Chapter 3: The Destined Dozen
Tai made it a point to not walk at the front of their group, as a way of being able to keep an eye on everyone. Not that there was much to watch out for, as the trip to Izzy's office was mostly silent after leaving the apartment. There were occasional pauses, due to the girls being at the front and not knowing exactly where they were going, but even then conversation was limited to simple directions.
To be fair, Rei and Mari weren't solely responsible for the quiet. Not surprising to Tai, Matt kept to himself as well, never one to start a conversation unless he felt he had to. For his part, Tai still had a bunch of questions, though questions he knew he wasn't going to get answers to.
Naturally, Tai's focus was mostly on Rei, not quite sure what to make of her yet. He did see a fair amount of Sora in her, and not just when it came to physical resemblance. Rei was reserved, but there was definitely a number of emotions bubbling beneath the surface. Tai couldn't help but get flashbacks to when he bought Sora a hair-clip for her birthday, and not so much the argument they had, but Sora's refusal to speak to him after she calmed down. Rei seemed to be about the same age as he and Sora had been at the time, which didn't inspire a lot confidence about Rei's demeanor going forward.
"Yo, Tai!"
Recognizing the voice calling out to him, Tai returned his attention forward again, finding Davis Motomiya jogging over from their destination's entrance. Wearing shorts with grass stains and a green t-shirt, it looked he had come straight from playing soccer, though had apparently made it a point to not forget his D3 and goggles. Movement just behind him made it clear he had not arrived alone.
Veemon was the first to fall in step behind Davis, the blue dragonoid digimon easily keeping pace with his partner. Seeing him, it clicked for Tai how the Digidestined as a whole didn't keep their partners in their In-Training forms as often as they used, though he wasn't surprised either. Izzy had once explained that every digimon had a "base" form that they grew into naturally, and while they sometimes returned to lower levels when running low on energy, staying that way for too long after recovering was like a digimon holding their breath. It mostly made sense to Tai, and even explained why Gatomon was comfortable with always staying in her Champion form.
"Are we taking on groupies?" Davis asked, having paused after noticing Rei and Mari, though neither of them looked back at him.
"Not quite how I'd put it," Tai answered, scratching the back of his head as he actually tried think of a way to explain things.
During that brief pause, Yolei Inoue caught up to them with Hawkmon in tow. A maroon shirt and black pants more in line with how she usually dressed said she was more prepared for the group meeting, though the irritated look on her face said she wasn't prepared for Davis' questions.
"They're not groupies, you idiot," Yolei explained with slight strain in her voice. "Didn't you read Kari's message?"
Yolei looked from Davis to behind herself, where Ken Ichijouji and Wormmon approached, with Cody Hida and Armadillomon just behind them. Ken wore khakis and a black collared t-shirt, while Cody's white shirt and black tie seemed to resemble his middle school's summer uniform. Both seemed to typical to Tai, as Ken was typically more reserved and Cody was only the second kid Tai had ever met who would volunteer for summer school.
"In his defense, the message didn't give a lot of details," Ken offered diplomatically.
Yolei rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but he could try reading between the lines."
"Please…" Davis whined upwards before focusing on Yolei again. "Then why don't you explain what's going on?"
Tai glanced over to Matt, who let off a quiet sigh. While it more typical for them to let the younger members of their team argue and let out whatever was in their system, it was always tempting to interrupt and rush things along.
"They're obviously variants, or…" Yolei trailed off, looking backwards one more time. "What are we calling people from alternate realities again?"
Ken shrugged. "I don't think we ever came up with a name."
"In other words, you don't actually know anything," Davis concluded smugly.
Yolei's eye twitched as she turned back to face him. "More than you and your empty head!"
"Yolei, perhaps you should take a deep breath," Hawkmon suggested, flapping his wings so he could fly up and meet her a eye-level. "You're going to start attracting attention."
"Yeah, Yolei," Davis added. "People are gonna start staring."
"I'll club you," Yolei growled back at him.
"Can you do that inside, please?" Cody requested, quietly yet still sternly. He looked like he had more to say, but likely wouldn't unless he felt he had to.
"Why?" Davis countered, though still looking at Yolei. "She can prove that she can cause a bigger scene than the digimon."
"Don't mind Davis," Veemon said, having walked over to Rei's Agumon and offered her a handshake. "The big mouth's mostly for eating."
"Sound's kinda a whole lot like our Davis," Agumon replied as they shook, though she quickly paused to place her free claw on her chin. "Actually, no, scratch that. That's exactly like our Davis."
"Either way, welcome to our team," Wormmon added, offering one of his front legs as a similar gesture to Mari's Gabumon.
Gabumon didn't respond, however, simply staring back with next to no expression on his face.
"I suppose I should wash it first," Wormmon said as he retracted the leg and looked it over.
"I think Cody's got he right idea," Armadillomon chimed in with a friendly gesture towards the building. "We should move this shindig inside."
"Sounds like a plan," Tai cut in, grabbing the moment to push things forward.
With no protests, they all moved inside. Some bickering and minor conversations continued, but felt like their usual patterns, which Tai was willing to take as a good sign.
Sora couldn't bring herself to sit down. Not necessarily because she was uncomfortable in any way, but Tai and Matt's arrival had brought a number of thoughts and questions she felt like she needed to sort out. She had managed to keep herself from pacing, but her eyes wandered around the room to make up for it.
Granted, enough of the room felt normal to put parts of her mind at ease. Davis' group had each found seats in the office's common area, with him and Yolei having put their current disagreement on hold at the very least. Meanwhile, Mimi sat on Izzy's desk while he worked, gesturing to his computer screen as though she were asking him questions. Izzy didn't seem annoyed, though also didn't seem like he paying complete attention to whatever Mimi was asking him about.
T.K. and Kari, seated just to Sora's right, seemed to be keeping things together despite the current situation. Akira hadn't left their side, enthusiastically talking to them as easily as the rest of them breathed. To T.K. and Kari's credit, they remained attentive, though pauses and glances between the two said that the conversation didn't come as naturally to them.
Not that Sora could listen in on any of these conversations if she wanted to, her thoughts too focused on Rei and Mari at the moment. It didn't help that introductions had been basically nonexistent when they stepped into the office. Just as Tai and Matt were now leaning against the wall next to her, the girls had each picked an empty corner of the room and planted themselves there, leaving Sora with no choice but to try and figure them out from afar.
Mari fiddled with the frays of her Gabumon's fur, occasionally lifting her head to look at Rei or in Sora and Matt's general direction. She was clearly shy if not a bit timid, and Sora was willing to guess she was a sensitive kid as well. As far as the latter trait was concerned, Sora couldn't help but think of Matt, or at least how she knew him to be underneath all the brooding.
With Rei, on the other hand, Tai's stubbornness was the first thing Sora saw. At the moment, Rei sat back-to-back with her Agumon, having taken off her goggles to stare intensely down at them. If Mari was more sad, Rei was angry, an emotion she clearly wasn't about to let go of. The only real uncertainties were what the exact source of it was, and where she would end up directing it.
"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Biyomon's voice pulled Sora's attention downwards.
"I'm pretty sure they already know who I am, B," Sora answered as she tried to smile back at her partner.
Biyomon tilted her head, her eyes not breaking contact with Sora's own. "But you don't know who they are yet, and I know you want to."
"I'd give 'em a bit, Sor," Tai warned, eyeline on the far corner of the room.
"Is something wrong?" Biyomon asked, looking in the same direction as though she would see the answer.
"Something's wrong alright." Tai shook his head before turning back to them. "They're just not sharing what that is."
"What exactly do you think happened?" Sora asked, knowing only the girls themselves could give a definitive answer.
"Well, whatever sent them here was recent, so it's fresh in their mind," Matt put forward, only briefly glancing across the room. "They probably haven't had a chance to process it."
Sora considered the possible answers for a moment, though doubted she would be able to guess the specifics. Not that she would be given a chance to if she were capable of doing so. Likely having noticed them talking, Mimi had pulled herself away from Izzy and approached them.
"How are the proud parents doing?" she asked, mischief in her voice but genuine concern in her eyes.
"Here we go…" Matt commented under his breath.
Mimi gave him a side-eye before lighting up again and facing Sora. "So I guess when I asked you which of these two you were gonna choose, you couldn't."
"I think she did," Gatomon chimed in, her and Patamon sitting on the arm of the couch their partners were using and currently listening in.
"How do you mean?" Mimi replied with a raised eyebrow.
"They all… feel different," Patamon explained, pausing for half a second to squint at Akira. "Like the three of them each have different waves coming off them."
"So they're each from a different future?" Sora questioned, trying to make logical connections based on what they already knew.
"But which of them are from our future?" Mimi asked more directly.
"All of 'em and none of 'em," Salamon chirped, currently being held against Akira's chest. "Those choices still gotta get made."
Sora instinctively turned to Matt and Tai, though didn't feel herself questioning the nature of Salamon's answer. Occasional teasing from Mimi aside, the three of them and their interconnected relationships weren't actively talked about amongst the group. Not necessarily because it was a taboo or even sensitive topic, but more because even Sora sometimes felt like she needed some kind of chart to keep everything organized in her own mind.
Among the major watermarks, Sora and Matt had started dating in middle school, or at least what could pass for dating at that age. The two of them had clicked, a feeling that even included the moment they both realized Tai was keeping some distance from them, likely his way of giving them space. A distinct emptiness came with knowing that one of their best friends was taking small steps out of their lives, and their relationship felt less important in the grand scheme of things. They broke things off without any drama or fanfare.
Years later, following the close call that was Ordinemon's defeat and during their first brush with traveling to alternate realities, Tai confessed his feelings for Sora. To what was a surprise to no one, including Sora herself, she admitted to feeling the same. They took their shot, and they felt like they fit together, though a familiar pattern followed. Matt gave his blessing, but ended up keeping his distance like Tai before him, which didn't sit right with neither Sora nor Tai. Granted, Sora and Tai never actually broke up, but it did feel like they had taken a step back into something more comfortable.
If asked about Tai and Matt, Sora had no issue admitting that she loved both of them, and it was only whether or not she was in love with either of them that made her stumble a bit. Still, she never lost sleep over the topic, content in knowing that her connections to them were more important than knowing which of them she might have a daughter with one day.
"Settle the score for me, Akira," Mimi requested as she leaned forward to face the boy. "Which of your uncles is Sora married to where you're from?"
"Neither…" Akira paused to look up at the ceiling. "Uncle Tai and Uncle Matt live together, I think."
When no one replied immediately, Sora couldn't keep her eyes from bouncing between her friends. T.K. whispered something into Kari's ear, causing her to slap him in the arm as she held back a smirk. Meanwhile, Mimi had turned back around to stare blankly at Matt and Tai, eyes almost mesmerized at the sight of them. Sora gave serious consideration to offering her a tissue in case her nose started bleeding.
As for the two in question, Matt seemed to be keeping his composure. He shifted in place a bit, likely uncomfortable with how Mimi was staring at him. Eventually, he turned to Tai, who looked back at him with a blank expression of his own.
"What?" Matt asked, trying and mostly managing to sound aloof.
"I knew it," Tai answered succinctly.
Matt sighed. "Knew what?"
Tai shrugged and finally looked away. "You've never been able to keep your hands off me."
"Tai, I'll punch you," Matt replied through his teeth.
"Case in point."
"Hey, shame on you, Matt," Sora reprimanded, not hiding the grin on her face as she waved a finger in his face. "Threatening physical violence is no way to treat a romantic partner."
"Please be quiet, Sora," Matt whined as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"That's no way to talk to the mother of your child either," Tai added.
"I hate you both."
"Why didn't Mari and Rei end up near us?" Akira asked suddenly, eyes locked on the digimon in his arms.
"By accident," Salamon answered with downcast eyes.
"Them arriving separate from you or ending up here at all?" Gatomon questioned wearily.
"Yeah…"
"So you don't have full control."
"Nope." Salamon raised a paw to their chin. "They must have got caught in our wake when we jumped. After that, even finding our exit point took some trial and error."
"Maybe that's what you've been sensing lately," Sora suggested to Gatomon.
"Maybe…" she replied, her attention now on Kari, whose own expression suddenly became a bit more muted.
The door to the office swinging open seemed to stop the thought in its tracks, as well as drawing all eyes toward it. Joe Kido pushed through the doorway, out of breath and with Gomamon latched onto the shoulder that his bag wasn't. As per normal, the white and purple sea lion digimon was calm enough for the pair of them, very casually letting himself off his partner's shoulder and joining the group.
"Sorry I'm late!" Joe declared as he closed the door behind him. Though he was wearing khakis, he apparently hadn't had the chance to replace his scrubs with an actual shirt.
"Busy day?" T.K. asked, knowing tone in his voice.
"I've been trying to get ahead on classwork, to be free and have no distractions for tomorrow," Joe explained, sighing as he sunk into an open armchair. "Plus, when this all dropped, I had to explain where I'd be to my girlfriend."
"Right…" Mimi replied, smirks and raised eyebrows being exchanged between her and T.K.
Joe's eye twitched. "You guys still don't believe she exists, do you?"
"What?" T.K. responded in a patronizing tone. "No, Joe-"
"Gomamon, tell them you've met her." Joe sat up straight, focusing all attention on his partner.
Gomamon tilted his head. "Have I?"
"Multiple times," Joe replied, his voice quiet but shaking. "We just had lunch together yesterday."
"I thought that was your sister."
"Since when do I have a sister?" Joe snapped indignantly.
"Hey, if anyone should be offended, it's me." Gomamon crossed his claws, though had a clear smirk on his face. "Call a guy your best friend for seven years and he still can't introduce you to his immediate family."
Joe sat and sputtered for a moment, either unable to believe what he was hearing or simply upset at himself for being baited this way. Whichever was the case, it didn't seem to matter as the laughter in the room around them calmed down.
"Now that we're all here, let's get started," Tai said as he pushed off of the wall he was leaning against to stand near Izzy's desk. Even to this day, Sora was occasionally impressed by how easily he could bounce between his stupid self and a semi-responsible adult.
"What exactly are we planning on doing here?" Joe asked as he sat up straight again, now noticeably more collected than he had been a few seconds ago. "Not that I'm objecting to anything, but Izzy only filled me in on the basics."
"Aren't we just gonna go after some bad guy and clean his clock?" Davis replied as he stood up. Though calm, hints of his usual energy and enthusiasm were present in his face and demeanor.
"It would be nice if we knew whose clock we'd be cleaning," Cody commented, a brief pause following as everyone seemed to wait for an answer.
"Dr-Dragomon…" Mari's voice squeaked out, having at some point gotten up from her corner to stand just outside of the circle of Digidestined. With her Gabumon flanking her, she picked at her finger nails while trying to maintain some eye-contact with everyone else. "At-At least that's what everyone was calling him when Akira first showed up."
"Ring any bells?" Tai looked to the digimon scattered around the room only to receive a few shrugs.
"The Digimon Analyzer's only bringing up stray references," Izzy reported as his eyes scanned his monitor. "No high-quality images, though it seems like we're dealing with an Ultimate level digimon."
"So no sweat for us," Davis put forward.
"Funny…" Rei's voice cut in dryly. She didn't stand up from her spot in the corner, or even look up from the floor in front to her. "That's exactly what you're gonna say in a couple decades."
"Is there anything you can tell us about him?" Sora asked as reassuringly as she could, not directing her question at any of the kids in particular.
"We've never actually seen him…" Mari answered, eyes dropping to the floor as she stuffed her hands under her armpits, and what looked like shame taking over her face.
"You have to at least know what he's after," Yolei chimed in, though only another pause followed.
"You called him the Light Eater," Kari pointed out calmly, eyeline directed at Akira and Salamon.
Akira seemed to hesitate at first, looking down at his partner as if waiting for a cue. More quiet followed, as though a nonverbal conversation were passing between them.
"You can show them," Salamon said with a nod.
Nodding back, Akira reached into his shirt, fishing out a tag and Crest almost identical to the ones the Digidestined had discovered during their first time in the Digital World. Where this golden charm differed from its counterparts was that it was two-sided, revealed as it slowly spun on the string attaching it to Akira's neck. Sora wasn't quite close enough to see exactly which symbols were engraved on the Crests, but she could make out familiar shades of pink and yellow.
"Is that…?" T.K. began, eyes fixed on the tag.
"Obviously, you guys know that inheriting more than one Crest isn't anything new," Salamon said slowly, gesturing towards Davis, Yolei, and Cody. "Light and Hope as a combo, though, that's a rare one."
"So you two are a threat to this Dragomon?" T.K. finally pulled his attention away from the Crests.
"Well, yes and no…"
"Gennai told you guys a bunch of stuff that didn't make sense," Akira said to his would-be parents.
"Dragomon is trapped in the Dark Ocean," Salamon explained, their happy-go-lucky tone now completely gone from their voice. "No idea how or why, but he has been for a while. A lot of stuff gets lost there, and he eats a lot of that stuff, including light."
"Sounds like Agumon," Tai commented.
"Except I've never eaten light before," Agumon added, raising a claw to his chin as though he were giving the joke serious consideration. "I wouldn't know how."
"Welp, you would need to figure out how if you wanted to navigate out of the Dark Ocean," Salamon replied with a matching consideration.
"By light, you mean Celestial energy, correct?" Izzy put forward, though a confidence in his voice said he already knew the answer.
"Izzy?" Tai questioned with a raised eyebrow before a reply came.
"I promise I'll circle back when we have a moment, but right now we need to have the facts straight." Izzy waited a second before turning back to Salamon.
"Yeppers," Salamon chirped, now smiling once again. "Dragomon's got a bit. That's how his minions get around, but dude is big, so he needs a huge dose if he wants to free himself."
"Akira," Kari concluded, sounding just as confident as Izzy had.
"At least that what he seems to think," Salamon responded nonchalantly, raising their front paw to scratch behind their ear.
"You seem to know an awful lot," Gatomon pointed out, her eyes zeroing in on Salamon for what must have been the hundredth time that day.
Salamon simply shrugged. "You were destined to be Kari's partner. I was destined to be Akira's."
"Did Gennai have any kind of plan?" Matt asked as he took a couple steps forward.
"He was translating a prophecy before we left." Salamon paused, face contorting as though they were trying to remember something. "Something about Akira and me needing four holy keys for something or other."
"Should we ask Gennai about it?" Sora suggested.
Izzy placed a hand on his chin. "I'll try, but it's possible he hasn't discovered this prophecy yet."
Another silence followed, helping reinforce for Sora that these kids were time displaced, and solving this particular problem would need a slightly different kind of thinking. Izzy had also once explained that the Digital World's prophecies were more like predictive algorithms than infallible texts, which raised the question as to how much weight they should or even could place on this specific one.
"How long until Dragomon tracks you here?" Gatomon asked, her focus sharp as ever.
"I'd say it's a toss-up," Salamon answered earnestly. "We've been jumping between parallel realities up til this point, so it kinda depends on how long it takes for him to start checking different spots on the timeline."
"We're not just gonna sit around and wait, are we?" Davis questioned, looking around the room before settling on Tai.
Izzy turned towards Davis, then slightly to his right. "Ken, could you get back into the Dark Ocean if you had to?"
"Maybe…" Ken's expression sank, eyes falling to his lap. "Being honest, it's not something I've thought much about."
"Getting in isn't usually the hard part," Kari added, speaking softly though loudly enough that everyone heard.
"I wouldn't worry too much about getting out," Izzy explained, confidence back in his voice. "With a little practice, Patamon and Gatomon should be able to make up for any shortcomings Salamon might have in that department."
"Sounds like a starting point," Tai declared, now standing next to Izzy's chair. "I say we move to the Digital World for now and take things from there."
With even Rei standing up from her corner as everyone started with preparations, sailing suddenly seemed smoother. Not that Sora was under any delusion that things would stay that way, but until that time came, she knew they had to make what progress they could. That included figuring out how to get Mari and Rei to open up so they could help them.
Author's Note:
"More than friends, less than lovers."
Crazyeight likes to use that phrase when talking about Takato and Rika, but my brain almost always shoots to the Taiorato Trio (and Takari, but we can talk about them later).
I think there's no plainer indication that no long term planning went into my first fic than the fact that I ended it with Tai and Sora together. Even then, I'm pretty sure I mentioned once or twice that I was interested in not picking a side in that particular debate, as well as just enjoying the fun that is them as an equilateral love triangle. That obviously left me with a dilemma when starting this story and trying to figure out Sora, Matt, and Tai's current status quo. I didn't want to retcon anything, but I also wanted to have room to write the version of this story that I want to write, hence the sequence where Sora takes a minute to put her feelings for the boys into words.
I also want to set some expectations, in that there will be no scenes of Sora being sad because she can't decide which of them to choose, as well as no melodramatic professions and world-ending kisses to accompany. That said, if you are a Taiora, Sorato, or Taiyama fan, you are still in the right place. Sora's conclusion, that her connections to Tai and Matt are actually what matter, is also me editorializing a bit. Their dynamics are still central to this story, so even if you prefer the trio as platonic or Taiorato is your OT3, I think I've found a compromise that I'm happy with.
