Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. We are wild!
Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "door".
Reminder: I post all of my review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Just navigate to the little button at the top of the screen to Forum to Anime to Digimon to Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!
I totally derped and did not realize that my last update was happening on Odaiba Day! That is so cool. Unfortunately, the information released for the new Digimon movies coming out that day was just not enough to get me psyched, I guess. I'm... somewhere between hyped and apprehensive about the upcoming movies, but I am quite happy that they're coming right around the corner. I, for one, am so tired of waiting! Just give us real info already!
Enjoy!
Chapter Fifty-One
"Takato!"
Kari kept calling his name, hoping that he could somehow hear her, but she'd almost lost hope. He'd been unconscious for two minutes now. His body kept fluctuating between solid and static, as if his data particles were fighting to stay together. His eyes were rolled up into his head. She couldn't tell if he was even breathing.
"It may be no use." Gennai stood behind them, his expression grave.
Kari hadn't seen what happened to Takato after Guilmon digivolved, but it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. When the knight digimon – Gallantmon – had de-digivolved, Takato had appeared out of his light. Somehow, Takato and Guilmon had become one. The aftereffects of their battle was everywhere. Every loose trail of wind and the entire storm was gone from the valley. No signs of their opponents lingered, either. AeroVeedramon, Gatomon, and Stingmon had made quick work of them. The ruins of Myotismon's castle had been decimated even further, but it was hard to tell what was new damage and what had just been created.
Even the other digidestined had been reawakened. The five of them stood around Takato in a circle, concern written all over their faces. Izzy knelt by Davis across from Kari, but nobody dared touch Takato for fear of making it worse.
Matt glared over at Gennai. "You brought him here. Do something!"
"I cannot."
"Gennai, please!" Mimi wailed. "Fix him!"
"Oh, this is terrible," Palmon bemoaned. "I can't watch."
"What's happening to him?" Cody asked.
"His data appears to be destabilizing," Hawkmon said. "Though as to why, I cannot figure."
"He digivolved," Davis said. "Somehow… he and Guilmon…"
"We biomerged," Guilmon said. "We've done it before. Did it hurt Takato? Is he going to be okay?"
Kari dropped her head into her hands. "Homeostasis warned me. I just… I forgot. I didn't understand. What have I done?"
"Kari, it's not your fault," Gatomon said. "How could you have known? We all know you would never have intentionally kept information away from him."
"Absolutely, Kari," Joe said. "Whatever happened here is not your fault."
Sora frowned. "I don't get it. Digivolved? How… how could a human digivolve? Is he human?"
Gennai nodded. "He is human. Very much so. But just like you, he is special. I don't know much about this… biomerging. But I do know that the power behind it is unstable at the best of times, and for him to attempt it in our world…"
"Our Digital World is not compatible with it," Izzy said. "That's what you're saying."
"It may be more than that," Gennai conceded. "But yes. Takato's data… his DNA… all of it… it's in conflict right now, trying to figure out how to fit back together again. It… may not succeed. And if that is the case…"
"You're the one that brought him here!" Matt shouted. "You should have warned him – warned us! You've killed him!"
Cody shook his head in dismay. "That's what the prophecy meant. And forgotten memories will begin to unwind. It wasn't about Takato's memories. It was about Takato himself, the data that stores those memories – his very being – unwinding right in front of us, and we can't do a thing about it."
"Gennai," Ken said, "you're a Digital Entity. Can't you do something? Stabilize him?"
"He's breathing!" Davis suddenly announced.
Everybody bristled at the news. Kari leaned forward, no longer interested in the conversation, and focused on Takato's face. She didn't see the sign of life that Davis had, but that made her no less hopeful.
"Takato," Kari called, almost screaming at him as if she could somehow get through his comatose state. She thought about TK shouting her name in math class four years ago, pulling her back from the brink of disappearing into the Dark World. She tried to sound such as convincing. They couldn't lose Takato; they couldn't lose anybody else. "Listen to me. You can do this. Come back. You're going to be fine."
"Takato," Guilmon whined. "Listen to her. Please be okay."
Nothing happened. Had Davis imagined his breath stirring?
"His human DNA may be too damaged," Gennai said regretfully. "He may not be able to reconfigure, no matter how much you wish otherwise—"
"Takato!" Davis shouted. Takato solidified for a moment, and he recklessly reached forward to grab the front of his jacket as if to hold him there. "WAKE UP."
Takato gasped, and his eyes flew open. For a moment they were full of light – glowing pure gold. Then the light faded and his eyes were normal again. "What—what happened?"
"Oh, thank god!" Mimi cried.
Takato ended up in the middle of a tight hug from Kari, Yolei, Davis, Guilmon, and Veemon up until the moment he groaned out, "Crushing me!"
"Good!" Yolei snapped, smacking him across the back of his head for emphasis. "You idiot!"
"Don't mind her," Hawkmon said while Takato winced and rubbed his head. "Yolei has a funny way of showing her relief."
"We're just glad you're okay," Kari said, so thankful, she laughed at her best friend's actions while wiping a tear from her eye.
Joe crouched down next to him and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "How do you feel?"
"Weird," he muttered. "My gums are tingling. My hands feel numb." His eyes widened as he quickly reached down to grip his knees. "Oh… Okay. I thought I saw my legs disappear."
"They did," Davis said. "It was totally freaky."
"And very brief," Izzy added, rolling his eyes at Davis's lack of tact.
"But you're fine," Sora reassured him.
"You at least look okay!" Biyomon said.
"Yeah, no thanks to Gennai," Matt grumbled.
"Matt, you're not helping," Sora said. Amazingly, he didn't protest.
Kari and Davis helped Takato to his feet. Joe gave him some aspirin from his first aid kit.
Gennai crossed his arms. "Sora is right, Matt. Whatever qualms you have with me will have to wait. More dangers wait on the horizon. We must work together. All of you must work together."
"Yeah," Davis said, "I don't suppose that Belphemon guy just got swallowed up by the earth and melted back into oblivion, huh?"
"No," Gennai agreed. "By saving me and preventing the forces at work from using the powers of this place to feed Belphemon, you have stopped Huang from waking. For now. You have bought us some time. But Belphemon has risen. He's not yet at full power, but when the seven unite – and they probably are as we speak – he will be. They all will be. Your worst battles are yet to come."
"So he ran away," Cody said. "But to where?"
Gennai didn't answer, but a sense of dread washed over Kari. She remembered what Belphemon had said about destroying the Digital Worlds at their cores. He was still here, somewhere, biding his time, waiting for the right opportunity to destroy the world beneath their feet. She looked at Izzy's grim expression and realized he had come to the same conclusion.
"We need to fill in Tai," he said. "He'll want to know what happened, and that we're okay."
"Not to mention our parents," Yolei groaned.
"We're really going to leave?" Matt asked, his voice dark and morose. "Just like that? Without…"
Without TK. Kari felt her heart clench in her chest, and she blinked the threat of tears rapidly away. Nobody said a word, but the air around them seemed suddenly heavy. They hadn't succeeded after all, and the courtyard seemed strangely dense with the revelation. The dry reflecting fool showed no sign of the dark digiegg that had hatched Belphemon. The earthen tendrils that had imprisoned Gennai were long gone. The night sky was clear and starry. The wind whistled through the vacant halls. And at the end of the large room stood two tall metal doors, sealed tightly shut, untarnished by the destruction of the rest of the fortress.
"Takato, is this where you came through? Is this where Gennai brought you to the Digital World?" Kari asked. "I mean, you came from another Digital World, right?"
Takato shook his head uneasily. "It's still murky, but… I don't think so."
"You're right, Takato," Gennai said. "You weren't brought from another Digital World, and you did not come through this portal. This portal here…" He gave the large iron doors an unnerved look. "It is corrupted by darkness."
"Like everything else in this place," Gatomon added.
"But…" Cody looked mystified. "That means Takato was pulled from the Real World. Why didn't anybody report him missing? Where's his family? Friends? Teachers?"
"There were no Missing Persons reports filed back home," Yolei agreed.
"Not in your world, no," Gennai agreed.
Kari felt as if the sky were spiraling above her, making her dizzy. "You lived somewhere else. Another human world. That's where you've been. That's where you disappeared from. That's where people are looking for you."
"Another human world?" Sora repeated.
"With an entirely different Sora?" Biyomon asked, her eyes wide.
"No other Izzy is as smart as my Izzy!" Tentomon said.
Takato turned toward Gennai. "The memories are coming back, but I have no idea how to get home. You're… you're not going to tell me how, are you?"
For a long moment, Gennai said nothing. Kari wasn't sure if this was because he didn't know what to say, or if he knew that none of them were going to like his answer.
"No," he finally answered. "Not yet. This is part of your destiny, Takato. When that bridge is formed between the worlds once more, it will be the beginning of the end. We will be on a clock. We must be ready, and we're not yet. But when we are… you will unite two great powers. You will give us Hope against the Demon Lords, and more importantly – against Huanglongmon himself."
"You want us to help you," Ken said, "but you're holding back information."
"Typical Gennai," Matt spat out.
"Matt," Gabumon said bracingly.
"He's not giving us answers on Takato. That means he's not giving us answers on TK," Matt said. "He could have rot in that cage for all I care."
"Matt, please," Sora tried, but he shrugged off her hand and stormed off.
"That's part of the reason why we're not ready yet," Cody said quietly. "It has to do with TK."
Gennai nodded. "But this is only the beginning. There is much planning to be done before the next phase. Izzy, I will need your help."
Izzy tore his eyes away from where Matt had stormed off and nodded. "You have it."
"What is this next phase?" Ken asked. "What aren't you telling us?"
Gennai evaded the question. "I believe if you open up your laptop, Izzy, I can create a portal to send you all home right now. It's the least I can do for you saving me."
Izzy fumbled for his backpack and pulled out his laptop. Yolei muttered, "You can say that again," but Kari was too tired to think about how that was probably a bit on the rude side. Joe coaxed Matt back to the group as Gennai brought up a Digi-Port that connected straight to Izzy's living room. Kari barely had time to think about how nice it would be to have a real bed again before the screen exploded with light. The world turned upside down, and Kari almost blacked out.
x X x
When she could see straight again, she was in a pile on the floor among the other eleven humans and twelve digimon. She had Sora's elbow in her face and had landed on the back of Upamon and Palmon. They were sprawled across the living room floor in the Izumi apartment. Mrs Izumi had screamed when they suddenly came through, but now she, Mr Izumi, and Tai all just stood by, gawking at them in astonishment.
Whatever fancy portal Gennai had opened for them to shoot them back to the Real World had not been good for Kari's stomach. She could barely control her nausea, which was a good thing since Joe was still trying to scramble his way off of her. Davis had a little less control on his stomach, but he was luckily at the top of the pile. He jumped off of Ken, ran to the kitchen, and promptly threw up in the sink – Kari tried not to listen to the gagging out of fear of embarrassing herself.
"Kari? Matt?" Tai rushed forward to help disentangle everybody. No doubt he had seen the digidestined come through the portal a hundred times before, but even he looked totally flabbergasted. "Are you okay? What—what did you—?"
The Izumis just continued to stare at the group with their mouths open. Kari figured they must have looked like quite a pitiful bunch, even after getting to their feet.
"Hi," Davis said, returning from the kitchen as he wiped his mouth, and sounding way too casual for having just emptied his stomach. "We're back."