Intertwined Destinies
Previously in Intertwined Destinies:
Etemon has been defeated, but the digidestined weren't unscathed. Tai was almost fatally injured and was saved by Jade when she transformed into Phoenixmon, but instead of fighting Etemon herself, Phoenixmon allowed Tai and Greymon to fight first. Greymon digivolved to the Ultimate level and became Metalgreymon, and it was his attack that opened a dimensional rift. Etemon was sucked into the rift, but before the rift could close Tai and Metalgreymon were also pulled through. He was pulled into the Human World where he realised no time had passed since they were first sent to the Digital World. Despite how much Tai wanted to stay, he knew he couldn't and foundhis way back to the Digital World.
In the Digital World, the digidestined separated. Jade ran from them first and was finally reunited with her digimon partner who she calls Tom, no matter was digivolution he is in. In Jade's absence from his life, Tom went insane and destroyed the world that he ruled. It is also revealed that Tom was once a human, who tried to kill Jade when she was a baby, but when that failed his soul latched onto her. The shard was removed from Jade when she was first pulled into the Digital World, and that was how Tom was born.
Tai and Agumon have found TK, Matt and Joe and now they are working towards finding the others, because they need to fight together to win, or they would lose.
The next chapter of their adventure awaits...
Chapter 18: Inner Powers ~ Izzy and Mimi
Along the left-hand path, the path that Matt and TK had taken was the resident genius of the digidestined. Izzy and Tentomon hadn't been looking for Tai, or Jade, or anyone else since they had separated from the group. Their quest was to find the only other human they had come across in the Digital World…Gennai.
"This is extremely perplexing," Izzy stated as he looked around curiously. "We've been trying to find Gennai for over two months. Got any ideas Tentomon? We're walking in circles."
"We could walk in squares, but that's not likely to work either," Tentomon told him. "Let's take a breather and wait for him to come to us."
"I prefer to take a more scientific approach to this problem," Izzy told him with a frown, pausing briefly on their upward climb of the mountain.
"Yes, but even scientists need to take a break!"
Izzy continued to walk, but over his shoulder he called his partner with a hint of annoyance in his voice:
"There's no time to rest so stop asking."
"Aww," Tentomon moaned. He still followed Izzy, but he was walking as his wings were tired.
"I'm absolutely certain that he's around here somewhere," Izzy told him several minutes later.
"I hope so for my feet's sake," Tentomon told him. Izzy smiled at him, but didn't catch the not so subtle hint that Tentomon wanted to stop for a few minutes to rest.
Tentomon thought about his partner as they continued to walk in silence. Once they had separated from the group Tentomon noticed that Izzy had become more relaxed. It wasn't that he had been tense around the others, more like he was always on guard in case something happened. He was happier on his own. It struck Tentomon as odd, because when he listened to the others talk it was like they were happier in a group instead of on their own. He wanted to ask Izzy why he didn't like the others, but he didn't think that was the right thing to say. Maybe it was just a human thing? Jade had started out like that, happier with the digimon than the humans, but she had grown to like hanging around with the humans eventually.
Tentomon was also concerned about Izzy's near obsession with finding Gennai, it wasn't healthy and he couldn't figure out why he was so desperate to find him. Anything that he wanted to ask the old man he could probably ask Jade and get the same answer.
"Why do you want to find Gennai so bad?" he eventually asked. Izzy blinked once before launching into an explanation.
"I'm curious to know why Gennai is so secretive. I want to discuss the merits of the crests with him." He pulled out his crest from under his clothes and stared at it curiously. "Jade said that this was the crest of Knowledge, but I want to know why the attribute is important. Why do we have crests, and do they do anything aside from help you digivolve and attract evil digimon? Where do the crests come from and are they related to how we came to be selected to save this world?"
"I like that about you Izzy, you have a never-ending thirst for information," Tentomon said as he thought about all of his partner's questions. "It's amazing your brain doesn't explode from all that knowledge."
"There are a lot more things I can learn," Izzy told him modestly as he put the crest under his shirt again.
"How much room do you have left in your brain?"
"As much as I need," the boy said with a smile. His eyes turned skyward. "I wonder where Gennai could be. With all my knowledge I still can't find him."
"Look Izzy! It's a sign!" Tentomon cried as he flew off. Izzy looked around rapidly.
"You mean from above?"
"No," Tentomon told him with an eye roll. "Here on the ground."
"How bizarre," Izzy mumbled as he read the words. "It says: BEWARE OF FALLING SLUDGE."
"Uh oh! This could get real ugly!" Tentomon moaned. His imagination created the image of the two of them buried under a pile of slimy, pink sludge. He shuddered and shook his head to rid himself of the image.
"Please tell it's just a dream?" he begged. "I say we go anywhere but this way."
"Yeah," Izzy agreed and turned down a different path. Unfortunately, it took them to another sign. "Oh no, there's another sign up ahead…bottomless sludge pit. Not a very pleasant experience."
Tentomon's imagination once again provided the image of falling endless with nothing but pink sludge around them and no hope of survival. He shook his head again and moaned aloud.
"I feel like I've been flushed. I hope I never see a sign for as long as I live!"
"Me too," Izzy told him fervently. Then he turned around and gaped at the multitude of signs scattered along every path that they could have otherwise traveled on. Tentomon moaned and sunk to the ground in hopelessness.
"Attack sludge? Impossible!" Izzy read off another sign.
"It's humiliating, being attacked by attack sludge!"
"There's such a thing as attack sludge?" Izzy asked incredulously.
"Oh yeah, they live in the sewers and provide the Numemon with their ammo."
"Hmm," Izzy sounded, not entirely convinced. He looked around with a frown. "There doesn't appear to be any place for us to go."
"We're surrounded by sludge!" Tentomon wailed hysterically. He stamped his foot in frustration, and cursed as the ground beneath them broke apart. The two of them screamed as they fell into the darkness, their voices echoing through the mountain around them.
"That sounded like Tentomon and Izzy," TK said worriedly as he and Matt froze. Matt nodded and looked for which direction it had come from. With the echo it was difficult to pinpoint it.
"It came from over there," he decided just as the light on his digivice died. He and TK looked at each other in worry. "We should hurry."
"I hope they're alright," TK stated as they ran.
"Of course they'll be fine," Matt told him.
"Yeah, Tentomon's there and there's nothing that can keep Tentomon down," Patamon added as he flew just ahead of the group.
"Still, we should go faster just in case they need us," TK told him. The others nodded and picked up their speed.
"Perfect! I got them! They don't have a chance!" Demidevimon cheered as he watched the duo fall into the pit. He had put all the signs up to lure the two to one spot, and they had fallen for his trap!
"I can't believe that it worked!"
"Now what do you plan on doing?" Tom asked as he cleaned his talons delicately, not interested in the fate of the human and his digimon.
"Do you know what's down there?" Jade asked curiously.
"Nope," Tom replied, popping his 'p'. "Nor do I care."
"So it doesn't bother you that Demidevimon is trying to steal the crests of my friends?"
"Nope," Tom repeated. "If they aren't strong enough to protect themselves, how will they be strong enough to protect you?"
"Then you can wait here," Jade told him as she put him down. "I'm going after Demidevimon to see what his plan is."
Tom nodded and curled up on a rock. When her back was turned he opened one eye and watched her slink off soundlessly. With a great sigh he stood up and followed her at a distance. He may not care about the digidestined, but he cared about her.
"There's no bottom to this pit!" Izzy cried in despair as they continued to fall.
"Well, that could work in our favor." Tentomon said positively. "It's a lot easier on your head that way if you ask me."
"Unfortunately, that's impossible," Izzy told him.
"Why is it impossible?" Tentomon asked.
"Because there's no scientific proof that it is possible!"
The two fell further, and Izzy grabbed a hold of Tentomon's arm. Tentomon did his best to fly them both back up to the receding sky, but he was small and not designed for carrying anything heavier than he himself was. They plummeted further.
"If we fall any further we'll be in –" Tentomon started to say
"-a very unpleasant place," a new voice finished.
"That's not good," Tentomon moaned. He held tighter to Izzy, he didn't trust this new voice.
"Does anyone need a lift?" the voice asked. Tentomon let out a startled yelp as a life-preserver wrapped around his waist. It did two things at the same time, the first being that it stopped him from falling, and the second was that it separated him from Izzy. Izzy had landed on a duck that looked like an enlarged version of a rubber ducky to use in the bathtub.
"Hey, what are these?" Izzy asked curiously as his hands grabbed the duck's head.
"I have temporarily given you a life raft. You see, all those who are greedy fall into the Pit."
"I'm not sure I comprehend what you're saying," Izzy called into the darkness. "What are you accusing us of being greedy for?"
"Why, that you know too much, of course," the voice told him. "You're sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong."
"What could possibly be wrong with gaining knowledge and information?" Izzy asked him incredulously.
"See, you're doing it again. You can't seem to stop yourself. You're headed straight for the Pit if you can't learn to control yourself."
"How come?" Izzy continued to ask.
"You don't even know that you're doing it!"
"I don't?"
"It's like a disease with you!" The duck Izzy was perched on popped and he started to fall again with a scream. "Oh well, nice knowing you."
"Don't worry Izzy! I'll save you! Give me your hand!" Tentomon ordered as he tried to fly closer to his falling partner. It was unlucky for him that the life-preserver prevented him from unfurling his wings, but he was still able to shoot through the air by moving his arms and legs in time to catch Izzy and prevent him from falling further.
"It's your decision, do you want to fall into the Pit?"
"No way!" Izzy cried, terrified. "Of course not!"
"That makes two of us!" Tentomon told him
"Then give up your curiosity to me!"
Tentomon froze in horror as the price of their safety was revealed. He couldn't let Izzy lose his curiosity.
"It appears I have no other choice," Izzy admitted after a few seconds of contemplation.
"But it's your curiosity I admire!" Tentomon told him as he desperately tried to figure out a way to get out of their predicament without giving anything up.
"What procedure should I utilize to keep us falling down to this Pit?"
"Stop asking questions!" the voice roared at Izzy. The life-preserver popped as well and the two were soon falling again.
"I won't, I won't!" Izzy promised as he fell. "I don't want to know!"
"That's more like it."
The two screamed, and just before they disappeared into darkness, Izzy's finally promise echoed up, followed by a blue sack.
"I don't want to know!"
Jade followed Demidevimon to a hole in the ground with what looked like a doorbell sticking out of it. She knew that Tom was following her, but she knew how to be silent when it was needed. She was worried about Izzy, he really wasn't a people person, but he was only a year older than her. He needed friends to support him, but he also needed to realize that he needed friends. Knowledge was knowledge, but wisdom was knowing when and how to use that knowledge at the right time.
She would bide her time until she could get into that hole without being seen.
"Well, we finally made it out but where are we now?" Tentomon asked as they stopped falling. If he didn't know better he would say that he was floating in outer space.
"Welcome, to my Universe," the voice once again echoed. Tentomon turned to look at where it originated from and saw a creepy looking digimon with half a dozen tentacles as legs, an extremely thin humanoid body, and a head that was too small for its brain as it was growing on the outside of his body. "I certainly hope you enjoy your stay."
Izzy bowed to the digimon but showed no desire to learn who it was that had trapped them so effectively.
"Izzy?" Tentomon asked in concern at the abnormal silence.
"I am Vademon, I designed this Universe," the digimon continued, ignoring Tentomon. "Pretty nice, don't you think? Your curiosity is in this sack, it's garbage, you don't need it. And I don't want it messing up my Universe. I just hate having clutter. If it's not needed, I sell it."
Vademon pulled out a small ray gun and shot the sack of Izzy's curiosity, removing it from sight. Tentomon gaped in dismay.
"Now that that's done, I want you to read my latest book," he continued as he threw a small blue book in Izzy's direction. "It's all you need to know."
"All you need to know, whether you like it or not," Izzy read in a monotone.
"It happens to be a best seller," Vademon told him before disappearing from sight. Izzy opened up the book and began to read in that same monotone as before. It sounded so wrong coming from Izzy's lips, as well as the words he was reading, that Tentomon could help but interrupt Izzy's reading.
"In order to be one with the universe you must erase your thoughts," Izzy read.
"But your thoughts make up who you are," Tentomon told him. "You mustn't erase them."
"It is important to breathe into your thoughts until they disintegrate into mush."
"I've heard enough!" Tentomon cried. He darted forward and tried to rip the book away from Izzy's hands. He failed as Izzy proved that just because he had no curiosity, didn't mean that he didn't have his strength.
"Keep away from me!"
Tentomon spun wildly for a few moments before he could right himself. He looked to his partner and saw that his digivice was flashing.
"The less you think about, the happier you will be."
"Someone's trying to send us a transmission," Tentomon said, though for all the good it did he could have been talking to himself. He flew behind Izzy and pulled his computer from his back pack and activated it. The image was a little fuzzy, but it was definitely Tai on the screen. Izzy floated over and stared at the screen impassively.
"Look, it's Tai," he said tonelessly and without much interest. "Where are you?"
"I'm home," Tai said quickly. "But I got your message that you're in danger. I'm trying to find you."
"Tell me about it. I'm trying to find myself," Izzy serenely agreed. "Don't bother coming back to the Digital World Tai, you'll just clutter up the Universe."
"Izzy!" Tai cried just before the screen went blank. Tentomon felt hopeful that at least Tai knew they were in trouble, but Izzy didn't seem to be bothered that his friends were risking their lives.
"Tai's risking his life to save you Izzy," he tried to reason.
"Oh well."
"He's your friend!"
"Indifference is the key to success. Practice it."
"The Izzy I knew is no more," Tentomon lamented sorrowfully. He had no idea what to do. He wished that there was someone there who could help them…before it was too late.
Demidevimon rang the doorbell several times before Vademon made an appearance. Jade scrunched up her nose at the digimon, but still listened intently as she remained invisible. Vademon looked excited as he recognized the boy in the photo in Demidevimon's hands as Izzy, and disappeared only to return with Izzy's curiosity. Jade eyes went wide as she realized the digimon had robbed Izzy of one of his most important attributes.
But it wasn't the curiosity that Demidevimon wanted, and he held up another photo, this one showing what Izzy's tag and crest looked like. Neither one of them moved away from the hole so Jade couldn't get down it, for she knew that that was where Izzy and Tentomon were being kept. Vademon disappeared a short time later as he agreed to get the tag and crest in return for Demidevimon's curiosity.
"You're not going to get it," Jade whispered as Demidevimon did a little dance on the spot. "I promise you that much."
"A…B…C…D…E…F…G…H…"
For each letter that was spoken, Izzy twisted his body into its shape. It was repetitive, and once he had gone completely through the alphabet once, Tentomon interrupted him.
"Izzy, what are you doing?"
"I'm preparing my brainwaves by focusing on something fundamental, so I would rather you did not disturb me," the boy said tonelessly before continuing. "…I…J…K…L…M…N…"
He would have continued, but at that moment Vademon returned and while Izzy had seemed to barely tolerate Tentomon's interruptions, he had no problem stopping to listen to what Vademon had to say.
"There's something that I forgot to mention to you."
"Oh, yes? What?" Izzy asked.
"In order to fully improve yourself you must throw away possessions that are considered excess baggage," Vademon explained. Tentomon had a bad feeling about what was about to be requested.
"Such as…?" Izzy prompted without attitude.
"Just about everything except your clothes."
"Of course."
With that Izzy dug into his pockets to throw away papers that had collected there. He started to pat down his body and pulled his tag and crest from under his shirt. Not even a flicker of interest passed his eyes as he stared at it.
"Izzy! What are you doing?" Tentomon asked fearfully.
"This is expendable," Izzy decided as he released the tag and crest.
"Have you gone bananas? You can't throw those away!" Tentomon told him as he hurried after the floating crest. He just wasn't fast enough to grab it as Vademon hooked his finger around it before he could.
"What a nice looking trinket," he stated evilly.
"Give back that tag and crest you poor excuse for a digimon!" Tentomon ordered him.
"Back off bug," Vademon ordered him in return. He pulled out his gun and fired one shot at Tentomon, sending him flying away from him.
"Izzy!" Tentomon cried as he flew passed the human.
"Forget about him," Vademon ordered. "Now get back to your training."
"Yes," Izzy agreed and continued where he had left off. "…O…P…Q…R…S…T…U…V…W…X…"
When Vademon returned with Izzy's crest Jade was ready to jump up and steal it back. But when Demidevimon attempted to hand over his curiosity, but only succeeded in looking constipated, Jade had a different idea. Vademon kicked the smaller digimon, and with both of them occupied and looking in the other direction Jade rushed forward and leaped into the hole without anyone seeing her.
She ended up in a shop full of trinkets and sacks. She shivered at the implications of how many digimon had fallen into the same trap as Izzy and Tentomon, and how many had never regained what they had lost. At the back of the shop was another door, but she was too short to see through the small window that was near the top. She frowned and looked around for something to stand on, and grinned in delight as she spotted a mini ladder that was just tall enough that if she stood on the top rung she would be able to see through the door.
What she saw inside, however, caused her to gasp and tears to pool in her eyes. Izzy and Tentomon were there, but Izzy looked like a mindless robot forming the letters of the alphabet with his body, and Tentomon was crying. She couldn't hear what was happening on the other side, but she could feel Tentomon's desperation, hopelessness, and rejection.
He became Motimon, the lack of energy forcing him to de-digivolve to the In-training level. She pushed her hands against the glass of the window as if she could reach out and touch the two. And then Motimon de-digivolved further into his baby form, Pabumon. If he de-digivolved any further…he would die. Jade forced her energy through the door and into Pabumon, she couldn't let him die.
Hold on, she whispered into his mind. I'm going to get you out of there.
Izzy forgot me. Pabumon cried in her mind. Jade felt tears slip down her cheeks as she continued to feed Pabumon energy.
You're just going to have to remind him who you are then, she continued.
How?
Your tears contain your memories, let them out.
Pabumon did as she requested, and she watched as Izzy stared at the growing tear-bubbles with something amounting to expression on his face. His eyes would flicker from bubble to bubble, and Jade knew that it was working. When the bubbles popped it was like life was returned to Izzy's eyes and he looked around in horror. His eyes fastened on Pabumon who was still crying and he rushed forward to pick him up. Izzy hugged him close to his chest, and Jade felt safe enough to duck out of sight of the door. It was a private moment the two were having, she would allow them that much.
"You lie! You're nothing but a weasel."
Jade flinched as she heard Vademon return and quickly moved the ladder back to where she had gotten it. She climbed the shelves quickly without disturbing anything and hid near the roof so that she wouldn't get in the way.
"Don't get bent all out of shape! Give me a break! I'm going to get into big trouble!" Demidevimon snapped back at the much taller digimon.
"It's not my concern you pesky pipsqueak! Now beat it pal."
"Oh please! Myotismon will pull my feathers out if I don't bring him that tag and crest!"
"You got yourself into this, now you can get yourself out."
"Please! I'm begging you! He's a big brute!"
"Back off."
Vademon backhanded Demidevimon and sent him flying into one of the shelves. Jade grinned in relief when she realised that the tag and crest were still safe. Vademon was twirling it around his fingers, but Demidevimon wasn't about to quit so easy.
"But Vademon!" Demidevimon begged.
"Get out!" Vademon ordered.
"Forget it!"
"It's mine!"
"No it's not!"
"You want to bet?!"
While they were arguing the door to where Izzy and Pabumon were being kept opened and the two poked their heads into the store. Jade was just glad that the two arguing digimon were in a different aisle, but she was still alarmed when Pabumon darted forwards towards the two much more powerful digimon.
"Hey! Wait a second!" Izzy quietly called after the baby digimon.
"Hand it over, you old coot!" Demidevimon spat.
"Now you've really got me mad!" Vademon warned him.
There was a small scuffle and then Pabumon was rushing back with the tag and crest in his mouth. Jade smiled in enjoyment. The baby digimon she had looked after had been creative in what they could and couldn't do as well.
"He's stolen the tag and crest!" Vademon roared as he charged after Pabumon. "You! Come back here!"
"Let's get him!" Demidevimon agreed.
"Where'd he come from anyway?" Vademon grouched.
"Pabumon! Over here!" Izzy called as he spotted his partner. Jade was ready to leap down to protect the two, but when Izzy caught Pabumon he darted through the still open door and out of sight. Vademon and Demidevimon rushed through after them, but no sooner had they entered that Izzy and Pabumon came back through and slammed the door shut, locking it as they did so. Jade giggled softly, even without his curiosity Izzy had interesting plans.
"That's good work Pabumon!" Izzy praised. "You got the crest!"
"Pabu-pabu-pabu!" Pabumon preened as Izzy slipped the tag around his neck again. Pabumon started to hop on the spot before moving down the aisle.
"You want me to follow you?" Izzy correctly deduced. He followed the jumping digimon, and Jade did the same by leaping from shelf to shelf, out of sight and completely silent. All that running from Dudley was certainly coming in handy now.
"Prodigious! You found my curiosity!" Izzy cried as he found what Pabumon was leading him towards. "It was a mistake to give it up. I'm sorry I just tossed it away. Curiosity is essential."
"Pabu, pabu," Pabumon agreed.
"I'm going to have to concentrate. I hope it transfers."
At that moment the door broke and the two trapped digimon came back inside. Jade whispered under her breath for Izzy to hurry up, and when she looked back at him it was to see the blue sack glowing slightly as it was absorbed back into his heart. Vademon appeared around the corner just in time to see the curiosity disappear.
"Now you're going to pay for this," he hissed at them. His gun was out again, and Jade ordered the two to run by yelling into their minds. Both flinched, but neither disobeyed her. They ran through the store, ignoring anything that was being damaged, and launched back into the dark room. Jade sighed her annoyance before swinging down and walking through after Vademon and Demidevimon charged through after Izzy and Pabumon.
"Pabumon! It's time for you to digivolve!" Izzy cried in the distance. Jade pushed more energy out and watched as, between blasts from Vademon's gun, Pabumon digivolved into Motimon, and then Tentomon.
Another blast that came that little bit too close to Izzy had him crying out for help, and Tentomon answering with everything he had.
"Izzy! Be careful!" Tentomon ordered. Jade could sense that he was getting ready to digivolve, and gave him more of her energy. It was dangerous for digimon to rapidly digivolve unless they had the energy to do so. Tentomon had lost all of his energy, and was only now getting it back. Izzy's new-found wisdom was giving him more energy.
"Tentomon digivolve to – Kabuterimon!"
Kabuterimon attacked Vademon, but Demidevimon proved to be a coward and ran away without seeing Jade standing by the door. She sighed at his cowardice before rushing over to where Izzy was watching his partner.
"What I need is some pest control! To-da-loo!" Vademon crowed as he summoned giant asteroids to attack Kabuterimon in his place. Kabuterimon wasn't powerful enough to get through unscathed, and Jade knew that if Izzy wanted to get out of there he needed to make his crest glow.
"Kabuterimon!" Izzy cried as his digimon started to fall.
"Sorry, but I've never been partial to vermin digimon," Vademon told him delicately.
"Koushiro Izumi!" Jade called. Izzy froze, and it was like the world around them stopped moving for a moment. He slowly turned to look at her, and she stopped just out of his reach.
"Jade?" he queried.
"Do you understand yet?" she asked.
"Understand what?" Izzy asked. "Kabuterimon is hurt, and it's my fault! I have to help him!"
"Why is it your fault?"
"Because it was my own stupidity that got us into this mess! I got tricked by Vademon into giving up my curiosity, and because of my apathy I nearly killed him! And still he fights to protect me!"
"That's what friends do," Jade told him.
"Friends…" Izzy breathed. "He is my friend, isn't he?"
"The knowledge will always be there Izzy," Jade said with a smile. "Tentomon won't."
"So that's what I needed to learn?" Izzy prompted. "I need to be a friend, I need to care about others instead of just my computer."
"Yes," Jade breathed, waiting for more.
"I have the crest of Knowledge, but knowledge isn't just facts, is it? It is knowing who my friends are, and what to do in every situation. I need to focus on what's happening in the real world, not just what is happening in my computer."
Jade stepped closer and kissed Izzy's cheek with a smile. He blushed as she stepped back, and then he noticed that his crest was glowing brightly.
"I knew you'd get there in the end," she told him. "The rest is up to you, Protector."
Jade turned and ran. Behind her she could hear Izzy calling out to Kabuterimon, and then the Champion was digivolving into his Ultimate level. Megakabuterimon was a giant red bug with a wicked looking horn. It reminded her of a Hercules Beetle, but a lot bigger than the image in her mind. Having stopped to look at the fight, Jade continued to run until she was out through the shop and then up the hole to where Tom was sitting on the edge waiting for her.
"How'd it go?" he asked her.
A loud explosion prevented her from answering and she darted off to the side in time to see Megakabuterimon rising from ground and landing safely before once again de-digivolving into Motimon. She looked down at Tom before scooping him into her arms.
"Everything will be alright with him now."
Matt and TK jumped as they heard the explosion, and then gaped as they saw Megakabuterimon flying from the new bottomless pit the mountain had claimed. Patamon flew up a little higher and was able to tell the two humans and Tsunomon that when the red digimon had de-digivolved it became Motimon.
"Izzy's alright!" TK cheered.
"Let's go TK," Matt told him as he started to run. "There has got to be a great story in that explanation."
"Izzy, wake up! Are you alright?!"
Izzy groaned as he struggled to open his eyes. When had he closed them? He looked up at the sky, and he wondered when he had got outside. Wasn't he trapped underground? No, Jade had helped him get his crest to glow, and Kabuterimon had digivolved. Where was his partner? Izzy sat up quickly and looked around wildly until he spotted Motimon by his side.
"I was so worried," Motimon told him in relief.
"I'm fine," Izzy replied. Motimon stood up but it was clear he was beyond exhausted as he just collapsed backwards with a groan.
"I'm so tired I can barely stand up."
"I'm sorry," Izzy whispered as he lifted Motimon into his arms carefully.
"It's not your fault. You didn't know."
Izzy was grateful for Motimon's forgiveness, but he couldn't forget just yet. He saw how close the digimon had come to being deleted, and he hadn't cared. Now that he thought about it, Jade's sudden appearance explained a lot.
"Izzy! Awesome! You made it back!"
Izzy turned and saw Matt and TK rushing towards them. They both looked relieved, and Izzy admitted he was relieved to see them as well. He waved, making sure to keep one arm around Motimon protectively.
"That's right!" he called. "We're back."
"And we're good," Motimon added.
"How's it going?" Matt asked as soon as he was closer. He was slightly puffed, and had probably run a fair distance to catch up with him.
"Yeah!" TK added his interest to know.
"Better now," Izzy told the younger boy.
"Tell us what happened!" TK demanded excitedly. "You disappeared off the digivice!"
"Yeah! How did you get here?" Tsunomon agreed. "We thought you were a digi-goner!"
"Izzy was taking a self-improvement class," Motimon explained flippantly.
"I improved so much I flunked right out," Izzy admitted with a grin. Matt and TK laughed as it seemed entirely unlikely that Izzy would fail at anything he set his mind to doing. Still, Matt noticed how protective Izzy was being of his partner, and it wasn't just because he was at the In-training level. Something had happened to Izzy.
"Are you alright?" he asked seriously as the laughter faded away.
"I am now," Izzy told him sincerely. "I finally understand what everyone else does."
"And what's that?" TK asked curiously.
"That we're not alone anymore."
"Your crest glowed," Matt realised. "Good for you Izzy, knew you could do it!"
Izzy grinned at him. He wanted to tell the two boys everything, including that Jade was around somewhere nearby, but before he could say anything he was interrupted by the arrival of the one person he had been searching for.
"Hello kids, it's been a while."
"It's Gennai," Izzy stated. Gennai was floating in mid-air, once again just a holograph and not there in the physical sense, but his appearance also meant that he was watching over them.
"The connection between the worlds is still damaged," Gennai told them. TK groaned sadly, he had wanted everything to be fixed already. "You'll have to stay longer. I've collected some information about the Digital World that you'll be able to use. Make sure you look at the digimon file, it will tell you all you need to know."
And with that Gennai disappeared. Izzy immediately pulled off his back pack and pulled out his laptop to look at the new file that had been downloaded. Motimon leaned against his side as he watched what Izzy was doing, and while he was setting up Matt and TK reclined on the ground just behind him.
The digimon file was exactly what it suggested. Every digimon that they had come across was displayed, complete with statistics about them and what level they were at. Izzy started to browse, and he explained what he was doing as he pulled up the most recent new digimon he had seen.
"I wonder if there's anyone else we know in here?" he muttered. Then he spun the screen so that the others could see what he had done. "I've just downloaded my favorite: Megakabuterimon."
"Yeah! I'm a cool dude!" Motimon declared with a blush.
"That's cool Izzy," Matt told him. "But now we have to catch up to Tai and the others. We said that we'd meet at the foot of the mountain."
"But, we can't leave yet," Izzy told him as he closed his laptop. "Jade's around here somewhere and we can't leave without her."
"How do you know?" TK asked him.
"She helped us out when we were in Vademon's universe," Motimon explained. "It was her energy that allowed me to digivolve as quickly as I did."
"You actually saw her?" Matt asked with wide eyes.
"As far as we know, she's kept out of sight of the humans," Tsunomon explained. "We know that she was watching out for us, and Gomamon and I got to talk with her while we were at the restaurant we were stuck at, but otherwise no one else has seen her."
"We saw her partner," TK added. "He's scary looking."
"Jade is doing her own thing at the moment," Patamon added. "She'll join us when she can, but we should go on without her for now."
Izzy nodded, not entirely convinced, but he did agree that they needed to find the others. He also knew that Jade could more than look after herself, and if her partner was with her then there wasn't any real danger in letting her do whatever she wanted. He stood up and started to walked off, Motimon in his arms.
"Of course," Tsunomon added as he hopped along at Matt's side. "Jade is already a fair distance away from here, heading towards Palmon and Mimi I assume."
TK giggled and started to skip out front with Patamon. Next stop, the foot of the mountain.
Tai and Joe had borrowed Matt's boat in order to follow the digivice to where Mimi was. Agumon was sitting on top of the boat where he would be out of the way, and Gomamon was swimming next to the boat gaily. The boat was a paddle boat, and required the boys to peddle as if they were on a bike in order to turn the propellers. It was hard work, and every peddle jarred Tai's arm that little bit more. He briefly considered allowing Joe to put it in a sling, but that would just make him lopsided, and he didn't need that.
"Hey, what's wrong you guys?" Agumon asked as he poked his head down over the front window to look at the two drivers. "Can't you make this bucket go any faster?"
"What are you doing to help?" Joe grunted. He was almost too tall to use the paddle boat and as such was hunched over painfully.
"Watching for icebergs," Agumon quipped.
"I knew that leaving Izzy in charge of story time was a bad idea," Joe groaned. "Agumon, there are no icebergs in the middle of this lake!"
"How do you know that? The captain of the Titanic didn't know about the icebergs."
"Because it's too warm for icebergs," Joe moaned.
"This is the Digital World," Gomamon told him as he swum to the other side of the boat. "Anything is possible."
"Let them do what they want Joe," Tai told him. "We should be almost to the other side."
"Your arm hurting you?" Joe asked as he turned his attention away from the digimon.
"It might be," Tai stated.
"I can put it in a sling for you, it'll stop you from jarring more than you are now."
"I can handle it."
"Tai–"
"No, Joe," Tai told him as he took his eyes off the horizon to look at him. "A sling will throw me off balance and restrict my movement."
"We're not going to fight Tai," Joe told him with slight alarm. "And we have your back, just like you have ours."
Tai nodded his understanding, but he remained firm in his desire not to wear a sling. He couldn't say why it was important, just that he knew wearing it wouldn't help in the long run. He didn't say anything else for the trip, but he did sigh in relief and cradle his arm once they stopped at land and got out. The four of them stared up at the cliff face and the giant building at the top.
"Wow, that palace is huge!" Joe whistled as he craned his head back all the way.
"And way up there," Tai added in reluctance. He pulled his gaze away from the palace and looked at his digivice. "As if my legs weren't tired already. But there's no doubt about it. That is Mimi. So up we go!"
"You know, we should have placed bets on where everyone might have ended up," Gomamon said as he scuttled over to the steps. "I would have won if that was the case."
"You guessed that Mimi would be in a palace?" Agumon asked as he sped up to walk at Gomamon's side.
"Well, she does like nice things," Gomamon explained. "And she worries about her clothes a lot, and what she looks like, and her hair. She sounds like a princess from one of the stories that Sora told us."
"Which one?"
"Little Mermaid, I think it was," Gomamon pondered. "You know, the one about the fish-human who wanted to be totally human and ran away from home to do what she wanted and worried her family?"
"I would have said Goldilocks," Agumon revealed. "The one where the girl sees a house in the middle of nowhere and breaks in to eat their food and break the furniture before deciding that she wanted to stay and slept in one of the beds."
"Goldilocks was spoiled, wasn't she?"
"So was the fish-human princess," Agumon told him.
Joe and Tai listened with amusement as the two digimon started to compare Mimi to the various characters of the stories Sora had told them at night. Tai was smiling slightly, though he didn't want to know who the digimon would compare him to.
"Sora would have been Cinderella, I think." Agumon continued. "She's always singing and looking after the others, and when she's on watch she cleans up the space around her. She doesn't like it when things are messy."
"Oh, and Joe would be that cricket in Pinocchio!" Gomamon stated as he got into the game. "He's always trying to get everyone to take things seriously and he likes to make sure that everyone is alright."
"Jiminy Cricket?" Joe asked Tai. Tai just shrugged and listened as more comparisons were made.
"How about TK?" Agumon asked.
"Peter Pan!" Gomamon cheered. "Sometimes he smiles so hard that he could probably fly away if he wasn't stuck on the ground."
"And Matt can be Captain Hook!" Agumon agreed. "Hook was always chasing after Peter Pan, and while they fight they never really hurt each other."
"Izzy is the Beast from Beauty and the Beast," Gomamon continued. "He doesn't like people, but he really wants to be accepted for who he is. And Tai can be Li Shang from Mulan."
"Really?" Tai asked in a put upon tone.
"Yeah," Agumon agreed. "And Jade can be Mulan. They work together well don't you think?"
Tai blushed a violent red and Joe laughed softly. They started to slow down to allow the digimon to continue further up so that they wouldn't be overheard. Joe was the first one to break the silence.
"That's not a bad comparison." he said softly.
"Shang?" Tai told him. "He's a warrior who saves his country with only a handful of men and Mulan. I'm nothing like him."
"You are our leader," Joe told him, turning his eyes up the path. "You kept us together and with you we were able to defeat Etemon. And Shang ended up working well together with Mulan. Yeah, the way Sora told it there was quite a bit of romance, but Agumon could just mean that you and Jade are a good team when you're not fighting."
"Let's not speak of this again." Tai told him as they came to the top of the stairs. "The others do not need to know."
"Embarrassed?"
"Don't make me hit you Joe."
Agumon pushed open the front doors to the palace and the four of them poked their heads in to see a group of Gekomon, green frog-type digimon with a horn on their back, and Otamamon, little blue tadpole-type digimon with a tail and two arms, rushing around like there was a fire or something. They were wailing about a princess needing something, and then arguing about who had the more important job.
"Wow, we've walked into a palace with a spoiled princess," Joe muttered. "Anyone want to lay bets on who it is?"
"Mimi." Gomamon and Agumon stated together without hesitation.
"Yeah, that's what I fear as well," Joe told them. He pushed the doors open wider and walked in. Tai ended up in front of the group, with Joe and Gomamon off his left shoulder and Agumon off his right shoulder. He kept his arm still by his side and called out to the Gekomon and Otamamon.
It proved to be a mistake as they were instantly crowded and asked if they were delivering the food or clothes for the princess. By this, it meant that several different food orders were requested of them, as well as several articles of clothes. Tai let them yell for all of a few seconds before demanding that they be silent so that he could answer them. They went silent from shock, before one lone Otamamon scurried down from the steps to alert them that the princess was coming.
"At least we'll get to see if it's Mimi or not," Joe muttered out the corner of his mouth.
"Do you have any doubts from what you've just listened to?" Tai asked him back just as silent. Joe shook his head but was still unable to prevent himself from gaping as Mimi appeared at the top of the stairs wearing a pale pink gown, carrying a pink fan, white gloves covering her hands up to her upper arms and a crown resting on her head. Her hair was down and brushed passed her shoulders, and Joe blushed as he forced his mouth to close.
"What a surprise," Mimi said delicately as she balanced her fan in her hands. She even sounded like a delicate princess, and despite everything Tai cringed.
"Not really," he told her. "But, what are you doing up there?"
"What do you think?" Mimi asked him curiously. "I'm being a princess of course."
Gomamon and Agumon looked at each other from behind their partners, and both of them were wondering where Palmon was as she wasn't with Mimi. Joe covered his eyes, embarrassed at Mimi's behavior He knew that she was spoiled child, but she had appeared to have been getting better in the group. With the way she was acting now he wondered if anyone would want to be her friend.
"Well, you may as well come up here," Mimi told them as she turned to leave. Her eyes fastened on the splint on Tai's arm. "What happened to your arm?"
"Wasn't paying attention," Tai told her as he started to walk up the stairs passed the bowing Gekomon and Otamamon. "How long have you been here?"
"A few weeks," Mimi told him as she led the way to her room. Inwardly Tai was cringing at all the pink that was on display, and vowed to never actually go to Mimi's room back at home because it would probably blind him in its intensity. "The Gekomon and Otamamon asked for my help and I've been here ever since."
"Help with what?" Tai asked.
"This and that."
"Well, the important thing is that you're alright," Joe told her as he blinked at the overwhelmingly pink room.
"Yeah, that's for sure," Agumon added. "Well come on, let's get a move on."
"Move on where?" Mimi asked him. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Right, you want to change first, we'll wait," Joe told her, deliberately being dense.
"For what? I'm keeping this dress on."
"And it's beautiful," Agumon reassured her. "But it's not the best thing for walking long distances."
"Walking? I have no intention of walking anywhere!"
"Are you expecting us to carry you out of here, Your Majesty?" Joe asked sarcastically.
"No, I'm not going," Mimi insisted.
"Huh?" Gomamon and Agumon uttered in confusion.
"Why would I leave?" Mimi asked them in surprise. "I am a princess here. Besides, who knows if we'll ever find our way home? So I might as well live large and in charge."
"You must be kidding," Tai murmured as he raised his right hand to brush his hair back. He cupped the back of his head and watched Mimi in disappointment.
"No way," Mimi told him. "Take a look around. I've got a nice bed, pretty clothes, food…it's like having a birthday every day. I am a princess! And you want me to give this up? I don't think so! If I go out there with you guys I could get seriously hurt! I don't want to die!"
Tai understood where she was coming from, he really did, but they were needed to save the Digital World and they wouldn't be able to do that if they hid away in a palace for the rest of their lives.
"Is something wrong?"
The new voice came from one of the side rooms and the two digimon looked at it curiously, waiting for whoever it was to come out and greet them.
"Another servant?" Agumon asked his friend in an undertone.
"No, it's Palmon," Gomamon told him.
"Finally, a voice of reason," Joe cheered. "Palmon, come talk some sense into Mimi."
"As in Princess?" Palmon asked as she stuck her head around the door. Tai actually smacked his face in disbelief as Palmon appeared wearing the exact same dress as Mimi but smaller. Palmon was clearly living in the lap of luxury with her partner and loving it.
"Oh no! Not you too!" Joe cried hopelessly.
"Okay, that's enough!" Tai snapped at the two girls. "This is no time for playing games! Both of you change out of those dumb clothes and let's get out of here!"
"I am not playing a game Tai!" Mimi yelled at him angrily. "I'm staying! You can go at any time! Why don't you guys go look for the others? Be gone from my palace!"
"I'm not leaving without you!" Tai yelled back.
"Wait Mimi, don't be mean," Palmon requested desperately. "They're our friends!"
"If you want to go be my guest!" Mimi snapped at her. Palmon shrank back a little and Tai grew angry.
"We're going home Mimi! Do you understand that?! Don't you care that there are people back home who will be worried about you when you don't show up?"
"Yeah, come on," Joe added, trying to defuse Tai's anger. "Why do you think we almost killed ourselves trying to find you? It's because you are part of the team."
"That's very nice but I am not going!" Mimi told him and turned her back on him. "Besides, if I stay here my parents can look after Makoto without worrying about me! I won't be woken at all hours of the night by his screams!"
"That's it, Mimi! Like it or not Joe's right and we've got to stick together!" Tai growled at her before sitting down on the ground decisively. "So I'm not budging from this spot until you come to your senses and leave with us!"
"Yeah!" Agumon agreed sitting down next to Tai.
"Right!" Gomamon added as he joined the two on the floor. Only Joe remained standing, and he looked nervous. He knew that this wasn't the way to get Mimi to come with them, though he was curious about who Makoto was.
"Oh really?" Mimi asked them with a sneer. "You all keep forgetting who's in charge around here."
Off her bedside cupboard was a bell that she lifted delicately. When it rang it echoed throughout the palace, and Tai couldn't help but compare it to Jade's bells when she was Phoenixmon. This bell was harsh in comparison. Before the echo of the bell had completely died away, what appeared to be every Gekomon and Otamamon forced themselves through Mimi's door and looked at her seriously.
"Your Highness, what is it that you desire?" one of the Gekomon asked of her. Mimi crossed her arms and tilted her head away from the boys on the floor. She looked every bit the snobbish princess she was portraying.
"I desire these rude and bothersome peasants to be removed from my boudoir at once."
"Yes, Princess!" the Gekomon chanted.
Tai and the others had only moment's warning before they were lifted from the ground by many small hands and jostled out of the room. The Gekomon had no problems bouncing them, and Tai groaned as his arm was smacked rather hard against the wall as they passed it. He clutched it close to his chest and struggled to walk on his own, just as the others were doing. He kept his eyes closed and his teeth clenched to prevent himself from making a noise of pain, and as such was completely unprepared when he was thrown out onto the drawbridge.
As distracted as he was when he landed on his arm he involuntarily let out of scream through his teeth and curled around his arm. His friends looked at him in alarm and concern, but he ignored them as he tried to push the pain to the back of his mind.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" he hissed. His right hand was gripping his left upper arm to cut of the circulation, as if the pain from there would distract him from his forearm. Joe gripped Tai's neck supportively, but it still took several minutes for Tai to come down from the pain induced haze. When he could breathe without screaming he sat up a little and crossed his legs under him.
"I'm going to make a sling for you Tai," Joe told him. "If you keep knocking your arm, and I know that wasn't your fault, you could injure it worse."
Tai nodded without speaking and allowed Joe to twist another towel around his wrist to secure it to his chest. When Joe was done, his left hand rested just below his right shoulder and his arm was pretty much immobilised. With his right hand Tai reached into his pocket and pulled out his supply of aspirin and with Joe's help he was able to free two of the pills and swallow them.
"Did we do that?" one of the Gekomon asked. Tai opened his eyes and turned so that he could look at three Gekomon and two Otamamon who had stayed after the others left. They looked worried, and Tai held no ill will against them. He shook his head but otherwise didn't utter a sound.
"Are you alright Tai?" Agumon asked worriedly. Tai nodded at him, but he didn't think he looked very reassuring. He was feeling lightheaded, so he knew that his face was pale, but there wasn't much he could do until the aspirin started to work. Joe watched him, and then looked at the other digimon who were watching.
"Why do you wait on Mimi hand and foot?" he asked them. "She said that she was helping you out with something, but not what."
"You really want to know?" the middle Gekomon asked.
"Sure," Agumon said. "We need to know in order to get her back. We need her."
"And so do we," one of the Otamamon insisted.
"I think it would be best if you just followed us," the Gekomon said before an argument could begin. "This way."
"So you reckon Myotismon wants the crests so that he will have no opposition when he takes over not only the Digital World, but the Human World as well?" Jade asked as she and Tom flew to the Gekomon Palace. "And the best way to get the crests is to ensure that they never glow, so when they're effectively broken he will be able to squash any resistance."
"It's what I would do," Tom admitted. He was currently Horcruxmon and Jade was sitting on his back so that she didn't have to expend any energy as they travelled. "The crests, even inactive as some of them still are, protect this world from most of the evil that plagues it. By capturing them Myotismon is gaining control of these protections and once he has them all he will be able to break your control of this world, and gain more power to break through to the Human World. The Human World isn't really protected from digimon and other dark creatures from the Shadow World, and the Magical World doesn't usually concern itself with what happens outside of it unless it interferes with their precious Statute of Security."
"With most of them active though," Jade persisted. "He won't be able to take over the Digital World just yet."
"I fear he will turn his attention to the Human World first, destroy it, and then return here with far more power."
"How would he get more power there?"
"By draining it of its energy," Tom tried to explain. "Just because the Magical World is where most magicians reside, doesn't mean that the 'magic' that they use isn't in the Human World as well. It lives in anything, and I think that if Myotismon steals the energy of the humans he will gain their power. He will be unstoppable."
"Then we can't let him go to the Human World," Jade insisted. "I may not like it, but it is my home for the time being."
"Then we should make sure that Sincerity doesn't break."
"You're not taking us to an evil digimon are you?" Joe asked nervously as they were led to a smaller temple next to the palace. They needed to cross another drawbridge to get there, and from the look of it, the temple had been redecorated recently.
"What if Mimi catches us?" Gomamon asked.
"She won't," the Otamamon promised.
They made it inside the temple to see a stage complete with lights, speakers and a disco ball above it and the biggest digimon they had ever seen. He was fat, and facing away from the group. There were two horns on his shoulders, a green leafy type neck covering and a tail-like thing that came out of his head instead of his butt.
"Here's our master, Lord Shogungekomon." Gekomon said, indicating the fat digimon.
"Whoa!" Agumon cried. "Someone's had a few too many donuts!"
"Is it a statue or what?" Joe asked through his horrified gaping.
"No, he's not a statue, he's very much alive," Gekomon assured them.
"He may be alive, but he's not lively is he?" Agumon clarified.
"He's sleeping." Otamamon told him sadly.
"He's been this way for over 300 years!" Gekomon added. The digimon went on to explain that Shogungekomon had participated in a singing contest, as he was very proud of his singing voice, but he had lost. He had fallen into a deep depression and fallen asleep. The Gekomon and Otamamon were positive that only someone with a beautiful singing voice could wake him up, so when a digimon had turned up at their door talking about a girl in pink who had a lovely singing voice, they had been overjoyed.
Mimi had felt sorry for them and agreed to try and wake him. Her voice had stirred the giant digimon, but before he completely woke up Mimi stopped singing as she had forgotten the words. To help her remember, the Gekomon and Otamamon provided her with a banquet, and then costumes, and lights. But seeing how spoiled she was, Mimi decided that she didn't want to sing and end her chances of being a princess for forever, and came up with excuse after excuse to delay the end. It had been several weeks already, and she showed no desire to wake Shogungekomon.
"We're totally helpless." the Otamamon concluded.
"Unfortunately, you've given Mimi the life she's been accustomed to," Joe told them. "And then some."
"Since you're friends of hers could you reason with her?" the Gekomon asked.
"Oh please?" the Otamamon added desperately. "We'll be eternally grateful."
"I don't think she knows what reason is." Agumon admitted.
"Just leave it to me guys," Tai told them. "I've got it."
"I knew it! I knew you'd come through," the Gekomon sobbed in relief.
"What are you thinking Tai?" Joe asked apprehensively. "You're not going to sing are you?"
"Me? That's a laugh, I couldn't hold a tune if my life depended on it." Tai said with a self-depreciating laugh. "No, I'm going to go and talk to her."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Joe asked him. "She did just kick us out."
"Relax Joe, it'll be fine. Just wait here alright?"
Tai didn't know why he insisted on going alone, but he felt that he needed to. He spotted Palmon coming and hid from her. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to her, it's just that he didn't want to be distracted. The others would deal with Palmon for him.
He didn't see a single Gekomon or Otamamon as he sneaked back into the palace, which confused him for a moment, and then he decided that he didn't care and just walked to Mimi's room and sat down on a chair with relief and waited. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long until Mimi returned, though she did jump in surprise when she saw him sitting in her room.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded rudely. "I thought I had made it clear that I wanted you to leave."
"At the moment Mimi, I couldn't care less what you wanted," Tai told her coldly. "The Gekomon and Otamamon came to you for help, and while you may have come here with every intention to do so, you've imposed upon them long enough. What are you doing here? It's disgusting the way that you're treating them."
"How dare you!" Mimi hissed in anger as her face turned red. Tai stood up from his seat and marched up to her.
"No! How dare you?" he growled in her face. "You're living a lie! This person I see before me…she's not my friend. She's a fraud who is slowly pushing away everyone who cares about her. You continue like this Mimi, and you will be alone forever."
"I am a princess!"
"No! The only princess who I know is currently out in the Digital World trying to find a way for us to get home! She's not hiding behind dresses and palaces and servants, she's looking after her subjects…not abusing them!"
"Get out!"
"If I leave now, Mimi, you will never have my friendship again."
"What good would that do me?!" Mimi asked furiously. "Your 'friendship' brought Jade here with us, and while she has her memories now she didn't have them before! Your 'friendship' caused you to hurt Agumon so bad that he didn't want to fight for you, and caused Jade to abandon us for the digimon! Your 'friendship' ensured that you would disappear and leave us alone! Do you know how bad that was? You died in front of us Tai! And then you disappeared to who knows where for months and now that you're back you expect everything to go back to the way it was?!"
"I want us to be together," Tai told her. "I want for us to go home. I want to go back to my sister who I left on the sidewalk so that I could come back here to you guys. I want not to fight anymore. I want to actually matter to my parents. I want to be able to look into a mirror and not hate what I see. And I want you to grow up and realize that this dream you are living is hurting more people than it is helping. I'm sorry for scaring you Mimi, I'm sorry that I left you, I'm sorry that you're still scared enough that you want to hide behind these walls where you think nothing can hurt you, and I'm sorry that you are doubting that our friends can keep us safe."
Mimi burst into tears and threw her arms around Tai's neck. He grunted at the pressure she put on his arm but otherwise wrapped his right arm around her back to hold her close as she cried into his chest.
"I'm scared Tai," she wept. "What if we never get home? I don't think I could live without seeing my brother or parents again. But if we leave does that mean we leave Palmon and the others behind? Don't make me chose Tai, please?"
"Why won't you sing?" Tai asked her gently now. "The way the Gekomon talk you have a lovely voice. I admit that it surprised me when they said that, the last time I heard you sing was in the sewers under File Island. Not your best performance."
"If I sing, they'll make me leave. I don't want to be alone anymore."
"We're here Mimi, you're not alone. And Palmon would never leave you. I took Agumon back to our world and he seemed fine. There's no reason I can think of that would prevent Palmon from coming with us."
Mimi pulled back slightly and looked at Tai, really looked at him. She brushed away her tears and smiled.
"You've changed Tai," she told him. "Jade's been good for you."
Tai stammered and blushed, causing Mimi to giggle. She looked different now, more like the Mimi he had been travelling with, even if she was still wearing her princess clothes.
"I've been terribly selfish." she admitted. "But, I think I can do the right thing now."
"That's great." Tai told her. Mimi smiled brighter and then gasped as her crest around her neck glowed brightly.
"I think I need to change into something different," Mimi told him.
"I'll wait in the concert hall then."
Tai left the room as silently as he had arrived and walked back to where the others were.
Sora watched in amazement as Tai snapped some sense into Mimi without getting overly angry. She had never seen him so passionate before, and had to admit that it would have been Jade's influence that was forcing him to grow up. Her situation at home, and the fact that he hadn't seen her since he left, was probably worrying him enough that he was trying his best to get everyone together. He was turning into a worrywart.
"What do we do now Sora?" Biyomon asked curiously.
"Let's go and watch what happens," Sora suggested as she started to prepare to climb down the outside of the palace walls. She was sitting on Mimi's balcony, but now that she wasn't needed she was content to take a step back.
"Damn, I was looking forward to scaring some sense into her."
The two girls screamed as a black cat jumped onto the balcony railing after leaping from the roof above them. Biyomon shivered and stood in front of Sora protectively, she didn't like the feeling that the digimon before her was giving her. Sora stood up as well, the red eyes were chilling her.
"I told you that I didn't want that," another voice ordered, this one much warmer and familiar. Sora and Biyomon looked up as Jade leaped from the roof to land on the railing next to the cat.
"Honestly," Jade sighed. "Why must you scare my friends?"
"Because it amuses me." the cat told her as he delicately inspected his talons. They looked dangerously sharp. "Besides, Sincerity could have done with a good scare to make her wake up."
"Jade?" Sora queried. "You know this digimon?"
"Of course," Jade said with a smile. "This is Tomomon, he's my partner, best friend and brother. I'd say he didn't mean to frighten you, but he did."
"Are you alright?" Biyomon asked. "We were worried when you disappeared."
"I'm great!" Jade told her with a wide grin. "Aside from Myotismon sabotaging my efforts to protect this world, and Demidevimon being a pest, I haven't felt this good in a long time. By the way Sora, how's your arm?"
"My arm?" Sora repeated. "There's nothing wrong with it."
"Oh," Jade mused in surprise. "I guess I just assumed that because Datamon crushed Tai's arm, yours would have been similarly injured. I think I healed most of the break when I saved his life, but I clearly didn't heal it all the way as it's not whole yet."
"Ah," Sora stated in realisation. "Datamon didn't really squeeze my arm because I wasn't holding onto Tai. His hand was holding my wrist, but I was just hanging there. The angle I was at prevented me from grabbing him. I just had a bruise from both of them for a few days. It wasn't broken."
"This is very touching." Tomomon interrupted in a bored tone. "But since I'm not needed, let's go off and hunt some pathetic life-form and then continue or search for Myotismon's base. I want to break his nose."
Sora looked horrified, but Jade didn't seem perturbed by his blatant disregard for life. All she did was tap the cat on his head once before sliding off the railing and standing on solid ground.
"Why did you want to scare her?" Sora asked the black cat hesitatingly.
"I should have thought it obvious Love." Tomomon told her scathingly. "You so-called Protectors of this world need to work together. If one of you falls, you will all be defeated and this world will be destroyed far more effectively than I destroyed the Shadow World."
"Oh," Sora stated, unsure of what one would normally say in that situation.
"You look different Jade." Biyomon told Jade while Sora thought about Tomomon's statements. "What happened to you?"
"I found Tom," Jade said with a wide smile. "I guess it was like how you guys felt before your partners arrived in this world. There was a part of me that was missing, and now I've found it. I'm happy."
"And you'd better make sure she stays happy." Tomomon threatened Biyomon and Sora. "If I find out that you've done something that hurts her, you won't like the consequences."
The two he was threatening gulped, but Jade just smiled and lifted him up gently.
"I was happy with them before." she told him. "They won't hurt me, and if anything they're worried about you hurting me."
"I would rather die and have my data scattered through the brightest part of this world than allow any harm to befall you again." Tomomon hissed at her. "I'm not going to lose you again."
Sora suddenly smiled as she recognized what was happening. Tomomon was afraid of letting Jade out of his sight and was threatening them with harm because he didn't want her to get hurt. It was sweet, and while the digimon obviously had no love for anyone else, he would never do anything to hurt Jade. Sora was also positive that Jade would be devastated if they died, so Tomomon would never actually hurt them, it was just a bluff.
"Time to get out of here then," Sora decided. "Let's go Biyomon. Would you like to come with us Jade?"
"No thank-you," Jade told her. "Tom and I are going to look for Demidevimon. He's possibly the only one we can think of who knows where Myotismon's base is. We're hoping he'll lead us to it or Myotismon will come out of hiding so that we can kick his butt."
Sora shook her head and slid off the side of the balcony. Things were going to get interesting soon enough.
Tai leaned against the back wall of the concert hall. He hadn't told Joe exactly what he had done to convince Mimi to sing, just that he had and she was just getting ready. The Gekomon and Otamamon had cheered in joy and relief and before too long they were all crowding around the stage and waiting for Mimi to appear. When she did a while later, it wasn't in her princess clothes but her usual clothes. She was also tearing up as she stared at everyone looking up at her.
"First of all, there's something that I need to say to everyone here," she began. "All of you have been so nice to me, I'm so sorry for the way I treated you. It was wrong. If you can find it in your hearts to forgive me, and I don't know why you would, but if you can then I'd be honored to sing for you one more time."
"We forgive you!" Palmon called out to her from the back of the hall.
"Of course we do," a lone Gekomon added. "Sing, Your Highness!"
That sentence sent each Gekomon and Otamamon into a cheering frenzy, making Mimi feel even more despicable but also quite thankful that each person in the audience didn't hate her. Her eyes locked onto Tai's and she smiled at him in gratitude.
"Thank-you," she whispered.
"Hit the lights and cue the music!" Palmon ordered.
Mimi wasn't a bad singer. In fact, Tai would have gone as far to say that she could sing for a career if she wanted to. Pop Princess Mimi is what they would call her. As she sang, Shogungekomon started to stir, and his head-tail started to rise. The Gekomon and Otamamon were just about crying in joy and expectation, and Joe was bouncing in time to the music with Palmon, Agumon and Gomamon at his side.
And then Shogungekomon woke up.
The music cut off and Mimi broke off with a startled gasp. She spun around in alarm at the same time as Tai pushed himself off the wall and ordered Mimi to move. Shogungekomon stood up and turned around to face the audience, and he didn't look happy at all. He looked quite cranky, and Tai pushed his way through the crowd to get to Mimi's side. He had promised that he would help look after her.
"I was having such a nice sleep!" the newly awoken digimon roared. "Which one of you clowns woke me up? Or should I just squish all of you?"
By this time Tai had made it to the stage and leaped up onto it. He grabbed Mimi's arm and started to pull her after him as he tried to escape from the ungrateful digimon. He was slightly off balanced with his arm secured to his front, and he cursed as he realized how disadvantaged he was but still he ran dragging Mimi behind him.
Shogungekomon walked forward trying to step on them, and with each step the ground beneath them shook. His feet and hands snapped outwards as he started to bring the temple around him down. Tai stumbled with a curse and pushed Mimi back as a bit of the roof fell down in front of them. Mimi cried out and just about wrapped her body around Tai's arm fearfully.
"Whose idea was this?!" a Gekomon demanded as the others ran to the door to get out. "Remind me to never listen to them again!"
"Tai! Mimi!" Joe cried as he noticed the two had become separated.
"Keep going!" Tai ordered. "We'll be fine!"
"You want to hear some singing?" Shogungekomon asked them. He cleared his throat and started to make a noise that Tai assumed was singing. "The ground will shake, when you hear the noise I make because I'm glad to be awake…YEAH!"
At the final note he let out a concussive wave that sent everyone aside from Mimi and Tai through the wall to the water far below. Tai's eyes went wide in horror even as he called out a denial, and he pulled Mimi after him as he ran to see if the others were alright or pancakes on the ground.
"Agumon! Joe! Answer me!" he ordered.
"Palmon!" Mimi echoed desperately. "Speak to me!"
The two of them stared out the new hole in the wall in time to see the others stumble from the water onto land. Tai heaved a sigh of relief as he noticed everyone who had fallen was alright. Mimi also sighed in relief when Palmon waved at her, but then she straightened her shoulders and let go of Tai's arm. He spun around in alarm as she separated from him, but didn't try to stop her as she picked up the discarded microphone on the ground.
"Hey you!" she called into it, staring up at Shogungekomon. "How about some gratitude? I sung you out of your three hundred year nap, you wannabe tuner!"
"Mimi," Tai warned, moving closer to her.
"All that racket? It was you?" Shogungekomon roared in anger.
"Uh oh," Mimi uttered.
"Agumon!" Tai cried urgently. "Digivolve!"
From down below he heard his partner advance to the next level, and he was pretty sure that Gomamon also digivolved as Shogungekomon was forced to back up due to Ikkakumon's attack. While he was distracted Tai grabbed Mimi again and ran to the hole in the wall. Without even pausing he took a running leap, Mimi screaming as she realized they were falling, and called out to Palmon to catch them. Vines wrapped around their waists securely and brought them safely to the ground.
Greymon fired his Nova Blast at Shogungekomon as Joe rushed over to make sure his friends were alright, but Tai ignored him and focused on what their enemy was doing. Shogungekomon roared in anger.
"Now it's show time!" he cried before he started to sing again. "Now why'd you do that, 'cause I'll know you flat, and now you're gonna feel it…YEAH!"
The concussive force of his shout pushed aside the two attacks before they could hit him and continued on to pushing Greymon and Ikkakumon to the ground. Joe whimpered a little at the show of strength before looking back at Shogungekomon in time to see him leap from the damaged temple with the intent to squash them. Tai balked before standing firm.
"Watch out below!" Shogungekomon called out to them as he fell.
"Greymon! Digivolve!" Tai ordered urgently.
"Greymon digivolve to – Metalgreymon!"
Now much larger and harder to squash, Metalgreymon stepped in front of the children protectively and caught Shogungekomon on his head before he threw him back up into the temple. There was cheering from the Gekomon and Otamamon when they realized that they hadn't been squashed, and Joe sighed in relief from where he had fallen to the ground. One more attack from Metalgreymon, the two missiles that came from his chest, soundly defeated Shogungekomon when they flew into the two horns on his back and exploded. The entire temple crashed down and buried Shogungekomon. Metalgreymon de-digivolved into Koromon and Tai lifted him with his one good arm.
"Well done buddy."
"Thanks Tai."
"Well Mimi, are you ready to go?" he asked as he turned to Mimi. She had her arms wrapped around Palmon, but when he spoke to her she looked up at him with a smile.
"Yeah, let's find the others," she told him. "I want to go home."
It's a long one! Happy reading to all of you! Thank-you to everyone who reviewed!
Sora1113: In time. I don't think everyone will end up knowing, but some of them will for sure.
Penguin Lord0029:That's an interesting idea, but no, I don't think so.
gaara king of the sand: Tai has the ability to use magic, all the digidestined do
Next up in Intertwined Destinies:
Chapter 19: Inner Powers ~ Sora