, so, I'm going because it's my crest, Izzy's coming for his computer," Sora started to list.
"I'm going to make sure you don't kill yourselves," Joe added.
"I'm going because I'm going to be unbearable if I have to stay behind," Tai added. The others looked at him sternly, before conceding that he was right. He would drive all who stayed behind absolutely nuts. Matt nodded.
"I'll stay behind," he said. "An extra pair of eyes back here will ensure that you have back up if you need it."
"You just don't want to leave me on my own," TK wisely stated.
"And too many people going is like asking for someone to spot you," Jade added in the same tone.
"…That too," Matt agreed, turning back to the others. "We should get some rest if we're going to storm Etemon's HQ in the morning."
There was agreement all round, but Jade kept her eyes on Tai. He was determined to go, but she didn't think that it was for the reason he had given everyone. He was scared that something would happen to them if he didn't go with them. Jade sighed, it seemed that Tai was still determined to protect everyone from everything…even at the cost of his own mental health and well-being.
"Keep an eye on him tomorrow," she whispered to Joe as she moved passed him to get some rest. She and TK would sleep surrounded by the digimon, as they did every night. They still weren't allowed to keep watch as they were too young. "Something's up."
"I agree," Joe told her. "I've got him. Go get some rest."
Jade nodded and went to sit down surrounded by the digimon. She agreed with Tai, even if she didn't say it aloud. Something was bound to go wrong…she just hoped that they'd all live to talk about it later.
The following morning the group of four humans and four digimon snuck over to the pyramid. Tai took the lead with Agumon, but he moved slowly enough that everyone could keep up and he kept to the shadow of the sand dunes to ensure that the patrolling Gazimon didn't spot them. He hadn't slept well the night before at all, not even tiring himself out on first watch helped. He had given up some time before dawn and sat against the wall of the cave, watching as everyone slept. He knew, without a single doubt in his mind, that something was going to go wrong. He didn't know what, or when, but he knew that by the time they returned from the pyramid everything would be different.
"There's a hidden back door to the pyramid that we can use to get in," Izzy whispered as they arrived at the last dune before the pyramid. "It should be somewhere right up ahead."
Tai nodded and made a break for the edge of the pyramid. He had to admit, it was a little nerve wracking to walk up to a pyramid that was upside down. The largest part of the pyramid was now above them and looked like it was about to fall on them. Still, Tai ignored it and once he reached the wall he pressed against it and waited for Izzy to point out the next step.
"That's funny," Izzy muttered as he stared at a certain part of the wall. "It should be right here."
Tai looked at him in disbelief but before he could speak another voice registered in his mind. He turned slightly so that he could look around the edge of the pyramid before straightening and hiding back behind the wall. He could feel the hate in him growing, but he forced it away by closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Joe came over to him, seeing his difficulty.
"Tai, what is it?" he asked quietly.
"Etemon," Tai growled in reply. Joe gasped and grabbed a hold of Tai's arm, dragging him back to where Izzy was still staring at the wall in confusion. Tai was grateful for his touch, the hate that was rushing through his veins at the moment made him more likely to rush up to the orange monkey and punch him as opposed to run and protect his friends.
"Izzy, it's time to go," Joe hissed at him. "Etemon's just around the corner."
Sora stared at Joe in confusion, noticing the restraining hand that he had on Tai's arm. Then she looked at Tai's face and understood that Joe was grounding Tai so that he wouldn't do anything stupid. She grabbed Tai's free hand without saying anything, but the gratitude in Tai's eyes when he looked at her meant more than words could express. Izzy, having ignored the trouble behind him, reached forward to place his hands on the wall, only to have his hand go right through it.
His exclamation of surprise was just loud enough to attract Etemon's attention, so the small group darted inside moments before they would have otherwise been spotted. Now in relative safety, Tai released a breath that was meant to rid all tension from his body.
"Well done Tai," Joe praised quietly. "Well done."
"What was that about?" Sora asked him curiously.
"Piximon told me that it was my hate that made Agumon dark digivolve," Tai explained as he leant back against the wall. He was still holding Sora's hand, and Joe's hand was still wrapped around his upper arm. "I don't want to cause any more damage, so I need to control my emotions. Seeing Etemon brought all that hate back, and it was harder than I thought to push it away."
"But you did," Joe told him positively. "You accepted our help and because of that you were able to control your hatred."
"Thanks Joe," Tai muttered.
"We're all here for you Tai," Sora added.
Izzy shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the talk of emotions. The digimon sat quietly, watching but not interrupting, but Agumon couldn't keep the pride off his face as he looked at his partner. He had known the moment Tai saw Etemon, for he could sense the darkness in his partner growing. And while it was still there, being in physical contact with Joe and Sora had made the darkness retreat so that it wasn't as powerful as before. It was something to keep in mind for later.
"Well now that we're in, what do we do?" Joe asked, breaking away from talk of Tai's personal battle with his own demons.
"I guess next we find a way through these walls," Izzy replied immediately, latching onto the new topic. "The trick is –"
"Hey, I found one!" Agumon interrupted as he smashed his hand into the nearest wall. He whimpered as the pain registered, and Tai appeared at his side to see the injury.
"As I was saying Agumon," Izzy told him with a hint of irritation at being interrupted. "The trick is finding the weak points. Let's use heads, not hands."
Agumon nodded glumly but followed the group down the passageway deeper into the pyramid. As they walked, Tai kept a tight grip on Sora's hand. Sora, surprisingly, didn't mind at all and would often stare at their linked hands with a faint blush to her cheeks. No one seemed to notice her preoccupation, but Biyomon did look at her in confusion. Joe, on the other hand, was mentally chanting 'no one spot us, no one spot us' and wringing his hands nervously. The passageway they were walking down had no corridors, so if anyone was coming from up ahead they would be caught instantly. Izzy walked at the front of the group with Tentomon, neither speaking, both just watching.
As they walked down a flight of stairs they noticed something that was different. A small section of the wall on the right hand side was see-through, much like how the exit had appeared see-through once they were inside the pyramid.
"It's another breech in the system's security," Izzy mumbled, staring at the wall with undisguised interest. Agumon walked forward so that he was the closest to the not-wall and gasped.
"Look, Gazimon!" he alerted the others in a hushed tone. They all held their breath as the two approaching Gazimon came closer to the not-wall, passed it without spotting them, and continued on their way.
"Does that mean that this wall looks like a normal wall from the other side?" Tai asked in a whisper.
"Must be," Izzy told him. "Otherwise we would have been spotted."
"Do we need to go through it, or go further along this passageway?" Joe asked. Izzy looked at his computer screen before pointing to the passageway they were still on. They continued to walk without talking, though there was a little bit more confidence as it appeared they were in a part of the pyramid that no one else could see. They should be completely safe until they hopped into a new passageway…theoretically.
At the end of the passageway they came to another not-wall, and only after hesitating a brief moment did the group walk through it. They were in another room, but while on three sides was normal brick that they had seen everywhere else, the fourth side held an electrical fence. As they stared at it, a very visible electrical current would run over the metal wires menacingly.
"This looks nasty," Tentomon observed, flying a little closer to the fence. "We don't have to go through here do we?"
"This firewall is the system's last line of defence," Izzy explained. "There appears to be only one safe way through it."
"And if we pick the wrong way we'll need to be scooped up with a spatula," Joe lamented.
"You're not scared are you Joe?" Gomamon asked cheekily.
"Maybe I am a little!" Joe snapped back. Izzy walked to the left of the group before pointing at the wire fence.
"The weak point should be here," he stated.
"Cool," Tai told him. And he walked through without blinking. At the last moment Sora had pulled her hand free of his grip, and she stared at the fence in alarm. Joe and Izzy also exchanged glances, but before they could say anything about Tai's apparent disregard for his own life his head popped back in and he stared at them in confusion.
"Are you coming in? Or are you just going to stand there all day?"
With Tai apparently unharmed they followed him through, though Sora couldn't help herself and she gently hit Tai over the back of his head. He yelped at the contact and spun to face her with a question on his lips.
"Do you have no care for your own life?" she asked him before he could utter another sound.
"Izzy said that it was safe, and he hasn't been wrong about this place yet," Tai defended. "He said that that point was the weakest, and I believed him."
"What if he was wrong?" Sora asked him, a little louder this time.
"Could you yell a little quieter?" Joe asked pleadingly as he looked around.
"Are you saying that you don't trust Izzy?" Tai asked her back. "We're here because Izzy received an email asking us for help, and because your crest is here for us to find. So far Izzy hasn't led us astray, and I don't believe that he will. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Why don't you pass notes?" Joe suggested under his breath. "It's not like we're in the middle of an evil digimon's headquarters or anything, an evil digimon who has tried to kill us every time we have stumbled across each other."
"You could die!" Sora hissed in Tai's face. "You may not care about your life, but we care about it! We need you Tai, and if we're ever going to get home it will be together!"
Tai stared at Sora carefully, taking in her red face and the hint of tears in her eyes. He hadn't really been thinking about the consequences of Izzy being wrong, and the idea of being in a computer had set his mind at ease a little. If he died, he assumed that he would wake up back at camp again, because that's what happened to Jade when she was last in the Digital World. She had died, but she was back and perfectly healthy…all things considered.
But now he thought: what if, because of the differences between them and Jade, death meant something different? Jade was, technically, human, but she had the ability to become a digimon. Was that what made it possible for her to wake up, alive, in the Real World? Would that then mean that if they died they would be erased and never seen again? All of a sudden Tai didn't feel very confident with his chances of returning home.
"I will be more careful," he eventually promised. Sora nodded and crossed her arms defensively. Joe cleared his throat, drawing attention back to him and Izzy, before gesturing to Izzy to start explaining where they were. Now that they were looking, Tai and Sora noticed that they had walked into a room that was far more technologically advanced than any other part of the pyramid they had seen. There were no bricks, and the walls were made of metal.
"This is the host's computer," Izzy explained. "This is where the cry for help came from."
"Is that him?" Sora asked, pointing to the centre of the room. Directly ahead of them was a small digimon that looked like a robot. It was inside a clear pyramid that was right side up, with another, larger, pyramid on top of that but upside down. It looked like an elaborate cage.
"I've heard of him," Tentomon spoke up. "That's Datamon, a super intelligent robotic digimon. He disappeared without a trace some time ago. Nobody ever knew what happened to him."
"I guess we now know," Tai muttered.
"Now that you've finished bickering we can get on with it!"
Everyone turned to look at Izzy's computer where a small version of Datamon had appeared, and his voice echoed out from the speakers.
"He's communicating with us through the infrared port on my laptop," Izzy realised.
"Today is your lucky day, and mine," Datamon continued. "But we haven't much time. Long, long ago, I fought Etemon…and lost, one of my rare miscalculations. Anyway, I was severely damaged and Etemon imprisoned me here, forcing me to act as his Web Master, administering his Network. Without Etemon knowing, however, I was able to slowly repair myself, restoring my capabilities bit by bit over the years. And then, eventually, I gained control over Etemon's Network. Not total control, but enough to bring some misery to that bumbling baboon. At last, I am ready to free myself, but I need your help to break the cyber lock."
"What about my crest?" Sora asked suspiciously. "You said in your message that you could lead us to it. And we know that it's here in the pyramid."
"Whatever you want," Datamon promised. "Just, please, help me out of here."
Tai was suspicious. There was something more at work here than just freeing the robot digimon. But, he was also an enemy of Etemon, and anything that worked against him was fine in Tai's book. The saying: 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' came to him and he thought that it fit the situation.
"Can we trust this talking can opener?" Joe asked, his thoughts echoing Tai's.
"Etemon is your enemy as well as mine," Datamon told them. Tai's frown deepened. "That makes us allies. Please, you're my only hope."
"I really hope we don't regret this," Tai muttered before raising his voice. "What do you need from us?"
"I'm transmitting instructions to disengage the cyber lock," Datamon told them, and as soon as Izzy received them he ran over to the wall controls and started to fiddle with them. Tai followed him, but left Joe and Sora standing with their digimon. He followed the instructions that Izzy called out to him, but before he was able to fulfil the last one, Etemon walked through the door.
"Hold it!" the orange digimon ordered. Tai froze, the hate in his veins growing. The darkness whispered to him, telling him to give into his hate as it would make him powerful. If he gave into his hate, he could kill Etemon and then none of his friends would have to die. His hands tightened on the lever that he was holding, his knuckles turning white under his gloves.
"I've been watching you on the surveillance cameras," Etemon told them, annoyed. "You're an annoying little brat, you know that?"
Two Gazimon appeared from behind Etemon, and just before Tai's hate reached its peak he thought of Jade and Agumon, both of them staring up at him in fear. He never wanted them to fear him, but his emotions created that fear in them. Jade avoided him because of her fear, and while Agumon had forgiven him there were still moments when he caught the digimon watching him nervously, afraid of what he would do. Slowly, one hand released the lever and cupped his forehead. He didn't want to feel anymore.
"Tai?" Joe asked, concerned but quiet as he didn't want to draw too much attention to his friend. Tai opened his eyes and looked at Joe, and Joe was proud of how he didn't so much as flinch as he noticed the inky darkness of Tai's eyes. Sora gasped behind him, but thankfully Etemon's attention was on Datamon.
"All this time I thought it was these snot-nose kids causing my Network to go on the fritz, but it was you wasn't it, you digital dumpster?"
"Well, in a word, yes," Datamon told Etemon, no remorse in his voice at all.
"You rat!" Etemon cried, and then he turned to Tai and Izzy. Tai's eyes focused on Etemon moments before he charged, but thankfully his focus was interrupted. Joe had darted forward and wrapped one arm around Tai's chest, and used the other to cover his eyes. Tai struggled briefly, both hands coming off the lever to grip Joe's arm across his eyes.
"Digivolve! Help out!" Agumon ordered. All four digimon digivolved to the next level, and started to fight in order to protect their friends and partners. Only Agumon and Joe were aware of how close to losing it Tai was, but Agumon trusted his partner not to hurt him again, and that was why he digivolved.
"Calm down Tai," Joe ordered into his ear. "Breathe. You can beat this."
"It hurts Joe," Tai moaned, his grip tightening on Joe's arm. "It promises that you'll all be safe, and that no one would be able to stop me."
"But you will be alone," Joe added, wincing as Ikkakumon was thrown into a wall. "Remember what your hate did last time? If Jade hadn't interfered you would have lost Agumon, and then you would have lost us. Your hatred will do more damage to us than Devimon, Etemon, or any other dark digimon will."
Tai let his body go limp against Joe.
"Make it stop, please?" he pleaded.
Izzy used that moment to dart forward and grab the lever that Tai had let go of. He wrenched it up in order to free Datamon. The glass pyramid lifted and in that instant Datamon was free from the cage that had imprisoned him for years. Tai felt the change in the air and his body tightened as horror surged through his body.
"NO!" he cried and pushed Joe's arm free so that he could see.
"I'm free!" Datamon cried. He turned to Etemon. "Now let's see how you like it!"
The glass floated into the air, and then was flying towards Etemon, the Gazimon…and Birdramon. The force of the blast sent Birdramon crashing into the back wall and de-digivolving into Biyomon again. Sora cried out in alarm and ran over to her partner. All the while Datamon was laughing insanely.
"Hey! We set you free!" Tai screamed at him. Joe kept one hand on Tai's arm. One, to make sure that he was grounded, and two, to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid like try to attack Etemon with his bare hands.
"And I do appreciate it you twerps!" Datamon told him. Tai seethed in silence, but then tried to control it as Etemon spoke up from behind him. Their enemy was right behind them, but everything had gone out of control so quickly that Tai didn't know what to think anymore.
"Dumb kids, ha-ha, you'd think by now they'd learned to trust no one," Etemon stated with a laugh.
"Trust me," Datamon told Etemon. "This will hurt."
Datamon attacked Etemon with little red demonic bugs of some kind. Etemon used his Dark Network Attack and when the two attacks met in mid-air there was an explosion. Tai and Joe flew backwards from the force of it, and as they flew Joe let go of Tai's arm. Tai hit the wall hard, and as he sank to the ground he cursed himself for trusting Datamon. Because of him, they were all in danger.
He passed out.
Back at the sphinx, Jade and Gabumon were watching the pyramid with worry. The others were a little further in, eating an early lunch and just talking about their adventures. Jade was talking to Gabumon, but it was more like a running commentary about what was happening in the pyramid. She had alerted him to the fact that something had gone wrong when all four digimon digivolved, and then when Birdramon was forced to de-digivolve.
And then the ground between them and the pyramid exploded unexpectedly.
"Matt! Come quick!" Gabumon cried back into the tunnel. Matt darted to his side and stared at the falling sand and smoke with worry.
"Well so much for no fighting," he muttered.
"Something went wrong!" Jade told him, her hands clutching his arm. "They're all in great danger! You have to go and get them!"
"Palmon, digivolve and go with Matt and Gabumon," Mimi told her friend. "I won't be much help, but they're going to need you to get them out."
"Alright Mimi," Palmon agreed.
"We'll wait here for your return," Mimi continued, looking at Matt. "Bring them home."
"I will," Matt promised. "Gabumon, Palmon, let's go. Stay here TK, Jade."
Jade watched him leave. She knew that something was wrong, but she also knew that the worst was yet to come. She didn't know how she knew, but the trials of the digidestined were far from over.
To be continued…
Next up in Intertwined Destinies:
Chapter 14: Downfall of Etemon