Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.
The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier
Chapter 31: Concordia et Chaos
"Neemon! Bokomon!" Tomoki said excitedly, trying to stand before wincing in pain. Kazemon hurried to the boy's side and helped him to stand, but Tomoki kept his attention purely on the two digimon. "It's good to see you're alright!"
"I wish we could say the same for you," Bokomon replied with what was probably the sourest tone he'd ever provided for them.
"You guys must be really tired after all that. Have some juice!" Neemon said, producing more boxes of juice from his pants pockets and distributing them. "I have grape, apple, strawberry, fruit punch, orange, prune-"
We have other things to worry about right now," Agunimon interrupted, hurrying to them. "Transform back into your human forms."
"What? Why?" Beetlemon stammered out.
"Lucemon. You've still got the Guardian Spirits in your head which means he's still in there too. Transform back," Agunimon said, this time with more urgency in his voice. "Quickly!"
There was a frantic look in Tamer's eyes that was all to reminiscent of when the D-Reaper got loose. Kazemon hesitated to actually detransform because of it, afraid that the D-Reaper would attack again the moment they were powerless. "You are you…right?"
"Yes! Now please! Detransform!" Agunimon said, his voice growing ever more manic the longer they waited.
Kazemon still hesitated but she eventually agreed and regressed back into being Zoe. Beetlemon followed suit and transformed back into a flabbergasted JP, with Lobomon coming in last to regress back into Koji. Agunimon was the last, transforming back into Tamer and hurriedly swiping his digivice over each other theirs. On contact, a small light would jump from their digivices into Tamer's before their digivices turned dark and the color became muted.
Finally, Tamer breathed a sigh of relief, "Good. Okay. We're safe."
"What the hell was that about?" JP asked with his arms firmly on his hips.
Tamer took a second to catch his breath before saying, "It was about the Guardian Spirits. Since they were all just Lucemon, I had to get him out of your heads. So I transferred the data for the spirits into my digivice."
"But doesn't that mean you've got all of them?" Zoe asked, wondering what that meant for Tamer's state of mind to have so many independent minds inside of his head now. And worse, what that could mean if either the D-Reaper got loose or if he was under Lucemon's control.
"For now, until we can figure out how to sever the connection between Lucemon and the Guardian Spirit's power," Tamer stated quietly, pocketing his digivice. "Don't worry, I'll give it back."
Zoe wanted to say something but Bokomon grumpily spoke first, "It sounds like you guys had quite the adventure without us."
"It wasn't really that great," JP said. "We found out that the voice of the Guardian Spirits that we'd all been hearing was just Lucemon screwing with us."
"Forget about that. I'm so glad you guys are okay. We've been trying to get back to you ever since Tamer's teleportation dropped us in a cave," Zoe said to the two digimon. Neemon frowned sympathetically, or perhaps pitifully at them, while Bokomon pursed his lips. Zoe gratefully took a grape juice and drank it down in a few sips, realizing just how tired and thirsty she was. It was so sweet and refreshing that she didn't care it came from Neemon's pants. It could've come from the same pocket as where he kept the macaroni and cheese, and Zoe would've still drank it because she was so parched.
"You could've at least tried to take us with you," Bokomon said disapprovingly.
"It's not like we had a choice. Tamer just went and did it," Koji said, gesturing towards Tamer who'd begun pacing the entry hall with a hand to his chin. It was then that Zoe noticed the many injured children being tended by the remnants of what had once been Cherubimon's massive army. Although the digimon of the army were in no better shape than the many injured human children.
"Is this what Cherubimon meant when she said she was attacked?" Tomoki pondered aloud.
"Don't you dare say her name!" Terriermon barked at them, growling in a way that made him anxious.
"What's your problem?" Beetlemon asked the little white digimon.
"YOU KNOW WHAT MY PROBLEM IS!" Terriermon snapped at them. "Lopmon! Renamon! They're all gone because of you!"
"We didn't have anything to do with that!" JP said quickly, trying to reason with Terriermon.
Terriermon continued to live up to his name sake of a small barking dog as he advanced on JP. "You had everything to do with that! Those digimon attacked us because they were after you! Lopmon died because she wore herself down trying to protect the others! Because we were looking for you! And now Renamon is-"
"It's all Lucemon's fault, Terriermon. And I would appreciate it if you didn't get mad at the digidestined over it," Tamer interrupted. Of course, he only managed to make himself the next target of Terriermon's ire.
"You should shut the hell up! If you'd have told us who you were from the beginning, none of this would've happened!" Terriermon snapped.
"I think I preferred it when you said 'Moumantai'. You were a lot friendlier back then," Tamer answered just as quickly. "How about we go back to that? I liked that Terriermon more."
"Sure! As soon as we get Renamon and Lopmon and all the others back!" Terriermon barked again. "None of this would've happened if you didn't take off the moment we figured out who you were! If you'd stayed with us, none of this would've happened!"
"YOU GUYS WEREN'T EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!" Tamer said with a raised voice, finally silencing Terriermon. "You're part was in all of this was supposed to be over. You were never supposed to be involved with any of this. Everything that's going on right now…yeah, you weren't supposed to be here for any of it. So for your own good, please stay out of it from now on."
Terriermon paused with his mouth hanging open in surprise, taken aback by Tamer's words. But all that did was empower one of the other digimon to speak up. The purple dinosaur digimon called Monodramon, "Tough! We're here now and we're plenty involved in whatever is going on! So how about instead of trying to ditch us and leave us out, we all help each other!"
Tamer scoffed in response to the little digimon and stormed off down a hallway that led away from the them. Terriermon growled, but was restrained from arguing further by Guardromon who held him back.
"Observation: There are others who require our attention more than the Tamer. We should help care for the injured before we do anything else," Guardromon reminded Terriermon. Terriermon grit his teeth, still growling but relented and turned back towards helping the other injured children. Zoe looked towards the others, unsure on if they should step in to help or if they should say anything. They were all looking back at her, as if they expected her to do something first. Except for Lobomon who was still cradling the injured Duskmon in his arms.
"I see Tamer still has no problem angering those around him," Bokomon remarked, breaking the silence that befell the group.
"Yeah, he hasn't gotten better about it," Zoe said. "We're all really happy to see you're both okay."
"No thanks to you," Bokomon frowned, his tone understandably annoyed with them. It wasn't hard to see why though - he was undoubtedly upset over being inadvertently abandoned and angry over what happened to them in the mean time.
"We really did try to get back to you," Tomoki added meekly, although that didn't really seem to impress Bokomon.
"It just took longer than we would've thought because it took a while to figure out where we ended up," JP added. "And then even longer to make our way back. We asked Tamer about using his digivice to send us back but he kept saying that there was no way to control where we'd land."
"That's hardly an apology," Bokomon said grimly.
"Why are you so angry about this?" Neemon asked his counterpart. "They're saying sorry. That should be enough, shouldn't it?"
"No, it's okay. We get why he's angry. But we're back now, right?" Zoe asked, hoping Bokomon would be more amenable now that they were together again. The little digimon was unmoved though and refused to look at them.
"Come on, Bokomon. We're sorry about leaving you behind! Honest!" Tomoki said to the white digimon, who again didn't look at them.
"Don't mind him. He's just cranky. I'm glad you guys are okay and that we're all back together!" Neemon said. "We should celebrate with juice!"
He produced another juice box for them and Zoe happily took another grape one, sipping at it quickly and wishing that it was just a little bit bigger since she was so thirsty. Tomoki and JP drank their juice more slowly, while Koji outright refused one - preferring to take care of Duskmon silently.
Zoe tried to think of something to say to Bokomon but wasn't sure there was anything she could say to him. The little white blob on Bokomon's head began bouncing, trying to nudge Bokomon to turn around and cooing, "Play nice. Play nice! Be friends!"
"Who's this cute little guy?" Zoe asked.
"He looks like a slime. You know like in video games," JP remarked.
"Eh…maybe more like a plush," Zoe reasoned.
"I'd say he looks more like a jelly fish," Tomoki added, all three of them now leaning in on the little blob on Bokomon's head.
The little blob bobbed excitedly from the attention, smiling and cooing. He was so cute that Zoe couldn't help but poke its little cheek. It was squishy to the touch and the little blob bounced happily. It was just to eager to express its excitement as it fell from Bokomon's head and the white digimon scramble to catch the blob in his hands.
"His name is Poyomon. But you would've known him as Seraphimon," Bokomon said sternly.
"Seraphimon's one of those super strong three digimon, right? Huh…so he'd be like Gatomon and Lopmon?" JP scratched his head as he stared curiously at the little blob digimon. "I guess looks can be deceiving, huh?"
Bokomon grunted his disapproval while Poyomon continued to bounce excitedly. "Digidestined? Digidestined! DIGIDESTINED!"
"Wow, he knows us," Tomoki said ecstatically, patting the little blob.
"Or he's just saying words. He's in his baby stage after all," Neemon pointed out. "Baby digimon aren't all that smart. He's probably just repeating something he's heard before."
"He is Seraphimon reborn. He's already far more intelligent that most other digimon in his peer group," Bokomon said in the baby digimon's defense, cradling the blob in his arms - rocking him back and forth playfully. Poyomon's bouncing became more agitated and he bounced himself out of Bokomon's arm.
"Apologize! Play nice!" Poyomon said, but Bokomon didn't seem ready to actually let it go.
Zoe sighed after finishing her juice box, which Neemon took and stuffed back into his pockets. She tried her hardest not to dwell on the possibility that Neemon was putting garbage next to food in his pocket, as the thought made her nauseous. Instead, she tried to change the subject and asked, "How did you guys get away from Lopmon's army?"
"We've got a lot to catch you up on," Neemon said.
Koji continued to stare down at the unconscious Duskmon - still trying to process what he was seeing. How could this be his brother? What happened back in their world? What happened in the Digital World? What turned his brother into the crazed Duskmon. And why was his anger so focused on The Digimon Tamer?
What did Koji not know?
"Are you alright?" Crusadermon asked him. Koji looked up, having also forgotten that the pink armored digimon came with them when Sorcermon brought them all here. He pondered thanking her since they wouldn't have made it out of there without her help. But that just raised the question of why she helped.
"Why'd you help us?" Koji asked, trying to puzzle out another mystery. "You were on their side…Lucemon's, I mean."
Crusadermon folded her arms, "For the same reason I was on their side. I wanted to live. I wanted to defy my destiny and I followed Lucemon because he promised a path where I wouldn't die a needless death. I went along with it reluctantly. After all, there was no way to know if his plan was working or not until the cracks in reality started to appear. That became my clue as to whether or not I would survive. The more cracks that appeared, the further I knew I was from destiny. The less cracks that appeared, the closer I was getting. Because the longer we stuck to Lucemon's plan, the less cracks appeared. And so I began to suspect I would still die."
"So you're in this for yourself," Koji said more than asked.
"Are you not?" Crusadermon asked curtly. "As I understood, all any of you wanted was to return to your world as soon as possible. Something we tried to give you. In fact we did give it to you at the Hollow Bastion."
"We came back," Koji answered sternly.
"So you did. But I don't quite understand why you would. It seemed to me that you wanted to get out as soon as possible. Why?" Crusadermon asked the boy.
Koji returned his attention to Duskmon, hesitating to answer her. She didn't need to know why he came back, but he was sure that she would press the issue if he didn't respond. He opened his mouth a few times as he tried to find the words to respond but nothing came out. But it seemed he didn't need to because Crusadermon eventually asked. "You're the brother, aren't you?"
Koji looked back at Crusadermon, wondering how she knew that without him saying anything. Of course it was impossible to figure out what kind of face Crusadermon was making under her helmet. But maybe she was thinking of someone else. After all, plenty of people had brothers and there was nothing that made him special.
"I have a brother," he said to the knight.
Crusadermon went on, "Then it is you, isn't it? Then I'm very sorry for your loss."
"What loss?" Koji asked, alarmed more now than anything else. He looked back at Duskmon, now deeply concerned with what he didn't know. But he had an idea of who might know.
"Forget I said anything," Crusadermon turned and walked away from them, quietly going into a corner to isolate herself from the others. Koji couldn't stop looking from her to Duskmon and back, all the while wondering what he'd missed. What did he not know about Duskmon and his brother? And what did Crusadermon mean by loss? What did he lose? Was Koichi dead? No, that wasn't possible because he was right here in front of him. But what else could she have meant?
He hated the mere idea that his brother had been dead all along. But there was only one person who would know. He scanned around the room in search for Tamer. He thought he saw the guy pacing the room a moment ago but now he was nowhere in sight. "Did anyone see where Tamer went?"
"He went off that way," Tomoki began, pointing down a long corridor. Koji sighed, wondering why he didn't anticipate this specific turn of events. First Tamer takes their Guardian Spirits and then he leaves. What could he have been up to? Was he possessed again? Was the D-Reaper loose in his head?
"We'd better go find him," JP said, turning towards Zoe. "What's the over-under that we're going to end up on the ceiling? Again?"
"Not good. Before we look, can we just…take a minute?" Zoe said sheepishly. "I'm sore and I can barely feel my legs after today."
"Yeah…I guess we've done a lot in the last few hours, huh?" JP said, sitting down on the floor and pulling his feet into his body.
Agunimon paced the unfamiliar steps heading further into the castle, until he was certain he was a good distance away from the others and leaned against the hallway for support. He released the energy of the Spirit Evolution to turn himself back into Tamer. His head ached, ready to split in two from the sheer force of all the cracks in reality. All the while, the voices of the other occupants in his head wouldn't give him a break.
"Maybe we can be friends if we share some snacks? I'm so hungry. When can we eat?" came a high pitched nasally voice.
"The nemesis has escaped. More strength is required to contain it," came the voice of the D-Reaper inside of his head.
"We can't grow strong on an empty stomach," came the first voice. Absent from the cacophony of voices was his own, as Tamer could barely concentrate enough to hear himself think. And in truth, that was probably for the best so long as he had the power of Agunimon's spirit. Lucemon could be using that power to listen in and know whatever he was thinking of doing next.
Or, he could be planting ideas inside the other's heads. Granted now they knew he was there posing as the Guardian Spirits, it still wouldn't be hard to suggest an idea or two. Either one would render everything they'd done up until this point for naught.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Tamer turned his head to see a red haired girl coming towards him. Or perhaps her hair was brown - it was hard to tell with the lighting. What did stand out were her clothes - an orange jean jacket, orange jean skirt, black leggings, and dark red boots. She seemed familiar to Tamer but he couldn't quite place where or when he'd seen her before.
"Oh just dealing with the headache to end all headaches," Tamer answered the girl half seriously.
"Subject has no strength to offer - dispose of her or move on to better candidates," came the dark and monotonous tone of the D-Reaper inside of Taker's head.
"Maybe she has snacks," came the friendly voice.
"Most people don't walk away from others because of a headache," the girl said matter of factly. Tamer massaged his forehead, trying to calm the voices of the others and clear his head. Things were already bad enough with all the cracks in reality. He didn't need more from some girl who thought they could be friends.
"It's a really bad headache," Tamer said calmly, trying to restrain himself and his growing frustration. He needed to remain calm if he was going to think clearly, and he got up to venture further into the castle.
"You know it's not good to bottle things up," the girl said before he'd even taken his first step.
"She's just trying to be nice," the friendly voice said. "We don't get that a lot. You should talk to her."
"Error. This would be a waste of much needed processing time. It would be better to ignore her," came the D-Reaper's monotonous droll. It had a point too - he needed to think of a plan. They needed a plan. But the D-Reaper had millennia to think of a way to deal with Lucemon and the best plan it ever came up with was get more power. Of course that raised a more important and serious question for Tamer - both Lucemon and the D-Reaper had plenty of time to think of a way to deal with the other during their endless battle. So when did Lucemon have time to come up with his own plan to get inside of their heads as the Guardian Spirits?
In fact, how had he even done that? The Guardian Spirits were hidden and separated from each other for a very long time. There were so many questions and Tamer wasn't sure there was an answer for any of it. Or at least, there wasn't one that made him comfortable. The only conclusion he could reach was that Lucemon prepared for this as far back as when he was originally sealed away. But that raised the question of just how much of everything that was happening was according to Lucemon's will.
And given how many cracks in reality were appearing - how the past and the present were beginning to interact - it was safe to say that they events were no longer playing out how they were supposed to. So then how to get it back on track. He put a hand to his head as dwelling on this was making is head hurt.
"Warning…performance decrease detected," the D-Reaper's voice echoed inside of his head.
"And giving me the silent treatment isn't going to make me go away," the girl added. "So how about you talk to me?"
"Why are you doing this?" Tamer asked the girl, taking his mind off of Lucemon so that he could puzzle out why this random girl he'd never meter before was so determined to talk to him.
"Do I need a reason?" the girl asked.
"Everyone's got one…even someone who acts on whims is still acting on a whim," Tamer reasoned wit her. The girl put a hand to her chin and looked up at the ceiling with a ponderous expression. As Tamer waited for her answer, he couldn't help feeling a sense of familiarity. Had he seen her somewhere before? And the more he stared, the more at east he felt with her.
"You looked like you needed help," the girl shrugged. "Especially after you stormed out of there the way you did. You know it's not very good to argue with your friends like that."
"Yeah, well, they have every right to be mad at me right now," Tamer said sheepishly. The girl just smiled at him as he said that.
"Well then, I guess you should go apologize, huh?" she replied, smiling at him softly. The girl's smile was unnaturally calming to Tamer, but he still couldn't quite place why. Did he know her from somewhere?
"I don't think an apology is going to cut it. Not with how much has happened. And how much else is going to happen. And with everything that still needs to be done…I guess I just feel tired. More tired than I've ever felt in a very long time," Tamer said, his voice growing quieter with every word until he was speaking at barely above a whisper. And the weight of everything made him feel more exhausted than he'd felt in a while.
He realized that didn't make much sense without context and could only imagine the confused expression on the poor girl's face as she tried to make heads or tails of what he'd said. But to his surprise, she just continued to sit there smiling at him - not out of some performative politeness, but a genuine desire to be kind and comforting.
"I hope that doesn't mean you're going to just…give up," she said to him softly. "Because you don't seem like the type."
"Not at all. Everything's just been getting to me lately. It's like I have a voice in my head that says . I know it is, but the more I think it, the harder it gets," he said, knowing full well who could hear him when he said it. He hoped they got the message because he could easily repeat it if they didn't.
"That's good to hear," the girl said after inhaling and taking a deep breath. "Besides…it's not like you can go back in time to undo everything that's happened."
"Yeah…wouldn't that make my…life…easier," Tamer said as he mulled the words over. Time travel wasn't normally possible. But with all the damage that reality had been undergoing, it might be feasible. At least to some degree. He'd already had an earlier encounter with his previous self, not to mention meeting the digidestined at the train station after they'd already gone to the Digital World. Perhaps time travel was possible to some extent given the current state of things…but how much and to what degree?
"Time travel carries risk. It is possible for events to cascade into an undesired outcome," came the D-Reaper's voice. They were already in an undesired outcome as far as Tamer was concerned. How could they possibly make it worse? But what could they do to use that as an advantage? And how could they use it so that Lucemon would never see it coming? After all, he'd know as soon as the digidestined got their Guardian Spirits back.
"Oh? Did the time travel sound like a good idea to you?" she asked half jokingly.
"It's an excellent idea. Thank you for it!" Tamer said, jumping up and shaking her hand excitedly.
She shook back with just as much excitement and vigor, "Don't thank me until you've made up with your friends. And keep smiling. I like your smile. It's…nice."
"Of course! I'll smile all day thanks to you," Tamer said, hurrying back towards the main entrance of the castle. But he stopped when he realized he'd never even gotten the girl's name so he spun around to ask her. "Hey I don't think I ever got your name. Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm-" she paused, seemingly unsure of herself for the first time since she'd shown up. Tamer couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered his own fumbling with the name he gave the others. "-Reiko. Reiko Aiba!"
Tamer smiled, "It's nice to meet you, Reiko."
"Same to you…um…" she paused and Tamer realized he hadn't given his name yet. Still, she hadn't been forthcoming with her name so it seemed only fair that he use the fake name he gave.
"I'm Takuya Kanbara," he said with his hands on his hips.
"Oh…I thought I heard everyone calling you Tamer," Reiko said with a raised eyebrow.
"You can call me that instead if you'd like," Tamer said cheerily.
"But which is it? Are you Tamer or Takuya? Or is it like a nickname?" Reiko asked, pressing the matter more seriously.
"Something like that," Tamer said, becoming concerned by her questioning now.
A sharp pain travelled across his head as the girl asked, "Or is your name Taichi?"
He winced, closing his eyes as he tried to endure the impossible pain he was feeling. The intensity drowned out everything around him - the girl, the voices inside of his head. All he could feel was the pain, like someone was trying to dig into his skull. Eventually, the pain passed and he was able to answer, "That's a name I haven't…heard in a…while…"
Reiko was gone.
Tamer looked up and down the now empty hallway and found his only company was the dust on the floors and the uncleaned smudges all around the castle. Tamer would've been spooked if it weren't for the fact that he'd encountered several ghost digimon during his long life. In fact, part of him wondered if he'd just spilled his guts out to a person who'd been long dead. Perhaps that was the case. Why else would he feel such familiarity with the strange girl?
And yet, he couldn't help but feel that something was strangely off about the whole thing. If only he could place what it was. But there was no time to dwell on that. He had to share his idea with the others. He leapt to his feet and began proceeding back down the hallway, stopping only to look back once in case his encounter with Reiko wasn't some strange supernatural phenomenon. Once he was sure the hallway was empty, he continued back towards the main hall where he heard his name be called.
"Tamer!"
"Where the hell did you go?"
It was Zoe and JP's voices calling out to him. Tamer hurried towards the voices to meet them.
As Zoe and JP continued through the castle, Zoe couldn't help but reminded of the Hollow Bastion in that the Gatomon's home was deceptively larger on the inside than the outside would suggest. The layout also made no sense. They'd gone down the hall from the entry way into several bars. Why would one castle need so many rooms dedicated to being a bar?
"I know Sorcermon said Gatomon liked to drink but I this is ridiculous!" JP said as they passed the seventh bar they'd seen in this hallway.
"Maybe Tamer's in one of them. He did say something about being older than he looked," Zoe remarked, stifling a laugh as she thought about the idea of finding Tamer slumped over the counter of one of these bars as he drank himself stupid. It lasted for all of a moment until she remembered what happened the last time he lost consciousness.
"Did you just make a joke?" JP said with a frown. "Because it wasn't very funny. Drinking is a serious issue for a lot of people.
"I was just trying to lighten the mood, JP. Relax," she stated, more concerned with her joke than anything else. She'd wanted to lighten the mood and wasn't entirely sure where JP's reaction came from. Especially since he was the one usually trying to make light hearted jabs. "What was that about?"
"I don't want to talk about it," was the only answer JP gave as he pocketed his hands.
"Okay…but I'm here if you do," Zoe said to him, wondering where JP's sudden reaction came from.
"Hello you two. You're both kinda young to be hanging out around the bar," Tamer said, appearing from around the corner in front of them.
"You can talk!" JP responded.
"It's not like there's anywhere else to be. All we've found is bars while trying to find you," Zoe added, throwing open a door to reveal yet another bar behind it.
"Well, Gatomon did become quite the drinker," Tamer remarked. "I have an idea, but first we have to sever the connection between Lucemon and the Guardian Spirits so that he can't plan to stop it."
"And how do you plan to do that?" JP asked.
Tamer's expression turned to a frown as he answered. "Still working on that part. Thankfully, I think I know someone who can help us."
Author's Notes: Who is Tamer going to ask? What happened to Koji's brother before he became Duskmon? And how will the digidestined act moving forward? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v3.0 due out in six weeks on July 7th at 8 PM CDT! Let me know what you guys think in the reviews section. And don't forget to follow the story to keep up with all the latest updates and to favorite to show support! That's all I have for now! This is Leonardo1123581321 signing out!
