Chapter 18: Chance
It was strange. Takuya hadn´t been in a hospital for a long time and yet he was staring at a ceiling that belonged without a doubt to a hospital. Nothing else was so boringly white. Just seeing it made him itching to move. Not to mention the disgusting smell of chemic stuff and cleanness.
Hence he sat up; feeling not the least bit tired or hurt or whatever else could get one hospitalized and ,of course, very eager to get out.
His sudden movement startled somebody, but Takuya´s eye´s didn´t even reach said person. Instead, while he quickly gazed around the room, already half way off his bed, his eyes stuck to a person lying in the next bed.
Not good.
He quickly scanned the room, specifically searching for an identical and very much irritated teen. He breathed in relieve when he didn´t spot Koji. The guy was positively impossible whenever something happened to Koichi.
Then his brain caught up with what he had seen and he did a double take. Why was Tommy here as well?
How come he was in a hospital in the first place?
He hadn´t been ever since he returned from the Digiworld – he wasn´t cheating! It wasn´t his fault that he got a better reaction time from there - four years ago.
"Takuya, finally. We were staring to worry."
Takuya looked at the only person that was conscious other than him and suddenly it all came back. Right. Situation not so good. Scratch that, very bad actually. He noted however, that he didn´t feel any different from before the battle. That was a personal positive.
"Hi, Gennai," he greeted in return with a wave of his hand as he got up, walking over to Tommy experimental; no, his body did not want anything like medical attention. "What happened? What´s with them?" He gestured towards both his friends, already being familiar with the digital man from a short briefing at Izzy´s.
"It´s Harry, actually." At his confused expression he quickly added, "I´m a copy of Gennai."
"Oh, yeah. There was something like that." Something about information gathering? Takuya hadn´t really listened back then; too busy fuming over Koichi getting the right to get behind the enemy lines. And how right he had been; look where it landed the dark twin.
Still, Harry nodded at his mumbling and fell into step with him, following the short distance to Tommy.
"We decided to watch you here in the hospital since we really didn´t know how to treat you and thought that in case of an emergency this place was still equipped best for you."
Takuya nodded absently and placed a hand slowly on Tommy´s forehead. Startled he quickly withdrew it when he felt so cold that Takuya thought he might melt at his touch.
"I´m sorry." The honest sorrow and sadness made Takuya twirl around to face Gennai´s lookalike, fearing what he was going to hear next. He didn´t even have the spirit to be sarcastic when he saw the look Harry gave both him and Tommy.
"All three of you have the same pattern of changes in your data. We scanned you when you returned. I´m sorry." He bowed his head apologetically, but Takuya didn´t hear him.
He felt sick. Suddenly the room wasn´t as stable as it first seemed and the air was much heavier. Takuya had to hold on to the railing of Tommy´s bed to keep standing. Harry was saying something, but Takuya didn´t even acknowledge him anymore.
Why Tommy?
Koichi, Takuya had known, had very little possibility to return from his mission unchanged. He had only very grudgingly accepted it. There hadn´t been much of a choice and in the end Takuya had given in to the dire need of firepower, Koichi´s wishes and his own sympathy – because they all knew he wouldn´t have stood at the sidelines- , but he had tried. He had also known that, if they couldn´t get hold of a D-tector, the others would eventually have to follow his -and possibly Koichi´s- misleading footsteps, but Tommy shouldn´t have needed to just yet. This wasn´t right.
Had he even known the price? What if not? What would – what could- he do? What was Tommy going to do? What if-
His panicked thoughts were interrupted by a wave of calm.
Takuya had never appreciated Vitramon´s seemingly indifferent attitude as much as right then. Vitramon was right. Weather Tommy had known or not didn´t matter. Fact was, that he already did pay the price and now only dealing with the aftermath was what they -he- could do. Moreover, the situation had to have been bad to even make Tommy, Blizzarmon and Chakkumon consider evolving without D-tector.
Knowing the risks only was a side factor, because it was only logical to think that not using D-tectors was dangerous. Why else bother with a useless piece of technology in the first place? And unlike Tommy, who was still impulsive and reckless in some situations, the Spirits of Ice were much more level headed. Something Takuya couldn´t say about his or himself. Or was it only 'himself' now?
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and forced as much air out of his lungs as possible. When he opened them again the walls stood still and the floor was quite solid.
"Are you ok?" Harry was looking at him with worry. He had Takuya´s left arm in a tight hold to keep him standing.
"So, uh… how did we get here?" He asked after he nodded and got his arm free. A look out of the window told him that it was early morning with the sky graying.
Harry still eyed him suspiciously and only answered after he steered Takuya back to his bed and made him sit down. "You passed out just before the battle turned for the worst," he said and Takuya groaned. Typically. He just had the worst luck. "The canyon collapsed and buried you all in it."
"How did that happen? And are the others all right?" He was aware that it was rude to interrupt, but Takuya didn´t really care. Manners were such a useless thing, sometimes.
"We are still investigating as to why, but the others are safe and sound, thanks to their partners. The battle happened four days ago and the majority of them will be discharged soon." Other than the 'majority' part it was great news. "The infiltration mission went about as good as your side; they got caught, engaged in battle, managed to free your friend Tomoki-"
"It´s Tommy." The interruption came automatically. Seriously, he had listened often enough to Tommy tell other people off for calling him by his given name to have the response programmed in his own thoughts. The whole thing slipped from his lips like a record. "He doesn´t like getting called by his name," he explained, waveing his hand dismissingly as a sign for Harry to continue.
"But they were all hurt badly," Takuya´s eyes immediately sought out Koichi´s still form, "and only just managed to escape."
"By then we had lost contact with you and Gennai used a special program to open gates and force all of you through. It was just in time, too. " Takuya nodded again, not really listening. He watched Koichi and searched for any sign of injury and, to his disappointment, found some bandages. He really should have gone in Koichi´s place, but no no-body listened to him. All just because of a little tactical advantage.
"How are they?" Harry followed Takuya´s solemn look and sighed. Takuya's eyes flashed to the Digital man.
"Actually, we were hoping you could tell us that."
"Huh? What do you mean?
"Just judging from their wounds Tomoki –Tommy- is perfectly healthy, only a bruise on his shoulder, and in a few days only scars will remain from Koichi´s almost lethal cuts at the rate he is going. We don´t understand why they won´t wake up."
Huh, who would have thought? Advanced healing? Neat.
Back on topic Takuya –and his Spirits- thought about different possibilities. It was amazing what a three split mind could produce. After the entirety that was Takuya had finished thinking he discussed the theory they –he?- had produced with KaiserLeomon, whose Spirit Takuya still held. He really had to use words for that one, though.
When Takuya finally spoke –going with KaiserLeomon´s idea; fire just wasn´t good at thinking- barely two minutes had passed in reality. "Maybe it has something to do with our bodies. Four days should have been enough to recover the energy we needed for battle and evolution, so it can´t be that. I think that maybe I woke up, because I´m all healed. I don´t have a scratch anymore."
"Vitramon and Agnimon aren´t sure, but they say it´s possible that they unconsciously kept me sleeping to let my body heal better." Actually the two of them only mentioned what they remembered –that being the desire to sleep- and KaiserLeomon made the connections, but it was way too complicated to recount his internal dialogues. So he skipped it.
"That is possible", Harry mused and Takuya could just see the digital wheels in his head turn.
Geez, smart people and thinking.
Gennai inspected the small device in his hands. It was the first one to be completed. It was absolutely white, with a small screen, two buttons and a scanner where an antenna used to be on mobile phones. All in all it wasn´t that much different from the ones he was used to; it just had few special functions.
It was a shame they had been too late.
His musings were broken when another clone came running to him, breathing hard. Gennai listened and already formulated his mail to Izzy in his head. He didn´t like putting the children to work again this soon, though.
Ignoring the oh-so-busy man Takuya stood up again and made his way over to Koichi. It was time to return someone. And they were both eager to part. As long as Darkness´ Beast Spirit stayed with him Takuya felt somewhat confined in his own mind. KaiserLeomon just didn´t belong with him. Even more so now than before.
Takuya summoned the Spirit to his hand; it looked just like a black cloud sized like a balloon, really. Not very impressive. Good thing, he didn´t say that aloud, though.
Dropping KaiserLeomon over Koichi´s body, fully expecting the Spirit to fade away to Koichi´s mind Takuya was almost turning away already, when he saw that KaiserLeomon wasn´t disappearing at all.
Huh?
Takuya frowned. What the heck?
Instead of fading only the Spirit´s dark aura was absorbed into Koichi. KaiserLeomon remained sitting –standing or whatever it is that Spirits do- right on top of Koichi's chest.
He frowned some more.
"What´s wrong with it?" Harry asked, utterly fascinated by the Spirit.
Takuya shrugged, waited a little while until he was finally sure, that no, KaiserLeomon was not going to disappear sometime soon. Curious as to why he picked the Spirit back up and was surprised to feel KaiserLeomon exhausted.
"What happened?" Takuya chose to ask carefully. You never know after all.
"My energy was drained."
"No kidding. I couldn´t have guessed that."
"Koichi isn´t there."KaiserLeomon ignored his sarcastic remark smoothly, "Lowemon isn´t either, so there was no one to take me in, but apparently they need energy. A lot of it."
"What do you mean they 'aren´t there'? I see Koichi just fine." Could KaiserLeomon roll his eyes as a Spirit Takuya was sure he would have done just that.
"Mentally, of course." KaiserLeomon informed him. "I can still feel Lowemon faintly, but Koichi is completely gone."
"Where to?"
"Since Lowemon wasn´t upset, I would guess to the only thing possible. Somehow the twins formed a connection and Koichi is visiting our antipole. Us Spirits don´t have that ability. Either that itself takes a lot of energy or he is somehow giving it to Light."
"They can do that?" Takuya gave him incredulous mental looks. A telepathic twin connection? Takuya could almost see Koji come up with something that amazing just to shove it in his face.
"Apparently."
"….does that mean you are stuck with me again?" Not that he didn´t like KaiserLeomon, but it simply wasn´t all that nice to have somebody foreign poke around in his head.
"No. I shall remain here and wait."
"Great, you do that." Takuya was about to put the Spirit back when he felt KaiserLeomon tug on his mind.
"….I don´t think Koji or Koichi would mind if you showed some support." He said it in a voice that suggested he had been waiting for Takuya to figure it out himself.
"Oh, yeah, right…." That´s what was so nice about Darkness. All three of them were more or less polite and tactful. Light would have taken great pleasure in insulting him in the process of correcting.
Having put the Beast Spirit of Darkness on the pillow next to Koichi´s head he summoned Vitramon´s Spirit to his hands. Agnimon´s couldn´t anymore.
Seeing his majestic form surrounded by the purest of flames a happy smile appeared on Takuya´s face. It was so beautiful.
"I´m going to give them some energy," he spoke out loud to inform Harry, before the man could jump to conclusions. Takuya could only imagine what it looked like. He stood with a hand full of fire at the bed of an unconscious patient after all. Couldn't seem too peaceful.
Takuya carefully lowered his Beast Spirit to Koichi´s hand and made even more carefully just a little bit contact with his skin. He was fire. And while Darkness was elusive it was by no means immune to their Fire. Of, course not. Nothing was.
On contrary to what he expected as soon as he made contact his Fire disappeared and Vitramon´s reserves were reduced to nothing in little more than a second. His energy had disappeared. Completely. Without a trace. Left.
Astonished, Takuya stared at Vitramon´s empty armor. Vitramon stared right back.
"-you don´t think-"
"-no way-"
"What else could it be?" True. If it was Takuya he would rip the place down to the ground. If it was Koji he would first outsmart and then proceed to destruction. It was definitely possible.
He whirled around to Harry, only partly aware that Vitramon returned, eyes wide and brain stumbling over his racing thoughts. Good thing he had two others to keep them in line.
"Do you know where the fortress is right now? Or did a Digimon contact you?"
Right then Takuya cursed the slow reaction time of humans when Harry was first taken aback and then needed forever to answer.
"No, nothing." Touching Koichi´s hand quickly, he let him drain his energy until Takuya only had enough left to move. Talk about greedy, Koji!
"Are you sure, are you really sure? Not even the faintest thing happened?" He put as much weight to his words as he could.
"Well, I nothing last time I contacted headquarters three hours ago." Some uncertainty. Finally!
"Then contact again," he ordered not caring the slightest that it wasn´t his place. "It´s really important," he stressed, already ripping the door open and not being quiet in the least. "Possibly world changing!" Now that should get him moving. He didn´t see that, though. Takuya was already down the floor, crinkling his nose at the disgusting smell of chemic as he followed a trail of all too familiar smells with his now enhaned sense.
That was sure to take time to get used to and he did not look forward to it at all.
He was so incredibly displeased that not even the whimpering form in front of him could pacify him. Darkness escaped. Fire escaped. And the bothersome bugs escaped.
No matter.
Struggling would not help.
It will all happen as it is meant to be.
The door crashed open and Takuya, panting slightly, stood there. He immediately locked on to Izzy, not even glancing around to check who was present.
"Say…"It took some time for him to catch his breath and for some reason he wrinkled his nose, "did you get a message….. a contact or anything from ….somebody?" He blurted out and Sora got a vague feeling of dread once again. She wished it would stop already.
"An enemy Digimon most likely. And a light type. With two legs or four, preferably. You –or I- have to talk to it. It´s really important! Live changing! It-"
"-hold it!" Tai interrupted loudly, a playful frown on his face despite his confusion. "Now take a deep breath, calm down and then start again. We didn´t understand a word." Takuya did as asked, blinked a few times and just now really saw them.
"Oh, hi. What are all of doing here?"
"Meeting." They chorused all at the same time and Sora could not help it; she sighed. Getting off task so easily was just like Tai and Davis and given the situation a great source of worry.
"About what?" He asked curiously, his interest perked. She wondered how long he had been awake.
"Never mind that, " Matt countered, "what was so important you had to wake half the hospital at impossible hours?"
"Oh, shit," he cursed as he leaned against the closed door, his breath still coming uneven. "Some Digimon has to have made contact with you. A light type, former – or still, depends, I guess- enemy, on four or two legs most likely." He stared at Izzy, who was quickly returning to his pc, speaking fast and with urgency in his eyes. "We have to speak with it. One of my friends is controlling it.
"He took massive amounts of energy from me and I can't even guess how much longer Koji can maintain control. He´ll have some information and or stuff stolen from the enemy with him." Stopping his rambling he looked at Izzy, waiting for an answer. Sora just stared at him, feeling her friends doing the same. She hadn´t understood a word. The silence was only broken by noise coming from Izzy´s keyboard.
"Uhmm…,"Davis started, "could you repeat that, please? Slower, with more explanations?" Sora saw Takuya shift the focus of his stare to him while he slid down at the door, sitting on the ground. He was still very pale, she noticed, being one of the few with chairs close to the door.
Takuya opened his mouth to repeat once again but halted when Izzy spoke in his place.
"We really have." There was astonishment in his voice and Sora saw the situation in a whole new light; there were only so many things that could amaze Izzy. "Gennai just now mailed me," he said for the benefit of those who still had no idea what was going on. "A Shisamon appeared at Metal City. It does indeed claim to have important information. Gennai asked us to deal with it, including weather we want to go or not." He leveled Takuya with a curious but also suspicious look. "How did you know this?"
Sora also looked at him again and just saw him wipe away some sweat. He rolled his eyes. "I just told you; a friend of mine is controlling or possessing or whatever that Shisamon. Hence he is knocking at our door."
"Yeah, but how did you know your friend was doing this?"
Takuya blinked, confused for a moment, before his face split into a grin. "Oh that? It´s because Koichi is currently visiting him and using every bit of energy he can get to support Koji, i guess." His smile became pained. "Which is why we have to hurry before Koji runs out of fuel to burn and loses control. We really have to hurry." He pushed himself off the ground and stood rather shakily against the wall again, still panting, once more wiping sweat from his brown.
"You are all still hurt. Can you open a gate for me, Izzy?"
Incredulous looks were shot at him from all directions and some protested loudly. Sora didn´t voice her disagreement, but she, too, thought it was rather insulting of him.
"There is no way you are going to the DigiWorld, let alone by yourself." Tai said, being obviously not happy at still being bed ridden.
"Yeah, you can hardly stand," Davis added accusingly. Naming what should have been obvious to Sora when she was only two steps away and not across the room like Davis; yet she hadn´t seen it.
"It isn´t set that somebody is going at all. It could be a trap for all we know." Izzy was a voice of reason as always, but this time Sora, thought, it would have been nice without. Things were finally turning in their direction.
Takuya shot Izzy a disbelieving look. "This is Koji we are talking about. Only he would and could pull a stunt like that." Sora noticed that there was a bit of pride in his voice.
"Maybe, but let me finish. Who is to say that your friend really has control? What if he has already lost it and the whole situation got turned into a trap. Or what if the Digimon your friend had controlled got exchanged with another? The possibilities are endless. We can´t just walk in."
"That´s great, then." Takuya did a 180 turn and positively beamed while he slid to the ground again. "Just tell him I said to sit back and wait to get rescued. If you get a witty or sarcastic remark as an answer it´s him. If not, you can run." He almost fell down to the floor again.
"But you ….should really hurry." He leaned his back against the door, taking deep breaths. "Koji totally drained me empty." Again Sora noted how pale he was and slightly tuned out she saw how his eyes lost focus, closed; she and others positively scrambled to him when he fell to the side and crashed to the ground, unconcious.
"What do we do now?" TK asked, feeling the need to remind them of the urgency that Takuya conveyed before passing out. Said goggle head was laying spread out over several chairs now, by the way. "Somebody has to go."
"No, TK," Izzy disagreed, "we don´t have to. It´s our choice and traps are by far not eliminated just because Takuya gave us a way to confirm with whom we are talking. The enemy could have allowed his friend to contact us."
Solemn silence fell while all they were all considering their own thoughts. TK scratched Patamon between his wings and reviewed all the facts they had. For one, they all were injured in one way or another; the Digimon were mostly healed already, though.
From Takuya´s group only he was awake, while apparently one of his friends had possessed a Digimon to give them information. TK didn´t like the idea of humans being able to take control of a Digimon, hell he didn´t even like that Digimon were able to do it to their own kind, but Takuya´s words from the battle still sounded in his head.
"We just didn´t want to risk the fate of the Digiworld on sentimentalism in battle."
Back then TK had found it despicable, but now when he reflected he couldn´t say that he didn´t see where Takuya had come from with that. He had killed, too. Indirectly through HolyAngemon, but that didn´t matter. TK also did understand that a different situation calls for different needs and the current one was definitely dire and desperate enough to not only justify possessing, but also emergency killing. He hated to admit it.
However, that did not mean that he agreed with Takuya's methods.
And now they had a possibility to gain something on the evil. There was no way they couldn´t take it.
Looking around to his friends he dreaded to think what could happen to them if they really chose to go and it turend out to be a trap.
"I´m going!" TK switched his eyes to Davis who had loudly announced his agreement with TK´s thoughts. "We can´t miss this chance if we want to win. So what if it could be a trap? We have had worse just days ago!"
"I agree with Davis, Izzy. "
Izzy stared at Tai before he opened his mouth to protest. Tai smiled and held a hand up to stop Izzy´s genius before it got to word.
"I agree that we can´t let this chance slip, but Davis won´t be the one to go," he declared, "now, don´t start protesting, Davis. You were hurt way too much and are barely allowed to walk as it is. Though that disqualifies me as well," he muttered under his breath and TK smiled, seeing how everything was almost back to normal while Tai nailed Davis with a look that clearly said they both knew he was right.
Of course that didn´t stop Davis from trying anyway. The two of them continued bickering for a while until Yolei interrupted.
"I´ll go." As she said it TK saw her eyes flash to Ken for the smallest part of a second and TK got a knot in stomach thinking how he´d feel if Kari wanted to go, too.
Sighing then, Izzy gave up and nodded, returning to his usual organizing and strategist self.
"All right then."TK heard he was still not agreeing with Tai from his snappy tone, but he started working with his keyboard none the less.
"Seeing how we are," he gave them all a distasteful glance," it´d be best if only two or three go; Fire or Ice types. A little number is less likely to be noticed – on radar and in person-, should it be a trap or not. Not that we have many more to move out anyway, but the rest will stay here to protect the three of them. If we can protect should it come to battle is a different thing all together.
"Yolei, you should run if you have even the slightest reason to be suspicious of the Shisamon; use Holsmon then, he is faster and smaller. Who else is going? Ken, you can´t. We might need Imperaldramon here. Matt could to increase firepower, but he isn´t the right type, either…."he drifted off in his musings while they all waited for his recommendation.
"Sora would be best," he finally said, looking at her and she agreed without hesitation. TK thought she might have been a bit too eager to agree, but he saw that they all were hating their uselessness in this hospital and Sora, being who she was, was most likely blaming herself partly for what had happened in the canyon. She always did.
"You´ll have to go now. Takuya said we didn´t have time and there is no way we could get to act once our parents have come," Izzy added, eyeing the two of them while still typing away on his keyboard.
"You set up the gate, while Sora and I go change. We couldn´t possibly face a fellow Digidestined in hospital robes, after all, " Yolei said with a semi-serious voice while crossing the room, dodging several chairs in the process.
First of all the next chapter will not come on the first. But it will come in June. I have time now and will update a lot more stuff. This chapter is also a result of having more time by finishing school. :) No more time
I don't really have to say much about this chapter other than that i dropped some hints. Hopefully they weren't too apparent; I don't know, seeing how I can't judge them objectively, already knowing everything.
Please review and thanks for last chapter's. :)