I don't own digimon.

Story 59

I'm finally home

Chaos couldn't remember the last time that she had actually been anywhere. Yes, the digital world was filled to the brim with all kinds of wonderful and exotic places. But someone of her reputation would only bring forth people in search of a power that they couldn't control nor wanted to face the consequences of in the heat of the moment. Just one of the many joys of being an accidental creation and/or weapon. Taking a moment to stare into her mirror, the visage of an almost porcelain-looking woman stared back. Dressed in a white tunic dress decorated with a translucent butterfly wing pattern on the skirt, locks of fiery red hair and violet eyes stare back. A claymore hangs comfortably to her back, the silver blade marked with its runes. Unlit for now, that could easily change depending on whatever awaited on the other side.

Pulling herself away, Chaos mimed a deep breath. Spinning around to face the doorway, the sound of heeled boots tapping against the sandstone tiles echoed about as she made her exit. Outside, the ruins of a villa stretched out for a short distance around her. An absolute score when the white mage had discovered it, part of her was going to miss this place. Never did figure out who went through the trouble of building it, only to abandon it some time later. Seemed like a waste of time, materials and labor in her book. Sachiko and Freya would probably disagree on that front. They would likely argue that even abandoned buildings had their purpose. In this argument, she would have to agree with them. Just thinking about that made her miss them even more. The last she heard was that they were unscathed from Eosmon's tirade on those who didn't deserve that fate. Perhaps same-sex marriage was finally available without some kind of carch. What she would give to scoop both women up and bridal carry them down the aisle. But that was all stuff she could figure out on the other side. For now, Chaos made a beeline for a small building that sat at the northernmost end of the area. What little she had on her person resided there. That would serve as the point she would depart from. While it could occur at any point, this would work best. Passing through the doorway, she was met with a plain room. Sandstone walls served to box this area in, matching the floor nicely. A messenger bag sat in the middle of the room, a plush sat right beside it. Done up as a chibi version of Cloud Strife, someone had replaced the buster blade with a sign. But without any markers, whatever message they wished to say remains unwritten. Opening the messenger bag up, Chaos took care in pushing the plush down into a comfortable spot right beside a similarly sized gorgon plush. By no means sentient, that fact wasn't going to stop her from pretending they were. At least, for this short moment. Afterwards, the white mage closed her bag. Grabbing the strap, she hung it across her left shoulder. Felt almost comforting after so long.

"Goodbye, Digital World. It was nice being around here." Chaos thought and composed herself for the journey ahead. Looking around the room she had picked as her departure point, it was hard to believe that so many years had passed since she saw the people who cared about her so much. Closing her eyes, she fell backward.

.

When her eyes opened up, the white mage found herself floating in space. By no means her first choice, it could be worse. There was always the Dark Ocean and its feline problem.

"Now where am I?" Chaos thought, closing her mouth and inflated her cheeks. Looking around, she was all alone… for about five seconds. Feeling her bag vibrate about, the white mage carefully lifted up the flap. Using one hand to hold things down, she grabbed the vibrating object - her phone. A flip phone, someone had gone through the trouble of hastily painting it in a white and red pattern to mimic that of a white mage from the Final Fantasy series. The result left quite a lot to be desired. Flipping it open, the screen displayed a flashing envelope. Navigating to her texts, Chaos's heart skipped a beat.

Sachiko: Is that you, my beloved?

Scrambling to get her bag closed, Chaos nodded. Afterwards, she punched in her response. Sending it off, the white mage held the device close. Slipping it under her frock for safekeeping, she took a moment to orient herself ahead of what was likely quite a journey.

Chaos digivolve too… Chaosanamon!

A cocoon of violet light engulfed the white mage's body, bringing with it a slight increase of height. Bust going up a meager cup size, she could feel her muscles tighten up. Not really necessary for her style of combat, but the thought was nice. What was more appreciated was the butterfly fairy wings rising from her dress and attaching to her back. Feeling them flap about in the vacuum of space, a sense of calm came over the white mage. Chaos couldn't even remember the last time she was in this form. Had to be right before she was forced back. Those were the days. Things were carefree and they didn't have much to worry about. While there were troubles, they were capable of taking them head on. Now, the world seemed like a far scarier place. Between both worlds coming one by way of Ordinemon and then Eosmon kidnapping and murdering of people, she could thank her lucky stars that Sachiko was alright. Perhaps the same could be said about Freya. Just another thing she could ask back down on earth. Right after thinking that, the cocoon dissipated and she was set free once more.

"Let's do this." she thought and pulled her feet in. Much as she would love something to put her feet against, it was an endless black void as far as the eye can see. Instead, Chaos would just need to trust in her own abilities. Shooting off, the white mage kept her eyes forward. In this infinite blackness, wherever Sachiko was should stick out. At least, Chaos hoped it would. If not, she would be kind of pissed for being tricked like that. Unless Sachiko had a good reason for such deception. For now, the white mage pushed that thought to the back burner as the stars passed by. Nowhere close to the speed of light, she was more than fast enough to give most rockets and/or satellites a run for their money. If one had passed by, she probably just gave whoever was checking the feed the scare of a lifetime. "Now, where are you Sachiko?"

Closing her eyes, Chaos let the memories flood back in. What had she told her before that stupid portal had sucked her up.

"Next time you see me, I'll be high up in the sky with my plants!" Sachiko announced, pumping her arms up in a manner that was completely out of character. Not that the white mage blamed her for feeling that way. They had no way of knowing when their next meeting would occur.

'I can't wait to meet you up there.' she had signed back as the portal pulled her in. Not even given a chance to wave, Chaos wanted to believe that message had gotten through.

Opening her eyes back up, the red surface of Mars passed by on her left. Looking out for any structures or vehicles, Chaos took time to wave. Then it was right back to staring ahead. If Sachiko was in fact up here, she was bound to be on a space station. Considering the limitations on such structures, it was bound to not be that far from the moon. Considering that she just passed Mars, that shouldn't be an iss-

Or it would be an issue, judging by the large mass of space junk heading her way. Reaching to her claymore, Chaos slipped her phone back into the messenger bag. Grabbing the weapon with both hands, she pointed it to the clump of debris and swung. Watching her blade cleave cleanly through, a sense of satisfaction bubbled forth in Chaos's mind. Only for a moment, though. She had one goal currently - getting to Sachiko. Waiting for the debris to fall away, she returned the claymore to her back. Heading off once more, her pace was quite a bit slower now. Wouldn't want to miss the space station and have to loop around. Though, it would also help if she attempted to message Sachiko in the hopes of actually gaining entry. But that would require coming to a stop and digging into her bag to get her phone out. That, and she already messaged her partner that she was back. Sighing in her mind, Chaos watched a large cluster of tubes come into view. This had to be the space station. Now where was the airlock? It was bound to have an air lock to people and stuff in. How else would people leave?

Doing a lap around the space station, Chaos found her answer. There, what looked to be marked as an entrance now stood in front of her. But how exactly to announce her presence? For now, the white mage banged on the airlock door. Waiting a moment for a response back, she was met with silence. Tempted as it would be to bang on the airlock one more time for good measure, the result was likely to be the same. Someone had to have seen her as she did the lap around the space station. Perhaps they needed to talk to someone in order to approve of opening up the airlock. Wouldn't surprise her. Sachiko would occasionally bitch about red tape and the need to have to go through so many people to just run the simplest of experiments. Though, opening an airlock was likely a lot more complicated than convincing someone that there was some kind of value to test growing plants in aerial planters. Just the depressurizing process had to take some time. Which wasn't taking in account the time to pressurize the area on-

The airlock opened up and called the white mage in. Floating into the compartment, Chaos landed on the floor. Looking in the direction of the airlock, she watched it close right after. Spinning back around, her gaze turned to the door ahead.

"Pressurizing environment." a calm voice announced, oxygen filling the room. Exhaling, Chaos took the opportunity to smooth out her attire. The temptation to revert back hung tightly in the space around her, but Chaos quashed that thought. Nice as it would be, that would require expending almost all of her energy. Just one of the many joys of pushing the boundaries of what was possible with digimon. "Environment pressurized."

Watching the door into the space station open, Chaos stepped through. This was it. Sachiko waited on the other side.

"I've missed you so much!" a voice announced, a pair of arms wrapped around Chaos's body. Looking up, she was met with a brunette with green eyes. A lotus tattoo hung proudly to her neck, shining in the artificial light. The blue jumpsuit she was wearing didn't do much to complement the woman's appearance.

'Sachiko…" Chaos signed and felt her partner break the embrace. Giving the white mage the space necessary to properly sign, that was the perfect cue for Sachiko's fellow astronauts to approach. 'How have you been?'

Sachiko sighed. Shooting her coworkers a look, it was back over to Chaos. As much as she understood their excitement for someone new coming aboard.

"I've been better." Sachiko answered and took a moment to think over what else she should say here. Chaos was bound to head down to Freya after her. Knowing her wife, she was bound to give a far better explanation of everything that happened. Instead, it would be better to tell Chaos about the things Freya couldn't talk about. 'Last year was rough, but the station made it through. I even got a special surprise. But you'll need to see Freya for it.'

Chaos shot Sachiko a look, only to follow it up with a nod right after. Much as she wanted to know what awaited her back down on Earth, the journey down was bound to be worth it. Pushing that thought to the back burner, the white mage's focus shifted to the other astronauts. Giving a wave, that was the cue for them to swarm her.

"Wait. That's your digimon partner? I thought that girl who flew by the other day was your partner!" an astronaut announced and got a look from Sachiko. Letting out a deep breath, that brought Chaos's gaze over as well.

"That was a technician's Guilmon who managed to digivolve." Sachiko answered and got a look from her partner. While digimon digivolving on their own was not unheard of, this one sounded like they didn't know how it happened. There were rumors of people crossing dimensions and the aftermath of those 'jumps' having an effect on digimon. Whether or not that was the case here, remained to be seen.

'Did the Guilmon make it down okay?' Chaos inquired as a couple people poked at her wings. While she would prefer people to not do that.

"Yes, but he did claim that he saw a pink rocket." one of the other astronauts added and Chaos took the opportunity to push her way forward over to Sachiko. Shooting the other astronauts a look, then it's back over to her partner. Grabbing hold of her hand, she squeezed it tight a couple times. In turn, Sachiko squeezed her hand back. Good as it felt, that didn't stop this from putting the white mage on edge.

"Chaos needs some space. I know that this isn't really a place where we can do that, but can you try?" Sachiko announced as her coworkers headed to other parts of the space station. Turning back to her partner, she leaned in for a kiss. Lips meeting, the couple could feel the energy surging between them. A shame that they were down someone important. Waiting patiently down on earth, neither woman dared to imagine her surprise when she found out the news. Ending the embrace right after, they moved to hugging. Nowhere as long as their kiss, it was more than enough for the white mage and her partner.

"Do you want any space station grown veggies?" Sachiko asked and felt Chaos grab her hand. Floating along, care was taken to not hit anything with Chaos's claymore. Even if that did mean a couple tight squeezes to be dealt with. "How has the digital world been to you?"

Chaos brought a hand to her chin. Staring down at her ruby red nails, she took a moment to compose herself. While nothing bad had happened, it was still a challenge to narrow it all down to a couple of bullet points.

'Pretty good, minus the day where you couldn't really move." Chaos explained and brought her hand back down. Feeling Sachiko's grip tighten, it felt quite good. There really weren't other people in the Digital World who were willing to do that for her. Even if she did have someone, actually finding them would be an issue. The white mage had never really considered herself a people person, nor was her inability to vocally speak help matters either.

"Due to the Eosmon attacks. I would imagine that sucked a lot." Sachiko answered and grabbed hold of a metal bar. Pulling Chaos in, she grabbed on as well. This was definitely their destination. Looking to her left, she was met with a set of suspended vegetable beds. Weighted down to prevent them from floating off around the space station. Looking like sprouts, it was a matter of time before they grew big in their limited environment. "What do you think?"

Chaos flashed a thumbs-up, only to be met with a chuckle from Sachiko in return. While she very much understood the concept being used here, it didn't make it any less ugly. A problem to be worked out when space travel became something that most people could actually afford and live through.

"I'm glad you like it." Sachiko explained and patted Chao's head. Getting a head pat in return, their gazes returned to looking at the plants.

'Is there anything that you want me to tell Freya?' Chaos signed and Sachiko shook her head. Leave it to her partner to keep certain things up in the air while also having everything under control.

"I love her, but she already knows that." Sachiko answered and watched Chaos's gaze shift to where she came from. As much as the astronaut wished to spend more time with her digimon partner, they both knew that Chaos needed to head on. "Do you at least want me to float with you back to the airlock?"

Chaos nodded as they let go of the bar. Floating back down, she took care to get all the nervous feelings from her system.

"Remember to burn off all that energy before landing. The last thing Freya needs is a juiced-up hyper state." Sachiko added and was met with a nod from the white mage. Considering how fast she got here, perhaps a lap around earth would be good. She would just need to time it.

'I will.' Chaos signed as the airlock came into view. Leaning in for a kiss, she was met with one on her cheek. While the white mage would've preferred the lips here, that could be saved for when she reached Freya. 'Goodbye.'

Passing through into the airlock, Chaos filled her cheeks. Entirely possible that she could survive without doing this, it just felt right.

"Depressurizing airlock." the calming voice from before announced as the door behind her closed. Focusing ahead, the door out into space opened up. Floating forward, Chaos took care to find Earth. Shooting forth, she watched the stars and all the space junk zoom by. Pushing away any that got too close to her, the earth kind of looked nice. She didn't really get much in the way of chances to look at the place she wished to call home. Yes, the white mage could come up here anytime she wanted too now. But where was the fun in that? No, she would make the descent down and take in the sights. Descending down, Chaos watched the flames form around her body. Entering the atmosphere, the various buildings and land masses still looked absolutely tiny. Like she could just reach down and scoop up a city to take home with her. All a matter of perspective. Literally, in this case. Nonetheless, Chaos exhaled. Feeling the air around her, her thoughts turned to where it would be best to go first. Looking down to the ground below, an idea came to her.

"Yes, that would work nicely." Chaos thought as she angled herself in a certain direction. Speeding up, everything below began to rapidly grow in size. Just barely, she could make out people going about their days. But from this height, they were unlikely to be able to see her. Probably for the best. The last thing Chaos needed was someone to sic a bunch of fighter jets on her as Tokyo Tower of all structures came into view. Descending slightly further, the streets of Tokyo's various wards were now on full display. "It's so pretty."

Coming to a stop, Chaos took a moment to observe the people below. Mostly average folk, she did make out a woman dressed up like a gothic lolita doll. Walking hand in hand with a woman, they were dressed up in some kind of sweet lolita getup. Pastel green jumper dress on full display with a little petticoat to floof out the skirt. Stockings decorated with rabbits were just visible from here, leading into a set of pastel green platform flats. Hair done up a shade of dark green, a pair of emerald eyes bounced acro-

"Miss, I need to ask you to return to the ground." a voice announced and Chaos looked up. Floating in front of her was a winged blue dragon creature. A large 'X' hung proudly against his white chest, seemingly out of place with the rest of his appearance. At least beyond the silver horn coming out of his nose.

'Okay.' Chaos answered and floated back down to the ground. Waiting there for just a moment to get this digimon off her back, she shot back up into the sky. So much for this stop. Looking about for a moment to check for any aircraft, the white mage headed to her right. Taking this much slower than she had up in space, it provided plenty of opportunities to take in the sights. But where to stop next. Asia was filled to the brim with all kinds of places to go. Who knows what kind of people she might run in-

"Hello, Ms Chaos." a voice called out and Chaos stopped. Flapping their wings on the left was a large purple rubber dragon digimon. Sitting on top was a woman dressed in a red dress. Matching set of t-strap heels on full display at the drake's sides. From this close of a distance, the white mage could make out a wedding ring on her finger.

'Alice, Elena, it's nice to see you.' Chaos greeted and waited a moment for Elena to stop. Flapping in place, that provided the perfect opportunity to pet the gale corsair's head.

"You too. Last I heard, you had set up shop somewhere in the digital world right before I punched Homeostasis in the face." Elena announced and got a look from the white mage. Looking away, that got a chuckle from her wife.

'Yes. I found a nice villa that provided me with the space I needed to train without having to worry about accidentally killing someone.' Chaos answered and got a nod from both parties. Turning her attention ahead, she could feel herself getting restless. There was still so much energy she needed to burn off before getting back to Freya. 'I'm sorry. I need to get going.'

Alice and Elena nodded, banking to the right in order to give Chaos all the space she needed. As much as she wanted to continue talking to the couple here, she suspected their paths would cross again later. If memory serves her correctly, Elena's apartment was located in the same general area that Freya and her friend's resided. Perhaps they would all be there like old times. Unlikely, but still in the cards as Chaos passed by the Taj Mahal. Staring down to the people below, part of her suspected she had just confused a bunch of them into thinking that there was some kind of deity up above, intent on destroying a modern wonder of the world. All the more reason to leave before someone had the bright idea to attempt to protect the Taj Mahal. Which was exactly what the white mage did. Heading westward, that still provided for many an opportunity to see the sights. Just from a higher distance for her to avoid detection that still allowed her to watch people. Going about their routines, that didn't stop a strangely dressed Agumon from being mixed in for good measure. Somehow, the sparkle of his swag-riddled pants shined up to Chaos. The white mage shielded her eyes to the best of her abilities, but it wasn't enough. Somehow, the glare managed to blind her until she left the area.

"What a strange digimon." Chaos thought as she sped up. The outskirts of Greece were fast approaching, bringing with it a variety of tourist spots and landmarks to visit. As much as she wanted to go see all of them, she still needed to make progress to her destination. Quite a damper that puts on any actual tourist things. Probably just hit a couple of the spots that were outside. Yeah, that co-

"Bitemon!" a voice down below announced and Chaos forced her gaze downwards. Below, she could make a tanned man dressed in a t-shirt and pants. Short spiky brown hair served to distinguish him from above, adding to the chocolate brown eyes keeping his attention on the

titular 'Bitemon'. Resembling a gray Guilmon with a red chest and yellow neon eyes, their gaze was more focused on Chaos than their partner. "I don't think they want anything to do with you."

Chaos nodded in agreement, even if she was certain that the pair couldn't see her from this elevation. Continuing to observe them, the white mage could make out a woman. Not quite as tanned as the man was, she towered above him by a single inch. Locks of reddish brunette hair hung down, complemented by the sharpest set of reddish orange eyes Chaos had witnessed. Joining Bitemon were a Coronamon and a Scorceressmon respectively. While part of the white mage wanted to swoop down and talk to them, she bit her tongue for now. Probably wouldn't be worth the effort. Instead, Chaos headed on. Taking care to slow down just long enough to get a good view of the Acropolis and Mt Olympus in all of its glory, she forced her attention ahead. The temptation to make a stop in Italy to just smell hung tightly in her mind. As much as she wanted to give into and take just a moment, she knew it would turn into something much longer than that. Instead, the white mage kept her western-facing direction. While she would be missing a chance at seeing most of Europe, it was best to start the journey back. Perhaps she would even get back in time for dinner. Part of her wondered what Freya might be making today. Probably something just for herself. In that case, the white mage could settle for just the leftover. That felt like a decent trade-off. She was coming back unannounced and was giving her other partner absolutely no time to prepare for her arrival.

"I can't wait to see her again." Chaos thought and calmed herself. Watching the land give way to the ocean, she took a moment to check for dolphins or other sea life. Probably too far away from any of that. What was there probably appreciated the thought on her part. For now, Chaos looked around for ships and/or planes. There was bound to be a bunch of them out here on a day like today. Unless they were purposefully giving her a wide berth in order to prevent any collisions. Understandable, even if it did make this leg of the journey not as interesting as it could be. The white mage let that thought fade for now. Instead, she let her mind focus on other things. Things like possible outfits that she could wear. Nice as her current outfit was, having a few different attires would go a long way to making her feel more at home in the Human World. Not that it would be a challenge for her. What would be a challenge, was catching up with everyone. Beyond her two partners, she had their circle of friends. While all of them were bound to be happy to see her, that didn't change the fact they all wouldn't have their digimon partners back. Some of them might, but not all of them. Heck, some could have even been killed in the conflicts rising from Ordinemon and Eosmon respectiv-

Cutting herself off, Chaos mimed a deep breath. She had little use in thinking about those morbid possibilities. Instead, the white mage took the opportunity to gaze around. Blue water seemed to stretch on forever, with only ships serving to break it all up. Did catch a glimpse of a pug. Paired up with two strangely-dressed ladies, they were trying their hardest to prevent the dog from going for a swim. For once, they looked to be doing quite well to prevent such dips from occurring. Even as Chaos passed by.

"Bark bark!" the pug announced, happily announcing its presence in the hopes of getting Chaos's attention. As much as the white mage wanted to stop and pet the dog, she resisted the urge. Forcing her attention ahead, she could make out a port. Ships were being loaded and unloaded, while people went about their day. Passing over, Chaos took just a moment to gaze down. Seeing nothing interesting, she turned her attention in the general direction of her destination. While the white mage wanted to consider this the home stretch, there was still quite a distance to go from here. She had to be getting close to being able to safely revert back too. Picking up the pace, Chaos watched the ground below fly by. Taking care to weave around any obstacles that might get in her way, that didn't stop any attempts of sightseeing. Not that Chaos could really make out anything at the speed she was traveling at.

"Just a little bit further." Chaos thought as she forced her body to slow down. Having something or someone to catch would be nice, but the white mage was willing to settle for a gro-

"Hello, Ms Chaos." a voice greeted and Chaos looked up. Holding her by the back of the dress was Ophani. Setting the white mage down into the palm of her hand, Chaos did her best to meet the armored angel digimon's face. "How have you been?"

Miming another deep breath, Chaos took the time to compose herself. This was not the digimon she was expecting to run into here. No, she was expecting someone smaller. This worked too.

'Quite well. Have you seen Freya by any chance?' Chaos signed as she felt multiple sets of eyes lock onto her. Looking around in search of these supposed figures, she was unable to find them. Annoying as that was, the white mage let that feeling fade. Turning back to Ophani, she watched the armored angel digimon point to the sliding glass door. Chaos gave a wave and jumped down. Sticking the landing, time was taken to push off anything that might have gotten on her dress during either flight. Once that was done, Chaos walked over to the door and slid it open. Stepping through, she didn't have to wait long to get jumped with hugs from Freya. Accepting the gesture, she also got waves from Breelzebumon, Steve and Keith.

"It's been too long!" Freya announced and squeezed her partner tight. Tempting as it would be to squeeze her back, the white mage let the temptation fade.

'I know…' Chaos signed as her cheeks turned red. Ending this embrace, she watched Freya take a step back. Getting down on one knee, a ring box came out. Opening up, a beautiful aquamarine and jade ring stared back.

"Chaos Ophanim, will you accept this ring and become our wife for real?" Freya cooed and Chaos's entire body turned pink. Steam blew out of her ears, while her hands couldn't quite figure what they were supposed to do here.

'Yes.' Chaos answered and felt Freya slip the ring onto her finger. Once the principal had accomplished that, she lifted her fiancée up into her arms. She couldn't wait to do this when Sachiko was back topside. Then, they would tie the knot and make it official.