Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. My only regret...
Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Promps Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "safe".
Well, I took a few week break after my writing sting during April's Camp Nano. I burnt myself out on writing a little bit, but it was fun while it lasted. I needed the break, but I am now back to writing. I have a pretty near end date for this story that I'm hoping to keep. I'm not going to say what it is just in case I don't reach it - less guilt that way - but hopefully I do! The next Camp Nano is in July, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to participate, which should help spur this story along. Sorry for the delay with this chapter; I just needed the break. Now, be prepared for a few info dumping chapters. Hopefully, you still...
Enjoy!
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kari woke up feeling like she was missing a few data particles.
She'd been dreaming about loose data and cackling laughs and somebody whispering, It's all a lie…
"Oh, god." Yolei's teeth was chattering so loudly that Kari could hear it from where she was sitting. "He deleted us!"
"I think downloaded would be the more appropriate term, Yolei," Hawkmon said.
"You're okay now." Takato handed Yolei a blanket that she wrapped around her shoulders, but she still continued to shiver like she'd been dunked into freezing water.
Kari managed a smile of thanks as she took a blanket for herself and tried to figure out where they were. Next to her, a campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. They were in a shallow cave, but it didn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways. It might've been night or day. The storm made it too dark to tell.
"Is everybody okay?" Kari asked.
"All present and un-digitized," Davis said. He was also wrapped in a blanket. He didn't look great, but he looked better than Yolei at least. Chibomon sat in his lap, slurping down a tube of fruit paste. "Apparently, we all got digitally downloaded except for Takato, Guilmon, and Elecmon. They saved the day."
Takato gave a humble shrug.
"I think you've got hypothermia," a new voice said. Kari turned and gave a small gasp as she realized Izzy was also among their circle. The light from his yellow pineapple laptop resting on his legs lit up his face. "I won't know for sure until Joe returns, but I'm pretty sure that's why all of you are freezing. My best guess is that because the data discs you were stored in were rapidly dropping in temperature thanks to the snow, your body temperatures were dropping to match."
"I didn't think of it," Takato admitted. "I just put the data discs into my pockets. It's well below freezing out there. If I'd known…"
"Takato, don't worry about it," Ken said. "We're safe. That's all that matters."
"Izzy, not that we're not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?" Yolei asked.
"And what about Tai?" Kari asked. "Is he really…?"
Izzy closed his laptop leaving the firelight as the only source of illumination in the cave. "Yes."
Kari sucked in a sharp breath. "H-how?"
"That's a pretty complicated story. I was hoping to hear about what you all have been through first. Takato was just about to tell me about how he defeated Karatenmon and Datamon."
"Yeah, dude, how did you manage that?" Davis asked.
Takato took a seat in the circle and told his story, putting most of it down to pure dumb luck.
Elecmon snorted. "Kid, you're being modest. You should've seen him and Guilmon. They fought like pros. Would've made Patamon proud."
Takato scratched the back of his neck. "I dunno about that."
Guilmon beamed. "It was nothing we hadn't done before!"
"So you can reach ultimate," Cody said thoughtfully. "That's good to know."
A sudden flash of light throughout the cave cut off further discussion. Kari turned toward the source and found Davis staring down at his lap where DemiVeemon sat, looking a little confused. Davis grinned widely.
"DemiVeemon!" he cried. "It's good to see you again, buddy!"
DemiVeemon blinked up at Davis. "Do we have anymore fruit paste?"
Davis grabbed him another fruit packet immediately.
"Way to go, DemiVeemon," Gatomon said.
"Welcome back," Armadillomon said.
"You're looking better than ever," Wormmon said.
DemiVeemon responded to the comments by slurping down the fruit packet.
Ken put a hand to Yolei's forehead as he checked her temperature. "Guilmon, can you stoke the fire?"
"Got it." Guilmon shot a baseball-sized fireball into the campfire, and it grew in size.
"Do I look that bad?" Yolei shivered.
"No," Ken said quickly.
"You're a terrible liar."
"You were the last one I pulled out, Yolei," Izzy said. "That's the only guess that I have as to why you were hit the hardest out of everyone."
"She was also already hurt from our crash landing too," Cody reminded them.
"Thanks for pointing out my terrible luck so far, Cody," Yolei snapped. "Where are we?"
"North Pole," Izzy answered.
Kari's eyes widened. "We were still at least a hundred miles from the pole when we crashed."
"Yeah," Takato said. "WarGrowlmon got us the rest of the way. He only had to carry me and Elecmon, and Izzy was already holed up here, so he wasn't hard to find. But I don't think we should consider using WarGrowlmon as our taxi service from now on. It seemed to take a lot out of him."
"I'm okay, Takato," Guilmon said.
"You nearly crashed into the mountain when we landed," he said.
Guilmon's ears drooped. "I said I was sorry…"
"Ebonwumon should be around here somewhere then, right?" Ken asked.
Izzy nodded. "From everything that Takato has already told me, you should be within a walk's distance from his home. But if he has a palace around here, it's not one that is easily noticeable from above. Tentomon and I didn't see anything when we came down to land."
"The storm wasn't nearly as bad when we made camp," Tentomon said. "But now… well, I just hope the others can find us in this weather!"
"It's the evening of the solstice…" Cody said slowly.
Everybody bristled at the reminder.
"I know," Takato said dejectedly. "But we don't really have much choice but to stay here for now. We can't really travel in a blizzard, so we're stuck waiting it out here. At least it gives us some time to rest."
"And we could always use more rest!" Armadillomon said.
Kari didn't like the sound of that, but a look around the group was all she needed to be convinced. The wind howling outside the cave sounded eerie, and Yolei couldn't seem to stop shivering. Ken got up and moved to her side.
"We need to get you warm." He hesitated before holding out his arms a little awkwardly. "Do you mind if I…?"
"Go ahead." She sounded like she was trying to sound nonchalant, but her voice still squeaked slightly with excitement.
Ken blushed, but he followed through as he put his arms around her and held her. They scooted closer to the fire. Kari caught Davis's eye, and they did their best to hide their smiles.
"Davish!" DemiVeemon interrupted the silence that had fallen over the group. "More! More!" He was holding up an empty fruit packet.
Davis gave an exasperated sigh. "I forgot how much In-Training digimon eat!"
Despite his complaints, Davis got up and broke out his cooking supplies. From seemingly nothing, he somehow started to make a veggie stir fry that immediately started to smell like heaven.
"Mmm, smells good," Armadillomon quipped. "I hope you're making enough for everybody!"
"I wouldn't mind having a taste of whatever it is," Tentomon quipped.
Izzy sent his partner a look. "Tento', we have our own supplies."
"Don't worry, Izzy," Davis said. "I'm making enough for everybody here. It's too cold for cold rations anyway."
"Hear, hear!" Yolei cheered.
"Well, as long as we're all sitting around waiting for food…" Cody started slowly, "there's something I've been meaning to tell you. Right before we crashed into Datamon's property, I had this dream… It was a little hard to understand with the binary code running around everywhere…"
"Binary code?" Izzy asked.
Kari wondered if Cody was kidding, but when he looked up from his lap, his expression was deadly serious.
"The thing is," he continued, "Oikawa talked to me."
Cody told them about his dream. In the firelight, with the wind howling, the story was even creepier. Kari could almost imagine the ghostly visit from an old dead friend giving warnings of Demon Lords and losing symbols of strength along the way.
She tried to focus on something good: all of them, sitting around, alive, unhurt, and just a little cold, but she was terrified. "I don't understand. If there was a prophecy about these Demon Lords rising and possibly destroying the world, why haven't we heard of it before now? If it was truly this bad, then—"
Elecmon shook his head. "Digital World prophecies aren't meant to be heard. They're just future history, written down and recorded on the mythical Island of Prophecy, and meant to be forgotten until the future history becomes past history. When prophecies are actually heard, that's when you know things aren't quite going as planned."
"Well, that just about sums up this entire crazy adventure," Yolei huffed.
"And this time, we have two prophecies to worry about," Cody pointed out.
Davis perked up. "Hey, that's right! Izzy, spill. We need to hear this second prophecy."
Hawkmon groaned. "Somehow, I don't think we're going to like this."
"I'm not sure if it will exactly help either," Izzy said. "Even now, I'm having a hard time deciphering exactly what it could mean."
"Izzy not know something?" Gatomon asked. "Now we know we're in trouble."
"Is it bad?" Takato asked quietly.
Izzy cleared his throat. "I'm not sure, but I do know it's not good." He hesitated. "I'm not sure if I should…"
"Izzy, what's wrong?" Kari asked quietly. "You said before that you were waiting for a sign, right? Gennai telling Takato that it's time… That's a pretty big sign."
Izzy nodded in agreement. "I know that, Kari. I just don't know how this could help all of you. Not right now. Not with everything else going on."
"It doesn't matter what it say, really," Davis said. "It's not going to change our mission. Save Gennai. Save TK. Save Tai. Whatever it says, we'll worry about it later, but Gennai said we needed to know it now, so let's hear it."
"Davis is right," Ken said. "Whatever is going on is bigger than all of us, and no matter what it says, it's not going to change what we're doing now. But… I have a feeling we need to start getting prepared for something much bigger."
Kari suddenly wasn't sure if she wanted to hear what Izzy had to say, but she knew it was too late now. Izzy gave a defeated sigh and opened his laptop back up. The look on his face was filled with doom and sorrow, like he was about to perform a eulogy. As Izzy read, the hairs on Kari's arms started to stand on end and the very air around them seemed to grow thin with fear.
"Six that fate chose from the world that mimics earth,
And six that chose fate from the world that man did birth,
Must unite against the enemies darkness has risen
To keep earth itself locked in its prison
Gluttony must not be allowed to hide
For the Doors of Darkness must be closed with foes side by side
Then the world will crumble with its final breath
As a miracle leads them to victory or death."