Chapter 4: Meditation and Mediation

The group migration wasn't delayed for long, with the task of gathering up what food and supplies were needed for a day in the Digital World easily completed. With that, the only immediate obstacle left was finding a suitable spot to set up a temporary camp, which ended up being a forested area along a narrow river.

That left Gatomon with the last part of the plan, to figure out a way to push into an alternate reality. At present, a portion of their team had found a small clearing where they could attempt a trial and error approach to this goal. The current suggestion was to meditate on the matter, an idea Gatomon went along with only because she didn't have a better solution. Sitting upright while trying to direct all her senses both inward and outward, she made an active effort to reach for the Celestial energy she was allegedly able to harness.

Of course, Gatomon wasn't alone in this challenge. To her right, Patamon sat in what looked like an uncomfortable position, backside planted on the ground with his front legs raised and toes pinched together. On the opposite side, Salamon simply lounged on their back, legs pointed in whatever direction suited them at the moment.

"Anything yet?" Izzy asked, currently sitting on a tree stump with his laptop open, though his eyes currently looked directly at them.

"Nope," Salamon called back energetically.

"Are you even trying?" Gatomon asked wearily, looking at the smaller digimon without turning her head.

Salamon grinned. "It defeats the purpose if you try too hard."

"And how is that?"

"Do you at least have any advice?" Patamon requested, finally leaning forward and landing on all fours.

"Relax." Salamon rolled back onto their stomach. "We're not trying to force our way through. Just gently squeezing into the other side."

"Are we sure they're even capable of this?" Cody asked, softly yet sternly. "Sensing this energy is one thing, but manipulating it sounds like a whole other."

"That's not in doubt," Izzy replied instantly. "I trust my source on this."

"Then why haven't you said anything up to this point?" Cody crossed his arms, though the tone of his voice remained even.

Izzy hesitated, then faced forward again. "That was just an oversight on my part. I've been working a lot, but I would have shared this information if I thought we would need it."

"Then how about a break to recharge?" Mimi suggested as she stepped closer to the stump.

Izzy focused closer on the clearing. "I suppose if the digimon are tired it would be for the best."

"I'm talking about you." Mimi leaned closer and tapped his nose with her index finger. "I haven't seen you eat all day."

Izzy hesitated again, his face turning slightly red. "I'm fine."

"That's been his favorite phrase lately," Tentomon chimed in.

Izzy cleared his throat. "Look, I appreciate the concern, but I act-ack!"

Izzy's objection was instantly cut short by Mimi shoving half a sandwich into his mouth. Where she had been hiding said sandwich and how she pulled this sleight of hand, Gatomon hadn't been paying close enough attention to notice, but it seemed to have done the trick.

"You feel up to finishing that thought?" Mimi asked smugly.

Izzy gave no obvious reply other than to to simply pull the sandwich out of his mouth and finish chewing. Seeming like he shrank some, he closed his computer and took a deep breath.

"I wonder if digivolving would help," Kari put forward after a few seconds of silence. Up to this point, she had been standing just a few paces away from Izzy's stump, silently observing.

"Or maybe it's simpler than that," T.K. added, a hint of realization in his voice. "Maybe, like when they digivolve, they just need a little help."

Kari gave him her full attention. "So you think we have to help them access this power?"

"Oh!" Akira sprang to his feet. "Does that mean we get to play with them?"

Gatomon raised an eyebrow. "We're not exactly-"

"You betcha, partner!" Salamon shouted as they hopped upwards themselves. "Come on over!"

"Got it!" Akira grabbed both Kari and T.K. by the hand and started pulling. "Let's go!"

Neither teen resisted, even smiling a bit as Akira tugged them over. Within seconds, the boy plopped himself directly opposite the digimon, with the two taking seats on either side of him.

"So where do we start?" T.K. asked.

"I thought you were the expert," Kari teased.

T.K. raised his hands defensively. "I like to think I'm more an ideas guy."

"Of course…" Kari smirked and shook her head before moving focus. "How about you, Akira? What do you feel when the two of you jump between worlds?"

"Hmm…" Akira placed a hand on his chin as he looked to the ground in front of him. "Last time it happened, I remember being scared cuz the bad guys attacked us. Then Salamon was jumping on my chest and I felt better."

"Well, in that case…" Salamon reared back and leaped forward.

"Ah!" Akira called out, landing on his back as his partner tackled him. "Mommy, Daddy, help!"

With more laughter than actual distress coming from the scene in front of her, Gatomon simply shook her head. Turning to her right to find a smiling Patamon, she conceded that it wasn't the right time to interrupt them. Thinking on it, Gatomon realized that this could be their lives one day, though hopefully in a more far-off future. Gatomon could think of worse places to end up, so long as she never ended up at the bottom of one of these piles.

Gatomon suddenly froze, less a thought and more a compulsion taking over. Raising her front right paw, she gently traced it along the air in front of her. A familiar light crackled in its wake before dissipating. Not enough to actually utilize just yet, but still a place to start.

Matt could tolerate waiting around, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it. The group had split up for the moment, with Joe and Davis having gone with Yolei and Ken while they ran tests on the latter's D3 while everyone else helped Izzy sort out how they would facilitate traveling to another reality. Without much technical knowledge to contribute on either front, Matt knew that this was the most he could do at the moment.

That left him, Sora, and Tai to wander the forest a bit. By what Matt assumed was Sora's intention, they had settled on a spot with an eyeline on Rei and Mari. Rei stood at the edge of the river, picking rocks up off the ground and skipping them across to the opposite side. For her part, Mari kept her distance, sitting behind a tree a few meters away from the river. Still, she occasionally poked her head out, as though she wanted to keep an eye on Rei while at the same time avoiding all interaction with her.

"They'd really rather be far away from everyone else, huh?" Gabumon commented, being the first to break their group's silence.

"Maybe they got gas from eating too fast and are shy about it," Agumon suggested, earnestly often seeming like the only way he knew how to speak.

"Too bad you don't get shy about stuff like that," Biyomon growled, poking a wing into the dinosaur digimon's gut.

"Don't jostle him," Gabumon warned. "You'll only make things worse."

"I just wish they'd talk to us," Sora said softly, not taking her eyes off the kids.

Matt didn't have a reply to give. As much as a part of him wanted to help, they didn't know enough to start poking at the two girls to get them to open up. Even if they did, the two clearly weren't ready to do so. The best option they had at the moment was to stay focused on the present.

"What's our plan, Tai?" Matt asked instead.

Tai gave an aloof shrug. "We're doing it."

"I mean after Izzy and the others are done." Matt pushed himself off the tree he was leaning against and took a single step forward. "Where are we going? What are we doing when we get there?"

"We'll have to figure that out as we learn more," Tai answered without facing them directly, staring off into space like he was thinking on the matter. "The best we can do for now is try to help our future selves."

"What about those 'holy keys' Salamon mentioned?" Matt asked. Gennai had messaged them back on the matter, though only to confirm he didn't know anything and would start investigating.

"Honestly…" Tai paused briefly to scratch the back of his head. "Without more info, I think they're a waste of time."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "They sound important."

"They do, except for how we don't know anything about them." Tai's tone shifted, his voice and demeanor suddenly more serious. "They could be the actual keys we keep in our pockets for all we know. Without any clues, we might be better off rushing in and charging at the enemy."

"That sounds like what we're doing," Matt argued, fully against this approach. Also among the things they didn't know was enemy strength and numbers.

"Matt, we're leaving our world defenseless to go on this mission," Tai pushed back, though his tone of voice didn't become any harsher. "How many more Reapermons can pop while we're gone, and that's the least of our worries. A year later, and we still don't know what happened to Gennai's creepy clone."

"We can't fight any of them if we end up dead," Matt returned in kind.

"I know…" Tai leaned back and looked away again. He made it easy to forget that he did consider these things, and had the job of making final decisions. What fell on the rest of them was to make sure that he was making these decisions for the right reasons.

Any further discussion was cut short by Sora suddenly stepping away from them, slowly but deliberately moving towards the river. While part of Matt had hoped she would stay focused to back him up on his concerns, the other part of him knew she couldn't. Sora's heart had long stopped being in this aspect of their job, and that was even before her current distraction.

With a nod to Tai, Matt stepped out as well, the pair of them following just close to stay within ear's length of whatever Sora was up to. Without looking back to them, Sora stopped just next Rei, picking up a stone of her own and skipping it across the river.

"You guys are really loud," Rei said bluntly, barely turning her head.

"Yeah…" Sora smiled, turning to her right to face the younger girl directly. "Most of the time we blame your dad, but I guess we can carry on too."

Rei sighed. "I don't want to do this."

"Do what?"

"This." Rei turned and pointed at the ground between them. "Where you call him my dad and pretend to be my mom. You're not."

"Not yet, at least." Sora's smile stayed constant, not showing any strain.

"Or maybe not ever." Rei's expression, on the other hand, showed next to no emotion. "I know how this all works. You're one off day from me never existing."

"Okay, so we're not your parents," Tai cut in, taking two steps forward, though his demeanor seemed closer to Rei's than Sora's. "That doesn't mean we're not on your side."

"We're trying to help you," Sora added, her eyes sinking and her smile fading. "We want to help you, but we can only do that if you tell us what's wrong."

"I guess I'm a little confused," Rei's Agumon commented, scratching her chin as she looked up at her partner. "They look like your parents, and smell like your parents, so I don't get why we can't at least start over."

"It's…" Rei hesitated, fists clenching as she refused to make eye-contact with anyone. "It's too late for that."

"But-"

"No that's the end of it!" Rei snapped at her partner, anger bubbling to the surface.

"You should give them a chance, Rei," Mari's voice squeaked out, quieting the bunch of them.

Once again, the girl in question had approached without anyone realizing. Still a couple paces away, Mari picked at her fingernails as she stood her ground.

"Stay out of this," Rei growled back.

"B-But they're just…" Mari looked away, her confidence crumbling. "And I w-want to-"

"Well, you can't," Rei stated coldly.

"Hey," Sora spoke up again, speaking in a fair but firm tone that every Digidestined had heard at one point or another. "You don't have to talk to her like that."

"Why does it matter how I talk to her?" Rei grumbled and crossed her arms.

"Because she's your-"

"She's not my sister!" Rei yelled, like a switch had been flipped in her brain. "Stop calling her that!"

"I've never said…" Sora's eyes widened, clearly no less confused than the rest of them were.

From where he was standing, Matt couldn't shake the feeling that the forest itself had heard them with how still everything became. The most notable movement came from Rei, who was shaking in place.

"Like I'd want her to be in the first place," Rei added, voice lower though still clear enough that they all heard. She grabbed her left elbow with her right hand, as if to try and stop the shaking.

"N-No, right, I-I guess you wouldn't…" Mari rambled, some of her words not even sounding coherent. No sobs followed, though tears had started leaking out of her eyes.

Shaking her head, Rei started to march off before someone stepped in her path, Agumon just a step behind.

"What do you get out of treating her like that?" Tai asked, crossing his arms as he looked down at her. "As far as I can tell, Mari's never done anything to you, and I'm pretty sure her existence doesn't erase yours."

"No, it just erases my parents'," Rei said as she glared back up at him.

Tai tilted his head. "What?"

"She and those two twerps show up in my world, bringing Dragomon's flunkies with them." Rei pointed a finger in Mari's direction, but never took her eyes off Tai. "When we had to run, who do you think was the first to volunteer to stay behind?"

Of course, Matt didn't need to guess, knowing better than anyone what Tai's instincts became in a crisis. Worse, Matt knew that under no circumstances would he let Tai fight a battle like that on his own. He looked to Mari, and though she wouldn't look back at him, her expression said enough.

"That's not even mentioning all my friends we left behind when got zapped here," Rei continued, wiping her eyes with the back of he hand. "Like I said, I don't want to do this."

Tai finally let his arms fall to his sides. Though his expression didn't change, if he had any kind of response, he would have said it already. Probably knowing this as well, Rei took the opportunity to walk past him and disappear into the treeline.

"Hey, kid-" Matt began, instinctively turning back Mari, only to find her leaving with her partner as well. He let them go, knowing enough damage had been done for now.

No one had actually made the suggestion to rejoin the others, or at least not that Tai had noticed. Silence carried on for most of the walk back, which only made it easier to notice Sora's slightly lowered shoulders and how she wasn't quite looking directly in front of her. Understandably, Rei's blow-up had not been by design.

Tai looked to Matt, hoping for a game plan on how to help. To Matt's credit, his eyes were on Sora, meaning he was more thinking on the matter. To his discredit, all that added up to was him turning to Tai and motioning with his eyes towards Sora. Basically, he wanted Tai to take point on cleanup this go around.

The problem then became figuring out what to say. Tai shrugged, hoping for some kind of clue where to start, though Matt's only answer was to jab back at him and then to Sora. Accepting he was on his own, Tai waved the back of his hand in Matt's direction before facing forward. As Matt slowed his pace some, Tai increased his so he and Sora were walking side-by-side.

"So that was something else," Tai said after a couple more seconds of silence, deciding to just wing it.

"Something else alright…" Sora repeated halfheartedly, still not turning to face him.

Tai rubbed the back of his head. "I guess it shouldn't be that surprising that there's a timeline where we die a horrible death."

"Yeah…"

Tai paused, then pushed on. "Maybe I'll get like a face tattoo. You know, seize the day while it's still seizable."

"I have some ideas if you need them." Sora finally looked his way, subtle yet sincere smile on her face.

Tai let the relief have a moment. Not that he ever doubted that she was listening to him, but Sora could give Matt a run for his money when it came to shutting down. Luckily, Tai had a childhood's worth of experience getting reactions out of Sora, and he liked to think of it as something of a specialty. Matt might have been counting on this, though Tai also didn't want to give him too much credit.

"That whole thing back there wasn't your fault," Tai said, wanting to say it even if it shouldn't have had to be said.

"No, I know." Sora looked forward again. "I didn't help much either though."

"Honestly, I don't know what you say to something like that."

"Believe me, I'm trying to figure it out." Sora paused, before turning back to him with a bit more resolve on her face. "Rei resents us."

"Us or us?" Tai remarked, trying his best to leave out the snark. As much as Rei was obviously trying to tell herself they weren't her parents, it was pretty clear she had a lot different emotions fighting for control.

"I don't know." Sora sighed and shook her head. "Maybe I'm just being insecure about having a daughter who hates me."

"Maybe she doesn't hate us," Tai put forward instinctively, a knee-jerk reaction to seeing her being down on herself. "Maybe she's just convinced herself this is how she has to act."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "For what reason?"

"To save us?" Tai suggested without any real commitment to the idea. "Like, what if Rei thinks that if she can convince us to not become her parents, we end up with a different future?"

Sora sighed again. "Sometimes I can't decide if you're a genius or just plain stupid."

"Bold of you to assume I can't be both." Tai grinned back at her as she tried to hide a smirk.

"No, you're definitely just stupid." Sora's expression suddenly became serious again. "I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to act."

"What do you mean?" Tai asked back, trying to match her sincerity.

Sora threw her head back, eyes on the sky above them. "Would it be better if I tried to be their friend instead of their mom?"

"Can I be honest with you, Sor?" Tai waited for her to look back at him. "Don't think about it. Just do whichever comes more naturally."

Sora went quiet again, though this time didn't take her eyes off him. Her expression didn't shift much either, leaving Tai not sure whether she liked the idea or was just getting ready to call him stupid again.

"Okay," she eventually said with a simple nod.

By that point, they had just about made it to base-camp. Everyone was already gathered, even Rei and Mari, though the two were back to hiding in opposite sides of the small clearing. At this point, most eyes were centered on their resident problem-solver.

"It's just doesn't make any sense…" Izzy said, eyes locked on his computer screen.

"What's going on?" Sora asked no one in particular.

"I thought I'd take a look at Akira's D3," Izzy explained, gesturing to the cord connecting the device to his laptop. "To get some kind of clue as to how he and Salamon jump between realities. The thing is, I can read its firmware."

"Haven't you been able to read digicode since you were ten?" Joe asked.

"That's just it. It's not written in digicode." Izzy leaned back from his screen and held up the digivice in question for all to see. "It's almost like the code is a human's best approximation of a D3."

"Would that be so weird?" Salamon chimed in calmly.

"But…" Izzy hesitated, eyes darting back and forth. "Who would go out of their way to make their own digivice? Who could?"

Salamon lifted a hind leg to scratch at their ear. "Okay, now you're creepin' into spoiler territory."

Izzy shook his head. "It's just… the ramifications…"

Tai focused on Salamon, who seemed very nonchalant about Izzy's concerns. Eventually, the Rookie noticed his staring and simply winked back at him.

"Sounds like something we're gonna have to learn about the long way around," Tai assured the group, speaking directly to Izzy before looking to everyone else. "Where are we at?"

"We think we're good," Davis answered, mostly confidently.

"Think?" Matt questioned, eyes widening just a bit.

"Given the circumstances, we didn't think we should actually open a gate to the Dark Ocean," Ken elaborated. "Still, tests seemed promising."

"What about you guys?" Tai turned his attention back to Izzy's group.

"We've made some progress," Izzy replied. "Though I still think we're not quite ready to open our own dimensional portals yet."

"Actually, we had a thought on that," Kari said, glancing down to Gatomon before stepping forward. "We were wondering if we'd have an easier time controlling these powers in place made to open gates and the like."

"Sounds like you have a place in mind," Tai pointed out, knowing when his sister still had more to say.

"Myotismon's castle," Gatomon confirmed, with a tone that made it seem like she knew for a fact that this space was the answer they were looking for.

"Didn't we not leave that place in the best condition the last time we were there?" Joe pointed out.

Izzy placed a hand on his chin. "That was before the Digital World was rebooted."

Gatomon nodded. "Myotismon didn't build that castle. He moved in, because of the spot it was built on top of."

A pause followed, with all eyes shifting towards Tai. They had laid out the facts, and just needed him to make the final decision. Hoping he was choosing based on the right reasons, he went with his gut.

"Sounds like it's worth a look," Tai declared, pouring on the conviction.