-Several days ago-
Leoben the orphan formerly known by the nickname Sonic, sat across from the man that had been previously known as a kind of boogeyman, from stories told to him by Scythe, the only thing separating them was a campfire. He seemed like a very intimating man, but not death incarnate like he had been told. On top of all this they were both digidestined, him with the digichip of light and himself with reliability, He didn't think of himself like that at all.
"We are almost at Digitopia, it's about a day's journey away, and hopefully we will make it before a Paradigm Shift's plot is put into motion" Tajiri said, ending the silence between him and Leoben. "I will not let that woman escape again, she has to die, attempting to kill an entire kingdom for her sick experiment"
"The one that she is trying to create a digichip of her own, so she can connect to a digimon in a way like everyone else?" Leoben said, thinking about his friend Echo, thinking about all the stuff she had to deal with not having a digimon partner. But would she be capable of doing this too, like this Donica person.
"Yes, her created digichips have caused so much damage, those who escaped with them, three of them nearly destroy the villages they occupied, one of them in Crispin village, and the other two in Primary village" Tajiri said, looking very ashamed, "and the cause of them was right under my nose all the time. She was one of my guardians"
Leoben remembered the Primary Village incident, one of the people Tajiri was talking about had been the brother of two of his fellow orphans, and holder of the digichip of hope Huang.
"Once this is over I'll be hunting the one responsible for ambushing me and handing me over to the Kurokami brigade, after sending my guardians false information on the location of Ankou" he said, looking out into the distance. "I was walking in a field that I could see everything for miles, then something hit me, and I woke up in the infinity tower"
"I have a question how did you get your digichip, was it directly passed down by family or did you have to find it?" Leoben asked, bringing up the nerve to do so.
"I had to find it like everyone else, once its previous holder died it went away till I wandered close enough for it to call me to it" Tajiri answered, pulling out his digivice.
"It's been said that one gives you a glimpse of the future, once activated, what did it show you?" Leoben asked, with curiosity.
Tajiri's expression went dark, and serious "I saw the void, since all around me there was nothing, which means I have to fight for the future of this world, and destroy Lilithmon with the rest of the digidestined" he said in an ominous tone of voice. He left to make preparations.
After he was gone a light catches Leoben's attention, it was warm and inviting, and he needed to follow it, the feeling was right in his gut.
Digimon Sync Episode 49 "Daybreak"
-3 Days ago-
"How long is it till it's ready to suck the life out of everyone in Digitopia" Donica said, as she ran her hand across her wolf's mask, her impatience clearly stated in her tone of voice.
"A few more hours and everyone will be dead, and you will finally get what you want" Logene said, checking the readings on the console.
Donica crouched down and hugged digimon companion Gabumon "You will finally be my digimon partner, with a connection like everyone else" she whispered into his ear.
"That would be great, it will be everything I wished for, being a wild digimon, if its anything like the temporary connection we have shared" Gabumon whispered back in response.
"Seeing the corner stones of digivolution, have been my dream, and that will finally happen too, I almost had that at Tabula Rasa, but those blasted digidestined stopped me, ruined years of work" Logene said, checking the console once again, as he checked to see if things were still stable.
Donica hugged Gabumon "I owe you my life, you rescued, and held them off until Tajiri and Soichiro arrived" she said, before pulling out of the hug. "Too bad Soichiro is dead, he would have been proud of us, and what we are about to accomplish"
"The digidestined are here, and so is the annulment stone, if any of them put there digichip on it. It will protect Digitopia with a barrier" Logene said with an edge to his tone, "it would be Tabula raise all over again"
"We will send your NeoDevimon and my Astamon to prevent that from happening, we can't let any of them prevent this, after all I went through to calculate the exact amount of data we need for this experiment" Donica said through gritted teeth, "on second thought, I'll go with them, to deal with this personally, I'll leave Renegade here to protect you, and the console, and Abaddon will be here soon himself to join you"
-Present day-
What her brother said, his confession about being the one responsible for her mother's death, brought about flashes of that very day, watching her mother leap in front of her father the king and taking the attack that had been meant for him. The words Stop crying my princess the dead or dead, there is only one way you can deal with this as a champion of justice. Those words through her mind as she watched her brother's digimon up above her, its massive form threatening to come down and kill them both.
"You were trying to unsettle me by telling me that?" Mikuni said, unshaken from her brother just told her" You forgotten the dead or dead, I will not mourn my mother's death I have done enough of that already, and thank you I can finally hand out justice for my mother's death"
Akira was angry now, he jumped onto the back of his digimon partner, before it leapt from the tower, and landed with a huge crashing explosion "We are both on equal footing now, unlike the festivals where you cheated" he shouted at his sister.
"You sound like a broken record brother, and yet I am going to break you some more, since I have to hand out judgment for your crimes" Mikuni said, surrounded by the maelstrom of KazeLeporimon's wind. "I didn't think you were the one that hired the assassin that tried to kill father"
Akira smirked ignoring what his sister had just said, his digimon partner reared up on his hind legs behind him, he had full confidence in his ability, he had only lost to his sister when she had a special power that made her digimon stronger than his.
Mikuni knew talking was pointless, she needed to bring her brother in for the crime of regicide, justice needed to be handed out. "No more talk, " she said, interrupting anything else her brother had to say. She ran towards her brother catching him off guard, but not for long, he went on the defensive blocking her first attack, but her second was a fist to his face. He tumbled backwards cursing at her, the fight continued, the digimon clashed above their human partners, as they fought on the ground. Mikuni leg swept Akira, but he hopped over that attempt. His digimon partner successfully dodged an attack from KazeLeporimon, and struck with its own attack making contact this time. Mikuni screamed as the pain from the connection with her partner in the place she had been struck, but she recovered in time to dodge one of her brother's attacks. Kentaurosmon reared up on its back, and went to trample KazeLeporimon, but was quickly dodged, unlike his master who had a punched landed right across the side of his face, making Akira stagger, and fight to stay on his feet.
Seeing the look on her brothers face Mikuni smirked "Yeah, I'm told that hurts, " she said, as a red mark blossomed on her brother's face, where her fist had impacted. And there was a little trickle of blood, making its way down the Akira's face.
"No matter how many times I have hit you, since I finally beat you in that festival combat for the succession of the throne for the first time, You always seem shocked" Mikuni said, as she crossed arms "in truth I never wanted the crown, look at what wanting it did to you. I am a digidestined, and don't need anything else"
"Why do you fight me for the succession, when you don't even want it?" Akira shouted, seething with hatred more so than ever.
"Because I don't want you to have it, you are too much like a father, probably more so, than he is actually. Like him you don't know the meaning of ruling a kingdom, but what makes him now better than you is he is starting to see the error of his ways, you are too stupid to see those errors" Mikuni said, pointing out her brothers short comings, and shoving his face in them. She knew how to push her brother's buttons.
"You are an embarrassment to this family, I am going to kill you, I am going to kill you now!" Akira screamed, pulling out a D-Saber, he totally forgot about the fight and his digimon partner, he charged at Mikuni, but he was disarmed instantly by his sister, his anger destabilized the digivolution because of the surging rage, and the fact it hadn't been a true digivolve to begin with, Kentaurosmon dedigivolved into his in training form.
Mikuni placed her foot on her brother's throat, then suddenly there was a clapping sound behind her, she turned to face a dominating sized woman in guardian robe, even with her intimidating size it didn't faze her at all. "You must be Daloran Taiga, of the Guardians, I was told by my spies you were here with the Annulment stone, I demand you hand it over I don't want to hurt you" she said, stone faced.
"You have some spunk kid, but I am not here to fight you. The stone is not that far from here I would like to request digidestined help, for the trap, Lilithmon is coming and we want to defeat her here and now" Daloran said gesturing towards a tower not that far behind her. "We know that Takajin, Hikaru, Huang, and Thania are here too, can you bring them here?" She paused before continuing "Tajiri is on his way here, so we will have almost the digidestined here to defeat Lilithmon"
Mikuni hesitated, and agreed to head after binding her brother, and dragging him along, once she snuck him out of Digitopia, and arrived, she tossed her brother to royal guard, he was going to stand trial for the crimes of attempted regicide, and various other crimes. She then started to fill in the others of what happened and her bumping into Daloran Taiga, and her request.
"I don't of the know that we can trust her, her motives are of suspect" Thania said, looking at Takajin directly in the eyes.
"They are guardians, and are the protectors of this world before any of us were digidestined, I have seen them do great things" Huang said, turning to face Thania.
"But they instill of the fear in people, shouldn't instill calm instead?" Thania asked, her expression that of complete concern.
"Sometimes doing the right thing scares people, but their reputation keeps people in line without it there would be complete anarchy in this world" Takajin said, speaking up "The Guardians are going to help us defeat Lilithmon"
"That's enough!" Virgil said loud enough to interrupt the argument, "I am not a fan of the guardians, and their idea that my archive probably should be burn because of its content, but they have always been the greater good of this torn world, so I suggest we help them"
Thania turned away from the others "I'll go with of what you decide, but I don't of the trust her" she said, calmly but dejectedly. "So what is of your decision, Takajin?"
"I decided that we help them" Takajin said, taking a brief hesitation before speaking again "To take down Lilithmon once and for all"
Huang didn't like having to defeat someone that had become such a good friend, but she wasn't Juniko anymore, and had become Lilithmon, and had to be defeated or else the world would end. "We need to hurry and get back to Daloran before the Kurokami brigade gets to her, and take the stone"
When Mikuni returned to where she met Daloran, the guardian was still waiting for her there, they didn't recognize any of the other guardians that were with her. Daloran gestured for them to follow, she lead them to the Annulment stone, with its intricate ruins that were all the symbols of the digichips. Standing over it was an enormous lion digimon, which was a Regulumon, the mega form of Leomon. It was weird seeing a mega digimon with someone who wasn't really old, only exception was the digidestined, but they had the amplifying powers of the digichips to help them.
"ETA on when Lilithmon is going to return, so we can kick her butt, and send her back to where she came from?" Takajin asked, turning to face Daloran. He ignored the expression that question got from Thania.
That's when an explosion happened several feet from them, when the smoke cleared, there standing at the entrance to the encampment was NeoDevimon "Destroy!" It screamed loudly, before Regulumon had time to react explosions impacted him, and also at the entrance stood Astamon aiming its gun at Regulumon.
"Paradigm Shift!" Huang shouted, knowing they were the ones that gave Sorami the fact digichip of hope that he ended up with, turning him into a monster of destruction making him attack primary village, he went to charge into battle with his digimon partner, when something grabbed him, and pinned him against a wall.
"I really don't think you should do that, without a digichip those guys would tear you to shreds" Virgil said trying not to be too forceful with Huang. He wished his digimon was there he was still in the archive protecting it.
"Of course he doesn't have his digichip, because I have it!" Donica said, pulling off her wolf mask as she arrived on the scene "and I am going to use it to finally have a permanent connection with my companion digimon Astamon"
"Destroy!" NeoDevimon growled as he turned to face Mikuni, she had shattered his mask, in their last meeting all the way back in in Tabula rasa.
"I don't think he likes you Mikuni, I don't blame after what you did to him" Donica said, with a smirk on her face.
"I'll do it again, and again until the stupid digimon gets a clue to mess with me" Mikuni said, with her arms crossed in a posture of defiance. She didn't know how much strength KazeLeporimon had left after the fight, she had with her brother.
"We are here to stop you from getting in the way of my plan, soon the same barrier that covered Tabula Rasa will be over Digitopia" Donica said, proudly pointing at the sky of Digitopia. "All that data will surge into me, and create a connection between me and Astamon which will last forever!"
"There has to be some other way, do you really have to kill off my kingdom so you don't have to be a cursed one anymore" Hikaru pleaded, with Donica "it's not too late to stop this?"
"This coming from someone with a digimon partner, you don't know what it was like for me growing up they threw rocks at me, they tried to kill me, but I didn't let them" Donica said, before spitting at Hikaru's feet.
"Enough talk more burning!" Coronamon said before digivolving into Apollomon, and joining KazeLeporimon in the fray,
"You guys keep her busy while, while we look for the device creates the barrier, and stop it" Virgil said, whispering into Takajin's ear. He gestured to Hikaru and Thania to follow him.
"How are we going to find it" Hikaru asked, confused about the whole situation, and she was still torn about having to fight someone who had been her friend, which was still on her mind from before this whole thing happened.
"I think I have an idea of where it is, it has to be located somewhere that it would cover this entire kingdom, and still be well covered from onlookers to spot outright. Before I left the archive I looked over a current map of Digitopia, and memorized it" Virgil said going several feet before stopping in his tracks, and pointing at a tower. "There it is, " he pointed at a cathedral, he ran towards it followed closely by Thania and Hikaru. Before they got near it an explosion erupted in front of them, and above them was a winged dog digimon Pharaoh attire.
"An Anubismon!" Virgil said, ducking out of the line of fire "a Wizard Digimon whose name and design are derived from the mythological god of the underworld, be careful of" but he wasn't in time to warn, Thania had been imprisoned in a pyramid of light.
"Lunamon digivolve to Dianamon!" Lunamon said, as she and Hikaru were incased in spheres of light. But the battle was one sided with Anubismon taking a complete beating from Dianamon. And seemed like he was completely outmatched, that's when something slammed into the back of Dianamon knocking her from the sky, standing there was Renegade, and beside him was an unknown masked man, his mask was of a demon.
"Abaddon I had this taken care of" Renegade said, bowing in respect to the unknown figure, whose digimon partner appeared beside him, it was a Vulcanusmon.
Hikaru was on her knees beside Dianamon, who was still recovering from the last blow. She stood up, and glared at Abaddon.
Abaddon ignored Hikaru and Dianamon, his masked face turned to face Renegade "You were supposed to capture them both in that cage, they are not to be killed or to let them interfere in the plan" he said nonchalantly.
Thania was in the cage, her harsh expression looking outward at the current situation "Let of out, so I can kick the butt of yours" she shouted at Abaddon, and Renegade.
"They are not near the console, so they haven't interfered with anything at all, that barrier will go up in a few minutes, everyone will die, mission accomplished" Renegade said, with frustration in his tone.
"Didn't appear that way to me, that one was making you eat dirt, at least making you digimon eat dirt since you weren't fighting her yourself" Abaddon said, gesturing toward Hikaru and Dianamon. As Vulcanusmon glowered in their direction, he hadn't taken his eyes away from them since they got there.
"You guys make me sick, you let Donica do her monstrous experiments, harming innocent people for what reason, for power, or just to see people in pain when you drive them insane with those fake digichips?" Hikaru shouted, as she stood up resolutely.
"You are so naïve, no one in this world is innocent, everything we do is a means to an end" Abaddon said, being cryptic with his answer.
Vulcanusmon audibly growled, and brandished its weapons, like it was getting ready to attack, it stopped when Abaddon gestured it to do so.
Dianamon charged forward at Vulcanusmon, blasting away with arrows, but he just knocked them away with his weapons, and knocked her away like she had been nothing.
Thania punched the bars of the energy, and was knocked backward for her troubles, she screamed "let me of the out!" She slammed into the bars, one more time.
"Please stop that Thania!" Biyomon pleaded with her human partner, she had been trapped in the cage with her.
-Outside guardian Encampment-
Donica smirked, as Apollomon struck by the combined blast of both NeoDevimon and Astamon, KazeLeporimon wiped the grin off her face when its blade struck Astamon causing him to scream, she had felt too bad it hadn't been a real connection she felt just the temporary one that was going to run out a few minutes, but that was enough of a delay for them the console would be covering the kingdom in a barrier by then. She just had to keep them away from the annulment stone. And soon her dream would come true. She had helped Logene enhance his partner enough that it would allow his and hers to keep the digidestined busy.
Huang was slowly creeping up on Donica from the shadows of the alley, he was going to get his digichip back from her, and so he can finally feel like a digidestined again, he needed his hope back. He suddenly heard a voice in the wind telling him they needed him to hope again. It was the voice of his digichip she did have it on her right.
Before either Astamon or NeoDevimon could attack, they were both blasted by several beams, which struck them in the back, and appearing behind them were several magic wands, which in the middle of them was a Wizardmon.
"Shadow of the Cathedral-
Dianamon shot ice arrows at Vulcanusmon, but those were swatted away like flies, Abaddon picked up one, which didn't hurt him at all.
"Soon is the time of destruction!" Abaddon said, he stood with his arms wide open, he suddenly like something struck him in the back, and he began to scream, but there was nothing there. He keeled over, and Renegade made a run for it. And a beam shot into the sky the console had been activated, everyone was going to die.
-Outside Guardian Encampment-
Battle raged on, Astamon dodging KazeLeporimon, knowing those blasts would be semi lethal, NeoDevimon doing similar with Apollomon, it was a battle of attrition, Donica's delaying strategy was working, the digidestined were so focused on defeating them, they weren't thinking of the bigger picture.
"They are not fighting back, this is a trick!" Mikuni said, but she was too late in this realization, her mind had been clouded by the fight she had previously with her brother, to think clearly on the present situation.
Donica smiled as she watched the beam as it shot into the sky, it was just in time, her digimon partner had dedigivolved, and she knew she was safe from the barrier, she had a digichip, which was protecting her. She would have to get out of there fast before the digidestined realized this. She felt something grabbed her and turned to face Huang leaving with the digichip of hope. "Something is wrong?" she said, as she watched in confusion as barrier didn't form around the kingdom. But seemed to turn into a spotlight searching for something then it was on her. She felt her life draining, she looked at her hand, which were aging rapidly. She lost footing and went to her knees, her life flashing before her eyes.
-Flashback-
A rock hit young Donica in the face, the villagers seemed to be here to kill her this time, and they pelted her with rocks leaving her face pock marked with bruises. She crawled since one had slammed into knee, she was now bleeding. If she goes away, she was going to make them pay for this, she will get a digimon partner of her own.
A blue flame shot out at the crowd, a Gabumon had intervened, from the looks of him he was a wild digimon. "You monsters this is an innocent child!" He shouted at them.
-Present day-
Donica struggled to get up, she saw something, there was a silver wire winding its way away from her, and making its way to Gabumon, she crawled towards him hoping this was the connection she always wanted she felt in her heart it was, she was almost to him.
-Flash back continued-
Gabumon had scared off the crowd, and was carrying Donica in a makeshift gurney, he was taking her to the guardians, and they bumped into a young man not much older than Donica. He picked her up and ran towards his "Soichiro!" he shouted out.
"Tajiri, dear old ones, who did this to this girl!" an old man said, as he ran up to the boy.
"The villagers did this, they have to be the ones" Tajiri said, in a panic, looking down at the beaten girl.
"Her name is Donica, please help her" Gabumon pleaded, tears flowing from his eyes.
"We will not let her die" Tajiri and Soichiro said at the same time in unison.
-Present day-
Donica struggled to get up, she saw something, there was a silver wire winding its way away from her, and making its way to Gabumon, she crawled towards him, hoping this was the connection she always wanted she felt in her heart it was, she was almost to him.
-Flash back continued-
Gabumon had scared off the crowd, and was carrying Donica in a makeshift gurney, he was taking her to the guardians, and they bumped into a young man not much older than Donica. He picked her up and ran towards his "Soichiro!" he shouted out.
"Tajiri, dear old ones, who did this to this girl!" an old man said, as he ran up to the boy.
"The villagers did this, they have to be the ones" Tajiri said, in a panic, looking down at the beaten girl.
"Her name is Donica, please help her" Gabumon pleaded, tears flowing from his eyes.
"We will not let her die" Tajiri and Soichiro said, at the same time in unison.
"This is Soichiro Kamiya leader of the Guardians, and Tajiri his son, we will take good care of you" Tajiri said, attending to the visible injury of Donica.
-Present day-
Donica was nearly at Gabumon, and so close to touching Gabumon, "Why did this have to be real this time. I nearly had a digimon partner. You took the sky from me?" she said as her final words as her eyes lost focus and she slumped to the ground. The barrier that spotlighted her turned off.
"Donica!" Gabumon screamed, and grabbed hold of Donica and started shaking, but he was too late and she was dead, looked up at the Digidestined that were there with a venomous expression "This is all your fault, When I come back I'll kill you all every single digidestined" he bent over and whispered into Donica's ear "No one can take the sky from you" he then dragged off her lifeless corpse.
There was no sign of NeoDevimon he seemed to have vanished, like he had made a hasty retreat, Mikuni looked around for him and was disappointed that she wasn't able to defeat him like before.
-Shadow of the Cathedral-
Hikaru was standing over the now out cold Abaddon, whose digimon partner was now in rookie from, she pulled off the mask, to reveal a face she recognized and knew it wasn't the real Abaddon, it was one of Donica's test subjects, she must have brainwashed him like she had done to Sorami. This infuriated Hikaru, the coward sent someone instead of coming himself.
Tajiri exited the Cathedral, and looked down at the person that claimed to be Abaddon "Is this person Abaddon" he said with Hikaru shaking her head no. he looked very disappointed "too bad it wasn't Paradigm shift would have been gone, at least I took care of one, Donica skies is dead I messed with the console to focus the barrier all on her"
Hikaru sighed in relief, the horror of the barrier was over, and they had won, and one of their enemies was dead.
"Let's meet up with the others, we have major plans to make on defeating Lilithmon" Tajiri said, but didn't realize the expression Hikaru was giving him, she hadn't made up her mind on the Lilithmon matter. But she followed him anyways, to the Guardian encampment.
"I was chasing a Paradigm Shift, while they were dealing with Donica" Daloran said, upset with herself, as Tajiri came up to her.
Leoben stood over where Donica had died, her final words haunted him, she had been a cursed one like her friend Echo, he pictured his friend dying like that, and that image sent shivers down his spine.
"Almost all the Digidestined are here, Leoben is the Digidestined of reliability" Tajiri said, ignoring Leoben's expression. "We have much to plan, and little time for any more distractions"
-Outskirts of Digitopia-
Thunder shook the ground and lightning struck a tree, a big mass of lightning stuck the scorching it, on the burned ground was a platinum haired girl with storm cloud colored eyes, it was Sorami "I am here!" she said, looking at the Suzubuya encampment. Fulgoramon descended from the sky, she had the same mental expression as her human partner "Time to take out the Heretics first"
-To be Continued-