First off, I would like to apologize for the long wait. School is beginning again and I have to get back into the routine that allowed me to do work for school and still write reasonably understandable and entertaining chapters. And this is an important chapter because it (finally) reveals why the tamers are here. I've been looking forward to this one and I hope that it turns out well.
From her admittedly limited experience with the television show, Rika expected to that they would meet an old man with more wrinkles than her mother had dresses. Instead, a brown-haired man that looked like he was in his mid-twenties suddenly stepped out of the forest and greeted them warmly. Each of the Digidestined was known to him by name and didn't seem surprised to find an adult in a robe. Destiny received the friendliest reaction.
"Destiny," Gennai smiled. "Back already? It's always nice to see you."
The prophetess laughed lightly and gave him a hug, "Hey, old man. Been busy keeping all these digidestined out of trouble?"
"You know each other?" asked Patamon curiously.
She grinned, "We do the same sort of thing, at least in part. So I popped in at various times to help him, though he remembers more of these events than I do. He handles this reality most of the time without my help. Still, it's nice to visit him." She glanced at Gennai. "Did I just leave then? Was…?"
"No, I'm sorry," he sighed. "Fate wasn't here. But you brought someone with you. Why don't all of you come with me. There's a nice picnic set up and waiting."
"Food!" cheered Guilmon, latching onto the important part of the conversation.
"Um…" began Davis carefully, watching the red-head's expression. "Do you know who Fate is? I mean, I'm guessing there is some kind of time travel involved here with what they said, but Fate sounds like a person."
Renamon, rather than her partner, answered the boy, "We've never met him, but he was her partner."
"'Was' doesn't sound good," Veemon muttered softly.
"No, it doesn't," responded the yellow-furred rookie. "It's not supposed to sound good when someone loses their partner."
Before they could develop response, Gennai led them into another clearing. This one held a pair of picnic tables and a checkered blanket spread between them. An assortment of food was already waiting for them. Guilmon began drooling at the delicious aromas. Across the cheerful-looking field rested a stone building, almost temple-like in appearance. Rika realized with a shock that, except for the surroundings and less weathered condition of the structure, it seemed to be a copy of the building that they first met Destiny in.
"Oh Gennai," the prophetess smiled. "You didn't have to go to so much trouble. Did you set this up all by yourself or did José, Benjamin, and the others help you?"
The young man shook his head, "Actually, you helped me before you left. One of the perks of time travel, I guess. I know all of you must be hungry. Please help yourselves."
A red reptilian digimon needed no further prompting and broke into a run across the grass. Guilmon's partner followed in a vain effort to moderate the creature's consumption rate. The red-haired tamer rolled her eyes at the pair's antics. Davis and Veemon took only a moment to join in on the mad dash for the food. Laughing, Tai and Agumon decided to participate in the race, with Terriermon jumping onto the spiky-haired boy's shoulder once the rabbit realized he'd need to hurry to get anything to eat and Henry moved too slowly. As Guilmon began picking up a basket with snacks to his mouth, T.K. and Kari grabbed hands and broke into a run of their own, their digimon following behind.
Most of the rest moved at a calmer pace. Ai and Mako tugged gently on Impmon's arms, but he sarcastically remarked that he'd rather not get too close to Guilmon's mouth until the reptile slowed down on chewing enough not to accidentally eat someone's hand. Henry shook his head as Terriermon dove straight into a small pile of muffins. BigAgumon seemed lost in his thoughts, staring off into the distance. Jeri and Leomon took a seat on the edge of the red-and-white checkered blanket, smiling at the boys and digimon struggling over a rice ball.
Destiny and Gennai, both beings who spent their lives guiding the actions of others, appeared to be chatting, though he seemed to be doing more of the reminiscing. Rika didn't know for sure what the topics of their discussion could be, but the last time the red-head remembered seeing the girl that relaxed was the night before they fought Polydromon. Before, Rika frowned with realization, the tamers understood the prophetess would allow them to die and not even warn them of what was coming. At that point, the dark-haired girl went from a possible friend to another source of danger, indirectly, in the Digimon Queen's opinion.
Rika shook her head. She didn't want to keep blaming Destiny for everything. She'd known the girl for such a short time period, excluding the "young" Destiny (which caused Rika to briefly wonder what happened to her back in their world). Renamon had reminded the red-haired tamer that the prophetess possessed a responsibility and wished to be reunited with Fate. She could accept and sympathize with this, but she still felt betrayed knowing that the dark-haired girl could have the knowledge of horrible things to come and say or do nothing. Destiny may not have caused the deaths directly, but she could have warned them, couldn't she? This entire "destiny," "fate," and "prophecy" thing was just asking for trouble in Rika's opinion. No one should mess with her life, especially some cloak-wearing kid.
The tamer sat down at the picnic table, scowling slightly. She was here; she would help save the world, and do what she needed to. Not because some prophecy told her to, but because Rika decided to. And just because she was willing to help Destiny, that didn't mean she'd trust the girl completely or anything like that. Trust, for the red-haired tamer, took effort to earn.
As the feeding frenzy slowed, Tai glanced at Gennai questioningly. The older boy, wondering where to begin on the inevitable interrogation, finally decided to submit the most recent puzzle.
"On our way here, we were attacked by a few megas. Do you know anything about that or why?"
Sighing, Gennai slowly answered, "On to business, I suppose. As you've noticed, the human world has not responded well to the knowledge of digimon's existence."
"I'll say," Impmon muttered, his mouth full of food. "Crazy lunatics."
Continuing, the man explained, "Small acts of violence against partnered digimon have begun to occur in slowly increasing frequency, but there are more organized threats, and thus more dangerous, being developed in your world. Hints of these fearful actions begin to reach the ears of worried digimon and there lies the problem."
The Digidestined exchanged worried looks at the knowledge of the violent attacks on digimon and the spreading news of these events. Rika and the tamers felt more concerned about the "more organized threats."
Henry raised his hand, "Do you mean that the government could be planning something? Are they taking action against the digital world?"
Gennai shrugged, "They keep most of their computer systems isolated. Thus, it has been difficult to identify the group. All I know is they are working on ways to target digimon, and possibly even creating ways to destroy them."
"Like the bug-zapper building?" asked Impmon suddenly. "Because I already ran into that thing and it wasn't fun."
"What are you talking about?" Kari frowned.
"Last night, one of your city's skyscrapers tried to zap me to oblivion. I don't recommend touching it unless you have a death wish," he explained, reaching for something else to eat. "It would have impressed the Hypnos dorks."
"And you didn't tell us before about this little encounter because…?" asked Rika.
The digimon shrugged, "Didn't come up."
"Okay, file that away as 'problems for later'," Tai muttered. "In addition to Impmon's fun discovery and the human threat, what else are we facing? How do Valkyrimon, Dianamon, and Marsmon figure into all of this?"
"A powerful digimon has become convinced that humans, all of them, are a threat to the digital world," described Gennai. "He's become aware of mankind's actions and intentions, but it blinded to humanity's potential for good. Rather than embrace the possibility of a partnership between the worlds, he'd rather divide them 'for the protection of all digimon.' Others, like those you encountered, share this view and seek to remove digimon from 'the dangerous human world' and to banish humans from this one."
"That's not fair!" Davis shouted. "They can't do that. Me and Veemon are a team. Even if some idiotic adults don't get it, plenty of people know humans and digimon work better together."
"Save it," sighed Rika. "It sounds like Zhuqiaomon and the devas again. All the goggle-headed speeches in the world won't break through to them. Actions speak louder than words."
"And Rika hits harder than any other action could be," snickered Terriermon before an evil glare from the girl silenced him.
Henry shook his head at the rabbit's continued tactlessness, "One of these days…"
"Why does this always seem to happen?" whispered Jeri sadly, staring at the ground. "There's always someone who thinks we shouldn't be friends. They think either humans are evil, selfish, violent beings or digimon are mindless, cruel, dangerous monsters. Why can't we be friends without every other person screaming it's wrong?"
Kari gave the brown-haired tamer an understanding look and nodded, "I know how you feel. This kind of distrust is silly. There are good and bad digimon, just as there are good and bad humans."
"And every shade of grey in between," added Ken.
"Guess this explains why we're here," Takato grinned. "We have experience with this sort of thing. Anti-human digimon and theoretical anti-digimon agencies. If we can stop the 'bug-zapper building' thing and convince the digimon not all humans are jerks, then we can save the day."
"Awesome, we have a game plan," grinned Davis.
T.K. shook his head, "That's a goal, not a plan. But it is a start. Sounds like we'll need to divide our forces in order to handle the two problems."
"We're not done," Destiny interrupted, gaining her "prophecy update" expression.
The humans and digimon turned to the girl. While her hood didn't obscure her face as it did in the past, she still managed to gain her mysterious and knowledgeable presence. She looked like the shadowy figure who first spoke to the tamers from their D-arcs.
Turning to Ken, she smiled, "Digidestined of Kindness, you bridge the gap between the children of the crests and those who wield the D-3's, just as the Digidestined of Hope and Light do. But you never gained your full potential before you were pulled towards the darkness." The prophetess glanced at Gennai. "I believe…"
"Yes, your earlier self delivered the request," he nodded. "I already have what is needed." He gestured at the temple-like structure. "Most of it is inside your home, but this," Gennai reached into his pocket, "is waiting for its owner."
The girl stepped aside, "This is your reality, Gennai. It would be my honor to have you bestow this gift."
Ken and Wormmon exchanged confused looks. Every other member of the Digidestined gave a shrug, not sure what the young, robed man seemed to be implying and yet willing to trust him. The tamers seemed even more bewildered. Takato, though, bore a hopeful smile.
From within his blue robe, Gennai produced a necklace with a golden charm. In appearance, the vaguely teardrop shape seemed rather ordinary. The only feature was a transparent square in the center of the object. But the revealed necklace produced gasps from Tai, T.K., and Kari that Rika couldn't explain. Takato gave an excited laugh.
"A tag? He finally gets a tag," the goggle-wearing boy declared with a fan-boy level of excitement.
Carefully, the dark-haired boy took hold of the "tag." Rika stared as a small, pink, square tile-like object floated out of Ken's pocket. On it, a stencilized shape, vaguely rose-like, was engraved. In a flash of movement, the tile relocated to the clear section of the tag. It fit perfectly. Only at that point did her limited television knowledge kicked in and identified the tile as a crest.
Grinning like an idiot, Davis patted his friend on the back, "Way to go, Ken. Doesn't this mean you can use that thing to digivolve to ultimate? You know, without the DNA digivolution thing?"
"I… don't know," he blinked in surprise. "Maybe."
Takato, beginning to babble like a geek, announced, "I always wanted to see this on the show. I wonder what he can turn into now."
"Calm down, Goggle-head," ordered Rika. "You're going to die from excitement."
Ken finally nodded, "Thank you."
As the boy placed the tag and crest around his neck, Gennai turned to Destiny, "Remember that I said that you brought someone else? I'll bring them out, along with the rest of the items."
While the man vanished into the dark interior, an expression of satisfaction decorating his features, Jeri carefully asked, "Isn't that the building from our digital world? The one in the desert?"
"It exists in all the digital worlds," explained Destiny. "Though its location and condition varies, it is one of the few constants for me. I believe that it was made simply to exist as a shelter for me during my missions. I… its home."
Sighing, Rika admitted, "Goggles, I hate having to ask you this, but you are the team expert on all things related to the show. Isn't Gennai supposed to be an old guy?"
"To start, he is not actually a human," the boy began describing. "He is a being of data like a digimon, without having attributes or attacks. Kind of the digital monster minus the monster part. And, yes, in the first season… about four or five years ago, he looked ancient. But between the first and second season, or during the four years between the fight against Apocalymon and when Davis, Yolei, and Cody gained partners, we end up with not only the younger him, but also multiple him versions that help deal with the larger number of digidestined. Like José and Benjamin." The pure fan boy enthusiasm from him invited mocking, but the red-head fought the urge. "There are theories his change of age and his copies or clones or whatever is connected, but I don't remember that being confirmed."
"You're just loving this," remarked Impmon. "It's one giant geeky field trip for you, isn't it Goggle-head?"
An innocent, child-like giggle interrupted the group. A cheerful glowing something flew out of the building, followed by Gennai. The whitish shape with long arms, a thin antenna, and beady black eyes floated across the clearing. It glided around, circling around the children and digimon curiously. Finally, the creature hovered in front of the dark-haired prophetess.
"It is an honor, Ancient One," she declared solemnly, bowing to the child-like being. "Your presence in this reality promises great things to come."
"Um… Could you explain… what that is?" requested Tai.
Agumon announced, "I don't think that's a digimon."
"It's a DigiGnome," smiled Henry, the being's happy nature contagious. "A wish granter. They're from our digital world."
"A wish granter? I wish for a…" began Davis before Rika slapped the side of his head.
"It isn't a genie. You don't get to try the whole health, wealth, and happiness routine on the thing," the girl scowled. "And don't try having it make Kari fall in love with you."
The boy blushed and muttered something that sounded like, "That would be cheating."
"Okay, but how did it get here," Terriermon asked.
"Destiny brought it with her," explained Gennai. "Or, she did in the past. Her distant past, but only a short time ago in actual time. She said that it would be necessary here for a while."
The DigiGnome giggled and proceeded to study the twins. The young pair seemed fascinated by the glowing creature. Mako tried to touch it before the digital being glided over to BigAgumon.
"But the last gift is for our visitors," Gennai remarked, looking at the tamers. "I know you are not from this reality. But you were brought to help. So to do so, you need new tools." He held up a collection of golden chains. On each one dangled a white, blank rectangle, exactly the same dimensions of a digimon card. "These are for you."
"What are they, Mr. Gennai?" asked Ai sweetly.
He smiled at the child, "Though their shape and design is based off of your reality, thanks to the DigiGnome's knowledge of this 'blue card,' its power is known well in this world."
"More riddles?" Impmon groaned. "Just spill it, gramps."
"Rather impatient, isn't he?" chuckled Gennai. "Very well." He handed each card necklace to a tamer. Mako put his and Ai's around his neck. Destiny blinked in surprise as she also received one. "These are, essentially, crests."
Silence followed this statement, only interrupted by the DigiGnome giggling as is circled BigAgumon. Finally, Takato burst out laughing.
"Kazu is going to die of jealousy. This is beyond unbelievable. Which ones are they?"
"They won't reveal their power until the time is right," the robed man (the robed digital being, Rika mentally corrected) explained. "And they are not any crest you are familiar with. The Crests of Courage, Friendship, Love, Sincerity, Knowledge, Reliability, Hope, Light, and Kindness, and the power that they hold, are part of the Digidestined who possess them. While a similar power is part of the Digi-eggs, Davis no more wields Tai's Crest of Courage than Yolei does Sora's Crest of Love. It cannot be taken from them."
"Until we handed the crests over to be used in protecting the digital world," Tai reminded.
Gennai smiled, "I think it is closer to 'borrow' that power. While you no longer hold the physical manifestation of the crests, and even lost the power for a time, the real power of the crests comes from within. It grows from your greatest traits that you display. In the years since you gave up your crests, that power has re-grown within you. Azulongmon only… helped it along so you could regain the ultimate level in time to help in the battles. You still are the source of your qualities."
"Kari is still Light, T.K. is still Hope," summarized Patamon. "And Tai is still Courage."
"And his hair is still huge," Impmon added.
"Wait, don't those crest things get you up to the ultimate level?" asked Terriermon. "In case you didn't know, I can do that and even do better."
The man-looking being explained, "I know. Just trust me when I say that the crests will serve you in the future." Looking at Destiny, he sighed, "You realize by now that you have a separate purpose than the others, don't you?"
She nodded slowly, "I know… I have to find the past ones. The original DigiDestined and their partners. While the others face the challenges to come, I'm supposed to remind and reunite the pairs and bring them for the coming fight."
"So, you're getting back-up," remarked Gatomon.
Destiny nodded, "It seems so."
"Riku…" whispered BigAgumon suddenly. "My… partner's name… is Riku."
The girl walked over and patted the oversized digimon, "We'll find him. You deserve to be together."
Rika felt a wave of pity sweep over her as she stared at the two individuals, both seeking lost friends. She sensed Renamon draw near and smiled at her tall partner. She couldn't imagine losing Renamon as Destiny had. Nor could being separated so long that memory faded of the fox-like creature be easy to endure.
"Destiny," the red-head called, catching the prophetess' attention. "Since it seems that we're going to be heading our separate ways soon and we won't see you for a while… good luck."
The blue-eyed girl's expression, so surprised and grateful, thanked Rika for the kind gesture far more than any words that the girl could ever speak. Even if she didn't trust Destiny, that didn't mean she couldn't sympathize with her.
All right, I am bringing in so much stuff in this chapter. I know and understand this. I also feel that it opens so many possibilities. And it takes a large number of invented digimon.
One, there is never mentioned what Stingmon could become if it didn't DNA digivolve. If it used a crest, which Ken possessed, I doubt it would turn into Palidramon. I did find an ultimate that "looks" like it could be related, even if there is not any clear canon evidence. But half the stuff that they do in the video games doesn't make sense anyway (How in the world does Wormmon to Machinedramon make any logical sense?). So when I reveal its ultimate, keep in mind it is a real digimon, just not one that is necessarily connected to the Wormmon in the shows.
Two, the crests for the tamers are new traits than before. I would love your predictions of what crests they would get. They are not copies of the Digidestined's, so start guessing. These crests will not be for reaching the ultimate level (for the obvious reason that these digimon can reach and exceed that level already). Instead, they will initiate a mode change in the mega level. I thought it would be a useful way to incorporate crests into the tamers world (hence, the card shape to interact with the D-arcs) for some of my future plans. And in case you haven't guessed, those in the tamers' universe (Kazu, Kenta, Suzie, Yamaki, and Ryo) will also be getting crests. Their Destiny is the one who brought the DigiGnome to the Digidestined's universe, asked Gennai to help create the new crests, and then took half the crests with her back. (And, no, Calumon will not be digivolving. But, just as the crests can do more than just digivolve digimon [ Mimi's revived her after being knocked out by gas, Matt's healed Tai and WarGreymon in a fight with Piedmon, Joe's cut a hole in Myotismon's fog bank, and Ken's provided power for the Digimon Emperor's base and also created the Digi-egg of Miracles], there is the potential for these new crest to do more. There is no reason why Yamaki's can't have a different purpose than digivolution.) But try to guess the traits that represent the tamers.
Three, thank you for being patient with me. I will be checking in on the tamers' reality soon. I've been trying to get things caught up on this end of the story in order to keep a balance and not revealing things too soon. Your reviews are appreciated and keep me going.