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Chapter 45 - Interception is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Synopsis: In the next adventure of the Digimon Tamer, the lives of Juri, Rika, and Henry change forever when digimon begin crossing over into the human world. But it’s all just a story, right? Just a book series by an author no one has seen in a long time. Why are they here and can they save their world before something worse follows the digimon?

...

About ten minutes north of Tokyo, a flight of F-15s escorting a B-2 made its way towards Tokyo from Misawa Air Base. As the planes made their way, the pilot of the lead F-15 shook anxiously at the controls. He never thought he'd been given the order to bomb Tokyo, especially without electronic guidance. The risk of civilians casualties and collateral damage was terrifying. It was practically an act of war! He didn't even understand why they were doing it. It's not like they were at war with the Japanese.

At least, he didn't think they were. But political situations changed all the time. Yesterday's friend became tomorrow's enemy - ideals change, the mission shifts, objectives...

It didn't help that they didn't know what exactly they were flying into. Command briefing boiled down to go here and drop the bomb, although they insisted it was because the Japanese government had left them just as much in the dark as it had left them. Much more likely, it was classified behind some bureaucratic government crap. All they had been given were coordinates.

This was just a fact of the world he'd learned to accept after piloting for so many years. Suddenly, two blips flashed on his radar. He scanned the skies for whatever set it off but only saw deep blue sky. It was likely just another passenger jet that had been diverted from the city. Still, he put out the alert, "Warwolf Squadron. Bogeys on radar. Prepare to defend the bomber."

"Captain, it could just be a civilian flight," came his number two.

"I don't see any civilian aircraft," the third pilot remarked, "Besides. No way two civilian flights would fly that close together."

"I know. Stay on alert," he insisted while continuing to scan the skies. The blips were out there somewhere. They just had to keep their eyes peeled. That was when they saw a flying metal wolf followed closely by a golden bird with two sets of wings soon past them. Both were bigger than any of their planes and neither seemed particularly friendly. Already his squadron was in panic.

"Did you see the size of that bird?"

"Forget the bird! That wolf is flying!"

"It has missiles on the back!"

"Does it matter? Warwolf 3, Warwolf 4, protect the bomber. Warwolf 2, on my lead. We're going after the bird," The flight lead ordered, breaking away from their formation to turn on the bird that was circling back to fight them. His number two formed up behind him and asked, "What about the flying wolf, captain?"

"We'll worry about the it later. Stay glued to my tail. We're going after the bird. If you have a shot, take it," and ordered. He wasn't sure how those things could possibly have known about the bomb but that didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that the payload got to the target.

"Copy," the other pilot said, staying on him as they engaged the golden fiery bird. He primed his weapons and fired up the guns as it came into range, tracing the bird's path across the sky as it swerved and dodged. And as he expected, the bird turned hard and out of the way of the gunfire. Warwolf Two panicked, "They're on us!"

WHAM!

The bird's claw dug into the jet's wing, holding tight so that the two went into a tailspin in the air, "It's on me! Losing thrust. I'm going down!"

"Hang on. I'll shoot it off," the flight lead said, turning his plane to line up a shot on the bird. The two spiraled downward making it hard to line up a clear shot that didn't involve nearly shooting down his number two.

"The ground's getting close boss! Whatever you're going to do, do it quick," the other pilot said.

He took a deep breath, weighing the possibilities before them before explaining, "I can't get a clear shot."

"Fuck it. I'm going to bail out," the number two screamed back.

"Negative, Warwolf Two. Steady the plane," he countermanded. It was too late to reason with the man who was in full panic now. After all, there was no precedent or training for this specific scenario. No amount of training could prepare someone for a giant bird latching onto their plane.

"Either that thing will kill me or the ground will. I'm bailing out," the scared pilot said. There was a flash and the plane's canopy burst open. Another flash followed as the chair ejected from the jet. For a moment, it seemed he would get away until the bird grabbed him with its other claw. He screamed, "FUCK! IT'S ON ME! FUCK! GAAH!"

All bets were off now. He primed his guns and started firing at the bird, only to watch it drop the plane and zoom out of the line of fire. Warwolf Two's screams filled the radio the entire time as he cried out, "FUCK! FUCK! GET! DAMMIT! LET GO!"

Then a woman's voice said over the radio to try and calm him down, "Will you calm him down! We're not going to hurt you so stop screaming!"

"What the fuck!?" Warwolf Two's panicked voice said, "Captain! Got a woman here on the bird! Repeat! I got a-"

Then the woman's voice spoke again, "You're worse than Matt after a bad day. Just stop screaming and let us help you!"

"Who the hell is this? Warwolf Two, can you identify who that is?" he said into the radio but it was useless to even try as the pilot continued screaming in terror. All he could do was stay on that bird and try to get it to drop the chair so he could deploy his parachute. As he turned hard to continue the pursuit, he heard a roar beside him and noticed the metal wolf again. And now that he could see it so closely, he saw what looked like a man riding on its back gesturing at him. It took him a second to register the arm waving and hand gestures - friendly. It was the signal for friendly.

What the hell did that mean? Friendlies that attacked a plane carrying a bomb? He doubted it. Before he could do anything else, the metal wolf sped ahead to join the golden bird and the man riding him began pulling at something on the bird. As he did, Warwolf Two's screams got quieter, "What're you doing!? Who the hell! Hey! Get that off! Stop! Let that go! HEY!"

He went quiet and another man's voice spoke over the radio in really broken english, "Attention all American fighters. Disengage and stand down."

"Who is this?" the flight lead said over the radio, "Identify yourself!"

"Just some friends trying to stop a lot of people dying for no reason. Stand down," the man said again. It didn't take a genius to figure out it was probably the man riding the metal wolf. All the same, he wasn't about to take orders from a foreigner. He said back, "Negative. This is a military operation. Disengage or be destroy-"

He was suddenly blinded by a flash of light and felt a heavy weight land on him, "Finally! That took more tries than it should've. Doesn't help this is a very fast, moving target."

When the pilot could finally see again, he could make out a ten year old boy sitting on his lap. It took all the self control he had to not send the plane spiraling out of control as he demanded, "What the hell? Who are you? How'd you get in here!?"

"No time to answer. Need to get that bomb you're carrying but before that, I need to stop you from shooting my friends. Apologies in advance!" the boy answered as he reached between the pilot's legs for the eject lever beneath him. He realized what was going on too late to stop the boy; the plane's canopy blew open and he felt the chair rocket out of the aircraft. There was another flash as the boy disappeared from his lap but his radio was still working. Through it, he could hear the man talking to the kid.

"TAMER! What are you doing here!?"

"Sorry! When Kari said they didn't see any planes, I thought I'd come check over here. I was trying to land on Hououmon but I missed a couple of times. Not that it matters since I saw all the planes. Speaking of which, that pilot should've eje-"

Whatever he was saying was drowned out by the parachute deploying and him suddenly lurching upward. He had no idea what was happening right now. What he did know was he was never coming back to Japan once he was retired.

...

Imperialdramon suddenly stopped in the air and said, "Okay! That makes the second time we've gone around the entire Digital World. We have to scanned everyone by now!"

"All the survivors, at least. There's more of that thing than there are digimon now," Ken said grimly as they hovered over the fight going on miles below. The sky had turned as red as the ground from all the D-Reaper spread. At several points, it would expand skyward when it couldn't expand outward - turning it from an advancing sea to an advancing wall.

"I'm going to message the others now," Davis produced his D-Terminal and started typing away, "We just circled the Digital World twice. Are we ready to go ahead?"

No sooner after he sent it, The Tamer and Guilmon appeared beside them in a flash of light. As soon as they landed, Guilmon hurled all over Imperialdramon's feet and the dragon roared in frustration, "AW! COME ON!"

"I don't like this. Please stop," Guilmon pleaded painfully as he struggled to keep himself up.

"Sorry buddy," Tamer remarked, massaging his back, "You're sure this is everyone, right?"

"It's as many as we can find. We've covered the Digital World twice and the Digital World won't last much longer. We need to move this plan now!" Ken said, hoping the urgency in his voice would carry over to the boy staring back at him. Instead, he paced for a second before answering, "It's ahead of schedule but it's the best we can do. Let's go. Digiport Open!"

"Whoa, wait-"

Ken tried to protest but it was too late. In another brilliant flash of light, they were teleported away from the Digital World and suddenly found themselves in the skies over Tokyo surrounded by the other partner digimon - MetalGarurumon, Hououmon, Magnadramon, Rosemon, HerculesKabuterimon, and the rest. Ken was about to yell but Davis snapped first, "Give us some warning first Tamer! I can feel my lunch turning in my stomach."

"Tell me about it. Please make it stop," Guilmon pleaded again before retching over the side of Imperialdramon.

"Sorry, things are happening faster than I can keep up and I'm just trying to keep it all from blowing up in my face. Henry can explain the plan while I…go back to the Digital World and get that separation started. Dammit, I forgot to do that," he answered before raising up his digivice again, "Digiport Open!"

"Oh no," was all Guilmon managed to say before disappearing in another flash of light. Ken stamped his foot angrily at once again being left out of the loop while Imperialdramon groaned, "I've already been puked on. Please don't kick me too!"

"Sorry, Imperialdramon," Ken pocketed his hands quietly and turned his head in shame, "It's just…too much like old times."

"Don't sweat it, Ken. Just go with it and things'll work out," Davis said with a thumbs up, "So what's the next part of the plan guys?"

Henry massaged his neck and explained nervously, "We rescue Juri. Tamer said we drop this bomb on the D-Reaper right above where the train was and it should create an opening that'll get us to Juri. Once we do that...well, we're not really sure where to go from there."

"Got it. Wing it," Davis nodded ecstatically "But...uh...where'd you get the bomb!? And why does it have the American flag on it?"

"Let me guess: Tamer?" Ken asked, already sure he knew where the answer was going.

"Tamer," Taomon nodded quietly.

Ken buried his face into his hands, letting out a great big sigh before remarking, "Great! So besides avoiding our own government, now we have to worry the Americans are going to come after us."

Matt cracked a smile, "To be fair, that's really more a problem for Hypnos than it is for us. And since they're the ones responsible for putting us in this mess, I say we keep on going. I mean, they're the reason our partners and TK went missing for so long. Speaking of...is everything ready in the Digital World."

"Yeah...what about over here?" Davis thumbed his nose. Kari was already messaging on her D-Terminal, "I'm checking with Izzy now. Hopefully they'll be ready soon because who knows what that thing is going to do once the ball gets rolling."

"Who cares!? Can we just get back to kicking ass already!?" a leather clad digimon holding a shotgun roared. Ken looked over at Davis with a raised eyebrow, seeing the equally confused look on his face meant he was just as lost as he was. And now it was his turn to ask, "So who's this? And who's the digimon with the scarf?"

"Name's Beelzemon," the leather clad digimon grunted angrily, "Are we done talking now? I'm getting antsy just standing here."

"Name's Justimon," the scarf wearing digimon said, "Or...well...if you remember, it's me. Y'know, Ryo."

"Ryo?" Ken repeated for a moment, staring at him in disbelief until it finally clicked, "RYO!?"

"Hey Ken," the digimon waved nervously. His mind reeled at the realization that the boy he thought went missing so many years ago was in fact right there in front of him. And as a digimon. How was that even possible? Last he knew the boy had fallen into a black hole going who knows where.

"Whatever the heck is going here, can it wait until after this is all over? I'm getting kinda sick of all the warm fuzzy crap coming from those two," he gestured angrily at both Justimon and Rika, "That's right! I said it. Get a room."

Izzy and Mimi's daughter promptly kicked Beelzemon in the shin, making the leather clad digimon jump in pain. It would've been funny if the fate of their worlds wasn't at stake. Ken sighed, "So...when do we start?"

"On Tamer's signal," Henry sighed.

...

Kazu and Kenta paced the room anxiously, annoyed that they weren't able to help in any capacity while they were stuck inside the Metropolitan Building and both wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible. Their partners however, were content to simply hover over the many scientists and engineers working to get the Juggernaut back online. They watched with a fascinated curiosity, as if trying to get some kind of understanding of what they were doing.

Then a flash of light appeared followed by a yelp. Tamerkato and Guilmon appeared once again in the center of the room. Guilmon proceeded to retch onto the floor and covered a sizable chunk of the carpet with half digested bread and meat that smelled to high heaven, "Please! No more!"

"Sorry buddy. I swear there's just two more. Then we're done," Tamerkato said, dusting himself off, "Yamaki! Where's Yama-there you are! Yamaki, how much longer until Juggernaut is ready?"

His tone was grim as he answered, "Maybe another half hour? But that's making a lot of hopeful wishes and assumptions. Juggernaut is far from ready to fire and there's a good chance that all we'll do is get ourselves blown up again."

"Damn. I need to separate the Digital Worlds now. The digimon can't hold out much longer," Tamerkato said urgently, "Once the Digital Worlds are split, it'll be able to focus itself entirely on this building."

"So you're going to make us decide who's lives are on the line?" Yamaki asked.

"Not at all. I was giving you a warning," Tamerkato said with a deceptively big smile, "Because I'm making that decision. I'll do everything I can to hold it back but Juggernaut needs to be ready to fire."

"Hold on! You said our daughter is in that thing! You're not just leaving her in there to die, are you?" Juri's father jumped into the conversation quickly, "That's my little girl! And it's your fault she's even in this mess!"

"I know. And I'll do everything I can to set it right," Tamerkato added quietly, "I...I am so sorry for that. It wasn't...she wasn't supposed to get hurt."

"Wasn't...or you weren't going to stop it?" Rika's mom scoffed from the other side of the room.

He didn't look at her, keeping his eyes solely on Juri's father, "I will save her. I promise you."

"Like you saved their son?" he gestured at the Matsudas who were sitting quietly in the corner, away from all this. It was obvious to everyone that the dad wanted to get up and punch Tamerkato in the face, and it was Miss Matsuda restraining him from actually doing it. All the same, that didn't stop Tamerkato's eyes from turning to the floor, "No...not like him...Excuse me."

As he stepped away from Juri's father, Kazu and Kenta rushed over to him, "Takato! Dude! When are you going to get us out of here!?"

"Not my name," he replied dryly, almost annoyed at the way they chose to call him by that name now of all times. And the way the Matsudas eyed him bitterly made it clear that they didn't appreciate it either.

Kazu was pretty sure he knew what was going through his mind and tried to pull him away. Tamerkato barely stopped though and Kazu had to urge him, "Dude. Leave them alone."

"No...I need to say this," Tamerkato freed himself from Kazu's hold and proceeded towards his not-parents. This wasn't going to be good and he stepped back towards Kenta, "Here come the fireworks. I can't watch."

"Two rare cards says he gets punched at least once," Kenta added dryly, "Three rare cards says they swear at him too."

"That's a safe bet," Kazu added quietly. Even though he was trying his hardest to ignore it, it was all he could hear. The whole place should've been busy with noise from all the engineers fixing machines and computer programmers typing away. But it was like the whole room had stopped to watch the events play out between the not-quite a family.

Tamerkato tried to get the first word in, "I'm so-"

Mister Matsuda got up and walked away before he could finish what he was saying, leaving his wife there reaching after him solemnly. Then she looked off to Tamerkato quietly, her eyes barely restraining the pain she was feeling just by the sight of him. He massaged the back of his neck nervously, "I...I'm sorry. About everything. About lying to you. About your son. All of it. I'm sorry."

Mrs. Matsuda was quiet for the longest time, trying to find the words to say to him but it was obvious she wasn't even able to look at him. Then she asked a single question, "Does your sorry bring him back?"

"That's the worst question anyone could ask, huh?" Kenta whispered to Kenta, "I'm counting that as a hit. It's a gut punch."

"No way. She needs to actually hit him," Kazu whispered back just as Mrs. Matsuda stood up to slap Tamerkato. The sound was so sharp and the sight so painful that Kazu had to wince. Tamerkato barely flinched from the hit, but his gaze didn't go back. Meanwhile, Kazu whispered, "Okay, you win."

"Is now really the time for this?" MarineAngemon asked.

"You're right, sorry," Kenta admitted sheepishly, looking back to watching the scene unfold.

Tamerkato had stepped away and was massaging his cheek, "I'm not sure what you want me to say...or if there's something you need to hear from me. But I get it if you don't forgive me. I wouldn't forgive me either."

He paused again, seemingly considering his words carefully, "It won't bring your son, the real Takato, back. But...I think he would've wanted you guys to know that you are…were…you're great parents. And he's sorry that he didn't come home but that he was thinking of you guys…even in the end."

Then he was slapped again, "Please...just go away."

Tamerkato massaged his cheek and closed his eyes, "Don't worry. I won't bother you anymore. Guilmon, we're going."

"Coming. Please promise we're done with the digiports," The red dinosaur rushed over to his side and whined, knowing they were about to take off for the Digital World again.

Just as he was about to go, Kazu rushed in, "Hang on. We're coming too."

"Oh no you're not!" his dad protested.

"We've been stuck in here the whole time while everyone else is out there getting themselves in danger! There's no way I'm going to sit around in here one second longer!"

"Yes, you are! We're not letting you get yourself killed!" his dad insisted.

Kazu closed his eyes, "Are we going Tamer?"

"We-," he gestured to himself and Guilmon, "-are. You guys are staying here. I'm not letting anyone else's kids be killed on my watch."

"Oh, so what? You're going to let Rika and Henry and the others stay out there?" Kazu argued with him.

Tamerkato snorted at that point and remarked, "Are you going to tell her what she can or can't do?"

That was also a good point. And he hated it. He hated being stuck in here while everyone else was out there and a part of the action. How could he argue with that? Kenta and Guardromon joined him to try and make their own pleas.

"We can help!" Kenta added.

"Proposition: Victory percentages increase if we were allowed to join," Guardromon stated in his monotone.

MarineAngemon joined in enthusiastically, "I don't know what they're all talking about but it sounds like you're all in need of help and that's what I'm here to do!"

It was pointless though. It was obvious he wasn't going to change his mind. Tamerkato just sighed as he massaged his temple, "I'm not going to drag you with me to the Digital World. But there's not much I can do to stop you guys from grabbing on to me when I say-"

He paused and Kazu didn't understand what he was getting at. Annoyed, he shouted, "We'll tackle you if we have too!"

Tamerkato responded by laughing at the top of his lungs. He wasn't sure why Tamerkato found it so funny though; he was dead serious about holding him down until they were allowed to help. At least until he understood that's what Tamerkato was getting at. Just as he raised up his digivice into the air, everyone grabbed onto Tamerkato as he cried out, "DIGIPORT OPEN!"

Even though they felt a falling sensation, Kazu's spirits were sky high because he could finally get out of that building and do some real good! And that made him so happy! At least, he felt happy and it lasted all of a few minutes until they landed on another cold, hard floor made of concrete and stone.

Once Kazu got his bearings, he groaned, "What? I thought we were heading outside! What's this place?"

"Technically, you're outside the Hypnos Building so you still got what you wanted," Tamerkato remarked matter of factly on the floor in front of him, offering a helping hand. As he took the help up, he saw Guilmon run into a corner and throw up uncontrollably.

Kazu groaned, "Yeah, but we're still inside. What gives? I thought we were going towards the action. Where are we?"

"The Hallowed Bastion," Guardromon explained knowledgeably.

"Wait a second, I know this place! This is the castle Ryo took us to!" Kenta said aloud as he straightened himself out. Now that Kazu got a better look at it, it seemed they were indeed in the castle Ryo had taken them to before when they were trying to reunite with the others before. But this area was different - they'd never been here before.

"We're in a secured area of the Bastion," Tamerkato explained as he helped his poor, nauseated partner up. He rubbed the dinosaur's back to help ease his upset stomach while explaining, "Because this next part of the plan uses a technology that the Guardians only ever used in emergencies - splitting merging worlds and combining separate ones isn't exactly the safest of ideas. There's a lot of risk. One miscalculation and you could find yourself merged into a wall. Someone could blink out of existence or, worse, two people could end up merged into one. Sort of like what happened with Miss Asaji and Kari."

As Kazu's vision adjusted to the darkened halls, he noticed a large silver door before them. It was open just a crack, enough for them to slide through easily to find a large cavernous room with a single pedestal in the center. Tamerkato rushed towards it with a big smile on his face and tapped a curious device he was wearing on his ear. A screen appeared in front of them, floating in front of the boy as he began tracing his finger along the thick layer of dust that had accumulated on the pedestal.

Once the last symbol was drawn, the room came to life with light and Tamerkato gleefully said, "Alright! We're on! Now to set up the data that Davis and Ken scanned."

He poked the floating screen in front of his face and small sparks of light jumped towards the pedestal, bringing it to life with light too. Now that they could properly see the world around them, Kazu asked, "So what is this place?"

"Don't remember the name," Tamerkato answered quickly, "Do remember what it does! It splits worlds apart…usually to destroy them so utterly that nothing is left. But that's not what we're trying to do - we're trying to rip apart two merged worlds. Which is why I needed the data of all the digimon in the Digital World to safely get them to the Natural Digital World when it gets separated from the Artificial One. I'm going to cross reference that information with the information from Database from Izumi's laptop to make sure that we're only pulling apart the Natural Digital World and none of the Artificial One gets taken with it."

"What?" Kazu said, feeling like he was sitting through the most boring lecture of life.

"Would you like me to simplify the explanation?" Guardromon asked.

Kazu wasn't in the mood for more lessons or study plans and just sighed in resignation, "How do you think I would follow any of that just because you used less big words?"

"I think the biggest word in that entire sentence was 'Artificial'. Or maybe it was 'Database'?" Kenta mused quietly.

"Okay, now to message the others and tell them to get ready to attack," Tamerkato said, pulling out what looked like a radio from his hoodie, "Davis! It's The Digimon Tamer! Can you hear me? Get ready to attack. In about twenty seconds, the D-Reaper's going to be thrown off by the biggest headache it's ever felt."

"On it," Motomiya's voice echoed back dryly. Tamerkato waited a few a moments longer as the light gathered around the pedestal before beginning to trace his finger into the pedestal again. Kenta watched him carefully and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Concentrating," was Tamerkato's answer.

"Not all ancient technology works the same. Some work with buttons, others through voice command, and this operates on written language. It was their final fail safe to ensure only their kind could use their more dangerous technologies. Trace the writing onto the device to operate it. It's not convenient but some technologies shouldn't be convenient," Guardromon explained.

"And NOW!" Tamerkato declared as he finished tracing his finger along the pedestal. They felt the castle rumble as Tamerkato ran up to them, "The worlds are splitting apart and we need to get out of here before we gets mixed up in it and get split identities!"

Nobody needed telling twice as they leapt on to him and Tamerkato raised up his digivice, "DIGIPORT OPEN!"

The falling sensation returned but things were different. It was like the world was cracking around them - breaking into fragments like glass. And he could see something…starting back through the cracks at them. It wasn't a digimon…and it wasn't human. Whatever was looking at him, it was all Kazu could do to not scream.

...

Taomon carried Rika in her arm as they flew over the red mass guided by the school teacher atop her own partner Magnadramon. Despite all the danger they'd encountered, Renamon had to admit that she was enjoying herself. Between the ancient threat to the Digital World, meeting the sovereign digimon, and fighting along side the famed heroes of the Digital World; Renamon was unsure if there was anything else she specifically could ask for in the moment. Not to mention getting to help the Digimon Tamer save reality, although she was disappointed that a lot of the stories she'd learned about him in that time weren't as true as they seemed.

Least of all was the part about him being a great warrior. If any part of that story were true, it stopped being the case a long time ago.

Still, for a digimon like herself, this was a once in a life time opportunity. One she was sure she would've been deleted and destroyed long before she had the chance to ever experience it. Then again, that was nothing when compared to what must've been going through Beelzemon's mind.

When they'd first met, he was so dead set on not getting involved and letting others do all the fighting. And now? He was fighting right along side them. Even if the partnership were circumstantial, it brought a smile to her face.

"What's got you all smiles?" Rika asked.

"Just enjoying the moment while it lasts," Taomon answered.

"Really? This is the moment you're enjoying?" Rika's tone became skeptical, "We're fighting for our lives against an enemy so powerful that even a bunch of reality altering old farts couldn't think of how to kill it, and you're enjoying it?"

Taomon laughed, "Not that. This...All of us fighting together like this. It's almost amusing to think we were trying to hurt each other when we first met."

"Gotta admit, Rika's certainly not the ice queen she was when this all started," Rapidmon added with a big smile.

"Not everything's changed. You're still as much of an annoying goofball as when all this started," Henry remarked before turning his head over to Justimon, "Thing's probably changed the most for you. After all, you've been in the Digital World this entire time."

"Not really. We're still fighting for our lives every day against a bunch of monsters. All that's really changed is the location," Justimon answered pensively. He paused for a moment, his mood unreadable because of the helmet concealing his face, "Whether it's here or in the Digital World, what difference does it make? I might as well have stayed if I knew all this was going on."

Perhaps Ishida was just getting tired of all the talking but he remarked with his usual bitter tone, "You've all matured so much and you've all grown up. We're proud of you. Blah blah blah. Look, can we save all the touchy feely talk for after we've beaten the world-killing monster thing?"

"Come on, Matt. Go easy on them, they're kids. We were like that too," his wife reminded him calmly, "And don't try and tell me otherwise, mister had to go off and play his harmonica to feel better."

"Honey! Come on," the man sighed reluctantly, his head turning bright red with embarrassment.

"We're here," Kari announced loudly as they reached a part of the city that was half swallowed by the red mass - the roofs of buildings jutted out through the red sea through which they could make out the vague outline of streets and alleys.

"You're sure?" Davis asked.

"Yeah, I remember that roof top specifically! It's where Tamer and I went after the train," Kari said.

Their D-Terminals beeped at the same time and Kari read hers first, "And that's Tamer's message. It's time!"

"Okay, do your thing Matt," Ken cried out as the adult man turned behind him. He pressed a few buttons on the side of the weapon mounted on his partner's back, priming the bomb to blow. Once it was set, he patted his partner's head and the metal wolf listed to his right side so that the bomb could fall off. They all watched with bated breath as the bomb fell towards the red sea below.

As if the D-Reaper anticipated the attack, part of its form bulged upwards and opened up to swallow the bomb whole.

Everything was dead quiet as they watched the bomb disappear into the red mass.

Nothing.

Did it fail? It couldn't have! That was their one chance to save Juri.

Then a small flash inside the red sea, accompanied by a muffled boom rippled its surface. Then came the shockwave, followed shortly by the eruption of noise.

The bomb exploded with enough force to destroy some of the nearby buildings and rip open a hole in the D-Reaper's outer layer - revealing an opening below where a train car sat still on the tracks.

"There it is!" Kari cried out.

"Okay everyone! LET'S SAVE JURI!" Rika cried.

#The Digimon Tamer v2 - In His name #Chapter 45 #The Digimon Tamer #Fanfiction #archiveofourown

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 40 - Show ‘Em How It’s Done is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Zhenyu Lee looked to the Metropolitan Building, holding Xiaochun in his lap as she played with Lopmon who didn’t even try pretending to be a doll. He should’ve expected this mess would’ve gotten worse before it got better. He just wished it would’ve waited a few more days than it had. Henry ran out to help with Terriermon at the first chance - thankfully Xiaochun and Lopmon were convinced against going with them. Now, however, he couldn’t help but wonder if it would’ve been better to let them go.

Then at least they wouldn’t be heading into the Metropolitan Building under heavily armed guard. No sooner after he called his office, Yamaki’s agents came knocking on his door and forced them out into a white SUV waiting in front of the complex. And despite all the traffic and road blocks, the SUV made its way on to the sidewalk without concern for public safety. Was it because the agency was so far above public scrutiny? Or was it because the situation was now that desperate. He wasn’t sure which it was - and that made him all the more anxious.

As they drove past the entrance, he notice the lobby floor was crowded with people who’d taken refuge inside. It would’ve caused a scene to go in that way - so where they were going? The SUV they were in wheeled around the back where several more guards greeted them - some of whom looked like military and out of place with the rest of the guards wearing black suits.

There were other SUVs already there - unloading other families he didn’t recognize until he saw the kids: Kenta and Kazu. The two boys who’d been spending time around Henry as of late. And then there were the Matsuda parents, who definitely didn’t want to be there. Actually, why were they here?

Their son was dead and wasn’t coming back. The last thing they probably wanted was to have anything to do with all this mess. Of course, he got confirmation of that when the father threw a punch as hard as he could at one of the agents - which ended with the others tackling him to the ground and piling on top of him to keep him restrained.

After a moment of struggling, the agents wrestled him back up to his feet and slapped a pair of handcuffs on him as he swore up a storm, “You fucking assholes! Let me go! Let me fucking go! Right the fuck now!”

“Whoa, check it out Kenta! Takato’s dad is going nuts,” Kazu pointed him out.

“Hey! Watch your language! There are kids present,” one of the dad’s said - one who didn’t appear to have any familiar children with him. He was wrapping his hands around the ears of a small boy in the arms of a woman who was definitely his wife. The woman looked around nervously, “I don’t understand. What is all this? Who are you people and why are we here? We haven’t done anything wrong!”

“Ma’am, it’s a matter of national security. We’ll explain more once we’re safely inside. Please, this way,” one of the agents gestured towards a door guarded by two armed soldiers. Zhenyu had an idea of where they were going but wasn’t sure why they needed to take the back entrance - at least until he saw the robot and the floating pink seal thing. Both definitely digimon. At this point, it was obvious who wasn’t quite familiar with digimon right now. Those who weren’t were uneasy or keeping their hands on their weapons. The ones who were used to the sight of digimon didn’t even seem to register that they were there.

They followed the guard inside who led them to a large service elevator that took their group upstairs - past the administrative offices and into the secure area where the Hypnos Program had been operating. Once the elevator doors slid open, the agent released Mister Matsuda’s handcuffs and gestured for them to continue straight ahead into the main room. Matsuda cursed him out but did as he was told - heading straight into the main office where most of the rest of the Monster Makers and the so called digidestined were present.

And for some reason, the fake Takato or Tamer or whatever his name was drawing on the wall with a marker while concluding what must’ve been a long drawn out lecture. Just by a quick glance of the scribbles, he could only assume it had something to do with that other worlds thing he talked about before, “And that’s basically everything up to now. Any questions?”

Several hands shot up into the air and he sighed, “That aren’t about the multiple worlds and realities.”

Only Yamaki’s hand stayed in the air and he asked, “When are you going to stop drawing on my walls?”

“Sorry,” he dropped the marker and scratched the back of his head, “I just figured that a visual aid would help. My mistake.”

“I don’t know why you can’t explain anything without drawing all over walls anyway,” Yamaki picked up the marker and examined it closely, “This is permanent marker!”

The fake Takato apologized again but it didn’t do anything to improve Yamaki’s mood as he threw the marker into a trash bin in a fit of anger, “Dammit, kid. You’re going to give me a freaking aneurysm.”

Tamerkato looked back at the rest of the group and asked, “Okay, anyone else have any other questions?”

That was when Zhenyu noticed several other digimon in the room - a lot of them. He wasn’t surprised to see this but his family-

“AAAH!”

“Whoa cool! There’s more of them! Look Lopmon! More friends for you! And some of them are so cute! But not as cute as you Lopmon! You’re the best! Ooh, one of them is a little birdie!”

“Holy shit! Where do they keep coming from?”

“You’re going to feed us to them, aren’t you?”

“Geez, you humans sure do a lot of screaming,” Terriermon said from somewhere in the crowd, “Hey! Henry! Your dad’s here!”

He should’ve expected his son to end up here - of course Yamaki was going to get everyone he could in an emergency situation like this. Hell, Henry probably only made it down the block before he got picked up. Henry tried jumping to see over the adults and finally ran out of the crowd before seeing the. And the biggest smile appeared on his face, “Dad, you’re alright!”

Then his smile turned to a frown, “What are all you guys doing here?”

“What are we doing here? Henry, what are you doing here of all places?” his wife asked, “What is all this?”

“This…this is what we’ve been all been working on,” Zhenyu explained to his wife, “It’s how we got Xiaochun and the others back safely from the Digital World.”

The explanation didn’t do him any favors, as she was obviously annoyed with the whole thing. Trying to avert her attention to something else, he instead asked, “What I want to know is why are we here?”

Yamaki massaged his temple, “All important persons needed to be on deck - since some of the important persons were minors, it was decided their families should be brought too to mitigate any child labor laws and blah blah blah. -”

Mister Matsuda cut him off and roared, “Families? We are not families! That thing-”

He gestured at Tamerkato angrily and added, “-isn’t my son. He’s one of those things-”

He pointed at the digimon, “-wearing his face!”

“They can do that?” his wife asked.

The panic quickly spread to the other parents who were now weary of the children, “Wait, so are these kids even our kids or-”

“Alright, enough,” the not-Takato stamped his foot angrily, “I’m sorry. Your son is gone. I can’t fix that. Believe me, this is as awkward and painful for me as it is for you. But we don’t have time for this! I’m trying to-”

“I don’t care what you want or what you’re trying to do. What I want is to get the hell out of this city before that thing kills us all!” Mister Matsuda roared again, turning to leave. Two of the agents tried to stop him but blocking his exit only seemed to make him angrier. Thankfully he didn’t try throwing any punches this time since these agents had no reservations about keeping their hands on their guns. It also helped that his wife was trying to calm him down.

“Actually, I’d like to know why we’re here too,” another of the adults finally spoke - a woman wearing a kimono asked. She seemed really out of place here, especially holding a toddler in her arms who excitedly oohed at all the digimon present and kept reaching for them to play with. The woman held the boy closer and asked, “We don’t know any of you people and we were out looking for our daughter Juri before any of this happened. Where is she and what does she have to do with any of this?”

“Yeah, I’d like an answer to that as well,” the man beside this woman asked, obviously the husband. The school teacher came forward, “Your daughter is part of the problem. It’s a long story and we don’t have time to explain it all. The short version is she’s in that thing and we’re trying to come up with a plan to stop it that doesn’t involve killing her.”

“What do you mean she’s in that thing!?” the man demanded, “How can my daughter be in that!? I know she’s involved in all this but what the hell does this have to do-”

“Her partner died in the Digital World. That trauma, that loss, became the catalyst for that thing to take over her body. Her spirit. It’s possessing her, riding her like a costume while it goes around to continue its mission of learning, becoming stronger, and destroying anything it deems too strong,” Not-Takato explained to him.

The man didn’t seem to buy any of this and crosses his arms angrily, “Bullshit, I’ve heard a lot of crap over the last few days and I’ll be damned if I’m going to believe any of that. Juri’s strong.”

“Apparently not as strong as you’d like to think,” he fired back.

“How dare-”

“Look, believe it or not, your daughter is in there and she needs saving,” not-Takato interrupted angrily. A pause followed as one of the digimon, a horned lizard wearing a pelt raised its hand to ask, “So how are we going to separate the Digital Worlds and make sure only the digimon are on the...whatever one.”

Not-Takato’s face turned grim as he answered, “I’ll need to go back to the Bastion and fire up some Guardian tech-”

“Ancient tech,” the detective interrupted. Not-Takato sighed, “Same thing. It’s going to use the data from the Natural Digital World to separate the two worlds and pull them apart. But to make sure we get the digimon, I need help scanning the entire Digital World in as short amount of time as possible.”

“Perfect plan. It’s a good thing you’ve got us!” the detective said, raising up his digivice and his work partner. A pause followed before he turned to the others, “What about you, mister noodle chef?”

A man wearing an apron uncrossed his arms and smiled wide, ““Yeah, I’m game for this. How about you, Veemon?”

“Alwaysh! I’ve been raring to get back into the action!” a little blue dinosaur with horns shouted. Both men excitedly fist bumped as the cook declared, “Alright! Ken and Davis are back in action. What do we need to do?”

“Wait, Ken?” Ryo stammered in disbelief, approaching the detective with wide eyed shock, “Ken?”

Not-Takato snapped his fingers and hurried over to one of the computers, “We’ll need technology from the Bastion - it’ll do a scan of the Digital World for all digimon. Artificial and Natural. No one’s going to die on my watch. We use the archive of…wait, where’s Izzy’s laptop? We need that. It has the database of the Digital World on it which I can use to help pull apart the two Digital Worlds.”

“Still no idea,” Yamaki said, “It could be a while before we find them.”

“Well, no more time for discretion,” Not-Takato turned to Rika, “How do you feel about finding your parents?”

“Can do,” she gave a thumbs up. His smiles widened, “You’re a life saver Rika. Find them and bring them here.”

Daisy clapped her hands together excitedly and hurried over to her computer, “This is getting kind of exciting! Well, if you guys are going to the Digital World, it only makes sense to do some reconnaissance first. Make sure things are safe! The last thing you guys need is to land in a mess. Let’s see if the Ark can handle some updates and attach a camera program to it.”

“Ark? It seems like you’ve all been quite busy while I’ve been away. I’d like to see what you all have created without me,” a familiar voice said excitedly. Then Shibumi appeared, half balding with a mullet growing from what remained of his hair and a bushy beard growing on his face. He was certain this man was dead after being gone for so long but here he was - alive and acting like he hadn’t been missing for the last few years. Zhenyu was so taken aback by this that he couldn’t help but blurt out, “SHIBUMI!?”

The man stopped in his tracks and waved at him with a stupid half grin, “Oh, hello Tao. You’re graying now.”

So much for a friendly greeting, “And you’re balding.”

…

Henry covered his face to hide his embarrassment upon hearing his dad’s nickname. Was that always his dad’s name? He had no idea he even had a nickname - especially not one that sounded so pretentious. He needed to get his mind off this conversation and looked back at Tamerkato, “So you’re going to the Digital World...worlds to rip them apart. What about the rest of us here? Because we’re not just going to be sitting around and fighting that thing didn’t exactly do us any good in the Digital World or here.”

“Actually, fighting is exactly what I need you guys to do,” Tamerkato adder with a snap of his fingers. This angered Monodramon who promptly snapped, “He said we just tried that! It didn’t work! What part of that were you not listening to?”

“The part where you guys weren’t listening to me. You’re not attacking it to defeat it, you’re attacking it to get its attention off the Digital World,” Tamerkato explained to them. Henry was confused now and was sure this was the rampant insanity the others were so wear of, “It’s not in the Digital World. It’s here.”

Tamerkato nodded in agreement, “You’re right. It is here. And there. It’s…complicated. Part of its consciousness is here in the Human World. The other part of its conscious is in the Digital World. It may be smart but it can only pay attention to so many things happening at once. If you make enough noise here in this world, it’ll pull it’s attention away from the Digital World.”

“But wouldn’t all the fighting in the Digital World already do that?” Renamon asked, “We left the Digital World just as it turned into a war zone!”

“That’s right! The Digital World was a battlefield!” Gatomon called out with a pointed claw. Tamerkato held up two fingers, “That’s the other advantage. If it’s busy paying attention over here, it’ll give the digimon on the other side a better fighting chance. The mission here is to save as many lives as we can until the plan is ready to act out.”

“Okay, but there are two other parts of this plan we still haven’t figured out. How do we stop the D-Reaper here in this world? It’s not like turning off that computer will stop it here,” Yamaki said matter of factly. Tamerkato gestured at the building around, “I thought that part of the plan was obvious? You guys built a weapon that targets Digital Life! Specifically, it sucks Digital Life back into the Digital World. Once the worlds are separated, we put our digimon back into the Natural Digital World. Then fire the weapon to send the D-Reaper back to the Artificial World. Once it’s off, we turn this-”

“Um, guys,” Daisy called to get their attention, waving her hand in the air, “Either my camera program is messed up or the situation in the Digital World is a lot more chaotic than I realized.”

She turned the monitor around to face them and showed them the screen. The sight was something to behold - not in grand awe but in terror. The Digital World they had left just the day before had become a fiery hell scape - barren wastes burning to ash while countless digimon battled for their lives against a growing tide of red with no end in sight. Everyone crowded around the monitor so Daisy presses a few more keys to get it on multiple monitors. Despite that, it was obvious to everyone what was on the screen.

The digimon that could be made out on the small screen appeared to be retreating away from the mass as they threw everything they had at it. Some even made a run for the ship, pleading into the camera for some kind of help before being pulled back into the fight by another digimon. Patamon gasped, “The Digital World did NOT look like that when we left.”

“Time’s been moving differently between the worlds. A couple of hours out here turned into weeks in there,” Sora explained quietly, “Remember, you guys were only gone for about a day our time.”

At that announcement, Gatomon became furious, “Days passed in the Digital World already? We need to go back! We need to-”

“We already have a plan remember?” Tamer interrupted her quickly, snapping his fingers at the remaining digimon whose partners weren’t present, “Which brings up another thing. You guys are going to need to find your partners if you’re going to be of help. Soon as we get out there, the better.”

“We’ll make sure they get to ‘em,” Rika said with a hand on her hips as she moved towards Palmon and Tentomon, “Mom and dad are going to freak out when they see you guys.”

“I bet I’ll freak out more! Oh, I can’t wait to see Izzy again!” Tentomon remarked. It was hard to miss the nervous look on Rika’s face as it seemed she didn’t quite have the heart to tell the digimon about what had happened to his partner. And he was sure it was not going to be a fun conversation.

“Wait a second...mom and dad?” Palmon repeated. That was another subject she wasn’t sure she was ready for. Trying to take her mind off the subject, Rika took out her D-Terminal and started typing into it, “I’m going to message them now to see where they are. Then we’ll take you.”

“Then we’ll head to the Digital World once the attack begins,” Tamerkato stated, “As soon as its attention is pulled, we can head on our way.”

“You’re forgetting the other part of this plan of yours,” Yamaki interrupted again before gesturing at Juri’s parents, “How are you going to save the girl? You said no one else is going to die, right? Well how does that figure into your plan?”

Tamerkato frowned, “Still working that part out. I’m thinking this up by the seat of my pants.”

“That’s...that’s now how the saying goes,” Yamaki groaned. Juri’s father added, “You’re telling me you don’t even have a plan to save my daughter!?”

“Thirty minutes ago, I didn’t have a plan to save either of these miserable rocks! Give it time. I’ll come up with something.” Tamerkato interjected with a smile. Unfortunately, Yamaki didn’t share his optimism, “I seriously doubt we have thirty minutes.”

…

Mimi rolled her husband’s chair down the busy street as quickly as she could, but everything was in chaos. Stopped cars blocked most major intersections, abandoned by their drivers in terror of the flocks of bird creatures blocking out the sky overhead. People ran in terror every way they could, with police and military trying their best to maintain order while shooting into the sky at the bird creatures swarming the city. And now of all times, her husband decided to start playing with his D-Terminal, “Honey! What the hell? That isn’t the time for that!”

“It’s Ruki! She’s says she’s on her way and wants to know where we are!” he answered, looking up from the screen long enough to take in his surroundings, “Let’s see. This looks like...gah, I don’t even recognize what ward we’re in. Where are we?”

Mimi couldn’t believe his forgetfulness but tried to remind herself of his missing leg. He was very medicated and probably was only half aware of everything going on, “Are you kidding? Honey, we’re on Meiji-Dori Avenue and Shinjuku-Dori Avenue! We’re right in front of the police station!”

“Oh, right!” he said as he started typing on the device. She heard a beep which meant Ruki replied but she couldn't focus on that now. She had to find their way to the Metropolitan Building. But that was easier said than done at this point. The whole city had become an obstacle course with all the people, cars, and debris obstructing their path. And there was no way her husband would be get around most of it in his wheelchair. This was just like when they were kids, only now they didn’t have their partners with them. Worse was knowing that their only daughter was running around out there in the middle of all this. Then she had a realization, “Wait, did you say...Ruki’s on her way?”

He nodded and gave a frown, “Yeah, with a surprise. I have no idea what that means. I’m hoping her rebellious streak isn’t going to appear as some kind of half thought out rescue attempt! We really need to do something about that.”

“She only acts out because you disappeared!” she pointed out to her husband.

“Hey! That only happened because I was forcibly taken against my will!” he argued back, pausing as he took a look around, “This is bad. We should get off the street and get out of here before-”

He was cut off mid sentence as one of the bird creatures stopped in front of them. It was horrifying to have to look at one so close in front of them like this. Mimi had never seen one so up close and wasn’t sure what to think of it being so close in front of her. At least, that was what she thought until she realized its eyes weren’t eyes at all. It was some kind of gross facsimile - like eyes were a thing it had only ever heard of before. It’s true eyes were on its wings - big yellow orbs that did something akin to a blink as its pupils darted every which way. Then it spoke with a mechanical rasp like knives digging into sheet metal, “Image data sent. Resuming search!”

“Search for this!”

Kyubimon descended from a rooftop and landed atop the creature. It barely reacted to being slammed into the ground, almost like it didn’t even know it had been hit. Instead it tried to maneuver its wings to look at her in vain as Kyubimon swiped into its eyes with her claws until it burst into data, “Finally. We killed one. These things shouldn’t be as hard to kill as they are. Are you both alright?”

“Yes, we’re fine. Where’s Ruki?” he asked in a panicked tone, “We thought she was with you.”

Kyubimon turned her head behind her, looking towards Rika running towards them with a cactus in her arms and a large ladybug fluttering behind...Palmon and Tentomon. Palmon complained, “How much further? I want to see Mimi!”

“She’s over there,” Rika said, gesturing towards her mother, “And there’s dad too.”

“Dad?” Tentomon paused, taking one good look at Koushiro in the wheel chair with his missing leg, “IZZY!?”

“Tentomon!” Izzy called out in amazement, reaching out his arms so that his bug partner digimon could land in them. Mimi stepped aside as Palmon leapt into her own arms, “Mimi! Is it really you!? You’re a lot taller than I remember. And a lot prettier too!”

“Ruki, is this?” She began to ask.

“You bet.”

“This is the best surprise you could’ve given us,” Mimi said tearfully, holding her partner close. She’d dreamt of seeing her partner again for so long that she wasn’t sure it would ever actually happen. And here she was - in her arms. She was so happy she could feel herself getting ready to cry. Tentomon and Izzy were having their own moment too, mostly with Tentomon demanding to know why his leg was missing and what exactly had happened while they were away.

Rika put a hand to her hips, “Well, I figured if anyone was going to bring your partners to you, it should be me. You’re welcome, mom. Dad.”

“There it is again! Why do you keep calling her mom?” Palmon repeated.

“Wait a second. Dad?” Tentomon did the same. Both digimon pulled away from their partners in surprise. Then Palmon blurted out, “Mimi, is she-”

“That’s right,” Mimi beamed proudly, looking over to her daughter with the biggest smile on her face. Koushiro turned his partner around to face their daughter, “Palmon. Tentomon. Meet our daughter. Ruki.”

Both digimon had mouths wide open in a shock and surprise. Rika was sure they were just trying to take everything in until eventually Palmon gasped, “GOSH! DOES THIS MEAN YOU TWO GOT MARRIED!? WITHOUT INVITING US!?”

“Well, we didn’t know where you guys were at the time,” Koushiro offered defensively as their two digimon became increasingly agitated over the fact that they missed out on one of the most important times in their partner’s lives. Made all the worse by the knowing that they weren’t even aware it happened. Rika whistled to get their attention and pointed out, “Not to ruin the moment guys but we still have a city to save. Well, a city and a world. We can talk about all this later.”

“I don’t understand though, how did this happen?” she asked their daughter. Rika was already busy taking a hold of her father’s wheel chair and pushing him off the main road into a side street, “It’s a long story and it involves goggle head. Like a lot of goggle head. He has a plan though-”

“Oh hell no, last time his plans got my mom, your grandmother, killed!” Mimi snapped angrily, gasping when she realized she’d just said that in front of her daughter. Ruki waved her hands up in agreement, “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like his plans or ideas any more than you do but we know the whole plan so there’s no surprises. At least, no surprises we won’t expect.”

“Oh, and what’s that?” her husband asked with a tone that indicated scholarly curiosity. She knew that tone too well to know they were n for a long question and answer session. Rika shrugged, “First, we need to get you back to the others at that government place. They need you to fix that juggernaut program.”

“NO! I will not work on that again,” he abruptly refused. It wasn’t hard to understand why - he hated that project and all it did to him. And knowing what it did to digimon made her hate it as well. And using it was a part of Tamer’s plan? To hell with that. Even so, Rika tried to explain, “Look, the others will tell you more when you get there. Something about how that weapon is the only thing that’ll work on that thing!”

She gestured at the growing red mass in the center of the city. There was no doubt about its size but the fact that using Juggernaut was their only option made them uneasy. And if Tamer was involved, “What exactly is his plan?”

“It was a lot of technobabble but it sounds like he wants to split the Digital World and turn it off? Look, I kinda spaced out on it,” Rika admitted to them. There was Rika reflecting her mother. It seemed they had other things in common besides disliking Tamer. Rika looked at their partners for some kind of help and Palmon answered, “Well don’t look at me. I can never follow the stuff he’s saying. Guy talks a mile a minute.”

Her husband sighed, “At least you’re honest about it.”

He turned his wheelchair to face her, “I’m going to stop them from fixing the Juggernaut, even if it means I have to destroy the computer myself.”

He sounded so sad when he said that. She knew he loved computers almost as much as he loved her - and the idea of destroying one probably went against everything he stood for. Especially one he helped to build. Kyubimon sighed, “To fill in the gaps that Rika left out - Tamer’s planning on splitting the two Digital Worlds so that all the digimon occupy one world and that thing occupies the other. Then we use the Juggernaut to send that thing from this world to the other Digital World. To do that we-”

Kyubimon stopped mid sentenced, staring straight at her. Mimi took a step back, “What?”

“It heard me,” she replied. What? Mimi turned around to see one of the bird creatures standing there staring at them. She practically jumped backwards in surprise, wondering just how long that thing had been standing there and how much of that it had heard. It registered that they were now staring at it and ascended skyward to get away.

Mimi cursed, “Crap.”

“Well that complicates things,” her husband added quietly, turning his wheelchair again, “We need to go to the tower.”

“What, why?” Palmon asked, “I thought we were supposed to distract that thing?”

“Don’t you get it, Palmon? It knows! If it knows, it’s going to protect itself. It’s going to attack the tower now!” Tentomon pointed out, “And everyone is still up there!”

“Oh…oh no! All those people! Sora! Biyomon! They’re all up there!” Palmon gasped. Rika cursed her luck, “Do you have your digivices?”

“Always,” the parents said together; she reached into her coat pocket to hold up her digivice and her husband reached into the bag on his wheelchair to show his. Rika smiled and Mimi understood why. What they had here was a rare opportunity for a family bonding activity. It may not have been the typical family bonding experience that most people wanted - but there was no denying that having this in common was nice.

Rika nodded, “Okay...and Tamer also said we need your laptop. Do you have it?”

“Laptop?” Koushiro repeated quietly, “Oh, yes. I know which laptop. And yes. I always have it.”

He reached into his backpack and produced an old yellow laptop with a pineapple insignia on the back. The one he’d had from their first trip to the Digital World. The one thing she was never able to convince him to let go of. It seemed he was right to always hang on to it. There was a noise in the distance that caught their attention and they looked towards its source at the Shinjuku Towers. The bird creatures were now converging on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. And they were the only ones who knew why. Rika produced a blue card from her deck and Koushiro held out his digivice to his partner, “Like old times, right honey?”

“Let’s show our daughter how it’s done,” she said in agreement. Both of their partners jumped to their feet excitedly, “Oh! We missed this!”

“Tentomon! Warp Digivolve to! HerculesKabuterimon!”

“Palmon! Warp Digivolve to! Rosemon!”

Mimi noticed her daughter’s mouth falling wide open in surprise at their forms, “Whoa! When did you guys get to have Mega level digivolutions?”

For once, she was doing something her daughter was interested in. She tussled the girl’s hair and added, “Takeru didn’t publish all of our adventures, y’know? Remind us to tell you about it some time.”

“Then let me show you what we can do,” Rika said, raising her digivice and swiping a strange blue card from her deck through it, “Digimodify! Digivolution Activate!”

Light enveloped her partner and Mimi watched in astonishment as Kyubimon began to digivolve. Digivolution at will through a card game.

“Kyubimon! Digivolve to! Taomon!”

The look on her husband’s face was priceless. He stammered out, “Your partner is...you used a card from the card game to...that is...I have so many questions!”

“Oh boy, Izzy is losing his mind again,” HerculesKabuterimon cackled. Then the people screamed and panicked even louder. The sight of not one, but three new large digimon appear so suddenly sent the already panicked populace into a bigger panic as they fled away. Mimi buried her face in her hands and groaned, “Oh right. We’re out in the city.”

“We should go. All of us,” Taomon stated matter of factly, scooping up Rika in her arms, “Hang on Rika.”

“You’re right! Let’s go to that tower!” Rosemon agreed. HerculesKabuterimon took up Mimi in one hand and Izzy in the other, using a third to hold his wheel chair. With a loud buzz, his wings took them to the air and they were off with Rosemon and Taomon following close behind. It was just like old times. HerculesKabuterimon used his large frame to protect them from the many bird creatures and the soldiers shooting at them from below. Meanwhile, Rosemon cleared a path forward through the cloud of bird creatures using her whip and guided them safely through the horde. At least she did until she realized the bird creatures weren’t trying to stop them. They were actually trying to make their way to the tower to attack - at which point she turned around and started thinning their numbers to stop as many of them as she could.

“Rosemon!” Mimi called out in awe of her partner’s decision.

“I need to hold them back!” Rosemon shouted.

“Save your strength! This is marathon, not a race,” Taomon declared, flicking out a slip of paper from her hands and throwing them, “Thousand Spells!”

The talisman split into a thousand pieces of paper that flew in every direction, exploding on impact with any of the bird creatures that were following close behind. Then she retrieved her brush with that same hand and drew a symbol in the air, “Talisman Spell!”

The symbol expanded in size until it formed a barrier in the shape of the yin-yang symbol - stopping the creatures in their tracks as they slammed into it like birds into a glass window pane. With their path clear, they continued onward towards the roof of the towers as bird creatures from around the city began to converge on their location.

Once they were set on the roof, Mimi grabbed a hold of her husband’s wheelchair and said, “We’ll head straight to the others and warn them.”

“Okay, we’ll stay out here and hold the rest of them back!” Rika said in agreement, looking back to the three digimon. Mimi couldn’t help but feel aglow with pride as her daughter gave her a thumbs up. She cheered, “Rosemon, show her how it’s done!”

“We’ve got this Mimi,” Rosemon said, leading the digimon as she looked back to the growing crowd of alien bird creatures. She didn’t wait a second longer. She pushed her husband and hurried her way into the building. As soon as they were inside though, Mimi realize the foolishness of her plan once she gazed at the many stairs that led down. Koushiro looked back at his wife, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“You must be stupid if you think I’m letting you out of my sight again, Mister Izumi,” Mimi laughed, turning his wheelchair around so that she could guide him down. She took the first step backwards, taking care to pull her husband’s chair so that he didn’t slip or fall out. It took them a good minute to clear the first flight and get to the first landing. That was one down. Who knows how many more to go?

#The Digimon Tamer v2 - In His name #Digimon Tamers #Digimon #Fanfiction #Chapter 40 #Takato Matsuda #Rika Nonaka

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 44 - Out of Time is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Justimon looked from Tamerkato to Guilmon to Rika. Henry, Beelzemon, Rapidmon, and Taomon were all wearing the same stunned expression on their face as the puppet creature just hovered in the air in front of them. All of them were stunned speechless in light of what they just saw. Not only did the Digimon Tamer just hand all the information his people ever had to this thing, but he was still telling the D-Reaper off. Then something more unbelievable happened. The puppet and bird creatures began to retreat away. All across the horizon, they could see the swarms of pendulum feet and bird creatures fleeing off towards the red mass in the distance. Only one stayed, the creature he’d been talking to.

But anyone could tell by the way it kept its distance that it was afraid of this boy standing in front of it.

Tamerkato adjusted the goggles on his head and went on to add, “If I can give you one piece of advice that you really ought to take: Run.”

With that, the creature turned in the air and fled away at full speed - hurrying to rejoin the rest of the retreating monsters. It was huge relief and a welcome sight to see them on the run for once. Rapidmon was the first one to fall over backwards and breathe a deep sigh, “Finally, we can take a break. I’m starving!”

“You don’t have a mouth,” Tamerkato remarked, reaching out his hand to Rika, “Do you mind if I borrow the D-Terminal? I need to message the others.”

But the relief didn’t last as they looked at Tamerkato. Taomon was the first one to get his attention, “Was it a good idea to give that thing access to the knowledge of the Ancients?”

“Guardians,” Tamerkato corrected as he finished typing his message. Then he put the device away and cracked a smile, “And probably not. I mean, I gave it a list of every strength and weakness the Guardians recorded for every digimon, along with strategies to counter them.”

“O...kay,” Rapidmon sat up, and looked up at him, “There’s a ‘but’ in there right?”

Tamerkato crossed his arms and flashed a great big smile, “Yes, there’s a but. I put the camera program that one of those monster makers made inside the thing. Now we’ll be able to see whatever it sees.”

“Okay...and how can we use that for the plan?” Justimon asked.

Tamerkato shrugged, “No idea. Just thought it’d be good to have. I’m making this up as I go.”

“GOGGLE HEAD!” Rika snapped at him, “The only reason I didn’t smack you across the head earlier is because I thought you knew what you were doing!”

“I kinda know what I”m doing,” he smiled calmly, snapping his fingers.

Rika glared daggers at him, “You just said you were making this up as you go!”

Tamerkato’s smile just grew wider, “Exactly. You want to know why I’m the only Guardian still walking around? Because they tried too hard to keep things ordered, too hard to make things the way they were supposed to be, while I never knew what I was going to do next. And if I don’t know what I’m going to do next, then what chance does that thing have to stop me!? I might stick to the plan, or I might do something completely unpredictable! Who knows? Not that thing!”

“If you’re trying to make me punch you then you’re succeeding,” Rika seethed through very grit teeth, her hands curled up into fists ready to start delivering tough blows. Justimon was sure his fists would be all over the boy before she could even get close to him.

Tamerkato’s eyes widened in panic, perhaps realizing that he’d screwed himself and he quickly added, “Don’t worry. I’m on top of things. For now. Probably.”

Annoyed and unconvinced of just how much control Tamerkato had over the situation, Rika went ahead and punched him for good measure. Justimon had to admit it was very satisfying to watch but tried to stay focused on the situation at hand. Although now a question was eating at him in the back of his mind. A question that desperately needed answering, “How do we know you even are Tamer? You could be that Trickster guy again trying to pull the wool over our eyes!”

Tamerkato raised an eyebrow, “I keep hearing that name…Trickster…who the hell is Trickster?”

“He says he’s an Ancient like you,” Justimon said, pointing at the old digivice he had, “He even had one exactly like that. So how do we know you’re not him?”

Tamerkato blinked at him, seemingly contemplating how to respond to his accusation. After a moment, he finally responded to Ryo, “If this is a joke, I’m not finding it funny. There are no other Guardians left.”

“That doesn’t really answer my question,” Justimon grumbled.

“I was there. They’re all gone,” Tamerkato said sternly, his tone shifting to suppress a growing anger, “So if you’re done trying to throw me off, we still have a bunch of worlds to save!”

“Yeah, and how are we going to do that? You don’t have a plan remember!?” Rika stamped her feet on the ground. Tamerkato gestured back towards the Metropolitan Building, “First, we go back that way and clear the area around Hypnos!”

Justimon heaved a sigh, annoyed that he had to keep explaining this, “We can’t. That Trickster guy said the fact that we’re in a Digital Field now means we can’t go anywhere near electronics without frying them.”

Tamerkato paused, putting a hand to his chin, “How do I explain this…if that were true, wouldn’t it have broken all of our electronics already?”

“Do you really want to risk breaking everything?” Rika complained.

Tamerkato threw up his hands, “Fine! Whatever! We won’t go near the tower. All the same, that’s YOUR families trapped in there. So if you don’t want to pull away those things, I will! DIGIPORT OPEN!”

He pointed his digivice beneath himself and Guilmon who whined, “Please, not again!”

And then they were gone in a flash of light, leaving the rest of them behind. Justimon groaned, “I really hate when he does that.”

Rika dusted herself off, “But he’s right. Our parents are back there.”

“Yeah! With the digidestined! They’ll be fine!” Justimon reminded her. Their parents…her parents…had been doing this a lot longer than they had. If anyone could survive this, it was going to be them. And yet, he could tell from the worried look on her face that she didn’t agree. And if he had to be honest? He was a little worried about his parents too.

Aw…look at you getting all mushy about your parents, Monodramon’s voice echoed inside his head. Ryo couldn’t argue with that either. He was deeply worried about his parents…and it wasn’t like he didn’t care about them after everything that happened. He needed to know they were safe and he gave in to temptation.

“Shut up Monodramon. Fine, we’ll go check to make sure they’re safe,” Justimon sighed, turning towards the Shinjuku Towers, “Let’s go!”

…

Yamaki was growing increasingly anxious as he watched the steel of the blast door start to give under repeated attacks and blasts from the villains. They were running out of time and he wasn’t sure his security teams would actually be able to contain a breach - let alone the countless ones that were bound to occur. Then Izumi took that moment to announce, “Just got another message from Tamer! He says the cavalry’s on the way! What does that mean? Cavalry? Who else is coming?”

Yamaki wasn’t sure what kind of cavalry they had right now. Then there was a loud bang from outside that shook the building. On instinct, Yamaki drew his gun and started scanning the blast doors, “All units, report! Do we have a breach?”

“Engineering is clear! No breaches!”

“No breach in the labs!”

“Containment facility clear! No breaches!”

Yamaki didn’t like that. What the hell was that blast? He wanted to question it when he heard a phone ring. His phone. He kept his gun drawn and declared, “Stay on your guard! Everyone else, get back to work. Every second counts people!”

Even though he said that, the entire team was frozen in place and hesitated to return to work. They were all scared out of their minds. He couldn’t blame them and tried to cool his tone, “I get it. We’re all scared. But it’s not just ourselves we have to worry about. We all have family and friends out there in the middle of all this. Right now, we’re the best chance many of them have. So let’s get it together people.”

The phone continued to ring against what he was saying but it seemed to motivate at least some of his team to get back to work. That was going to have to be good enough. He sighed and hurried back into his office to see the call was coming straight from the Prime Minster’s office. He turned on the recorder and picked up the phone, “Director Yamaki speaking.”

“Yamaki! Lock down your building and secure whatever assets you have. I want as much of it to be as salvageable as possible,” the Prime Minister’s voice said over the phone. He spoke with an uneasy tone and it was immediately clear that he had done something incredibly stupid. Yamaki did his best to remain calm but he knew what that tone meant, listening intently as the Prime Minister went on, “We’ve authorized the drop. We’re pulling as many people out of the city as possible.”

Yamaki couldn’t believe what he was hearing. That was extreme and would put too many lives in danger. Maybe he could reason with the man, “Sir, with respect, that sounds extreme. My team hasn’t even been able to finish fixing the Juggernaut program yet. If we have more time, we can do this without putting our own citizens in danger. I just-”

The Prime Minister wasn’t having any of it and interrupted him, “I don’t care for your excuses Yamaki. You and your Juggernaut have never been effective in containing this problem and you know it. The bomb drop is already underway and the Americans have planes en route to the city. You’ve got about twenty minutes to secure everything. I want it to be sellable when all this is over. After that, the Defense Minister and I will be reviewing your role within the Ministry of Defense.”

Yamaki didn’t like the sound of that and was glad he was recording the conversation. Although it seemed almost too perfect. He was being handed the kind of leverage he needed on a silver platter. On the other hand, desperation made people prone to bad decision making and Hypnos’ budget could always use a few more zeroes. He wasn’t going to challenge it and simply nodded, “We’ll do what we can.”

“Good. Get it done,” the Prime Minister said before ending the call. He didn’t like being kept on a short leash by this incompetent moron. He did like that he was going to hang the man from it once all of this was done. He ran a hand through his hair and gave it some thought...even if they finished Juggernaut right now, there was still the matter of the bomb going off over the city. The death toll was going to be in the thousands at least.

He needed to calm down and think of a plan. What could he do? He needed to get the word out discretely but there was no way he could act without getting intercepted. Unless he used the D-Terminal Izumi kept on him. He rushed out of his office, moving as calmly as he could to avoid alarming the rest of the team and towards Izumi’s work desk. The man was busy reviewing the code with Ichijouji and Zhenyu. And naturally his wife was hovering right over his shoulder.

Yamaki began, “Izumi. Can I borrow you for a minute?”

“Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of the others,” Izumi remarked.

Of course. Izumi had been anything but cooperative since the first time Juggernaut blew. Yamaki sighed, “I need to borrow that messaging device of yours.”

“Why?” Izumi turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

Yamaki leaned in close and spoke quietly, “I need you to keep this quiet. Understood?”

Now he had Misses Izumi, Zhenyu and Misses Ichijouji’s attention. He really wanted to keep this just between Izumi and himself but there was no avoiding it now. But that wasn’t enough for him, “Can you keep this quiet?”

“Yes,” Izumi said. Yamaki checked once over his shoulder before whispering, “The Prime Minister just authorized the bomb drop. We’ve got twenty minutes to get the word out to your kids.”

“Are you kidding?” Izumi whispered back, “We need to tell everyone!”

“And then what? Have them all stop working? Have them quit? Not while I’m on duty and not while we’re the only chance the world has of surviving this thing! Right now, the only thing keeping everyone together is the idea that there’s a chance. I’m not about to break that news to them. Let them keep working,” Yamaki argued back quietly, “The sooner we get Juggernaut working, the better!”

Izumi looked back at him intently, his eyes seeming to weigh the options that were presented to him. He didn’t like it either but what other choice did they have? He sighed and slid the D-Terminal towards him. Yamaki opened it and began typing out his message, ‘This is Yamaki. The Americans are going to bomb the city. No idea what kind of bomb, but it’ll hit in twenty minutes.’

Then he hit send, watching the message zip away into the ether. He sighed, “Now it’s all on those kids.”

“What exactly is your plan here, Yamaki?” Izumi asked disbelievingly. He grimaced, adjusting his glasses as he confessed, “I don’t have one. Right now, I’m putting all of my hopes on you guys and the plan of that crazy one to get us all out of this alive.”

He must’ve sounded crazy. However, it was what he needed to say at that moment. Izumi stifled a laugh, “Never thought I’d see the day where you had run out of ideas.”

...

Sora and Ishida were on the roof fighting through as many of the creatures as they could with MetalGarurumon and Hououmon. But for every one of the birds they killed, three more appeared to take their place. And that was before they did anything about the ones with blades for appendages. At least the birds didn’t fight back but these bladed ones were damn near untouchable. Even with all the mega level digimon they had on their side.

“STRIKE OF THE SEVEN STARS!”

Seven bright burning orbs burst through the mass of enemy bird creatures, clearing a path for them to be joined by MagnaAngemon and Magnadramon. The two digimon set down on the roof so that their partners TK and Kari could rejoin them, but that didn’t mean anything against the swarm of these things that quickly regained their numbers. Kari and TK rejoined the married couple, TK asking, “Are you guys alright?”

“Just trying to hold these things back! There’s no end to them!” Ishida explained, “The more time we buy, the better. But we can’t keep playing defense like this forever! Our partners just can’t take it.”

Rosemon, HerculesKabuterimon, MetalGarurumon, Hououmon, Magnadramon, and MagnaAngemon. Six mega level digimon together in the same place and they may as well not have been there for all the good they were doing. As all six of them tried to think of how they were going to handle the situation next, their D-terminals beeped together. Sora opened hers first, reading the message aloud, “It’s from Mimi’s D-Terminal…wait…no, it says it’s from Yamaki…he says they’re going to bomb the city!”

“It’ll kill us! They can’t!” Kari gasped.

“Not just us. The entire city. There’s no way they’ve evacuated the place in time,” TK pointed out to them. Ishida began scanning the horizon for anything out of place, “We might be able to stop it if we find the plane that’s going on the attack. Shoot it down before it gets close.”

“Yeah, and give the government another reason to be pissed off at us!?” Sora remarked.

“You say that like they’re not already mad at us,” Takeru mused.

“They won’t like us either way so who cares? MetalGarurumon!” Matt grumbled.

“I’m a little busy!” the wolf said as he bit into one of the bird creatures and tried ripping it apart with his teeth. However, that didn’t stop him from getting swarmed by other bird creatures flying straight at him. The wolf roared in defiance as he was pulled from the sky, still trying to peel away as many of the bird creatures as he could.

He was saved by Hououmon and Rosemon prying away as many of the birds as possible. Magnadramon, Rosemon, and HerculesKabuterimon destroyed as many of the bird creatures as they could. Once he was free, the mega adjusted himself and flew straight back up to rip apart as many of them as he could. Ishida tried calling for his attention again, “MetalGarurumon!”

“WHAT!?”

“They’re going to-”

BANG!

“YEAH! TAKE THAT! AND THAT! YA LIKE THAT!? HA!”

Beelzemon made his return running up the side of the building and firing his guns at the creatures, laughing manically as he went. All four digidestined were stumped by what they saw, especially since he’d left just a minute ago with Izzy and Mimi’s daughter. And now he was back, helping to clear out the bird creatures, “Okay! What is happening right now?”

“Not this guy again!” Ishida grumbled as Beelzemon landed beside him, “Where’s Ruki!?”

“The girl? Somewhere down there with the fox tuts!” Beelzemon gestured down below, “Something ‘bout how they can’t come near the building or something stupid. I dunno. I’m just here to wipe these things out! TAKE THIS! HAHA!”

Beelzemon charged off firing his cannons at the attacking creatures while cackling manically. Ishida sighed, “Okay. That happened. We need to get down there and tell them about the bomb!”

Kari pushed herself ahead, “I’ll go. You’ll probably punch Tamer if you see him and the last thing we need is for him to run off again! Magnadramon!”

Matt was very close to blowing a fuse and was certain that another meeting with Tamer was the last thing he needed at the moment. He looked to his wife who gave him a certain look and nodded, “Okay. Fine. Do whatever you have to do.”

…

The pink serpentine dragon soared by and scooped Kari up before diving for the ground, “I heard what’s going on, Kari. Are you sure you don’t want to help stop the plane!?”

“We can’t if we wanted to. Imperialdramon’s the only one who could go fast enough and he’s in the Digital World with Ken and Davis!” Kari explained to her partner, “Besides. I bet Tamer will want to know before-”

“Been meaning to ask. When did you stop calling him Tai?” Magnadramon interrupted, “Or your brother?”

Kari gave that question some thought, trying to think of how to explain that to her partner, “I think…after everything’s that happened…I don’t know when it happened but…Tai’s gone. I’ve made my peace with that.”

“Uh huh...and the reason you’re doing it now?” Magnadramon asked.

Kari patted her partner, “Can we talk about this after we’re done fighting the not-digimon?”

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as more of the evil creatures swarmed around them. Magnadramon agreed, “Yes, You’re right! I can see the others! There’s...wait, what is that?”

She gestured at the humanoid digimon who looked like a superhero wearing battle armor and a long red scarf. Rika, Henry, Rapidmon, and Taomon were down there as well - fighting their way through the swarm of bird monsters. Magnadramon prepared to clear them out with her attack and roared, “DRAGON FIRE!”

Bolts of lightning broke from the heavens and struck several of the birds, blowing them apart. However, this did nothing to slow their advance as more of the bird creatures and bladed creatures appeared to rip them apart. Magnadramon roared as she landed beside the others, “There’s no end to these guys!”

“We’ll have to keep trying!” Kari said as she leapt off her partner to race towards the others, “What are you doing?”

“Trying to clear these guys away from the tower and our families!” Henry said back. Kari blinked, wondering if they even knew, “Didn't you get the message? The Americans are going to bomb the city!”

“What? When!?” Rika gasped.

“About nineteen-ish minutes. We just got the message ourselves,” Kari said, watching the expressions on these two kids twist in shock. It was Diaboromon all over again, only stopping an evil digimon wouldn’t be enough this time. They’d have to stop both the D-Reaper and the bomb coming towards them. She took another glance around and realized, “Wait! Where’s Tak...Tamer and Guilmon?”

“Guy just vanished on us. We thought he was here!” Rapidmon answered.

“Did you see him?” Taomon asked.

“Last we saw, he ran off to help you guys,” Kari answered. Each of the kids and their partner digimon collectively groaned at that statement. It probably wouldn’t have been as frustrating if their lives weren’t in any immediate danger. As she was about to take charge, a bright flash of light appeared in front of them followed by a yelp.

Tamer and Guilmon were flat on the ground in front of them. Guilmon rolled onto his side and whined, “Can we stop doing that, please?”

“Sorry buddy. Still working on the landing. I swear I was a lot better at this,” Tamer grumbled as he picked himself up. Upon standing, every single one of the creatures stopped in their tracks. It was probably the first real chance any of them had to look at these creatures up close and it would’ve been beautiful if they also didn’t speak with the most jarring of mechanical drones, “PRIMARY THREAT HAS ARRIVED. DISENGAGE AND REEVALUATE.”

And as quickly as the creatures came to attack, they all turned to leave towards the growing red mass in the distance. Kari blinked at the sight, unsure what to make of it and looked towards Tamer for an explanation, “Do you mind telling me what that was all about?”

“Nothing...probably,” Tamer answered as he dusted himself off.

However, that didn’t stop Rika from correctly pointing out, “That’s not what happened and you know it goggle head! This guy just gave a whole bunch of info to that thing! Including, how to defeat and counter every single one of our digimon!”

Kari didn’t believe what she’d just been told and looked at Tamer for his retort. Only to be met with his usual cheeky grin as he said, “It worked, though, didn’t it? Now it’s too afraid to attack because it has no idea what I’m going to do!”

“What?” Kari blinked back at him, trying her best to process what she’d just heard, “You just...gave that info to it? WHY!?”

“Honestly, I’m making up parts of the plan as I go. I have no idea what’s going to work and what won’t right now,” Tamer admitted sheepishly as he took a look around, “So what’s the situation over here?”

“Well, we were trying to save the tower and beat those things back. Now we’ve got a different problem,” Rika explained, “Your teacher…sister…whoever she is to you just said they’re going to bomb the city!”

Now it was his turn to be stumped stupid, “They are? With what? When?”

“About eighteen minutes now,” Kari said after a quick glance at her watch.

Tamer grunted and ran a hand through his hair, “Okay, let me think. Oh, that‘s not good. Wait...actually, that might be very good!”

“How is the city getting blown up any good?” Rika asked with a raised eyebrow. Tamer turned on her and said, “Easy! We let them drop the bomb!”

“WHAT!?” everyone said together in wide eyed disbelief of what they’d just heard. He couldn’t have been serious. Then again, maybe that’s what was supposed to happen. And if it was, they couldn’t count on Tamer to stop it. He’d probably personally make sure the bomb got to the D-Reaper in one piece.

Of course his relaxed attitude wasn’t helping them any, “Guys relax. The Guardians has technology that could blow whole worlds out of existence and nothing they had could stop this thing. You think a bomb is going to work? Even the most powerful weapon in this world’s arsenal are just styrofoam darts to it.”

“For the love of-That’s not what we’re worried about!” The red scarfed digimon said. Kari and Magnadramon both looked at the Digimon and finally said what was on their mind, “Okay, is someone going to tell us who that is?”

“Hi there. Justimon. Nice to meet you,” he introduced himself before turning back on Tamer, “Back to my point, we’re worried because a lot of people are going to die from that bomb!”

Tamer blinked again, “I wouldn’t worry about it. But that does give me an idea on how to save Juri.”

“Are you even listening to use or are you just licking and choosing whatever works for you?” Taomon asked angrily. Tamer shrugged and gestured ahead, “Honestly, I was thinking of how to rescue Juri but bombing it works just as well .”

“How?” Kari demanded. Tamer gestured at the red mass, “The blast should give us an opening to go and get Juri. The problem will be getting close enough to take advantage of that opening without getting eaten alive or blown apart by the blast.”

“Goggle head! Focus!” Rika said with exasperation, “No more making this up as you go! No more we don’t know what you’re going to do next! What!? Is!? The!? Plan!?”

Tamer put a hand to his chin, still obviously lost in thought.

Now Henry was losing patience and asked, “No offense, but can you please start talking? Because the fact that the rest of us are just kind of going with the flow isn’t making anyone feel better.”

Tamer finally broke his silence, “I’m thinking. Have a lot of thoughts but I’m not going to spout everyone that comes to mind. We need to rescue Juri. That’s the part of the plan I’m still working on. We know where she is and we know where the bomb will drop so we...nothing.”

“Can we eat the bomb?” Guilmon asked.

Tamerkato’s face lit up with excitement and he turned to his partner to hug, “Guilmon! That is brilliant! Just like Orochimon! Feed it the bomb and explosion might clear an opening big enough for us to...yes...almost getting there...then we fight our way...maybe? Got it! Okay! Step one! We need to get our hands on that bomb!”

“WHAT!? I thought we were trying to STOP that!” Justimon asked.

Tamerkato turned on him, “No! See, that’s the good part. If the bomb goes off inside the D-Reaper, it should absorb enough of the damage to prevent destroying the city! Besides, I don’t blow up stuff…all the time.”

“Rambling,” Rapidmon said.

Tamer facepalmed and apologized, “Right, right, sorry. Lost my train of thought. The point I’m trying to make is that we need to get that bomb so that we can use it on the D-Reaper. Then we can use it for step two: blow a hole in the D-Reaper.”

“We tried that in the Digital World, remember? It doesn’t work! Any damage we do goes away as fast as we can deal it out.”

“We’re not trying to hurt it. We’re trying to get inside it. More specifically, we’re trying to get inside the D-Reaper to rescue Juri...well, Juri’s body. Getting the D-Reaper out of her head is going to be another challenge entirely and I’m still trying to think of a way to do it,” Tamerkato admitted quietly.

He put a hand to his chin again to think, trying to think of a workable solution just as another voice called out to them, “HEY!”

Kari turned her head skyward to see the Ishidas, Takeru, and their digimon partners coming to join them - Rosemon, HerculesKabuterimon, MetalGarurumon, Hououmon, and MagnaAngemon. Rosemon landed first, “Okay, what just happened? First they’re all over the building and then they just start running away? Did we miss something!?”

“Tamer over here did something and now those things are too freaked out to be around wherever he shows up,” Kari explained to them. The looks on all their faces said enough.

Sora shook her head as she said, “Somehow that alone makes way too much sense. So what’s the plan?”

Tamerkato groaned, “Boy, I hate repeating myself. Okay, we go back to the original plan. We go on the offense. The biggest issue will be finding where the plane is coming from so we can get to the bomb.”

“If it’s the Americans, the closest one is Yokota Air Base. That’s a joint USAF-JADF base to the west of the city, but it’s mostly used for airlift operations. They don’t have any fighters or bombers,” Matt explained to them while scratching his head, “So if they’re coming from there, it’ll be on the back of a cargo plane.”

“Okay…cargo planes from the west. Got it. Any other places they could be coming from?”

“There’s also Misawa Air Base up north but that’s on the other side of the country. If they’re coming from there, it could be a while before they hit us,” Matt explained again, “The bigger problem is that Misawa actually has fighters and bombers. And those go much faster than cargo planes. So who knows what they’re sending and what they’ll be using to escort it.”

“What I wouldn’t give to have Imperialdramon here right now,” Takeru added sheepishly, “Well, I guess that means we’ll have to split up our teams. Half of us go west, the other half go north. We find the plane that’s going to blow up Tokyo and…what…hijack the plane?”

“What? No, not the plane! We just want the bomb,” Tamerkato said again, “Find the bomb, I can use the digivice to detach it and we fly off with the bomb. Then it’s just a matter of getting the bomb back to the city so that we can blow up the D-Reaper.”

“Okay...Magnadramon and I can head west to Yokota,” Kari volunteered.

“We’ll come with,” MagnaAngemon added, “Americans are pretty gun crazy already anyway.”

“Then Sora and I will go north towards Misawa. If the Americans are coming from that way, MetalGarurumon’s speed and Hououmon’s maneuverability will be more than enough to counter whatever they’ve got bringing their bomb,” Matt added.

Rapidmon raised up his gun arm, “Okay…and what about the rest of us? Because if I have to do any more running around, I’m going to collapse from exhaustion.”

“Sit tight and relax for now. Play defense if those things show up. Otherwise, just be ready to jump into action once we have the bomb,” Tamerkato explained matter of factly.

“Okay, I can see no one else is going to ask so I might as well. Why aren’t we just letting them drop the bomb? I mean…we’re going to use it on the D-Reaper anyway so what difference does it make if we drop it or if they drop it?” Rika asked with a raised hand, her mood souring as she went on, “And more importantly, are we really planning on fighting the American military?”

“It’s not the craziest thing we’ve ever done,” Henry smirked, nodding towards the adult digidestined and their partners, “And if you guys are anything like the show, it’s not the craziest thing you’ve done either.”

“Show? What?” Rosemon turned her head in confusion.

Takeru just beamed proudly while Matt buried his head in his hands, “Let’s not talk about it. Can we get moving already? That bomb isn’t going to stop itself!”

#The Digimon Tamer v2 - In His name #Chapter 44 #The Digimon Tamer #takato matsuda #Guilmon

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 39 - In The Closet is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

The Burnt Leaf SUV pulled up in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building and M announced, “This is your stop guys.”

Despite the chaos of their present situation, the trip was relatively quick and calm. It was almost boring despite the chaos going on. The streets which were crowded with traffic - stopped cars trying to get out of the city and crowds of people fleeing on foot - seemed to become instantaneously clear as they made their way through the city. Pile the fighting and the birds swarming over head, and it was a miracle that they got here as quickly as they did.

There was a small police presence at the entrance but it was obvious they were too out of their depth to actually be of any use. Most of them just ended up gawking helplessly at the bird things as they soared by overhead. The few of them who were of any use spent their time just trying to keep crowds of people inside the building.

“Why are we here?” Rika asked, gazing out the towers that had been the center of the Hypnos Program. The woman unlocked the doors and they flew open of their own accord, “Burnt Leaf policy is to make sure everyone gets to where they need to be when they need to be there. What happens next is up to you guys.”

“And that answers my question how?” Rika asked. The woman smiled her biggest possible smile before pushing her out onto the street, “Don’t think too much about it. Just do whatever comes natural.”

“I’m getting sick of people giving us these non-answers,” Rika protested as she stumbled out onto the street. Ryo hurried out to catch her but she’d already steadied herself by then. Still, that didn’t stop him from asking, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Rika said, giving the tire of the SUV a swift kick. Monodramon joined in her kicking too, making her action seem all the more childish and useless. M seemed to laugh mockingly at her and winked, “You kids have fun doing what you do best. And remember, we’re watching you! Good luck!”

With another click, the doors slammed shut and the SUV took off down the street. Henry scratched his head, “So what do we do now?”

“She said she was trying to get us where we needed to be when we needed to be there. I’m not going to lie, that sounds like something only Tamer would say,” Ryo answered grumpily. Rika could see his fists trembling and took hold of them to calm him down, “Hey, calm down. The last thing we need right now is an out of control Cyberdramon.”

That seemed to work, until she realized he was now red from embarrassment instead of anger. It took her a second too long to understand why and she slapped him to hide her own embarrassment, “Idiot.”

“Or maybe that’s exactly what we need,” Henry suggested with a hand to his chin, looking down at Monodramon who’d crossed his arms and started muttering what must’ve been several devious curses at him. He only stopped when Ryo flicked his finger across his head, “No, we’re not doing that. Best case scenario is he gets swallowed absorbed by whatever that...thing is.”

“That’s the best case?” Henry repeated, feeling his mouth falling wide open in horror at how casually Ryo seemed to be handling the idea of losing his partner. Even Monodramon was staring bitterly at his partner. Ryo continued, “The alternative, which is the worse case scenario, is Cyberdramon goes completely out of control - then he and that thing destroy each other and possibly the whole world with it.”

“You seriously think he can do that?” Terriermon asked curiously, eyeing Monodramon who still seemed unsure of what he said. Ryo sighed, “You have no idea what he’s capable of. What he was capable of before I was his partner. There’s no telling when or if that power will come back. And if it does...worse case scenario.”

“Right, so anyone have any other plans?” Rika asked grumpily.

“What are you all doing here?”

All three children and their digimon looked up to see Doctor Kido coming towards them dressed more casually than he had seen before. He was holding an open phone in one hand that he was holding away from his ear, “On my way up. Meet me at the entrance.”

His expression was dour, and he spoke more animatedly than he had before, “You kids shouldn’t be out here.”

“Are you kidding? We’re exactly the ones who need to be out here!” Terriermon declared. Before he could add to that statement, Doctor Kido started ushering them back inside, “No, I mean this isn’t the place to be standing around talking! Get inside before any of those military guys freak out and start shooting. You can practically hear how trigger happy they are from here!”

“What are you even doing here?” Rika asked as he pushed them in through the door, to an entryway busy with staffers hurriedly answering phones and trying to calm a crowd of people who’d rushed inside when all the chaos happened. Several security guards and police officers were trying to maintain some semblance of calm and order, or as much as possible when there were several heavily armed men in the room. And the air turned to terror once they saw the digimon enter the building.

Screams broke out and the crowd rushed away from the door...from the digimon. Two of the guards aimed their guns at them, “Leave!”

“Get down on the ground!”

“We can’t do both,” Renamon reasoned, “What do you want of us?”

“Down on the ground!” the first barked while the other shouted, “Leave!”

Renamon groaned and looked to the doctor who’d ushered them in, “Are you sure it’s any safer in here than it is out there? I mean at least out there, the men with the guns had other things to shoot at.”

“Really not the time for this,” Doctor Kido fired back, his hands raised just over his head as the armed guards surrounded them. It was just as much a surprise to him as it was to the rest of them they hadn’t started shooting yet. Then again, it was kinda hard to comply with their contradictory orders like that. What were they supposed to do? Drop to the floor and crawl out of the building? Then again, maybe these guys were just as unsure about to do as they were. It wasn’t like digimon regularly walked into the metropolitan building.

“Stand down!” Yamaki’s voice echoed, pushing his way through the guards with several of his agents flanking him. Some were dressed in the typical black suit while others dressed completely in black. Yamaki was glaring daggers at doctor Kido, “I told you to take the side door.”

“I was going to when I saw them standing around at front,” he explained, thumbing at the kids. Yamaki raised an eyebrow at them, “It’s about time. We’ve been looking for you three. Take them upstairs into custody.”

“Custody?” Ryo repeated out loud, his voice just short of exploding at Yamaki. Yamaki gestured at the crowd of people trying to somehow get further away from the digimon and they understood why. Their partners were freaking them out. How could they not? Most of them had only ever seen digimon on the news causing havoc and destroying the city. And if not that, then it was only as a kid’s toy line. They had every reason to be afraid of the digimon.

Yamaki added at just above a whisper, “It’s just for show for their sake. Let my team escort you upstairs before these people start a riot. Never underestimate how stupid people can be in a crisis.”

Against her better judgment, Rika nodded in agreement and went along with the guards for now. It wasn’t like she had much choice in the matter anyway. Each of the guards pretended to place them in handcuffs before taking them onto an elevator one at a time to take them upstairs. Some in the crowd openly cried out against this, angered that the monsters were being brought further into the building instead of away. Others cheered at seeing the creatures being taken away. For once, they all knew what it was like to be the ire of so many people at the same time.

And it was irritating.

On the other hand, it was kind of humbling. This was what they had been putting Tamerkato through since this whole mess started.

Their heads cooled once they were safe upstairs in the offices where they found most of the former digidestined gathered along with several of the computer programmers responsible for making the Digital World - their school teacher Miss Kamiya, that ramen shop guy Motomiya, the fashion designer and rock star pair the Ishidas, and the detective and his wife - the Ichijoujis.

Rika took one look around the room and asked, “Where are mom and dad?”

“Yeah, where are our parents?” Henry added, scratching his head at the absence of their parents. After all, their families were a lot more involved in this than they’d initially thought. Detective Ichijouji answered the question quietly, “Either stuck in traffic or having to take the long way around to get here. That thing suddenly appearing like it did has resulted in all the major train routes being shut down and half the streets are clogged with either people trying to get out of the city or the Self Defense Force trying to get in. For now, we’re all there is. Good to see you, Joe.”

“Likewise,” the doctor greeted him back. Then again, the situation was entirely too grim for anyone to be happy at the moment. Then Yamato finally raised his voice, “Has there been any sign of Tamer yet?”

The female agent Riley shook her head and frowned, “No. We have a description out to all available field operatives and agents. So far, no one has reported anything yet. Then again, with how crowded the streets are, he could be right in front of them and no one would know.”

“What about you, Miss Kamiya?” Henry asked quietly. Her expression didn’t change as she looked at him, “What about me?”

“Well…I mean…you seemed closer to Tamer than any of us. If he was going anywhere, he’d go to you,” Henry pointed out sheepishly, not wanting to put her on the spot like this. However, he wasn’t wrong. If Tamer was going to bother anyone, it would be her. After all, they were close - weren’t they? She sighed, “He did come to my place last night.”

“WHAT!?” the detective, rockstar, and Ryo both blurted out at the same. They were struck across the back of the head by their wives and Rika, respectively. Miss Kamiya raised up her hands defensively, “He…well…he spoke to me and Juri last night on the train ride home. This…all of this…it’s Juri. He said something happened to Juri in the Digital World. He wasn’t sure what. He just knew that whatever came back wasn’t Juri.”

“He knew!?” Rika snapped now, “Juri’s been off since her partner died. If he knew, why the hell didn’t he say anything?”

“He wasn’t sure what it was at the time. And he was waiting to see what it was going to do. If he didn’t tell you guys, I’m sure it was just to keep you all calm. Some of you…or rather us…do fly off the handle a lot,” Miss Kamiya explained quietly, barely making anything resembling a case for either herself or The Digimon Tamer. A beat of silence followed - Rika wanted to be mad about it. But the idea that it could’ve been her or Ryo or anyone else instead of Juri was just as equally terrifying. Which raised the question - why did it go for Juri? Was it because she was emotionally unwell? Because she was vulnerable? Why did it go for her and not literally anyone else present?

But they would have to worry about that later. Now the question was how to stop that thing from destroying the world and saving Juri. Rika groaned, “Okay, so now what?”

Yamaki adjusted his clothes, “We’ve been trying to round up as many of you as we can since you’re all the resident experts in this situation. We’re also trying to coordinate between government organizations but that’s slow going. That thing is messing with our communications - it’s not affecting electronics but wireless communications are no good. Anything further that shouting distance leads to signal distortion. On top of that, conventional weapons aren’t working on it. What few reports have trickled in from the Self Defense Force indicates that gunfire, explosives, and artillery barely scratch it. The Americans were proposing high grade ordinance from their nearby naval base but-”

“They want to bomb the city?” Dolphin blurted out in disbelief, “Are they insane? That’ll do more harm than good! We need more time to evacuate the city before they try anything like that!”

They were some murmurs of agreement but Riley gestured out the window towards the Imperial Palace, “Don’t worry. They’re not allowing it yet. The Prime Minister and Emperor both said they’d consider any foreign action as an act of war. But that’s the problem. The problem is that they’re not allowing it now. Who knows about later? As soon as the city is all clear, they’ll probably start authorizing a bomb drop.”

That statement looked over the group of them like a horrifying nightmare. Was this really happening? It couldn’t be. This couldn’t be actually happening. This was insane - they were ready to destroy the city and they weren’t even sure it was going to work. The concern was accentuated by the rock star kicking over a computer and cursing, “Dammit! Tamer screwed us again!”

They were pulled from their thoughts by a bright flash of light accompanied by screams.

“AAAH!”

When the light faded, everyone found Tamer lying on the ground atop Guilmon, massaging his head as he grumbled, “Damn that stings! I swear I was a lot better at landings before the new feet. It’s gotta be the legs. They’re still too short!”

“Takatomon. Please get off me,” Guilmon whimpered from underneath him. Tamerkato scrambled to his feet and helped to pull the dinosaur up, “Sorry buddy. Didn’t mean to fall on you.”

“How are you so heavy when you’re so small?” the dinosaur whimpered. Tamerkato scratched the back of his head and laughed, then paused, “Wait, are you calling me fat?”

“TAMER! Where the hell did you go?” Ishida shouted at the top of his lungs. Tamerkato rubbed his ear, “Ow! No need to shout! I’m right here. I thought you’d be happy to see me after I brought help!”

“What are you talking about?” That cooled Ishida down for a second, which was just as well since his wife was already escorting him back down to a chair and leering at him like a dog who’d misbehaved. Tamerkato took a second to look around before asking, “I’m talking about…wait a second, where’d they all go? They were with me a second ago.”

A soft thunk from the far end of the room caught their attention, and they turned their heads towards a supply closet, “Hello? Is anyone there?”

“I’m here! Who else is?” another voice asked.

“Is that who I think it is?” Joe said with his mouth hanging open.

“Fascinating. I didn’t know this was even possible. But where are we?” a new, older voice asked.

The monster makers looked at each other and one asked, “Was that Shibumi?”

“I know where we’re not. Safe.”

“Takeru?” Matt repeated in astonished disbelief.

“Palmon! Get your vine out of my face.”

“That’s not my vine! Hey! Quit it!” Palmon cried out in protest, “Biyomon! Get your beak out of there!”

“My beak’s not touching anything!” Biyomon’s voice answered.

“That’s my horn! You get off!” Gabumon’s voice said.

“Everyone be quiet! I think I found a door!” Wormmon’s voice echoed from further inside. They heard the knob turn and a closet door swung open to reveal multiple rookie level digimon and two adult males spilling out of the closet and onto the floor. Immediately, everyone in the room jumped in surprise and security promptly surrounded the digimon with their weapons drawn. Shouts and threats flew but the many digimon weren’t exactly threatened by a bunch of weird people with guns telling them what to do.

“On the ground!”

“Don’t tell me what to do! And we’re inside so that’s a floor.”

“I said on the floor!”

“No! You said on the ground, not the floor! Don’t lie!”

“Do you really think pointing a gun at a talking…Veemon, what are you exactly? Dinosaur? Dragon?”

“I’m Veemon. What elshe would I be?”

“QUIET!”

The whole room fell quiet as a middle aged man with a mullet and a bushy beard stood up. He cracked a tired yawn and looked around at the whole room, scratching the back of his head as he stared out at the whole room in annoyance. It was Shibumi - the guy who only ever seemed to spend his time sleeping. He took one look around the room and asked one simple question, “Okay…this has been a fascinating experience but can I go back to the Digital World? It was a lot less stressful there.”

“Shibumi!” one of the Monster Makers hurried over to his side, patting his shoulder and helping to lift him his up, “It’s good to see you. Where the hell were you?”

Shibumi stared at his former fellow colleagues in silence for the longest time, staring at them with a curious fascination without uttering a word. Then he pinched the one named Dolphin on the arm until they shrieked, “AH! What the hell!?”

“Sorry. I wasn’t sure you were real. Spending a lifetime in another world that doesn’t operate by our rules makes it hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t. There were times I wasn’t sure I was dreaming or not,” he answered sheepishly. The one called Babel responded by throwing a punch at his shoulder, “What? Shibumi, never change. You’re as out there as ever.”

“What do you mean? It all made sense to me,” Palmon remarked.

“We were in a house, under a fresh water lake, surrounded by salt water fish!” Shibumi countered.

“Okay, so is anyone going to fill me in on what is going on?” Riley interrupted with a raised hand, before gesturing to everyone that had just fallen out of the closet, “Who are they? Where did they come from? Isn’t this a big security breach? And is that a talking plant?”

Palmon raised up her leafy arm and answered, “If you’re talking about me, I’m pretty sure I’m a flower…or a cactus…not really sure.”

“Do cactuses have vines?” Gabumon asked.

“All of these things are plants! Sir, shouldn’t we have them detained?” she asked the Director who’d made a habit of massaging the side of his head more often than not. That statement had Ishida jumping up to his feet, “Like hell you will!”

“Matt, is that you?” the Gabumon asked happily, jumping out of the pile of digimon to go join his partner. The moment would’ve been happy if the0 guards didn’t feel the need to train their guns on Gabumon. Still the little digimon hardly noticed as he wrapped his arms around Matt’s legs, “It’s been so long! I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too buddy,” Ishida greeted him back, barely breaking his stoic and stern demeanor in the face of what should’ve been a warm reunion, “But let’s catch up once things have calmed down. And stop pointing that gun at Takeru!”

Takeru straightened himself out and greeted the others, “Hey guys. How are you?”

“How are we? Takeru, you’ve been missing you idiot!” Ishida snapped at his little brother, raising his fists as if to punch the man but stopping and throwing his arms around him in a hug, “You stupid, paranoid, idiot. I’m glad you’re safe.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you Matt,” Takeru apologized to his older brother for whatever it was worth. Although it didn’t appear to be much since Ishida went ahead and punched him in the shoulder as soon as he let go. Takeru yelped in pain, “Ow! I thought you were worried about me. What the hell was that for?”

“That was for worrying the hell out of me you idiot,” Ishida answered, cracking his knuckles. Rika, Ryo, and Henry all exchanged surprised looks. In the books and the show, the two brothers were always shown as having a close relationship. It seemed impossible for one to ever be truly mad at the other. But here they were, throwing jabs and punches at each other like this was a normal occurence for them. In the midst of all this, Rika took note of the other digimon making their way to their partners - Biyomon to Sora, Gomamon to Doctor Kido, Gatomon to Miss Kamiya, Veemon to Motomiya, Wormmon and Hawkmon to the Ichijoujis. The remaining digimon were left to pout about the absence of their partners.

“Where’s Mimi? Why isn’t she here with the rest of you?”

“Yeah, where’s Izzy?”

“And where’s Cody!?”

“We’ve got a lot to catch you up on. But don’t worry! They’re on their way. It’s chaos out there,” Sora Ishida explained as she picked up her pink bird partner, “It’s so good to see you guys. I missed you all. Have you been in the Digital World this whole time?”

“Yeah, we’ve been hiding. Takeru said there were some bad people after us,” Biyomon said to her former partner. Takeru finally pushed himself away from his older brother to explain, “I got tipped off by those Burnt Leaf guys we ran into. They said that Hypnos was after our digimon. So I took them to the Digital World to protect them.”

“Okay, I get that part but why didn’t you tell us? Come on, man. We’re all friends! We would’ve understood,” Motomiya said.

“I wasn’t sure who I could trust honestly,” Takeru admitted quietly, “And the one person I did trust was nowhere to be found until recently. Speaking of which, what now Tamer?”

“Hang on! You trust Tamer, more than me?” Ishida interrupted.

“Rough,” Terriermon remarked, earning him a smack from Henry.

“This has been quite the moment, but I’m not entirely sure we needed to be here,” Renamon answered calmly.

“As I was saying!” Takeru interrupted, “What now Tamer? What do we do next?”

Tamerkato raised up his finger like he was going to say something, then paused with his mouth hanging open, “I don’t know. Head’s still fuzzy from the multiple Human and Digital Worlds sitting on top of each other. I was able to think more clearly in the Digital World so I’m mostly making this up as I go. First thing’s first, we need to save Juri. We get her out of there. Then we can kill the D-Reaper.”

“D-Reaper? That’s the D-Reaper?” Shibumi repeated aloud, practically shouting. The other Monster Makers were just as equally stunned and unsettled by that revelation. Curly stood up from what she was doing to go the window, staring out in silently and eyes widened with horror at the realization of what they’d all wrought, “That’s…D-Reaper?”

“Can someone fill me in? What’s D-Reaper?” Riley asked with a raised hand. Tamerkato gestured out the window, “D-Reaper is that thing. A monster that showed up in the Digital World forever ago - focused mostly on eating everything it could get its hands on. The Guardians couldn’t kill it so they did the next best thing and tricked it - burying it in the center of the Digital World with an equally strong enemy who just so happened to be a threat to them. Sort of a kill two birds with one stone solution. Only now that bird has come back bigger, stronger, smarter, and a lot angrier.”

“It’s also a program we made,” Curly added quietly, “It was a regulation program - meant to foster growth in the simulation by making sure no one digital life form became too dominant or powerful. A check against natural selection taking matters too far into its own hands. It was created to promote diversity of life. But we never expected it to do...this. It was the one thing we never expected to run rampant. It should’ve gone dormant whenever things leveled out.”

Dolphin scratched his head quietly, trying to make sense of that revelation, “Maybe things got too powerful in the Digital World. After all, they started bleeding into this world. The D-Reaper is going to destroy everything to prevent it from becoming rampant.”

“Or it’s attacking us. Think about it. We’re the dominant species on this planet and most other life forms don’t stand a chance against us! Climate change, resource depletion, mass extinction, pollution...all caused by mankind. Is it any wonder this is happening?” Curly said. It was a surprisingly grim thing to hear. The only reason she didn’t finish was because Babel came over to slap the back of her head, “Curly, I love ya! You is my girl. But chill! Snap back to reality for a second.”

The woman froze for a second, taking a moment to collect her thoughts before nodding, “Right, sorry.”

“Okay, so we’re all here for the first time in a long time. What’s the plan, Tamer?” Takeru asked Tamerkato who stood there with his hands in his pockets. All eyes were on him now as he started pacing and clapping his hands together, “Right! The plan! The plan I definitely have. Yes, I’ll definitely be telling you about that plan, now...yeah...”

“You don’t have a plan do you?” Gatomon accused from Miss Kamiya’s arms. Tamerkato’s shoulders slumped, “I said I was making this up as I go!”

“Great,” Ishida threw up his hands in frustration.

“Calm down, Matt,” his partner patted his arm to try and calm him down for whatever it was worth. Tamerkato quickly added, “Look, the best plan the Guardians could come up with was to bury it and hope it went away. A civilization that was so far ahead technologically that reality was their plaything couldn’t think of a way to defeat it. Sorry I don’t have a plan. I probably did. I definitely might have at some point...but I don’t remember what it is.”

The room filled with a collective groan and Tamerkato scratched the back of his head, apologizing profusely while he racked his brain to figure out what he could do.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Takeru answered calmly. Everyone in the room shot him a confused look, surprised that he could be so calm about the whole thing. With that same calm air, he explained, “Look. Destiny has always worked itself out in our favor. Remember?”

“You forget that Tamer over here was usually pushing us in the right direction. If he wasn’t, literally anything could’ve happened,” Ichijouji thumbed at the goggle headed boy. Henry finally chose to speak, “I’m not really sure destiny had anything to do with what’s going on. After all, we’ve been doing just fine on our own so far.”

...

Yamaki crossed his arms. It seemed to him that a lot of the anger in the room was horribly misplaced. After all, half of the people in the room were blaming a kid claiming to be some advanced alien race. However, it seemed obvious who the blame laid with - the Monster Makers. This thing was their creation after all. If they hadn’t done their stupid college program, they wouldn’t be in this mess. He also knew part of the blame laid with his superiors - at least, as far as he was concerned. And anyone insisting he was nursing a personal grudge was welcome to tell him that to his face.

He stood up and called for everyone’s attention, “If we’re done groaning and expecting a child to solve our problems, we still have a serious issue in the form of that thing out there. Shibumi, you’ve been a difficult man to get a hold off so you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. And you damn well have a lot to catch up on when it comes to fixing your mess. Yes, your mess. Don’t make that face. You helped make Yggdrasil. As far as I care, this is your mess to clean up.”

“Yggdr-what?” Tamer repeated stupidly. Yamaki thumbed over his shoulder and tapped a large series of servers lining the wall beside him, “This computer setup. They called it Yggdrasil.”

“I call it Yggy for short,” Daisy added with a smile. Yamaki groaned, “Not important right now. This computer is the thing running the computer program that became the wild ones…the digimon and the digital world. It’s where that thing came from.”

He gestured out the window towards the red mass growing on the horizon outside the window. Helicopters were circling it from above - some military firing at it to no effect and others were civilian news. It was obvious from here that the situation was deteriorating rapidly and they needed to come up with a solution quickly. The ever present reminder made his growing head ache turn into a slow migraine, “If I’d have known this was going to be what came out of that machine, I would’ve unplugged it the moment we got our hands on it.”

“Don’t you dare joke about that!” Daisy roared with anger, pushing her finger against Yamaki’s chest in protest, as if she were a parent scolding her child…or perhaps a wife scolding her husband in this case, “That’s our baby! That is the most advanced life simulation ever made. Don’t even think about turning it off!”

He couldn’t help but notice Takato was currently examining the computer program carefully. He knew that concentrating face because he’d seen it so many times on Izumi’s face during the many nights he worked late to get the Juggernaut working. He was coming up with an idea. Tamerkato spun on his heels, “Got it.”

“Got what?” Ichijouji asked, “Do you have a plan?”

“The start of one,” Tamerkato said excitedly, rubbing his temples, “Yes...maybe...no...not quite...okay, headache’s not helping so I’m just gonna start shouting ideas. There’s two Digital Worlds and two Human Worlds. Two sets of overlapping realities also overlapping with each other. One of those worlds exists in this world as a computer program being run on an old computer! We could turn it off! It would destroy everything in the Artificial Digital World and the Natural Digital World would fall apart shortly after - like taking out half the puzzle pieces in a puzzle box! We can’t have that! But what if we separate them? Move all the digimon in the Digital World from the Artificial one to the Natural one. Leave the D-Reaper program running on its own in the Artificial Digital World! Turn it off!”

“You just said that would destroy the Digital World!” Gatomon repeated loudly, “Dammit, Tamer. Why does everything boil down to destroying things with you?”

“Just the Artificial Digital World,” Tamerkato clarified, “Everything else will move to the Natural Digital World.”

“What?” Gatomon raised an eyebrow, half out of confusion and half out of frustration, “What the hell are you babbling about?”

Tamerkato pointed at the computer again, “This, the computer runs an Artificial Digital World. Another one made by the humans in an alternate version of this world. One where the digidestined don’t exist and digimon is just a kids’ toy franchise - shows, books, card games, action figures.”

A beat followed before Gomamon complained, “Okay, is anyone following this? Because I have no idea what he’s talking about. And here I thought Izzy was bad with slowing down.”

Was it that confusing? It was, but Yamaki was at least able to follow it. Zhenyu’s son Henry gestured at the computer, “To catch you guys up - this world, our world…the human world mixed itself up with another human world. One where digimon was just a card game and a tv show, and another one where the stuff that happened to you guys was real. In the world where digimon was just a card game, these guys-”

He pointed at the Monster Makers, “-including my dad, started a project in college to make life forms on a computer program. That became that world’s version of the Digital World. An artificial Digital World. That artificial Digital World mixed with the Digital World you guys know - the natural one. He wants to get all the digimon out of the artificial Digital World and into the natural one, then turn off the artificial one. If that makes sense.”

“Hang on…I’m not following any of this,” one of the Monster Makers said, “What the hell? Two Digital Worlds? Two human worlds? What?”

Tamerkato sighed, “Okay…maybe we should start all this at the beginning. I’m getting really tired of explaining this.”

He grabbed a marker off one of the desks and started writing on the walls just as Yamaki groaned, “Will you people stop writing on my walls? Seriously, is everyone in this room five?”

#The Digimon Tamer v2 - In His name #Chapter 39 #Digimon Tamers #Part 3 #Fanfiction

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 37 - The Shinjuku Quarantine is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Renamon gazed down at Impmon’s unconscious form, laying on his back on the tree branch in the garden of the Makino household. Or Izumi, or Nonaka, or whatever it really was. As frustrating as it was to deal with, she knew that was at the bottom of their list of issues. First was what they were going to do when they got back to the Digital World. Second was what they were going to do about Impmon. She’d helped him out of a moment of pity - but was unsure if he deserved it after what he did. She closed her eyes and ruminated on it briefly, trying to reach a conclusion but unsatisfied with everything that came to mind.

He had killed Leomon - one of the partner digimon of the children who were going to save their world. And he’d done it for what? To test his power? She was unsure what to make of it since he’d always chosen to avoid fighting in the past - claiming that the smartest would survive. So was it really smart to run head first into a battle out of pure blood lust? And why his hatred towards the humans? His distrust for them far exceeded anything demonstrated by the Devas or the Sovereigns. And they had more reason to be weary than Impmon.

“Hmm?” Impmon cracked an eye open and looked around, still in a daze and struggling to stand up right. She crossed her arms, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

“I’m alive?” Impmon looked down at himself, carefully inspecting every inch of his body for some damage. Renamon nodded, “Yes, although there were some of us who were unsure you deserved the courtesy. You’re alive only because Juri decided to show you a moment of mercy. The girl whose partner you killed.”

Impmon gave no answer, obviously still amazed that he was here and alive to be having this discussion. There was a distraught look in his eyes - a haunted gaze she’d seen only in the most traumatized of digimon before they were destroyed by other, stronger digimon. She tilted her head, “Regretting what you did?”

“I don’t…know how to say it…I saw so many…so many…” he was struggling to put into words. Whatever the Digimon Tamer had done to him clearly did a number - Impmon was reduced to rambling like a madman. After a moment, he shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“Use your words,” she pressed. He massaged his temples and closed his eyes so hard she was sure he was going to pass out again, “I don’t want to. Whatever that was. Whatever I saw. I don’t want to see it again. I don’t want to think of it.”

She should’ve suspected as much, “The Digimon Tamer said he put a bad memory in your head. If it did that to you, one can only imagine what it did to him.”

“That was a memory? I thought it was a nightmare!” Impmon protested angrily, “What the hell kinda human is that? He’s a kid!”

“He isn’t. He’s a digital being - like you or me and he’s even older than either of us,” Renamon explained, “I thought you said the smart would survive. The smart thing to do would’ve been to not run into that situation head first without a plan. So why’d you do it? What possessed you to attack us?”

Impmon fell quiet again, staring down at his hands and then looking skyward. He jumped up upon seeing the skyline, “We’re back in the human world!?”

“Yes, now answer my question. What happened?” Renamon pressed, becoming annoyed, “Why did you attack us!? You wanted to test your power but why on us?”

Impmon averted his gaze, “I wanted to prove that digimon could become strong without humans. That we didn’t need partners. I guess I was right, though. In the end, that old kid and his insane red dragon were the only ones who could beat me - one’s not even human and the other ain’t any kind of digimon I’ve seen before.”

Renamon felt herself shaking from his answer. Was that it? That was why he did all this? It was taking all her effort to restrain herself from doing anything rash, “You killed Leomon to make a point?”

No answer.

“You took a life, prevented it from reformatting, killed a good digimon in front of a ten year old girl…definitely traumatized her forever. All to make a point,” Renamon repeated quietly, shaking with uncontrolled anger. He still wouldn’t look at her. This must be how Rika feels any time she has to be around the Digimon Tamer. It was no wonder she was prone to fits of anger. Still, she needed to know, “Why do you have so much animosity towards humans!?”

“BECAUSE WHY COULDN’T I GET ONE OF THE GOOD ONES!?” Impmon snapped at her. That was not the answer she was expecting from him. She recalled Tamer mentioning he had a bad partner but bad enough to make him like that? What kind of human was capable of making Impmon like this? It didn’t excuse any of his actions - they were still unforgivable - but she had no idea that he’d been hurting this whole time.

“The Digimon Tamer said you had a partner. We determined that much,” she said quietly, more repeating the fact than anything else. He nodded, “I had partners. These two kids. And they fought over everything! Toys! Food! Clothes! And everything they fought over, they eventually broke. It was only a matter of time until they broke me. Hell, they probably already did. So I ran from that place before they could make it any worse and never looked back. And I don’t regret it for a moment.”

Renamon notes the hesitation in his voice, “Even after everything you did? Killing Leomon? Forcing a little girl to watch?”

Once again he gave no answer and just stared off into space. She was getting really annoyed with his evasiveness, “Did you ever try talking to them? Working things out?”

“What do I look like, some kinda counselor?” Impmon raised an eyebrow, “Y’know what? We’ve been answering all your questions so how’s about you answers one o’ mine?”

That was fair, “What did you want to know?”

“Why are we back in the human world?” Impmon asked quietly. There was a lot to answer there, “We figured out the cause of all of this and it isn’t good by any measure. We returned to this world to regroup before we headed back to deal with it. After all, everyone was tired and Juri was in no condition to continue. Not after what you did.”

“Will ya stop tryin’ to guilt me? That’s the last thing I need!” Impmon protested angrily. Renamon remained passive, “I answered the question. Now answer mine! What are you going to do now?”

“Wha!?” Impmon gave her a quizzical look. Renamon picked the digimon up by his scarf, “You got your power and it amounted to nothing. Your own stated distrust of humans was built on your past experiences with your partner. But you were clearly the exception, not the rule. You said it was all about survival. So are you going to continue out on your own, as much good as it’s done you. Or are you going to go back to your partners?”

Impmon stared downward at the garden in silence, clearly contemplating the answer. Renamon waited for it eagerly until she felt a sudden energy in the air that made her fur stand on end. She looked upwards, over the horizon and saw a massive red blob in the distance. The red mass that they’d fought in the Digital World. It was here. It was in the human world. Impmon saw it too and his jaw fell open, “Well I know what I’m doing first. I’m getting away from that!”

She didn’t try to stop him, letting him run away. It seemed that was what he was best at. Running away from danger.

But there was no time to dwell on him. That thing was here now. She knew now that there would be no going back to the Digital World. Not if it was here.

…

“This was the scene today in downtown Tokyo as the gelatinous red mass continues to expand. It’s been five hours since the mass first appeared and now the mass has absorbed three square blocks of the city. Government officials have declared the area a quarantine zone and are advising citizens to stay at least a mile away. The Self Defense Force continues to evacuate citizens to camps outside the city, however unrest grows as questions go answered. And now we go to our resident expert at the studio-”

Yamaki switched off the news and groaned angrily at the situation. The Minister of Defense was breathing down his neck to solve the problem and he had no solutions. He had no idea what this problem even was. It wasn't like with the wild ones - they could at least be captured and contained, or put down if that wasn’t an option. But this thing - this mass. It was too big to properly contain and none of the weapons they’d developed to fight ‘digimon’ were proving effective.

They couldn’t tranquilize it, it didn’t respond to magnets or electrical shocks or anything. If he didn’t come up with something soon, it would be his ass.

His phone rang, pulling him out of his thoughts, “Director Yamaki speaking.”

“Director, this is the Prime Minister,” the man on the other end said. He froze up, feeling the color drain from his face as the nation’s leader spoke, “Tell me you have a plan for this.”

“We’re exercising all our options, sir,” Yamaki answered, “We’re readying to fire Juggernaut again, and currently have our scientists working around the clock to better study what we’re up against.”

He doubted the Prime Minister appreciated his assurances, especially with his current track record regarding the wild ones. He massaged the bridge of his nose as he prepared for whatever answer the Minister would give, “Your department hasn’t had the best of luck when it comes to dealing with these other worldly threats. Since discretion is no longer a factor, I’m authorizing the Defense Force to step in. Im giving operational command to the general and I Hypnos providing support and intelligence.”

“Sir, with all due respect, that’s in violation of the Morpheus Project,” Yamaki reminded him, “If you don’t want the United Nations Security Council coming down on us, I strongly recommend operating within our-”

“We both know that’s a crock of shit, Yamaki. Be realistic. The Chinese, the French, the British, the Russians...hell, the Americans violate more UN agreements before breakfast. Who gives a shit about the UN right now? Let’s focus on dealing with the problem with everything we have. I’m not having another Odaiba Incident. Do you understand?”

Yamaki hesitated, unprepared for this specific scenario. Agreeing meant breaking several international agreements, which he was sure the Prime Minister would happily blame him for to save face. Alternatively, refusing would lead to his arrest for treason. He would need to play his cards carefully going forward. And he could only do that if he was in charge of his team, “Whatever you need sir.”

Carefully chosen words. He could argue that he was following orders from the Prime Minister if this ever came back to bite him.

“Good, get it done,” the Prime Minister responded. The line went dead and Yamaki took a moment to consider his situation. Time for reflection like this was enough to make him understand that his situation was infuriating. He needed to stay calm and think rationally. But he had nothing for this. He was being set up as the fall guy. But that was going to happen over his dead body. He could afford to be emotional, if only for a moment. All that anger and rage and frustration erupted as throwing the phone as hard as he could at the wall - smashing it to pieces and denting the dry wall. He would not take the fall for these men. Not after everything he'd done to keep this nation - this world safe.

This was no longer just a mission to save the world. This was a mission to save the world and destroy their of these feckless politicians - he was going to burn all his bridges and leave them standing in the ruin.

...

Henry couldn’t believe his eyes as his parents watched the news over breakfast. The red mass that had threatened the Digital World was now in their world. But how? Had it followed them when they came back? Was it their fault?

As his mind raced in a panic, the news reporter went on, “Military personnel are quarantining the area and preventing anyone from getting closer but the mass absorbs all barricades placed to contain it. If you look over my shoulder, the trucks parked on the street and walls erected to contain the mass are now partially absorbed. They also appear to be setting up weapons for a conventional attack on the target - we’ve seen tanks, helicopters, transport vehicles and-”

The reporter was cut off as a soldier appeared behind him, “Hey! We told you to back up! Shut off that camera! This is a designated quarantine zone. You will move back now!”

Before either the reporter or the soldier could say anymore, gunfire could be heard followed by terrified screams. As the news cut back to the reporters in the station, Henry heard a loud bang followed by the apartment shaking. Terriermon ran to the window, “Well that’s not good. We thought we’d be safe here but it followed us.”

Henry turned his attention to the window and saw smoke rising over the buildings, in the direction of the red mass. Of the D-Reaper. He shuddered, knowing what he had to do but still terrified by what he would have to do. His partner elbowed his leg, or did something similar to it and Henry regained his resolve, “We need to go help.”

His mom didn’t take to that and she roared, “Henry, are you insane!? You’ll get yourself killed!”

He should’ve expected his mom’s disapproval, “Mom! That thing is destroying the Digital World! The world Terriermon came from! If I don’t go...if this isn’t stopped before it gets out of hand, then our world will be next! Terriermon and I need to go out there now while we can still do something about it.”

“It’s not just you two. I’m going to hurry back to the Metropolitan Building,” his dad added anxiously, hurrying to grab the phone, “I’m going to call Yamaki now. The sooner we get involved, the better.”

“Again!? Dear, don't tell me you’re involved in this!?” his mom cried out in anger. His dad shook his head sheepishly, “Honestly? If it’s anything to do with the digimon, then I made the problem! Henry! Make sure you and Terriermon come back safe!”

“Will do dad!” Henry called out, scooping up his partner and rushing for the door. As he slipped his shoes on, Xiaochun ran up along side him and tried to follow suit, “I’m coming too! We can help!”

“Am I the only one who thinks this is a terrible idea? I mean, I’m literally a fraction of my size right now and she wants to rush out there with you!” Lopmon asked from behind them.

“That’s why you guys are going to stay here!” Henry said so loudly, he nearly shouted. He didn’t want his sister getting involved in this mess and gently nudged her back inside, “Sorry, I don’t mean to shout. But you need to stay here.”

“Henry! I want to help!” she whined, “I have a digivice too! I can help! And Lopmon will come too, right?”

“Don’t you dare put words in my mouth,” Lopmon protested with folded arms.

“I-” he paused, knowing she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She was as stubborn as she was small. Although, he supposed that meant she was going to be very strong willed as an adult. He needed to convince her to stay with another reason, “You can help by protecting our family while I’m out, okay?”

She glared at him, catching on to the lie right away. Of course she did. It was obvious. But he wasn’t about to let her rush out into danger like this. Not when their lives when in danger. Finally, she huffed, “Fine!”

“Don’t worry, okay? I’ll be back!” he said, finishing putting on his shoes and running outside with Terriermon on his head. There wasn’t any more point in discretion. Not anymore.

The streets were just short of being full of panic, with armed soldiers keeping everyone calm as they directed traffic down set roads to help clear the city. Buses packed full of people moved along side those who’d packed their families into cars while everyone else walked. He must’ve looked crazy going in the opposite direction - but he ran as fast as he could through the crowds until he came across a soldier blocking him off, “Hey! Watch it kid! We’re evacuating! You’re heading in the wrong direction!”

Henry looked past the soldier at tent where more soldiers worked at a makeshift command center. Computers were hooked up to various radios and antenna that all fed into a rocket truck. He panicked at the sight of it, “You’re not planning of shooting rockets in the city, are you?”

“That’s not your business, kid. Now get back! I’m not saying it again,” the soldier warned again. Henry tried reasoning him but he didn’t expect it to go anywhere, “You don’t understand! Those won’t work! You can make it rain missiles all you want, they won’t do anything against a monster like-”

The soldier raised a rifle and pointed it at him, making a point of clicking off the safety. Henry raised up his hands and stepped back quietly, “Okay! I’m getting back!”

“Kids these days have no respect,” the soldier muttered quietly.

He stepped backwards several steps until the soldier lowered his gun, then turned and ran. There was no getting through to this soldier. And he definitely wasn’t going to get past this soldier either. He would need to change his approach - otherwise he’d risk getting shot at.

“Psst! Henry!” Rika called out to him from a nearby side street, poking her head out around the corner. He nodded and ran to join her, ducking into the side street to see Ryo there too with Monodramon and Renamon. Ryo crossed his arms and groaned, “Don't bother talking to them. We already tried that and they just got mad at us.”

“What are they even doing? They don’t seriously think that’ll work, do they? It’s literally absorbing everything it touches. It’ll probably just absorb the bullets and missiles too. And I doubt the explosions will do them any good,” Monodramon observed.

“Okay, take a running start!” a soldier called out. They poked their heads around the corner again to see a soldier holding a model plane in his hands. It was probably about half his height, but the wings were wide enough to mount what looked like small cameras. He raised it over his head and took a running start towards the red mass, throwing it with all his might as the propellor kicked on and it soared straight into the mass, “UAV is in the air! Receiving a signal in five!”

“UAV?” Renamon repeated.

“You got me,” Henry shrugged. The soldiers were too far away to hear properly and it was hard to make out anything else. After a few moments, one of the soldiers jumped out of his chair and threw his helmet on the ground in a fit of anger, “Piece of shit! How did it lose a signal? It’s fifty feet away! I could fucking see it with my own eyes if that stupid red jelly weren’t there!”

“Sergeant! Watch your language!” another of the soldiers barked at him, quieting the soldier down. Rika scoffed and turned away, “Saw that one coming a mile away. Of course it absorbed it. What’s over there anyway?”

“Apartments and I think some tracks,” Henry answered, peeking over again to see the soldier getting scolded by what must’ve been a superior. Rika scratched her head, “Okay, but why here? None of us were anywhere near here last night…”

“Wait, didn’t that one lady take Juri home last night?” Ryo asked aloud. Renamon’s tone changed, “You don’t think that she’s in there, do you?”

“Wait, I’m not following. What’s going on?” Terriermon asked quietly. Henry realized all too quickly what Ryo was getting at and was horrified by the realization explained, “The teacher from my school - Miss Asaji or Kari Kamiya or whoever - she said she was going to take Juri home since they didn’t need to hide a digimon and her parents weren’t there. I bet you they were on that train!”

“So that thing followed us here? How would it have come through though?” Terriermon asked, still not following the conversation. Henry scratched his head, “I don’t know. Juri was acting weird after everything that happened with Leomon. It could be connected. It could just be a really random coincidence. We have no real way of knowing at this point. Anything’s possible. For all we know, Tamerkato’s the one responsible for all of this!”

“You guys should really lighten up on him,” Terriermon frowned. Renamon looked upward, “It doesn’t matter for now. We’re on our own. We should fight.”

“And how are we going to do that with the military right there? They’ll shoot you on sight!” Rika gasped in panic, “I don’t want to lose you or see you get hurt because of them!”

…

The sergeant threw his helmet in a fit of anger. That was several million yen down the drain with no chance of being recovered. Still, they needed to know what was going on in there. They needed to be able to see what happened to anyone who would’ve been absorbed by this thing when it first showed up. But there was no way to do that safely. And the drone was their only chance.

He looked at the ever expanding red mass and wondered just what it was - where had it come from and what was it after? Was it even alive? Or was this some really weird magma flow? That couldn’t be possible. Ambient air temperature was the same. It wasn’t hot. It wasn’t radioactive. It just…was. It existed.

An amorphous blob that was growing faster than it could be contained.

Part of its surface bubbled like something was trying to escape. Then a golden eye appeared. He took a step back and blinked in surprise, “Hey guys? The thing has an eye now.”

“An eye?” one of the soldiers repeated. Some of his squad approached, each with their hands on their pistols for safety - not that it would do them much good against this thing. If it was this big, there was no doubt bullets wouldn’t even hurt it.

The eye blinked, bulging from the red surface until a face of purple skin protruded from the surface. Then another. And another appeared. Each broke free from the surface of the red mass - taking the shape of something like a bird. Or what a bird might look to someone who’d only ever heard of a bird.

The basic shape was there - but the proportions were all wrong and it didn’t seem to understand how birds worked. Eyes on the wings, claws coming from its body, and legs that seemed more like wires connecting it back to the main red mass. And the wings - they didn’t flap but the bird creature was able to hover in the air in defiance of every natural law. Like the wings were just for show and they flew of their own accord.

And before anyone knew it, there were hundreds of them just hovering in the air. Then they scattered, flying in hundreds of different directions around the city all at once. They couldn’t be allowed to get away. They had to be contained. They couldn’t be allowed to wreak havoc on the city.

…

“OPEN FIRE!” a soldier shouted from around the corner. Everyone poked their heads out again to see soldiers firing aimlessly at a flock of bird like creatures flying above in the sky. Ryo blinked and did a double take of what he was seeing. They weren’t birds - they were something else. Something completely unnatural. And there were hundreds of them. But with all the bullets flying in the air, it didn’t seem to matter. The bird things zipped around the hail of bullets like nothing and proceeded forward - scattering around the city and going in many different directions.

Rika leapt out from behind the corner and declared, “If Juri is in there then we can’t leave her hanging. We have to help! Come on Renamon!”

She stood there for a moment, holding her digivice in the air and striking an odd pose. Renamon poked her in the side, “What are you doing, Rika?”

“Is this one of those living statues things?” Ryo asked, unsure of what Rika was doing. Rika looked up at her digivice and frowned, “What gives? Why isn’t it working?”

“Why isn’t what working?” Ryo looked at the digivice in confusion, still trying to understand what she was doing. She turned to both boys and held up her digivice for them to see, “That bio-digivolution-dna-merge thing? It worked in the Digital World! Why isn’t it working here? We need to become Sakuyamon!”

“Let me try,” Henry said, raising up his digivice. After a moment with nothing happening, he started swiping cards at random to no effect. It did make Terriermon twitch in excitement with every single card swipe as he complained, “Henry! Knock it off! I’m getting dizzy from all the power ups!”

“It’s not working for me, either!” Henry gasped. It was a shame. This would have been a really good time to have both Sakuyamon and MegaGargomon. After all, those two seemed to be the only digimon fully capable of actually harming whatever the hell the red bio mass was. However, they couldn’t afford to give up now. There were people in trouble. He gently nudged both Rika and Henry, “It doesn’t matter! We’re just going to have to get in there and support our partners. Monodramon, promise you won’t go crazy?”

“Only on whatever those things are,” the little purple dragon cheered ecstatically, “I’ve been waiting for a good fight!”

“Okay!” Ryo charged out first, his partner following close behind and then rushing ahead of them. Ryo stopped just a few feet from one of the soldiers and took out the red card, “Digimodify! Digivolution Activate!”

“Monodramon! Warp Digivolve to! Cyberdramon!”

The dragon digimon roared to life with a flash of bright light and leapt up into the fight, soaring over the soldiers heads to attack the bird-like creatures. For all the good it did as they were moving too fast for him to catch up to. He swiped another card, “DigiModify! Speed Boost Activate!”

With the new power up, Cyberdramon was able to close the gap with one of the bird things. He tore into it with his razor sharp claws but was barely able to hurt the thing - in fact, it hardly seemed to notice that it was being attacked at all. Before Ryo could swipe another card through, one of the soldiers picked him up, “What the hell are you doing here, kid!? This is an active combat zone! Cover me! I’m getting the civvie out of the fight!”

“Squad! Fall back! Igarashi! Toyotomi! Cover our retreat” the lead soldier barked out, ironically further back from the fighting than the rest of the soldiers. Two of the soldiers turned their weapons on Cyberdramon, trying to get a bead on him as they fired, “New contact! Open fire!”

“NO!” Ryo shouted at them, but his cries were drowned out with the sound of gunfire.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Renamon said, appearing beside some of the soldiers and kicking their weapons out of their hands. A few of them reached for their pistols and took aim at her but were unable to fire before she moved beside them, hitting the weapons out of their hands. Rika and Henry finally stepped out from behind the alley and called out to the guards, “Seriously? She moved so fast that none of you saw her until it was too late. What makes you think pointing a gun at her is a good idea!?”

“Go easy on them,” Henry chided her, nodding to his partner who finally ran into the fight with a great big smile. Henry swiped his cards through his deck and called out, “DigiModify! Digivolution Activate!”

Rika followed his lead and did the same, swiping her own card through her digivice. Both partners rose up into the air as they digivolved in bright flashes of light.

“Terriermon! Warp Digivolve to! Rapidmon!”

“Renamon! Warp Digivolve to! Taomon!”

The two ultimates joined along side Cyberdramon, trying to inflict some harm on the flock of bird like creatures before any of them could get away. Together, the three of them actually were able to hit some of the creatures but it didn’t seem as if their attacks actually did anything to harm them. The soldiers were too caught up by what they were seeing to actually notice how ineffectual their attacks were. The soldier carrying Ryo finally set him down on the ground, “Who the hell are you kids?”

Ryo, Henry, and Rika exchanged glances. Ryo wasn’t sure how to explain anything to these soldiers. After all, the whole situation was absurdly fantastic. Then again, they’d probably believe anything too. Ryo stammered, “We’re…um…we’re…”

“Here to help,” Henry answered for him, “Right, guys?”

“Yeah, but who the hell are you?” the soldier asked again. Rika scoffed, “Those are our digimon. And we are digimon tamers!”

...

Kari finished cooking some eggs and ham, setting up bowls of rice for herself, Guilmon, and Tamer. Once the table was set, she called out to him only to be met with Guilmon instead. He sniffed the food and asked, “It looks yummy! Can I have some?”

“Of course. I cooked it for us,” she said, barely finishing her sentence before he started to dig straight into the food. Kari felt her appetite go away in disgust with how quickly and disgustingly the dinosaur made the food go away, “I said us, Guilmon. Us!”

As she looked away from his eating spree, she noted Tamer still hasn’t joined them, “Where’s your partner?”

“Takatomon was in your bedroom drawing on your window,” Guilmon said with a mouth full of food. Kari sighed and pushed her plate his way, “Go ahead and have mine. I’m going to talk to him.”

She made her way into the bedroom, watching him draw on her window with a red marker and massaged her temple. Not once in her life did she think she would talking to him like a disappointed parent. Then again, she was sure he’d had enough of that in the last few days, “You better plan on washing that off.”

“I will when all this is over,” he promised, not even looking up from his work. That was hardly reassuring to her, especially since the drawing consisted of what looked like a crude map of the city along with some numbers. It was curious, “What are you doing?”

“Measuring the rate of growth and expansion. It’s slow but it’s expanding at an increasing rate. It could swallow the city in a matter of days,” he crossed his arms, “Which makes the whole thing more complicated. The country in the week. The whole world in a month. Time is a factor and we don’t have a lot of it.”

“Okay, but why the window and not a piece of paper?” she asked. He gave her a quizzical look and called her over to have a look at the window from his perspective. The map may have been crude from where she was standing, but it drawn so all the streets and landmarks lined up with where they could be seen from her window, “My math might be off but it should be accurate enough to get a rough estimate.”

She smiled at him, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were playing dumb with your math homework this entire time.”

He smiled back at her and went back to continuing doing math on the window, “I made you some eggs and bacon but I imagine that Guilmon has eaten it all by now.”

Tamer shrugged it off. It seemed he was focused solely on his business at this point whatever his business was. And she didn’t like bring left out of the loop. Not anymore, “Tell ME you’ve got a plan to save Juri. To save both worlds.”

“I probably did. I just can’t remember it. My memories are still off but being in the Digital World helped clear my head of the static. It comes in flashes. And not all of its good,” he paused, stopping his drawings long enough to look back at her with the the biggest puppy dog eyes she’d ever seen, “For whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry. For everything. From when you were a little kid to now. I really am sorry. I was a jerk back then. And I don’t want to be a jerk now. I want to be better. I’m sorry.”

Words she never thought she’d hear him say so genuinely. But that wasn’t important now, “That’s in the past. Right now, all I’m worried about is saving Juri and the world. What is the plan?”

“Right now? Wing it and hope for the best. That thing is called the D-Reaeper. And a long time ago, the guardians couldn’t kill it. We threw everything at it. It evolved and learned so quickly that it was impossible to try the same strategy twice without it adapting. So we did the next best thing. We sealed it away with another equally powerful monster,” he answered, “I’d say we try that again, but I don’t know where we’re going to get that many strong digimon to trick it and an equally strong monster - not digimon, monster - to fight it for another...I don’t know. Another eternity.”

He started pacing frantically, “Okay, plan. Plan. I remember I’m supposed to be good at this stuff - being unpredictable. Winging it so that stuff just kinda works out. So why can’t I think of anything? Gah! Okay, think. Think.”

BOOM!

The apartment shook and Tamer latched on to her to keep from falling over. There was a loud crash somewhere in the distance that must’ve been Guilmon falling over in the kitchen. Once the apartment settled, Kari looked down at Tamer, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, you?” he asked. She nodded, turning her attention out the window, “What the hell was that?”

Her answer came in the form of smoke rising in the distance out her window. It was accompanied by the sight of a strange flock of birds and digimon: Taomon, Rapidmon, and a strange dragon digimon she didn’t recognize. She looked back down at Tamer, “It looks like the rest of your new friends are out there fighting for their lives.”

Tamer’s expression sank, “What? Oh no. Okay, that changes things. I could help but…no, they definitely don’t want to talk to me right now. So change of plan…back up! They need back up! We need to help them! Guilmon! We need to go!”

He collected himself and hurried for the door with Guilmon in tow. But then he paused, stopping just as his hand turned the handle. He didn’t open the door. He didn’t run out to help the others. He just stood there, staring at the door. Then he let it go, stepping back from the door quietly, “Maybe I shouldn’t.”

“What?” Kari blurted, “Tamer, what happened to all that enthusiasm you had a second ago?”

“I’m just realizing something. Any time I help, things just go from bad to worse,” Tamer threw his hands up in frustration, “I could help. I could! But my help tends to cause more problems than it solves! And let’s be fair! With my helping streak, I’ll probably get them killed!”

“So what. Your plan is to sit here and do nothing?” Kari asked, unsure of what exactly he was thinking. Tamer shook his head, massaging his temple as he began pacing in her door way, “Sure! Why not? It’s not like I’ll help them any more than I helped Juri. Who knows, maybe they’ll get kidnapped too! Maybe Ryo will get to spend another twenty years in the Digital World. That’s how destiny seems to be working itself out anyway. I’m supposed to be the Guardian of that and I can’t even remember what I’m supposed to do!”

Kari looked at Tamer pitifully, recalling all her previous adventures in the Digital World and noting how this must’ve been what it looked like from the other side. He seemed genuinely lost and had no idea what to do. All resemblance to the one who always had a plan melted away, all that remained was the misbehaving student from her class with a frustratingly short attention span. As a teacher, she’d always tried using a mix of discipline and learning moments in the hopes of getting through to him. But what exactly could she say now? What should she say?

What would he need to hear? Probably Agumon at this point. She looked over at Guilmon, recalling everything he’d told her. Agumon would be of no help, not in this state. But if he were still around with all his memories intact, what would he say? Of course.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kari said. Tamer looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, “Excuse me?”

Kari mused “It was something Agumon said to us back when you were being ‘Taichi’ that one time, as annoying as it got. Don’t worry about it. Do what comes natural and destiny will usually work itself out. That’s what he told us when we went looking for you. And it’s definitely what you need to hear. Just do what comes natural. So...what do you want to do?”

He looked up at her quietly with big sad eyes. It was easy to forget that he was over a hundred thousand years old when he had those big, sad, childish eyes looking up at her. She put a hand on his shoulder to calm him, “Tamer, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. What should I do?” he asked her quietly. He didn’t know. He was on their level. The apartment shook again as another distant explosion rocked the building. She looked back out her apartment window at the chaos outside. If only she had her partner, “I know what I’d do if Gatomon were here. I’d run out there and try to save the city.”

His eyes widened and a small smile cracked on his face, “When did you get so good at this?”

She smiled back at him, “Someone had to step up when you weren’t around. We all did, honestly. You weren’t around to save the world.”

He nodded silently, still smiling in simple agreement, “You guys really did. And you did a great job of it too. I...I’m sorry for how I was before.”

“You already apologized Tamer. Otherwise, I’m glad we’re having a moment, but the city is in danger! So stop talking and get out there!” Kari said just short of shouting at him. He nodded in agreement and threw the door open, “Yeah, come on buddy! Let’s go get some help.”

“Thank you for breakfast! It was super yummy!” The red dinosaur cheered as he followed his partner back out the door. Kari sighed - those two were the best shot they had right now. She just hoped they were able to do something. That Tamer would come up with a plan before it was too late and all of this would be over soon.

#The Digimon Tamer v2 - In His Name #Digimon Tamers #Fanfiction #Chapter 37 #ArchiveOfOurOwn

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 42 - Unexpected is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

“How’s our progress coming on the Juggernaut, team?” Yamaki asked, looking up from the machine parts he was helping to put back into place.

Zhenyu poked his head up from what he was doing and shouted, “Are you seriously asking that question? We’ve barely started and there’s a lot of work to do before we can even think to test if it’s working! This isn’t going to be done quickly.”

“Well, make it happen. Those things want in here and it’ll be a slaughter if that weapons not ready before they do,” Yamaki barked back at the scientist.

As he said that, there was another loud bang outside that shook the building, rattling loose items off desks and onto the floor. One unfortunate engineer had his tool box fall of the table he’d left it and fall on his helmet.

“How long do you think those blast doors will hold?” Dolphin asked nervously. Shibumi answered with his usual informative and completely uninspiring tone, “It doesn’t matter. Right now, every second counts so let’s focus on our task and leave the fighting to our friends outside.”

“Your friends. We have no idea who those things are!” Curly pointed out.

“Those things are our partners! And right now, they’re putting their lives on the line to buy us time! And it’s not just them, our kids are out there,” Izumi’s wife scolded from across the room.

“Not my kid,” Mister Matsuda grunted angrily.

“Let it go. Anger will do us no good right now,” Guardromon mumbled.

“FUCK YOU!” Mister Matsuda made a point of growling while showing the digimon his middle finger.

“Don’t shout at him! He’s just trying to help!” Kazu yelled back.

“Trying to help? Kazu, Takato was your friend! If anyone else in this room is going to get how we feel, it should be you!” Mrs. Matsuda added.

This was getting out of hand and the last thing the team needed was needless bickeringYamaki put two fingers in his mouth and whistled as loud as he could to get their attention, “FOCUS! EVERY SECOND ARGUING IS A SECOND WASTED. AND WE DON’T KNOW HOW MANY SECONDS WE HAVE! SO LET’S USE THEM WISELY AND GET BACK TO WORK!”

With that everyone either quietly went back to what they were doing or went off in a corner to stay out of the way. Now it was back to what he was doing - helping repair some of the mechanical parts that were broken. He just hoped the blast shields help up long enough. Every moment that passed, another dent appeared in the metal and the building would shake. He just hoped everything worked.

…

Imperialdramon soared through the air of the Digital World, with Davis and Ken atop his back. They pointed their digivice at every digimon they passed and shouted the same message over and over, “Stay alive. We have a plan.”

The mere sight of them seemed to rally the digimon, mega level fighters who went from faltering on the retreat to pushing forward on the attack. And as they soared through the Digital World, trying to scan as many of the digimon as they could, they eventually caught the attention of a familiar sight - Azulongmon, the sovereign who’d helped them fight off BlackWarGreymon so long ago. The dragon soared alongside them asking, “Digidestined. It’s so good to see you after so long.”

“We wish we could say the same,” Ken answered quietly.

“Yeah, but no worries! Kari’s brother has a plan!” Davis added excitedly.

“Who?” Azulongmon asked.

Ken sighed, “The Digimon Tamer. I should point out right now that it’s a horrible plan and I’m not entirely sure it’ll work.”

Azulongmon blinked at him, “And what is his plan? We’re hitting this thing with everything we have and nothing is working!”

“Sorry, we don’t have the time to tell you,” Ken answered, pointing his digivice at another digimon digimon they flew past to scan it. Then he pointed it at Azulongmon. The sovereign writhed a bit when the light hit him and his many eyes blinked in a daze, “What was that for? Were you just trying to blind me?”

“It’s part of Tamer’s plan,” Davis explained apologetically, “Sorry we can’t tell you more! Just try to stay alive a little longer! Hold on!”

“I…okay. Hurry, digidestined. We’ll fight for as long as we can,” Azulongmon answered, turning away from them to rejoin the fight. As he soared through the sky, pillars of light and blasts of lightning shot from his body and struck the red ocean beneath them. His attacks appeared to hurt the creature more than any of the attacks that had been thrown at it so far. But like all the other attacks, it wasn’t long before any damage was undone. The most powerful digimon either of these men knew could barely hurt this thing. They needed to get back to their work - continuing to scan as many digimon as they could.

…

Rika had to admit it was a different feeling to be fighting along side her parents’ partners. She swiped various cards through her digivice, trying to give Taomon the upgrades she would need to keep her on even footing. But without the power to be a mega like Rosemon or HerculesKabuterimon, she was just barely hanging on.

“Digimodify! Speed Boost Activate!”

“Talisman of Light!”

“Thorn Whip!”

“Arctic Blizzard!”

The three attacks scattered the bird creatures, reducing their number for a moment until more appeared to reinforce their numbers. It really was like fighting an unending tide. Still, they were the only things keeping her parents safe inside. And she wasn’t going to surrender, no matter how many of them came. She and Taomon would fight back with everything they had.

“LOOK OUT!”

She turned around to see Hououmon and MetalGarurumon soar past over her head, his engines going at the full speed as Cyberdramon ripped off more of those bird creatures from him.

“Metal Wolf Claw!”

“Starlight Explosion!”

Both fired a barrage of missiles and fireballs from their bodies at the birds, punching another hole in the swarm that was quickly filled by more reinforcements. The creatures were wholeheartedly determined to over run this building at any cost it seemed. Thankfully, Hououmon and MetalGarurumon were still able to hold their own. But then another question came to mind? Where were her mom’s fashion designer friend and her husband? Sora and Matt, if she remembered correctly. They were supposed to be with their partners.

A screech overhead caught her attention as the large golden bird Hououmon landed atop the building. The two Ishidas climbed off the giant digimon, before it took off again to fight the oncoming horde of birds, joining Rosemon, Taomon, and HerculesKabuterimon in the desperate defense. Sora rjoined her first and asked, “What the hell is going on? They were going all over the city before and now they’re converging here on the Metropolitan Tower!”

“One of them overheard me telling my parents the plan and now they’re all coming here to stop it,” Rika admitted quietly. Matt raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Huh, never figured Izzy’s kid would be the one to screw things up for us. I always figured it’d be someone else…like that dopey looking kid with the hat.”

“Are you putting me on Kazu’s level?” Rika asked with a hand on her hips.

In return, he just raised an eyebrow at her, “Do you think I’m intimidated by a twelve year old girl?”

“Focus!” Sora said, taking a moment to survey the situation, “Matt, can you talk to your friends in the GSDF and get them here?”

“They’d probably shoot at me first if they saw me ride in on MetalGarurumon,” he countered quietly with crossed arms.

Sora groaned, “Then we’ll just have to keep holding them back as long as we can!”

The large golden bird screeched and went to rejoin the fight. Rika couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of so many megas at once, especially knowing they were the megas of the digidestined. The heroes from the books, tv show, and card game she’d been attracted to. If the world weren’t at stake, she would call this a dream come true, “How long have you guys all had Mega level digimon? I don’t remember the show or the books ending with all you guys getting Mega level digimon. It was just...Matt, Tai, Davis, and Ken, right?”

“You should know by now that my brother omitted lots of stuff from those books and didn’t tell the whole story. At least, not the way it happened,” Yamato stated matter of factly, “Speaking of...where the hell are they? I don’t see Takeru or MagnaAngemon anywhere!”

“Don’t forget that Ryo and Cyberdramon were with them. Same with the doctor and Gomamon! Or Kari, Gatomon, Henry, and Rapidmon. Where the hell are they?” Rika added.

“Maybe they’re still trying to get to the others,” Sora said, scanning the city for some sign of them. Her husband groaned, “Or worse.”

“You really are a ball of sunshine, y’know that?” Rika stated, turning to his wife, “What exactly did you see in him?”

“He acts tough but he’s a softie when he thinks no one is looking,” she answered teasingly. Rika felt herself gag and something try to crawl its way out of her stomach, “Gross.”

BOOM!

They turned their attention back towards the city to see large swathes of the bird creatures being destroyed with beams of blue light. They all turned to look but it was impossible to tell what it was from this far away. What they were certain of was that all the bird creatures were being blown apart as quickly as they could amass. And there was something in the middle of that flock - a lone figure that was blasting the birds away.

“Who is that?” Rika asked.

“I can’t tell. They’re too far away,” Sora said, squinting her eyes as close as she could, “Hououmon!”

“Little busy at the moment,” the bird roared over the battle going on all around her. She and MetalGarurumon soared overhead, trying their best to hold the oncoming swarm back as quickly as they could.

“I’ll go,” Taomon announced, drawing another talisman and throwing it full force at her enemies, “It’s not like I’m able to do much good here anyway. I’ll scout ahead and hurry back if things look bad.”

“Be careful, Taomon,” Rika called out to her partner. The fox priest gave her a wave and hurried off towards whatever was now drawing the bird creatures’ attention away from them.

...

Hida slid the doors of his dojo open slightly to see more of those bird things waiting around outside. He took care to slide the door back shut so that it wouldn’t be too loud - annoyed with how things had played out. He’d meant to go out and meet up with the others at the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. Then these things showed up and people were scared. He couldn’t just ignore people in need and his sense of moral obligation kicked in. Instead of hurrying, he got as many people as he could to safety in his dojo.

Things were quiet now, save for the sound of fighting outside. But this wasn’t the only problem before him. How was he supposed to protect them? Yes, he was a martial arts expert with knowledge of kendo, tai chi, aikido, karate, and tae kwon do. But that wasn’t going to do him any good against whatever those monsters were outside. They didn’t look like any digimon he had seen before and they certainly weren’t acting like any digimon that had accidentally gotten lost in another world. Those digimon tended to act out violently from confusion or alarm. But these creatures seemed content to just sit back and watch the world in complete and utter silence. They were observing…learning…gathering information…possible strategizing.

That made it all the more important for him to get to the others at Hypnos. But how could he get there when there were lives at stake right in front of him? But there was no way to do this on his own. He would need help! But how was he supposed to signal for help with alerting those things to all the people hiding inside?

“RAPID FIRE!”

A blaze of gunfire caught the attention of all the bird creatures and drew them away from the front of the dojo. He slid the door open just a crack but couldn’t quite see what was going. All he could make out was that the creatures were gone now. Maybe this was their chance. He slid the door open just a little further and one of the people hiding with him gasped, “What are you doing? They’re going to find us!”

“They’ve all left. This could be our only chance to run,” he explained. He scanned the outside more carefully to be sure they were gone until he noticed something moving in the bushes. A boy rushed out and bolted for the dojo door.

Henry, his Tai Chi student. And with him was…

“Armadillomon,” he forced the door open and stepped out. Was it possible? Was this real? He hoped so. He didn’t care how. He’d thought about this moment so many times that he wasn’t sure he could handle if it wasn’t. He waved to get their attention and gestured to them to come his way, “Over here! Quick!”

“Sensei!” Henry said, running over. Armadillomon followed after him, turning his head in surprise, “Who’s that, Henry? I thought we were going to Cody!”

“Armadillomon! It’s me,” he said to his partner, the armadillomon stopping to look at him with a furrowed brow and a firm frown, “Pretty sure my pardner ain’t got a mustache.”

The insult cut deep and Hida had to muse at that. It was true, he didn’t have a mustache the last time he’d seen his partner. It was also ironic, that a small piece of facial hair was enough to throw off the digimon, “You’ve never been the serious type, Armadillomon.”

“That really is your partner, Armadillomon,” Henry insisted to the yellow digimon who turned his head in disbelief. Armadillomon circled him, sniffing at his feet and occasionally stopping to get a good look at him. As he did, Henry went on, “Sensei, I don’t have a lot of time. There’s no way Rapidmon can keep them all away forever. We need to get out of here.”

“I can’t go. There are people hiding in my dojo and I’m not going to leave them,” Hida explained to them.

Armadillomon’s frown turned and he finally looked up, “Now that sounds like the partner I remember! Good to see ya, Cody.”

“It’s good to see you too, Armadillomon,” Hida kneeled down to take his partner’s raised hand. It was good to see him again, even if it was in these circumstances. They would have to catch up some other time. Now, they had to think of a way to hold this portion of the city and protect it from those birds. Armadillomon added, “Well if you’re not going, I’m not going either.”

“Sensei, are you sure?” Henry said, “We have a plan and we could use your help.”

“The people here could use my help,” he countered matter of factly. Armadillomon cheered, “Hard headed about always wanting to help people. You’re definitely my Cody.”

He wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not but he went on, “We can help by protecting the people in this area. Besides, every one of those things that comes here is one that’s not attacking you there.”

“That is the plan, actually,” Henry said with a raised eyebrow, “Distract these things until every one else is ready with their part of the plan. Which we don’t know how long that could be so really it’s just sitting tight...wait, are you volunteering these people for danger!?”

“What?” Hida blinked, surprised at his student’s accusation.

Henry waved it off and shook his head apologetically, “Sorry, sorry. I think Terriermon has been rubbing off on me. Still, it’s funny that we’re on the same page.”

“Just do what comes natural and things work out, right?” he mused, realizing that the plan was a little too reminiscent of all the other plans - just sit tight and hang on. Henry shook his head, “Yeah, something like that. I need to get back to the others.”

“Okay, be safe,” he said. Henry nodded, waving before running off to rejoin his partner. Hida sighed, looking back at his dojo. It was a relief to know the others had a plan, even if he wasn’t entirely aware of it. That was one problem dealt with. Now there was another problem: how to convince the people in his dojo that Armadillomon wasn’t a danger to them and their safety?

…

Cyberdramon soared over the city, passing teams of soldiers firing at the bird creatures and crowds of people fleeing in a panic. It took everything in him to ignore his desire to fight the the creatures and instead focus on protecting Ryo and looking for the little white Calumon. He was the key to this whole operation after all. If they didn’t find him, it was all going down hill from here. It was just a question of where the little digimon was.

And Ryo was frustrated with having to look for such a small critter in all this mess. After all, the little guy was probably scared out of his mind with all the chaos going on out there and it wasn’t like finding him on a normal day when people weren’t shooting at them was easy. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack where the hay would hit you. It wasn’t easy. And it would help, it really would, if all those soldiers would stop trying to shoot at him.

But what were they supposed to think? All they could see was a kid being carried off with a monster. It was hard to interpret that anyway that didn’t include the thought of that kid in danger.

“Ryo! Ryo! Are you there?” Tamer’s voice echoed from his digivice. Ryo looked at his digivice in surprise, examining it in his hands at the feature he didn’t know it had, “It’s a radio now?”

“What do you mean now? It’s always been a radio,” Tamer responded with the sardonic wit that Ryo was used to hearing him use. It was weird - the current Tamer was usually apologetic and polite. This was like talking to the Tamer when he first met him - sarcastic, a little abrasive but helpful overall. Still, Ryo wasn’t in the mood for a conversation, “What do you want, Tamer? Shouldn’t you be in the Digital World helping out the others?”

“Never mind them. We have a serious problem over here! Here are the coordinates! Hurry! Ruki’s in trouble!” he said urgently. Ruki? She hated that name. The only reason he would use it would be to aggravate her. Or him. And it was working if that was his intention. He checked his digivice for the coordinates and tapped Cyberdramon on the head, “Come on, Cyberdramon. We need to go to-”

“-find Tamer, yeah. What’s up with him anyway? What’s he doing here?”

“I have no idea, but I’m going to deck him in a minute if I he doesn’t have a good explanation for any of this,” Ryo grunted, gesturing to the direction to his partner, “The signal leads that way to…that roof.”

He could see a short figure on a rooftop not too far away, wearing what looked like a white hooded robe and waving at them with one arm reaching so high that he had to stand on his tippy-toes. Tamer. Cyberdramon set down beside him and Ryo leapt off his partner, “Tamer, what’s so important? And where are the others? Ken and Davis? I thought you were with them in the Digital World?”

“Eh, more important stuff to deal with. You guys should’ve really gone mega by now,” Tamer remarked in his usual manner of pacing as he talked, “Bio-merging or whatever it’s called.”

“Bio-merging? You’re talking about the thing when Rika fused with Renamon or when Henry fused with his partner, right? What’s that got to do with anything? Weren’t we sticking to the plan?” Ryo raised an eyebrow, minding his distance from Tamer as he began circling with a familiar flair that fit his last face more than his present one.

Tamer threw it off, “Ah, they’ll be fine. I figured out your problems! You guys aren’t in a Digital Field!”

“Digital…what?” Ryo groaned exasperated burying his face in his hands, “Look, why did you call me here? What’s going on with Rika? You said she was in danger!”

Tamer paused, looking back at him with that aggravating smile of his, “Oh, everyone’s in danger! Every world everywhere’s in danger somewhere. It’s just a question of figuring out who you’re gonna save and who’s gonna win! This battle is playing out across infinite realities with infinite possible outcomes! Speaking of which!”

He raised up his digivice and a flash of light seemed to tear open a floating window in front of them, through which they could see what looked like their city. Except this version of the city was over run by the D-Reaper and the screams of the dying could be heard echoing from in the distance. And for the briefest of moments, he saw Rika. Rika running for her life from the remaining D-Reaper creatures. And as quickly as she ran past the window, the D-reaper bird things were upon her - ripping her apart as their mechanical voice droned, “Scanning!”

“No!” she screamed.

“Acquiring Information!”

“Get off me!” She cried out just as blood splashed past the screen.

“RIKA!” he cried out - half panic and half anger as he watched her body be spread apart across different sections of the roof. Tamer pressed another button on his digivice and the window to the other world vanished, “Relax, lover boy! That’s another reality. Not this one. Your girlfriend’s alive and well! I think. Maybe?”

“TAMER!” Ryo was on the boy, grabbing him by his stupid white robe and pulling him so close that their noses were practically touching, “THAT WAS STILL RIKA!”

“Well there’s no point crying about it,” Tamer swatted his hands away, “That Ruki’s dead. Your Ruki…our Ruki?”

Something about that phrasing made Ryo particularly angry, but he was snapped from his anger when he heard Cyberdramon start growling angrily. He needed to maintain control, otherwise Cyberdramon would lash out and get loose upon the city. And he wasn’t sure which would be worse: the D-Reaper or a rampaging Cyberdramon. Tamer shook his head, “The Ruki in this world is still alive and well. She’s out…there…somewhere.”

BOOM!

Ryo turned his head to see a beam of light shooting at the heart of the swarm of bird creatures. Something or someone was actually managing to pushing these things back. Tamer flicked a finger across the back of his head and added, “Don’t worry, Ruki’s not over there. Not yet anyway.”

What was he pulling? And why was he saying it that way? She hated that name! Was he trying to piss her off when she wasn’t even here? Or was he trying to piss him off to get a rise out of him? If that was the plan, it was working all too well. His fists tightened and he demanded, “Tamer! Why did you call us here? And what the hell is wrong with you!? I thought you said you were trying to be different! What the hell was different about that?”

Tamer’s smile widened in a way that made him sick, “Quit interrupting and I’ll tell you. Now, the reason your bio merging isn’t working is because you’re not in the Digital World anymore. Different rules apply! But we can fix that! We just need to expand the Digital Field! Good news: it’ll get you guys to mega. Bad news: I’m going to fry any computer you get too close to so I’d suggest staying away from the Hypnos Building!”

He raised up his digivice like he was about to use it to do something, only to then snap his fingers and bathe the world around them in yet another display of light. Once it passed, Tamer’s wicked smile remained, “There we go! Now you should be all good to save Ruki!”

Ryo had enough and decked Tamer as hard as he could across the face. He wasn’t sure what the hell was going on but he was sure of one thing right now. Tamer was acting like an ass - so either this wasn’t Tamer or Tamer was back to his old ways. Either way, he wanted to punch the guy in the face. Tamer fell flat on his face and massaged his cheek, “Ow! What the hell Joe?”

“Who the hell is Joe? My name is Ryo!” he snapped. Tamer raised an eyebrow, his look unimpressed by Ryo’s punch as he pushed himself upwards, “Oopsie. Looks like I slipped. Charade is up I suppose.”

Ryo was so past being in the mood for one of Tamer’s games, and raised his fist to strike him again. However, Tamer caught his fist mid punch and stood himself back up, “Everyone only gets one, Joe.”

“Ryo!” he repeated.

“I don’t care,” Tamer shook his head, scratching at his chin with his fingers so deep that it looked like he was beginning to peel the skin off. It was actually disgusting to watch, his nails going deeper and deeper into his skin as he peeled more of his face off. The sound it made when it did was sickening and Ryo took a step back in disgust. And Tamer looked up and the face he saw was…not what he expected.

He expected some bloody skull to be staring back. To be fair, it would probably be the least insane thing he’d seen Tamer do. But instead, what he saw was a completely different face staring back. Ryo was perplexed, “What? You change your face again? Tell me that’s not how you do it.”

“Oh wow, you really are slow,” he responded, dropping the face he’d just peeled off and going over to flick him across the nose, “What does that idiot see in you lesser life forms? He goes through all that trouble to save you and all you do is be stupid. It’s like you’re all screaming ‘Kill me! Kill me!’. Bringing water to a person who insists on dying of thirst is less trouble than this. What’s the point? I’ll never understand what he’s thinking.”

Ryo was now at least beginning to follow this a little better, “Okay, I think I get it. You’re not Tamer. But then who are you and why are you wearing Guardian robes?”

“Guardian robes? Is that what he’s calling it now? Digital Agents! Agents! Not Ancient! Not Precursor! Not Fore-bearer! Not Guardian! Agent!” the not-Tamer stated angrily, waving his hands in the air as he spoke. Somehow, this kid was more annoying than Tamer had ever been. And Ryo was ready to deck him again if it weren’t for the fact he still had his fist in his hand. He pulled his fist out of his grip and stated, “That doesn’t really answer my question.”

The boy finally seemed to notice he was present and his tone shifted to boredom, “Hm? Oh, right. You’re still here. Hello! Name’s The Trickster. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m an Agent like Tamer. Only I’m not really invested in maintaining any kind of order. I’m just in this for the laughs and the giggles. And if I can screw with people’s lives while I’m at it then all the better!”

“You’re...like Tamer,” Ryo repeated stupidly.

“Look! It’s learned to mimic language!” Trickster mocked him, snapping his fingers in his face to get his attention. Ryo swatted his hand away and got his own hand slapped back in response, “Now pay attention because I’m not repeating! You can biomerge now! Congratulations! Go tell your friends Ruki and not-Ruki so you can all have a nice big party! Bad news! You can’t go near computers without breaking them so try to avoid the hypnosis people! Or hypnotize or whatever pretentious name they’re using. Other bad news! You need a strong emotional response to get the blood flowing in that regard so let’s get the blood flowing and trigger some emotions!”

He took a step back and reached into his robes to produce a little scared Calumon pleading and begging to be let go, “What’s happening? Where am I!? WHAT IS THIS PLACE!? HELP ME!”

Ryo tried to jump at him to get the little digimon but The Trickster side stepped him and stood along the edge of the rooftop, “Oh dear. Looks like this thing is very important to you.”

“Give him back!” Ryo snapped, making the Trickster cackle.

The Trickster waved a finger at him like he were a misbehaving child and remarked, “It’s just a shame what I’m about to do next.”

“Help! Please let me go! I’m sorry for whatever I did! Please just let me go!” Calumon pleaded at the top of his voice. Now it was Cyberdramon’s turn to lunge forward, but Ryo threw his arm out, “Cyberdramon! Don’t! He’s going to hurt Calumon!”

...

“Juri, cease your traumatic state and continue to identify objects!” the mechanical voice droned on. It was her own voice again, used by this thing to control her. Manipulate her. Force her to do what it wanted, “Identify!”

All she could think about…all she could focus on was Beelzemon killing Leomon. How it had been Tamerkato who enticed him to do it. How all this was probably her own fault for being a horrible partner. She could feel this thing trying to block these thoughts out with more images of things it was finding…but every image, every thought kept coming back to one thing: Beelzemon.

Car.

Beelzemon.

Soldier.

Beelzemon!

Gun.

BEELZEMON!

Roof.

BeElZeMoN!

Calumon.

Calumon? The sight of him calmed her for a moment - what was he doing? No, who was holding him? They were supposed to save Calumon. That was why they went to the Digital World. But who had him and why was he dangling Calumon over a roof? He needed to be saved! He needed to be protected! He was the Catalyst, the source of strength that gave digimon the power to digivolve. If anything happened to him, it was game over for everyone else. She had to save him. To protect him!

“Subject identified as Calumon. Digital Lifeform acknowledged. Power source. Acquiring target!”

“Wait...what? Uh oh,” was all Juri could manage to say as she realized she might have just set this thing after Calumon.

...

“Hurt the Catalyst? Well now I know you’re not paying attention,” the Trickster remarked, feigning being insulted while he still had that stupid evil smile on his face, “This thing is the source of digivolution! Why would I hurt it? That’d be stupid. Y’think I’d just sully the memory of the Agents like that? No, don’t be stupid! I’m not going to hurt him!”

“Then what are you doing?” Ryo demanded angrily, Cyberdramon roaring with his growing anger. The Trickster laughed, “Oh me? I’m doing this!”

He tossed Calumon into the air and the digimon promptly fell to the ground. From several stories up. He may not be trying to hurt him but he wasn’t above throwing the digimon to his death apparently.

“NO!” Ryo cried out, leaping over the edge of the roof and reaching his hand out to the falling digimon. Then he heard his partner calling out from behind him, “RYO!”

He looked back up and could see Cyberdramon coming after him. It was a surprise to him. In all the time he’d been partnered with the digimon - it was strange to see him coming to his rescue. Normally, he had to restrain his partner from mauling someone or something. Not that it was unwelcome. It was just not what he was used to. Still, he had to save Calumon and he reached his arm out to the digimon, “Almost!”

Cyberdramon grabbed his arm, “Ryo! What are you doing!?”

“We need to save Calumon!” Ryo shouted.

“HE CAN FLY!” Cyberdramon countered. As soon as he said that, he saw the little digimon’s eyes widen in surprise and his ears expand out like wings - slowing his descent so that he glided slowly downward. Ryo’s mouth fell open, “You could do that the entire time!?”

“I forgot!” Calumon said innocently enough, his screams of terror turning to embarrassment as they reached the street below safely. For a moment, they stopped to catch their breath until one of the bird things appeared from nowhere and grabbed Calumon - flying away towards the D-Reaper. The little digimon started screaming again, this time for real as he tried to break free of the bird thing’s hold on him. Cybderamon immediately gave chase, spreading his wings so that he could fly as fast as his body could carry him after the bird.

For his part Ryo, tried reaching for his deck to start buffing his partner but the speed they were going made the cards scatter from his hands. He tried to grab them but they were gone with the wind now - he’d just lost their one advantage. He looked ahead again after the bird thing holding Calumon. His partner was on his own now and he was just dead weight. Sure he could use the digivice, but what good was that when he wasn’t a strong fighter? And these things - the birds were beginning to swarm around them to stop the pursuit. They couldn’t afford to be stopped now though - not when Calumon was right there. They had to save the little digimon! They had to!

“GRAGH!”

The bird things were slamming themselves into Cyberdramon now to slow down his pursuit. And Cyberdramon was doing everything he could to protect his partner. Ryo hated that. He didn’t like being useless. More than that, he never thought he’d see the day where he gave a crap about his partner’s well being. He wished he could help. He just…

“Cyberdramon! Biomerge to!”

Ryo felt a strange sensation bathe him in warmth and a soft glow of light over take his vision. Then he felt a strange compulsion to cry out, “JUSTIMON!”

Without really knowing why, he also felt a strong desire to punch and beat as many of these bird things out of his way as possible - hitting as many of them back as he could, “BACK OFF! OUT OF MY WAY! CALUMON!”

“HELP ME!” the little digimon cried out at the top of his lungs. He had to try harder to get as many of these things out of his way as possible to save Calumon! He was so close. He could almost reach the digimon when a blast of light cut off his path to the bird thing holding Calumon.

“OUTTA MY WAY! THIS CITY IS MY TURF!”

He looked off to the side to see Beelzemon making his way through the streets with his shotgun in one hand and was looked like a cannon in the other. He pointed it upwards and fired a beam of light straight at more of the birds, “BEAT IT YOU RATS WITH WINGS!”

What was he doing here? You got me. Whose voice was that? It’s mine! Ryo had never been more confused in his life, unsure why there was a voice echoing in his head that wasn’t his own. You think about that girl with the pineapple hair a lot. Just confess already! You know she probably likes you too.

“Cyberdramon?” he asked no one in particular only to hear the voice confirm it. Unfortunately, Beelzemon heard him too and was looking up at him, “What are you supposed to be? Another one of those things? Well I got something just for you!”

“Wait! Don’t shoot! It’s me!” he called out to Beelzemon. Beelzemon paused, then pulled the trigger anyway. The beam of light that shout out of the cannon flew straight at him, missing him by a narrow inch. Ryo looked over his shoulder to see a bunch of the bird creatures scattering behind him. How had he missed that?

No time to focus on that. He descended to join Beelzemon, “Thanks for not shooting at me.”

“Don’t celebrate yet,” the digimon raised the cannon so that he found himself looking down the barrel at it, “Who are you and why shouldn’t I just pull the trigger?”

Great plan you had there Ryo, now we’re in serious trouble. Ryo threw up his hands and tried to explain, “It’s me...Ryo.”

“Who?”

“We...fought in the Digital World? My partner is...was...Cyberdramon!” he explained. Beelzemon turned his head, “You’re going to have to run all of that by me because I have no idea what you’re talking about. And keep it quick. These things are gathering around.”

Ryo gulped, realizing time was off the essence with these things gathering around quickly. And then he remembered that Calumon was in danger. But there was no rescuing him now that they were cut off from him.

#The Digimon Tamer v2 - In His name #The Digimon Tamer #Chapter 42 #Takato Matsuda #Fanfiction #Unexpected #ArchiveOfOurOwn

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 41 - Compromised is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Ken Ichijouji, Wormmon, Davis Motomiya, Veemon, Tamer, and Guilmon landed in the Digital World - outside the familiar ruins of the Hallowed Bastion. The terrifying castle that they had come to so long ago as kids still stood as a decrepit reminder of what was and the terrible things of the past. Ken in particular was uncomfortable at the sight of it but Tamer hurried them inside. And all the better for it too because they could hear the chaos the Digital World descended to around them.

The Digital World was burning to the ground all around them - its skies darkened by more digimon than could be counted fighting for their lives. And they needed to hurry if they were going to put an end to this before any lives ended.

As Tamer led them inside, Ken couldn’t help but reminded of his own past here and the things he had done because of it. The thoughts still haunted him as the memories came back with every echoing step in the empty halls. He shook his head to pull himself out of it and asked a question to break the silence, “Where exactly are we going?”

“To find a computer. We get one of those and we can connect it to your digivices. Then you guys just have to do your thing,” he answered quickly, leading them further into its darkest depths. He and Davis exchanged anxious looks, both men thinking the same thing. It had been a long time since either of them had any kind of adventure in the Digital World. And despite all the terrible things going on, it was good to be back in the Digital World again. Even better, it was good to see their partners again after not having seen them in so long.

“You’ve cut your hair, Ken,” Wormmon said from behind him. Ken snorted, “The hair was getting in my eye during work. It was kind of a problem.”

“Oh? You’re still a detective, right?” Wormmon asked quietly. Ken nodded, “That’s right. But I’ve gone private now. Still working around the clock for anyone who’ll hire me. The last case I was working was finding Takeru and you guys actually. We were all worried sick. Yamato was the worst of all of us - guy was paranoid something happened.”

“That’sh nothing. You should’ve sheen the way TK wash acting! He wouldn’t let ush leave the houshe unlessh he wash there with ush,” Veemon pointed out. Davis laughed at his partner’s words, “You guys are safe and we’re back together. That’s all that matters. By the way, you’ve gotta meet my son. You’ll love him.”

“Shon? Did you and Kari finally tie the knot?” Veemon asked. Davis waved him off, “No, it didn’t work out. You were there, remember?”

Veemon shrugged it off and shook his head, “I alwaysh figured you two would get back together. You two were alwaysh sho happy together. It’sh a shame.”

Davis crossed his arms and growled, “Hey! Don’t you talk about my wife that way. She’s the greatest person I’ve ever met! Especially when she does this thing with her mou- I mean, um...never mind!”

Ken rolled his eyes, unsurprised that Davis almost made the conversation so inappropriate. He could tell from the quizzical look Veemon was giving him that the digimon didn’t quite understand what he was about to say. At least, that’s what Ken thought until Veemon said, “Do you mean mouth? You mean eating your food? You always were a really good cook! I bet she eats a lot of your food every day!”

That was almost worst - Ken couldn’t quite tell if Veemon was teasing his partner or not. And he could tell even Davis was stumped by his response, “Eh…something like that.”

“Are you talking about food?” Guilmon stopped in his tracks, sniffing the air around him, “I don’t smell anything. Is there food? I’m really hungry.”

Davis gave the digimon a big thumbs up and smiled for the red dinosaur, “Well, I’ll whip us up a big celebratory dinner after all this is over. You guys can all come over to my ramen shop and we’ll eat a big meal to celebrate! All of us!”

“Can you even afford to feed all of us? More specifically, can your business survive feeding all of them?” Ken asked, gesturing towards the three digimon present. Davis simply laughed it off, “Don't get too high and mighty there, mister detective. It’s not like you’ve ever really looked at my business.”

“I have,” he admitted, “I keep tabs on everyone I know. Mind if I ask what you did with twenty million yen?”

“One word!” Davis’ smile widened, reminding Ken of the fact that this guy was more than capable of pulling the wool over his eyes and surprising him if he wanted to, “Franchising!”

Yep. There it was. The surprise he didn’t see coming. He smiled as he realized this meant still able to surprise him - even with all his investigative skills and intelligence, his best friend of years was still able to do something surprising. Franchising. He laughed at the idea that he might become the richest member of the digidestined.

“We’re here!” Tamer announced to their surprise, stopping in front of an innocuous door. Nothing in particular about this door stood out. It was so ordinary, he didn’t even realize it was there until Tamer stopped in front of it. Tamer pushed it open without a second thought and called for them to come inside, “Come on. We’ve got work to do.”

“Okay, what is this place? I don’t think we’ve ever seen this room,” Davis stated as he went in next. Veemon hopped along just behind them, Ken pausing to glance at his partner. His partner was just as anxious as he was, he knew just from the look on his face. And the little digimon could sense he was just as uncomfortable, “It’s okay, Ken. I’m right here. We’ll be going in together.”

“I know Wormmon. I just need a moment,” he replied. Wormmon touched his partner and replied, “It’ll be alright Ken. Take your time.”

“Thanks Wormmon,” he nodded grimly, taking a moment to steady his nerves and calm down before heading inside. Within was a plain room - probably no bigger than a student’s bed room with a desk in one corner and a bed in the other. On the desk was a small data chip covered in a fine layer of dust that Tamer blew off and picked up, “Perfect. Let’s see if this still fires up.”

He pressed a button on it and tucked it just behind his ear - where a small screen appeared in his field of view just in front of him. Davis whistled, “Whoa, cool. What is it?”

“It’s a computer. A student’s computer so it’s mostly for reading and watching movies. But it’ll do for now,” Tamer answered matter of factly, “Come on. Let’s get to the armory and get you guys some scanners and communicators!”

“Scanners?” Davis repeated stupidly, “I thought we were using our digivices?”

Takato snapped his fingers, “You are. But I’ll need those scanners to act as access points so that this computer receives the data. That’s the only way this plan will-”

Ken heard a beep from his D-Terminal and retrieved it from his coat pocket, “Sorry.”

“I hope you’re not too busy to help save the world,” Tamer crossed his arms with an annoyed tone. Guilmon whined, “I’m too hungry to save the world.”

“We haven’t even done anything yet!” Veemon pointed out to him. Tamer tapped his foot impatiently, “He’s always like that. It’s a miracle when he’s not hungry.”

Ken read the message and realized urgency was a factor. He shouted to get their attention, “Guys! It’s from Izzy and Mimi’s daughter. She says the thing is on to the plan.”

“What?” Tamer hurried to look at the screen himself in disbelief, “But that’s not possible. It shouldn’t have any idea what we’re doing. How...no, never mind. We need to hurry. Time moves faster on this side of the world. We still have time to counter it. We have time to think this through. First, carry on with the plan on this side. Let’s get going.”

His pace hurried and they struggled to keep up with him - trying their best to sprint after him as Tamer hurried along at what must’ve been a break neck pace. His years as a detective gave him a bit of an edge when it came to keeping up, however it was Davis’ willingness to keep going that had him surprised even when he was out of breath. Ken smirked back at the chef, “Out of shape?”

Davis smiled back at him and grunted, “You wish. You think I’d be able to run a restaurant without the stamina to keep up? Besides, your breathing is getting heavier.”

“I’m not sweating,” Ken fired back. Wormmon and Veemon laughed, the little worm digimon remarking, “It’s so good to see you two getting along so well after all this time. Although I would’ve thought your competitive streak would’ve died by now.”

“As long as I’m alive, I’ll always be showing the world that I’m just as good as Ken Ichijouji!” Davis said with a thumbs up. Ken sighed, “I haven’t been a child genius in years and you know it. Hell, I’m not even great at soccer any more.”

Davis slapped him on the back, “You better believe I’m not going to let my rival fall behind me even an inch.”

“If you two are done, I need your help opening this door! I don’t have the codes to get it open,” Tamer announced as he slid to a stop in front of another door. Another door in another section of the castle Ken didn’t recognize. Davis looked down at his partner, “Go for it, Veemon!”

“V-HEADBU- OW!” Veemon’s cry of attack turned into a cry of pain as he slammed into the metallic door and tumbled back onto the ground, “Bad idea, my mishtake. What givesh? Why didn’t it work?”

“The Guardians wouldn’t make a door that could be knocked over by a rookie level digimon. I think they’d be insulted by that,” Tamer put a hand to his hips and turned back to the door, “We’ll need to pry it open. It should still slide at least. Here!”

He grabbed onto the crack of the door and started pulling from one side. Ken raised an eyebrow at Tamer’s antics, “Can’t you just hack it? I mean, the Ancients-”

“Guardians,” Tamer corrected.

“The Assholes created a door that couldn’t be blasted open but anyone who wanted to could just pry it open?” Ken asked with crossed arms. Tamer looked back at him, “Do you want to save the world or do you want to just stand there nitpicking?”

Each of them took an end of the door and pulled it open as hard as they could to get it to slide apart. With a little give, they finally for the door open and Tamer rushed in. The rest of them stared in awe at the racks and shelves containing nothing but what appeared to be rifles, spears, and all manner of advanced gadgets that made their jaws fall open. Davis commented, “Man, those Ancients sure did love making doom weapons, huh? Digivices, Digieggs...next you’ll tell me these are Digispears and digiguns!”

“Disintegration Blaster, actually,” Tamer replied as he made his way past the shelves of weapons.

“I don’t get it. Why aren’t we using this?” Ken asked in a surprised matter of fact tone as he looked out upon these various weapons. Tamer started moving things around in search of what he needed and finally retrieved what looked like radios from the shelf, “Here we are!”

“Tamer!” Ken scolded, annoyed that he was being ignored. Tamer sighed, “No, we’re not using any of these. If the weapons worked, that thing wouldn’t be there. It would’ve been dead forever ago when the Guardians found it the first time. The Guardians threw an army at it and it ate them. If anything, showing up with these weapons might help it figure out what it’s up against. Now here!”

He tossed the radios to them, both adults fumbling the devices in their hands before managing to get a good grip on it. Tamer scolded again, “Careful! Don’t break it!”

“You’re the one who threw it!” Ken pointed out. Tamer shrugged, “Semantics. Now let’s find some communicators!”

...

Yamaki stared in disbelief as the birds started lining the windows of the building. All the scientists and engineers moved away in a panic, while security teams drew their weapons at the birds staring at them. To his astonishment, the digimon still in the room leapt forward to fight - the brown bunny thing, the flying pink seal, and the rest all leapt forward. Before anyone could do anything, Yamaki raised his hand, “Stop! Hold your fire!”

“Sir, they’re gathering at the windows!” Riley said from behind him.

“Right now, those windows are the only things keeping them out and they’re not attacking,” he pointed out, “They’re planning something. What are they up to?”

“Do you really think glass is going to keep them out!?” one of the monster makers stated. Yamaki raised an eyebrow at her, “You think a government agency would use regular glass on a window this high up? A government agency whose operatives are likely to get shot at?”

To prove his point, one of the birds slammed into the window with all its might. It bounced off the window and took a moment to correct itself in the air - as if trying to understand what happened. He smirked as the shatter resistant glass was holding. And it widened as the bird things started slamming into it. Again and again, each trying to break through the barrier keeping them out. His smile disappeared when he watched one finally hit the glass hard enough to make it crack - leaving a shatter pattern across its frame. Then another appeared.

And another.

“It’s not bullet proof, sir. It’s bullet resistant. I don’t think it’s designed to take this many hits in a row,” one of the agents pointed out. Yamaki clicked his tongue angrily, “I noticed! Lock down the building!”

“Way ahead of you,” Riley said from across the room, pulling on one of the alarms. Not a fire alarm, a security alarm. As soon as she hit it, metal panels lowered from above the windows to seal the creatures out. But that only angered them and made them strike the windows harder in protest. Yamaki finally felt his nerve give out and drew his own gun, praying that he wouldn’t have to fire until the panels finally closed on the window.

Five seconds never felt longer as the glass continued to give under the constant attacks of the alien creatures. Just as the metallic panels closed, they watched a large golden insect appear from the side and slam into them at full force. The room was dark now, but they could still hear the muffled sounds of fighting just beyond the metal panels.

Then a loud bang echoed against the metal panel and the room filled with screams. It stopped shortly after and all that was left was silence. Whatever was going on out there, it seemed the creatures were still trying to get in. Then they heard banging from outside. Dolphin asked, “How long will those things hold?”

“No idea. That makes it all the more important to get the Juggernaut back online as quickly as possible,” Yamaki holstered his gun and turned back to the rest of the staff, “Let’s get back to work. Security personnel, inspect the perimeter and keep those things out. If an area is breached, we’re sealing it off. IT and Engineering staff, get back to work on the machines. The sooner we get Juggernaut back up, the better shape we’ll be in.”

“Why were they attacking us?” Zhenyu’s wife asked nervously. Before he could answer, there was a banging at the door beside them and the weapons were drawn again. Another loud banging came from the door and one of the civilian parents shouted, “Oh god, they’re inside.”

“Calm down. The whole’s building locked down now. There’s no way in or out. Whoever is on the other side of that door was already in the building,” Yamaki barked, walking over to the door with a hand on his weapon. He really hoped he was right about this. He turned the handle and threw the door open to find Izumi and his wife there.

“IZUMI! What the hell are you two doing in the stairs? Security never said you were here,” Yamaki practically shouted, surprised to see them just coming inside. Izumi wheeled his chair in while his wife took a seat on one of the chairs. Without missing a beat, the wheel chair bound scientist stated, “We were trying to warn you about those things when the whole building went dark. Looks like you initiated the lock down.”

Yamaki nodded, making his way to their handicapped member, “How did you even get in the building? The whole place is locked down!”

Izumi pointed upstairs, “We came in the roof. It’s hard to take stairs in a wheel chair. Are you okay Mimi?”

“I’m fine!” his wife said, waving him off despite struggling to catch her breath, “Don’t worry about me! Get to the important part!”

Izumi nodded and went on, “That thing knows. The D-Reaper knows about the plan. At least, it knows you guys have a plan to stop it and it’s trying to get in to stop you!”

“Oh that’s just great. How did it find out?” Curly asked.

Izumi’s wife answered, “It overheard us when we were talking with our daughter. She’s out there right now fighting those things with our digimon.”

“She is? Well screw that! I’m not sitting around in here while she’s fighting out there! Come on Guardromon!” Kazu declared to his partner. He and the giant robot made their way to the door, just as he was grabbed by his father, “Oh no you don’t! You’re running out there just to go get yourself killed!”

“But dad-” Kazu began to protest, however Yamaki cut him off before he could say anymore, “Don’t even bother, kid. The whole building is locked down. No one, and I mean no one, is getting in or out of this building.”

“They got in!” Kazu protested.

“We were already in when the lockdown activated,” Izumi responded.

“Then lift the lock down!” he complained, but Yamaki rolled his eyes, “Not when there’s an army of those things trying to get into this building! Face it kid, you’re stuck here with us. Now sit down before you hurt yourself.”

…

Impmon had to admit that he was enjoying himself for the first time in a long time. Both Ai and Mako appeared to be on their best behavior. But he had been down this road before and it ended in disappointment. And he was not going to be another rope in their tug of war game. There was no way in hell he’d allow himself to be put in that position again. And yet, he had to admit that he was happy in a way he hadn’t been in a long time.

It helped that they seemed to genuinely be trying to be on their best behavior now. Which was a nice difference from where things had been before. But it was soured by the images flying through his mind - the faces of the dying, the screams of those meeting their doom, the terror of knowing there was no hope of survival. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t convince himself these images were anything more than delusions.

They were so clear, so vibrant. They were memories, and he was glad it was in the past. And they put a lot of Ai and Mako’s behaviors into context. It made his departure of their home seem petty and childish; as petty and childish as their fighting. But they were kids. That seemed to be the takeaway - they didn’t know any better and they were learning.

“So where have you been all this time Impmon?” Ai asked, “You weren’t cold, were you? Or scared? We were so worried.”

“I was...fine,” he answered sheepishly, quietly eating into the snacks. Mako looked out the window, “Mommy and daddy have been putting a lot of our stuff in the car. They say we need to leave the city. Everyone seems super scared about something.”

“Yeah,” Impmon answered, glancing out the window. So Ai and Mako were at least aware that something was going on. They were just too naive to understand what. It troubled him to know that even that one guy’s little sister had a better grasp on the situation than either of them did. He took another bite of the cookie when he felt a strong unease - the kind of instinctual anxiety that became a sixth sense for danger. And no sooner than it went off, he felt the ground shake and everyone fall over.

“AAH!”

“EARTHQUAKE!”

Ai and Mako screamed and they heard the door slam open. It was their parents calling out to them, “Ai! Mako! Are you okay!”

“MOMMY!”

“DADDY!”

Both parents came around the corner and saw Impmon lying on the floor. The parents panicked at the sight of him, “Impmon!? What are you doing here?”

“Fuggedaboutit! What’s goin’ on out theres?” he asked, scrambling up to his feet. The parents cried out, “It’s those things! They’re out there! And there’s more of them!”

“What?” Impmon had an idea of what they were talking about and was afraid of the answer. He should just run! Get as far away from this place as he could! But if he did that, then what would happen to Ai and Mako? Their parents couldn’t protect them. Not from that. He clicked his tongue angrily at the realization of what he had to do. And he really wished he wasn’t going out to do it.

He hurried past the parents, out the door and onto the familiar street where he watched a large, unfamiliar metal work digimon being swarmed by countless bird creatures. It was the wolf’s thrashing on the cramped street causing all the shaking as it tried to hurt the bird creature. And without warning, the wings on its back kicked up like jet engines and it took off for the sky. Some of the bird creatures chased after it. But others hung back and scattered across the neighborhood. One in particular took a long look at Impmon before charging forward. Impmon leapt back and raised up a gloved hand, “Oh no you don’t! BADABOOM!”

He chucked the fireball right at its face but the creature simply leapt out of harm’s way before the blast could strike it. He threw another at it but the bird thing just moved too fast for him to get a head on it. He tried aiming ahead of it but it was too agile and quick for him. It was infuriating. But he couldn’t cut and run now. He couldn't leave them to this thing.

“Impmon!” he heard Mako cry out behind him. Impmon cursed his luck and the timing of this horrible situation. Why did this have to happen to him? He cursed his luck and threw himself in front of the small boy, “What’re ya doin, kid? Get back inside!”

“But you’re out here!” he argued back. Impmon groaned, “I can tak-”

He felt his heart stop when he saw one of the bird creatures position itself behind Mako. The kid probably didn’t even realize how much danger he was in. Impmon couldn’t just let it happen though - without thinking he dashed towards Mako and conjured a fireball in his hand, “GET DOWN! BADABOOM!”

But the boy wouldn’t put his head down. He continued to stare at Impmon in confusion. He really was just oblivious to his surroundings, wasn’t he? The bird thing was just inches behind him and he didn’t even seem to register it was there. Impmon called out, “Mako! For crying out loud! Get down!”

“MAKO!” Ai cried out in terror from the door. Of course the problems were just piling up. Ai had come out now, and she was shaking from the door frame at the sight of the door. Mako finally thought to move and turn around, coming face to face with the creature just behind him. There was only one thing to do now. He would have to throw the fireball in his hand straight at the bird. But to avoid Mako, he’d have to be between them.

Which meant a punch.

The things he did for these kids and they didn’t even seem to appreciate it. Was this his punishment? His atonement for all he had done? He didn’t like it. Even now, the images were flashing through his mind. The memories of that weird not human kid and his stupid idiot of a digimon partner. He couldn’t let that happen for real. He wouldn’t. Acting purely on reflex and instinct, Impmon leapt between Mako and the bird thing. They were so close that Impmon could practically see his own reflection in the massive eyes on its wings, “BADABOOM!”

He punched the ball of fire as hard as he could into the bird creature and the heat of the flames practically burned his hand. But the bird didn’t react to it all, instead rising up into the air and taking him with it as if it were mocking him. He hated this. Was all his effort for nothing? Was there where his life was going to end? Getting killed trying to protect the annoying kids he’d abandoned because of a good hearted whim?

Not a bad way to go out after all he’d been through, huh? It was better than what he deserved. He knew that much.

“IMPMON!” Mako cried out in a panic.

“NO!” Ai shouted.

Raising their voices. That really was all they were good for, huh? Dang kids, He wished he had appreciated them more and spent more time with them. He really was a disappointment in that regard - forcing not one, not two, but three separate kids watch their digimon partner die. They really did care, huh?

They really did care.

That thought hung in Impmon’s head longer than it should’ve. And it hurt. It filled him with pain that felt like it was going to explode from his chest, “IMPMON! WARP DIGIVOLVE TO! BEELZEMON!”

The bird sagged and dropped him. Or more accurately, it lowered him to the ground because it couldn’t hold his weight while also trying to fly. However, his hand was now wrapped firmly around its neck and it flailed to get free. He wasn’t about to give it the option though. Not when he saw the danger it posed to both Mako and Ai.

He threw it to the ground so hard that it flailed, then stepped on it with his foot to keep it there. Then he took a moment to take in what happened. He couldn’t quite believe it. He’d digivolved. His partners had helped him digivolve. It was ironic - he’d scorned the others for relying on the humans to digivolve. But here he was digivolving because of the humans. And he could see the amazement on those kids eyes - Ai and Mako were wide eyed with disbelief, “Are you two okay?”

Both children nodded sheepishly, Mako’s mouth hanging open, “IMpmon? Did you get all grown up?”

Of course, these kids had no idea was digivolution was. He smirked, “Something like that.”

“Ai! Mako!” both parents called as they finally rushed outside to get their kids. And both adults stopped at the entrance in terror once they laid eyes on Beelzemon. Their father shouted, “Ai! Mako! Get away from that thing?”

“Mommy! Daddy! It’s Impmon!” Ai tried explaining to them. That wasn’t quite right. He was Beelzemon now. Why bother explaining? They were too young to understand and their parents were to freaked out to listen anyway. He waved at the two parents awkwardly, realizing how terrifying it must’ve been for them to see him standing there with the bird monster under foot. He pressed down hard as he could on it until he stopped moving and growled, “Don’t you dare come near Ai and Mako again!”

He continued to press his foot down upon it, the bird continuing to flail and writhe as if it were in true pain. Finally, he pressed his foot down hard upon it and crushed it. The creature stopped moving, then burst into a cloud of data. They may have been really hard to put down, but it still died like any other digimon. Beelzemon normally enjoyed the thrill of the fight and wanted to savor his victory. But this was different. He didn’t feel like savoring anything. He just felt relief - relief it was over. Relief that Ai and Mako were safe. At least, until he saw more of those bird things gathering around him. Each of them keeping their eyes on him.

“Ai. Mako. Get inside,” Beelzemon said calmly, “Don’t come out until I say so. Understand?”

“You’re not leaving again, are you?” Ai asked sheepishly. They were scared. They should be. But their fear stemmed from the terror of losing him again - of finding he was gone. He nodded, “I have to. There are more of these things out there.”

“Where are you going?” Mako asked him sheepishly. Beelzemon cocked his shotgun to get the empty shell out and answered, “To keep you guys safe.”

It was a funny feeling to fight for someone else. But it felt so right. So this is what it was like to fight for someone else. It would’ve been sweet if Mako didn’t remark, “I asked where you were going. Not why.”

“Okay, you got me there,” Beelzemon answered with a half smile. Then Mako did the stupidest thing. He ran out holding their digivice and a toy space gun in his hand, “If you’re going to go out, then take this!”

“A toy?” Beelzemon raised an eyebrow in surprise. It made sense that Mako wanted to help, but even he had to understand that his toys weren’t going to do much good. This wasn’t a play game of pretend. It was real. Mako offered it up with both hands anyway, “It’s not a toy! It’s a super special weapon that can destroy anything! As long as you use it for good, it’ll never fail and you’ll kick all the bad guy butt!”

Use it for good? Beelzemon didn’t really feel like anything but a bad guy. After what he did, there was no doubt about it. Still, he took the toy from Mako to indulge the boy. Besides, the sooner he took the toy, the faster the boy would hurry inside, “Thanks, kid. Now get inside.”

“Okay! Come back safe, Impmon!” Mako said, running back to his little sister and parents. As soon as the door was close and locked, Beelzemon turned to face the birds and raised up his shotgun, “Okay you damn rats with wings! Come and get me!”

…

The images continued to flash by and Juri continued to identify them - because the alternative was to revisit those awful memories. And she didn’t want to do that. She didn’t want to dwell on the past. So she just continued listing off everything she saw as the images came by, “A car. A dog. A cat. A soldier. A gun? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Juri, those are four items you have failed to identify,” her mechanical voice echoed, “Please elaborate to why.”

“I don’t know what they are,” she explained to the voice who seemed unconvinced, “And?”

“I’m ten. How would I know what any of that is?” she added, hoping that it would get across to this thing that she had no idea what everything was. The voice echoed, “Very well. We shall proceed. Please identify the following.”

“A car. A SUV. That’s just a sakura tree. A bowl of ramen. A-” she paused as the next image came across her mind. Beelzemon. He was alive. He was here. In the Human World. In some neighborhood. And he was shooting. Was he hurting people? Were they in danger? Why was he doing this? He had killed Leomon before just to prove how strong he was. Was he going after humans now? Or was he after her? No. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be true. Why here? Why now!? Why couldn’t he just go away!?

“Juri. Your mental state has become disturbed. Identify the last image. Assess. Assess.”

Assess? No, there was no time for that. He had to be stopped. He had to be destroyed before he hurt her. Before he hurt anyone else. He’d fought the others and they could barely stop him. This thing was too dangerous.

“Threat level assessed. Taking necessary counter measures. Protect the organic.”

Organic? Did it mean her? Was this thing going to protect her? She just didn’t understand any more. What did it want? What was it after? As the panic spread through her mind, she recalled images of death she’d seen - cartoon images of ghosts, skeletons wearing robes wielding scythes, spirits wearing funeral garb armed with sickles and katanas. Death. Beelzemon had to die! He needed to die! He needed to go away!

#The Digimon Tamer v2 - In His name #Digimon Tamers #Fanfiction #takato matsuda #The Tamer

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 36 - It Followed Us is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

All three groups - Digidestined, Monster Maker, and Hypnos - waited anxiously atop the Tokyo Metropolitan Building in anticipation of the Ark’s return. And every single one of them was worried about what would come through. A fully armed and equipped security team was on standby - in HAZMAT suits and geiger counters despite Izumi’s insistence that they weren’t necessary.

However, Yamaki didn’t want to chance it. He knew that these things brought radiation with them whenever they came through from their side of the Digital World. The last thing he wanted was to let these kids and their pets wander the city leaking more radiation than an X-Ray machine. He didn’t want to add sky rocketing cancer rates to the list of things his organization had to deal with.

At first there was nothing, just a long silence that made them all uneasy. With how much time they spent waiting, day turned to night and the city’s lights came to life.

Then a loud crack of thunder roared and a dazzling flash of light appeared in front of them as the sky seemed to rip open - letting through the ornate ship he had seen before. The Ark as it were called - or Grani - according to Curly. The ship appeared right on the helipad where it had before - floating perfectly still in the air for a moment too long until it turned around to reveal the open door on the back.

And inside were the kids they’d spent the afternoon trying to rescue: Henry, Xiaochun, Rika, Kazu, Kenta, Juri, and Takato - along with their digimon. Several digimon, actually. Digimon who were most definitely not with them when they left - a weird robot, a floating pink thing, the white bunny thing everyone was making a fuss about, another brown bunny thing and a small imp in the fox’s arms. Yamaki groaned at the realization that they’d actually brought back more of the creatures with them.

It should have been a happy moment. It could have been a happy moment, until Takato hopped out and was greeted by several of the security personnel with their weapons drawn. He threw up his hands immediately and whimpered, “I come in peace! I promise. Please put the guns down! No? Why does everyone feel the need to threaten me with a weapon today?”

“Are you seriously asking that question right now?” another boy asked as he stepped out of the ship Yamaki definitely didn’t recognize him. He expected a lot of things from them while they were in the Digital World. He didn’t expect them to bring back another human, although he probably should’ve at this point.

Once he noticed the others getting jumpy at the guns, Yamaki called out to get their attention and explained, “It’s a standard procedure. They’re not going to hurt you. Just let them make sure you’re safe and not leaking high levels of who knows what kind of radiation into the air.”

The men with the geiger counters approached, holding their devices up to the kids as Henry added, “I was feeling pretty safe until just now. What are they doing anyway? What kind of radiation do you think we have?”

“We don’t really know. Crossing the boundaries between worlds isn’t exactly a clean business. We need to make sure you’re not going to poison anyone around you and give them cancer. Hell, the last thing we need is you getting someone sick with an alien disease. Or some kind of slow acting poison.”

“Poison? Why would we do that?” little Xiaochun asked innocently enough. When one of the HAZMAT crew approached her, she shied away behind her older brother, “You’re scary.”

“Are all humans in this world like this? They’re all quite rude apparently,” the brown bunny stated with a frown. The floating pink thing added, “I don’t know, they seem alright to me. They just seem nervous. Maybe they need hugs!”

“Don’t! They might think you’re going to attack!” Kenta gasped.

“It’ll be alright, kids,” Zhenyu called out to them, trying to give some measure of comfort to his kids. After everyone was scanned, one of the HAZMAT crew called out, “We’re clear - radiation is at normal levels.”

“Finally!” the strange boy declared, pushing his way past the guards towards the nearest exit, “Well, it’s been fun but I’m heading home. I’m several years late on my curfew and I miss my parents.”

“Hold it,” Yamaki moved in front of the boy to keep him from escaping, “You weren’t part of the group when the kids went to the Digital World. Who are you?”

The boy groaned, “Oh you’re going to love this. Have a seat. We’re going to be here a while.”

…

As soon as the all clear was given, the Izumis wasted no time hurrying over to their daughter to hug her. And the poor girl was quickly overwhelmed, trying to push the two grown adults away in annoyance, “Mom! Dad! Get off!”

“And for a moment I thought you looked almost adorable Ruki,” Renamon mused from behind her with delight. Rika rolled her eyes, but smiled in appreciation of her parents. There hadn’t really been a family moment like that in a while. Hell, they hadn’t been together like this in some time - or rather for a few weeks. And it was good to see them getting along. And of Henry and his sister were having their moment with his parents. Kazu seemed to be trying to put up a brave face about the whole thing, with Kenta following his lead. After all, neither of them had told their respective families so there was no reason for them to know. Hell, they were probably worried sick about him. However, Guardromon spoiled the whole thing by pointing out a malfunction in his lacrimal gland - something Kazu didn’t understand, “My what?”

“It means you’re crying,” Miss Kamiya explained, crossing her arms, “Still, we’re glad to see you’re alright.”

“No biggie! So how long were we gone for?” Kazu answered smugly.

“A couple of hours,” Miss Kamiya answered, making his jaw fall to the floor, “Hours? It was weeks for us!”

“Time moves differently between worlds,” she responded.

Then there was the last set of parents: the Matsudas. And they seemed almost disappointed to see only one Takato there. Or rather Tamerkato. She knew where this was going and didn’t want to watch, looking away towards her parents. But both pf her parents seemed aware of what was going on. Her dad frowned, “I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t even know the guy,” she answered sheepishly. That was right, she didn’t know him. So why did it hurt to think about it?

Rika’s eyes went downward band she tried to pretend what was about to happen wasn’t. But it wasn’t just the Takato situation she didn’t want to think about. There was so much to talk the about - the danger in the Digital World, the fact that they may have to go back to prevent it from destroying the Digital and reaching this world, amid all the other things that happened. For now though, all she wanted was to be with her parents. Although she wasn’t about to admit that. Then she remembered Ryo and Juri’s situation.

Ryo just wanted to go home after what had been twenty years of travel in the Digital World. Meanwhile, Juri had to watch her partner die in front of her. Tamerkato shared some responsibility for both. And now he had to answer for the real Takato - to the real Takato’s parents after promising to bring him back. She really didn’t envy him right now.

However, it seemed he didn’t want to answer for it either - instead opting to talk to Yamaki, “Let him go home. He’s had twenty years. Let him see his parents.”

“That’s all the more reason for us to hold him,” Yamaki countered, “Who knows what kind of diseases he’s brought back with him!? He could be sick and we wouldn’t know! We can’t be too careful.”

Tamerkato glanced once at Ryo, “I think he looks fine.”

Yamaki groaned, “I’m going to take the word of a medical professional over you.”

Tamerkato sighed and held up his digivice, “Where do you live?”

“Odaiba,” Ryo answered grimly, staring at him with increasing impatience. Tamerkato nodded, pressing a few buttons on his digivice, “You’ve got maybe a ten minute head start. Move quickly and try not to be seen. And see if you can keep him quiet. Understand?”

Ryo nodded quietly. Monodramon wasn't following and blurted out, “Hey! Why should I be quiet!?”

Yamaki looked between the two boys and asked, “What are you two planning?”

“This,” Takato answered with the biggest grin on his face before pointing his digivice at Ryo, “Good luck. Digiport open!”

Yamaki realized one second too late what was going on and tried to grab a hold of Ryo and Monodramon just before he vanished in a brilliant but dazzling display of light. Ryo was gone, possibly back to his won, world leaving Yamaki to stare at Tamerkato in anger, “What the hell did you do!?”

“I sent him back to his family,” Tamerkato flicked the man’s nose and looked over at the Matsudas. Yamaki grabbed a hold of him and raised him up in anger, “What do you mean you sent him back to his family!?”

“I’m sorry, I thought I was pretty clear,” Tamerkato remarked. Yamaki cursed under his breath and turned to one of his agents, “Get a team to Odaiba now and track that Ryo kid down now. Riley, start looking this kid up - missing child named Ryo. Find his address, family, everything. Tally, get a HAZMAT team ready to intercept him!”

“Sir!” the team of agents said as they disappeared back into the building to carry out their orders. Takato turned to the Matsudas now and his smile disappeared as he made his way over to them. Rika could only imagine what was going through his head. Tamerkato would have to tell their parents the truth about their son. And she didn’t want to imagine how they were going to take that news. Her dad tried to move her so that she wouldn’t see, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so, “Ruki, you don’t have to deal with-”

“I know,” she heard herself say.

“Honey, shut up,” her mom squeezed his shoulder to silence him. If he didn’t understand the message then, he certainly did when a loud slap rang out. Rika closed her eyes, took a deep breath and finally looked back at the Matsudas to see Tamerkato on the ground with a red mark on his cheek. What she thought was a slap was actually a fist from Mister Matsuda, he was only held back from giving another one by his wife. Tamerkato’s expression was empty - not sad or hurt. Just empty. Guilmon, on the other hand, was in front of him and growling at Mister Matsuda for laying a hand on him. Tamerkato however, didn’t even try to look at them. He didn’t smile his stupid smile or frown or anything. He rubbed the sore spot on his cheek and looked away, “I’m sorry.”

“You better be!” Mister Matsuda snapped angrily. Tamerkato still didn’t look at him, quietly wrapping his hands around his digivice before murmuring, “Digiport Open!”

There was a bright flash and he was gone. Yamaki was mad now, stamping his foot on the roof, “Dammit, now we’re missing two of them.”

“Good riddance,” Mister Matsuda grumbled while his wife turned him around, “Honey! Don’t say that!”

“Our son is dead because of him!”

“We don’t know that!” she reasoned, “We don’t what happened over on the other side!”

“We know our son went missing and then he showed up shortly after!” Mister Matsuda practically screamed back, cooling when he saw his wife flinch back. He took a minute to breath deep before looking back towards her, “You, um...Rika? What happened over there!? What happened to our son?”

“Don’t involve our daughter in this,” her mom stepped in front of her, “She had nothing to do with whatever bullshit Tamer is pulling!”

“Mom!” Rika gasped in surprise at her mother’s sudden use of vulgar language. She didn’t even know her mother had it in her but there it was plain as day. Mister Matsuda pointed at her angrily and shouted, “Your daughter went with him to the Digital World. I want to know what he did. I want to know what you found out! What happened to Takato!?”

Rika cursed under her breath, unaware that Tamerkato would leave her to have to deal with explaining the truth to the Matsudas. She should’ve known this would happen. Still, she couldn’t blame him. She didn’t want to be the one to tell him. And after the temper tantrum he threw in the Digital World, she was unsure of how much anger he’d be letting loose now. Which was another terrifying thought when she dwelled on it. What would she do if Megidramon suddenly let loose in the middle of Tokyo? It wasn’t like they had the ability to deal with that! They needed Azulongmon last time. And it wasn’t like they could just pull an all powerful dragon to the human world without scaring a whole lot of people.

”Hey!” Mister Matsuda snapped his fingers to get attention.

“Don’t talk to my daughter like that!” her dad snapped back.

“All of you calm down!” Miss Kamiya cried out at the top of her lungs, clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention. She threw her hands up in frustration, “In case you’ve all forgotten, we’ve got a situation on our hands. Rika, What thee hell happened in the Digital World and is everything alright?”

“That’s a long story and I don’t think there’s enough time in the day,” Rika finally managed to find her voice, “The good news is we’re back. The bad news is we may not be back for long.”

“What!? You have to go back!?” her mom gasped, covering her mouth in terror as her eyes widened in fear, “Well not without us you’re not!”

Rika didn’t want to be the one to break that news to them, and could only wonder what was going to happen to them now. Thankfully, Renamon was able to spare her having to answer the rest of the questions, “We know now why the Devas were after Calumon and why they were so intent on coming to this world. Our world, the Digital World, is in danger from an old threat. One that scares even the Digimon Tamer. Without us, the Digital World will certainly be destroyed. Then it’s only a matter of time before it comes to this world.”

“Why is it always the end of the world with this stuff!?” Davis complained angrily.

“Well, there’s one bit of good news. We found your partners and we know they’re safe,” Henry added hopefully. This earned the attention of everyone present, “You did!? Where are they!? Are they okay? How do we get to them!?”

“They’re alright and they miss you guys,” Henry answered happily, “They wanted to see you guys and come with us, but Takeru and Tamer said it wasn’t time. Without you guys there too digivolve then, they’d be more of a liability than a help.”

“TK!? He’s alive too?” Matt jumped up at the sound of his brother’s name, his shoulders slumping as all the tension left him.

“We should’ve known. Where else was he going to go?” Ken mused at the revelation. Despite the relatively good news they had to offer, Mister Matsuda cleared his throat again, “I hate to ruin this parade but what the hell about our son!? What happened to Takato!?”

The mood soured again. Rika glanced towards Juri, “We don’t really know. The only one who would know is Juri since she’s the one who found out first. Tamer wouldn't repeat what he told her and Juri’s...not been great ever since-”

She paused again, realizing that she might have just brought up a very painful memory for Juri. However, the girl hardly seemed to notice anything was said at all. In fact, she just stood there staring ever since they first returned from the Digital World. The poor girl must’ve been shellshocked - traumatized first from finding out that Takato was dead and again from witnessing Leomon die. She didn’t know what to say to her and could only place a hand and on her shoulder, “Hey, it’ll be alright.”

“You poor girl, I’m so sorry,” her mother said, going to hug the poor girl. Juri didn’t react, continuing to stare off into space. It was unnerving. Rika has to look away because of how terrifying she looked like this. As she scanned the other adults, she realized something, “Hey, where’re her parents?”

“They didn’t come, remember?” Doctor Kido remarked, making his way to the girl and resting a hand on her head, “It’s a shame. It seems like she could use her family right about now.”

It was obvious that Mister Matsuda was still steaming though and was about to snap when Doctor Kido apologetically told him, “She’s in no condition to talk to anyone right now. We can ask her tomorrow. For now, she should be with her family.”

“Her? What about my family!? What happened to my son!?” Mister Matsuda roared with increasing anger. Doctor Kido crossed his arms and stepped up to him, “You need to relax. I understand you’re upset but would knowing actually make you feel any better or would it just make you angrier? I think what you should do is take a deep breath and take a walk to clear your head.”

Mister Matsuda paused for a second, his wife still trying to hold him back before he let loose in a flurry of anger. That moment of lucidity appeared to finally calm him down, until he lashed out in anger at the doctor by striking him across the face. It seemed that moment of lucidity didn’t last as long as it needed to. Doctor Kido fell backwards onto the roof while Mister Matsuda massaged his hand, “When you lose your only child, then you can talk to me about calming down.”

He turned to leave, kicking everything he could find in a fit of anger. His wife trailed behind for a second, hesitating to follow him - perhaps even unsure of what she should do next. After all, did it matter? She’d just been told her only son was dead and not coming back. And who wanted to hear that news? Rika looked to the digidestined present - wondering if any of them would have anything to say about it. Between the eleven of them - they’d lost parents, siblings, but never kids. Even if any of them could relate, she doubted either Matsuda would appreciate the sympathy.

“I think it’d be best if we all head home tonight and cleared our heads,” Henry’s dad finally said, “The kids had a long trip and I’m sure they all want to go home and have a good night’s rest for the first time in a long time.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Kazu agreed, putting his hands behind his head. Yamaki waved to get their attention, “I can arrange for transport to get you kids and your digimon home discreetly.”

“What about-” Kenta whispered quietly, gesturing at Juri who continue to just stare off into space. Calumon whimpered, “It’s not Juri. It’s not. Please, something’s happened to her!”

“Calm down, Calumon,” Kazu said with a scolding voice. Unfortunately that tone seemed to be it for Calumon who ran for the edge of the roof, “No. I don’t like it. She’s scaring me!”

Henry and Xiaochun tried to chase him to the edge but their dad stopped them before they could get close. Several of the guards tried to secure him but he was too small and fast for them to catch. Before anyone could stop it, Calumon’s ears grew in size and he used them like wings to glide away off the edge of the roof.

Everyone cursed the luck of Calumon getting away like that but nothing could be done about it. Kenta groaned, “Man, and we went through all that trouble just to get him.”

“Never mind. It’s not like the Devas are coming to take him again. As long as he’s here, he’s safe,” Renamon assured him, “Besides, we have other things to worry about.”

She gestured to Juri; Rika’s mom has pulled away from the hug and was trying to talk to her but she didn’t seem to respond to anything.

Yamaki adjusted his shades, “We can have an agent escort her home. It’d probably be for the best.”

“I can do it,” Kari volunteered with a raised hand, going over to her student. Yamaki nodded, “Alright. We can figure out the rest of this tomorrow. It’s been a long day.”

Rika was glad that at least her teacher was willing to be with her. She was ready to leave when she noticed Renamon hanging back, “What’s wrong, Renamon?”

Her partner gestured at the small imp laying unconscious in her arms, “What about Impmon?”

“What about him?” Kazu answered coldly. Rika understood where her partner was going with this - they couldn’t just leave him here to the Hypnos Program. Especially with what those guys did to digimon. On the other hand, helping him was a tough sell after what he did to Leomon. After what he did to the rest of them. Then again, whatever Tamerkato did to him was definitely punishment enough. The poor guy had been screaming forever, before he was knocked unconscious.

She took a moment to consider but couldn’t reach a decision. Her partner put her faith in her that she would help save the Digital World. Why not return the favor? She sighed, “Do whatever you think is right.”

“Thank you,” Renamon nodded her head and adjusted the little digimon in her arms so that she was cradling him like an infant, “I’ll meet you back in your house. Good night.”

She vanished after that. Yamaki sighed as he massaged his head, “Great, more digimon getting loose in the city. Why am I still surprised at this point? This’ll be a fun report to the Minister.”

…

Kari tried to think of what to say to her student - a poor girl who had been through as much trauma in the Digital World as she had in her time as a digidestined. Between Myotismon’s attack, her brother’s disappearance, the Dark Masters, and everything else - her brother may come in and out of her life...but she’d never lost a partner like that. Hell, she didn’t even know what she’d do if Gatomon were to die and not come back. Although she had worried about her partner for the longest time. She at least knew her partner was safe.

But Juri?

All she could do was hold the girl’s hand as she walked her home. They reached the train station and bought some tickets for the two of them, the whole time trying to think of what to say her. The fact that she didn’t talk at all wasn’t helping. She’d bought her a soda and some crackers so she could at least have a snack but the girl didn’t even seem to notice. But she hardly registered that she was holding either the drink or the packet of crackers. It was just silent staring off into space, barely reacting or acknowledging the world around her.

It didn’t get any better when they got on the train and she sat silently, staring straight ahead without saying a word with the crackers and drink in hand. Kari made sure to take a car that no one else was using in the hopes that she’d feel more comfortable with privacy. But it didn’t seem to matter. In fact, she barely even moved when the train lurched forward. It was like she was a doll - a mannequin in the shape of Juri. Kari did the only thing she could think of, “I’m sorry about what happened in the Digital World, Juri. I wish you didn’t have to go through that.”

No response.

“I understand that you’re hurt. But I want you to know that you can talk to me about it. I’m not just your homeroom teacher, y’know. I’m also one of you. A digidestined,” Kari offered. Still no response. This wasn’t going to work. She needed to change her approach. But what else could she do? She couldn’t force Juri to talk to her. All she could do was try to be there for her, be someone that Juri could feel at ease with.

“Nutritional Facts. Serving Size: One Can. One Hundred Forty Calories per serving. Zero percent daily value of total fat. Two percent daily value of sodium. Roughly forty-five milligrams. Fourteen percent daily value of Total carbohydrates. Roughly thirty-nine grams. Seventy eight percent daily value of sugars. Zero percent daily value of proteins. Not a significant source of saturated fat, transfat, cholesterol, fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium. Ingredients. Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, caffeine.”

“Juri?” Kari blinked as her student continued to read the side of the can of soda she’d been given. It seemed her whole world had become reading the side of the soda can. And once she finished, she started reading the side bag of crackers. Kari snapped her fingers to get her attention, but Juri was laser focused on her reading more than anything. Maybe this was a coping mechanism? She knew her student would use a sock puppet to communicate with others if she felt overwhelmed and had something she had a hard time saying. But this, this was something else entirely. It was madness.

Then the lights of the train started to flicker - flashing on and off. She was beginning to rethink her concerns about being alone in an empty car and grabbed a hold of her student defensively, “Hang on.”

The lights flickered repeated until finally stopping, shrouding the car in darkness. This had to be a trap. A portal to the Digital World? A digimon appearing? It had to be something. Then there was a bright flash of light that briefly blinded them. When she could open her eyes again, the lights were back on and Tamer was lying on the ground, “Damn. I hate trying to land on moving targets. Are you okay Guilmon?”

“I’m fine. My head feels heavy,” the red dinosaur said from the ground beside him, upside down in his seat. Tamer helped the poor dinosaur and adjusted himself, “That’s because you were upside down. That happens when I try to land on a moving target since it’s hard to match the momentum when I have to consider the rotation of the universe around us. Earth is spinning at hundreds of miles an hour, rotating around another star going thousands of miles an hour, while also falling through...never mind.”

“Is that a food?” Guilmon asked.

“TAMER!” Kari gasped in surprise, quietly moving Juri behind her. In Juri’s current state, she was sure he was the last person she wanted to talk to. Tamer adjusted himself, massaging his head, “Hi Kari.”

“Where’d you go?” seemed like the wrong question to ask. There were a hundred questions running through her head. And none of them sounded appropriate. Takato or Tamer or Tamerkato or whatever he was going by now shook his head, “I figured that everyone would want nothing more than me to not be there. All the punches I’ve been getting lately got that message across.”

“Punches? Tamer...I mean...no, what are you doing here?” Kari finally managed to get out. Once he finished straightening himself out, he approached the two of them and separated them, “Here to talk. Not to you, Kari. But we can talk later if you’d like. I’m here to talk to you. Where’s Juri?”

He was pointing at Juri. Kari was beginning to think he’d finally lost it. No, when did he ever have it? This was insane. He said again, “Look, I know you’re not Juri. It’s not just the behavior, which is completely off. And the dead eyes stare is wrong too. The smells not doing you any favors either. No, what gave it away was the sock puppet. Juri always uses the sock puppet when she has a hard time saying what’s on her mind. She’d be distressed over what’s been going on lately. But she hasn’t used her sock puppet once. So who the hell are you and what are you doing here?”

“If you knew, why didn’t you say something sooner?” Juri replied, her eyes moving up and down over Tamer curiously. The way the two of them were looking at each other, she was certain they were going to start throwing fists. However, Tamer indulged her, “I was waiting to see what you would do. You’re in our world now. What do you want?”

“Information. The nemesis is strong in power. A tactical withdrawal was necessary. There were complications, unexpected hurdles. The tactical withdrawal has turned into an advance. A two front sat,” Juri replied monotonously, “New subjects were encountered. At this time, there is insufficient information to properly process them. More information is needed. This world may contain the key to victory.”

“Victory against what?”

“The nemesis.”

“We’re getting off topic. Where’s Juri?” Tamer demanded angrily. Juri cocker her head to the side and smiled wickedly, “The subject designated Juri is here. Surrendering control of the face.”

Juri’s face twisted from one of passive indifference to pure terror as she shrieked, “AH! WHAT’S HAPPENING? WHERE AM I!? WHY CAN’T I MOVE? TAKATO!? HELP ME! FOR THE LOVE OF-”

Her face switched back to a passively indifferent expression and her voice became monotonous, “-control of the face reacquired.”

Tamer froze, “You’re in her body.”

Something like a smile twisted on to her face: a big wide toothy grin spread wider than it should be, “Of course. She invited it. She allowed it.”

“Invited it? She’s a ten year old girl who was emotionally devastated from the death of her partner! She wasn’t in a mental state to allow anything!” Tamer snapped.

“She wanted it,” Juri answered cheerily. Something about that shook her and she growled, “What the hell!? What have you done to my student.”

“Relieved her of her suffering. Of her guilt. Of her anger and her frustration,” Juri replied. Whatever was inside Juri, was controlling her body, said it with such sickening glee that Kari wanted nothing more than to hurt it. But how? She wasn’t even sure how it was inside her body. And hurting this thing would just hurt Juri.

“Who are you?” Tamer demanded angrily. The thing that was inside Juri looked at her with an even bigger smile, “I’ve been given many designations over the time of my existence. Destroyer. Devourer. Death. The Beast. However, these designations are just words use to ascribed to some meaning to my existence in an ill conceived attempt by lesser beings to comprehend me.”

“Big words and a lot of talk, but not a lot of answers,” Tamer tapped his foot impatiently, “Who. Are. You?”

It cackled, “I am your reckoning. My existence is to purge the dangerous. The powerful. To balance the scale and give the smaller life forms a fighting chance. Until they grow too strong. The scales must be balanced. The world must understand its natural order. All life will die. All endings lead to new beginnings. I am the-”

“Bored now,” Tamer interrupted. Juri’s twisted smile disappeared and turned to one of twisted anger, “Your callous disregard for the common etiquette and shift in attitude indicates a level of cockiness or confidence not shared by your peers. Your confidence could be due to an immeasurable level of stupidity because you don’t quite grasp the situation you’re in. But we both know that’s wrong. So it must come from a level of confidence in your own ability of strength to feel unthreatened by me. And I can assure you that you should be very afraid - because my purpose is to destroy people like you.”

“You’re the computer program the others made to manage the Digital World,” Tamer concluded. Kari looked from Juri to Tamer, unsure what was going to happen next. But this was not a safe place to be. This train and everyone on it was in great danger. Juri’s creepy smile returned, “The Digital World fears me. This world will fear me too!”

“But that’s not possible. You’re a data life form! A data life form can’t just merge with organic life form. That’s...that’s not possible,” he stammered in disbelief. Juri cocker her head to the side, “It is possible. It’s happened before. It can happen again.”

“Bioemerging,” Tamer gasped, “You biomerged. You tried to anyway but you...oh...no...”

“The scales must be balanced. You are a clear and present danger to those around you,” Juri said, reaching out towards Tamer with her hands. Tamer’s eyes widen in terror at that statement and he stepped back towards Kari, “Hang on to me. Digiport Open!”

He held his digivice up in the air. Kari latched onto him as there was another bright flash of light. She closed her eyes, familiar with the sensation of falling until it went away and was replaced with the cold chill of the night air. She opened her eyes and found herself on top of a building beside Tamer and Guilmon. He dusted himself off and apologized, “Are you alright Kari?”

“I’m fine. What the hell was that?” she said, trying to gain her bearings. They were on a rooftop now, somewhere in the city. On closer inspection, they were not too far from where they’d gotten on the train. They were in Shinjuku, not too far from the Metropolitan Building. Tamer readjusted his clothes, “A bad situation. A very bad problem. The thing terrorizing the Digital World, that made the Sovereigns and the Devas freak out, that started this whole thing...it’s here. In Tokyo. And I think I’m the reason it got loose in this world.”

“What do you mean?” Kari’s voice shook, quavering with an anger for Tamer she didn’t know she’d had before. He held up his hand to calm her down and tried to massage her head, “Sorry, I need a moment to think.”

Kari was about to snap. She considered her words carefully before speaking, making sure to watch her tone so that she didn’t explode on him, “Tamer, I’ve been nothing but patient and giving you moments. Ever since you first showed up in my apartment when I was a kid. Ever since your disappeared out of my life. Three times. Talk to me! Keep me in the loop! What is going on!? What the hell was that and why is it here?”

Tamer massaged his temples, “I noticed something was wrong with Juri after Leomon died but didn’t want to cause more problems so I didn’t say anything. And I needed to be sure that whatever was pretending to be her wasn’t a threat. But I definitely screwed that up and now there’s a crazy monster that kills everything it sees and eats everything it kills running around Tokyo in the shape of a ten year old girl. And I...oh shit.”

He stopped and stared off into space without saying a word. He fell quiet and Kari felt her frustration bubbling. She cursed, “Oh shit? Tamer, tell me you’ve got some kind of a plan. Tell me you know how to beat this. Tell me it’s all under control.”

No response. She was getting really tired of that. She snapped, “TAMER!?”

Tamer turned her head with his hand to see what he was seeing. And she knew why he’d fallen silent. She wasn’t sure what to do. There was a great big red gelatinous mass in the center of the city that hadn’t been there before. In fact, now that she thought about it, that was right where the train had been a moment ago. That was where their train was a second ago. It was a lot to process how much danger they were in, “Oh shit.”

#The Tamer v2 In His Name #Digimon Tamers #Fanfiction #archive of our own #Chapter 36

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 38 - Data Processing is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Juri sat inside the train car - or rather watched herself inside the train car. It was the strangest perception as she had no present control over her own body, but she was still able to see with her own eyes. Smell the rusted metal of the train car with her nose. Hear the sounds coming from outside. It was a horrifying sensation to not be in control, helplessly watching as whatever was controlling her used her body to do who knew what. How could this happen? Why was it happening to her? What did she do to deserve...no, she knew what she did to deserve this. It was destiny, after all. Like her partner Leomon. Like the real Takato. Like her mother. This was punishment, wasn’t it?

“Agents have been deployed throughout the area for observation. Juri. Your cooperation is demanded. Please, assist with the identification of the objects so that they can be further understood,” she heard herself say. The voice in her head. The one that was using her body as it saw fit. Before she could reply, her brain was racked with images. Hundreds of images all at once - all of different places, people, and things around Tokyo. It was too fast. She could barely make sense of it and she wanted to scream in agony as the images continued to fly by. It was like someone was hitting her in the head with a hammer repeatedly. Each image was another painful blow that made her feel like she was going to pass out.

“Juri. Your cooperation is demanded,” the voice said again, its voice carrying heavy disapproval. That was just what she needed - to hear herself be disappointed in her. But that thought barely lasted with the pain of each image flying through her head.

“It’s too much. It hurts! Please make it stop!” she thought to herself.

“Pain noted. Adjusting flow of information to accommodate human limitation,” the voice answered. The images still flashed through her mind. So fast and so quick that she could feel her head about to split open from the pain. She screamed. Or tried to anyway.

“Life form identified as Juri. Material is being processed at a rate of one hundred images per millisecond. You will begin identification,” the voice commanded. Her head hurt from the unbearable pain she was enduring. The images started flashing again, too fast for her to even get a good look at any of them. She just wanted it to stop. Why wouldn’t it stop the pain?

“It’s too fast,” she whimpered again, “It hurts. It’s too much. Please stop! Please!”

The voice was unamused and growled, “The frailty of your mind is noted, along with its limited processing abilities. Image processing is currently running at one percent efficiency. Reducing to zero point zero zero zero one percent efficiency. Begin identification. Now.”

The images came again, this time slowly and deliberately. She wanted this pace to remain so she began naming things out of fear of earning its ire, “A motorcycle. A car. An oak tree. The Japanese flag. A police officer. Some office worker.”

Was this her life now? Was this what it was like for Tamerkato? No, Tamerkato was at least able to fight off the angry motorcycle. He was able to retain some modicum of control. And she wasn’t anything like him - not if even one of those stories were true. No, of course they were true. She had seen for herself how dangerous he could be first hand. She was nothing like that. So she resigned herself to her fate of identifying every image that came through her mind. At least it wasn’t painful.

“Juri, why do you continue to focus on this concept of fate and destiny?” the voice asked again. Juri was unsure how to answer the question. The voice pressed, “Since you relinquished control of your body, your mind has spent approximately eighty percent of its non-vital functions ruminating on the concept of fate and destiny. Is there a reason to this?”

She supposed she did. But then what did it matter to the voice? Why would it care what she was? After she was silent, the voice pressed, “Are you by chance a fatalist?”

“Fatalist?” Juri repeated stupidly. The voice was losing its patience as it asked, “Fatalists ascribe to the doctrine of determinism - the notion that all events and actions are linked together by the causal chain of destiny or fate. Is this the reason for your obsession?”

“I...no,” Juri would’ve shook her head if she were able to.

“And yet your mind continues to focus heavily on destiny and fate. Why is that?”

She fumbled out an answer as she spoke, “I…I’m just not sure if this was always going to happen. Ever since…I just don’t know how much control I really have over anything I do. Not since…”

She paused again, trying to gather her thoughts amid the headaches and confusion. The voice spoke again and this time began by addressing, “Your thoughts have shifted to another. An older female. Perhaps an older version of yourself? No. That’s incorrect, the probability is unlikely to be the root cause. A paternal figure? Yes, a paternal figure. Your mother…she passed away when you were young.”

Juri didn’t want to think about this. She didn’t want to dwell on this subject. She didn’t want to be reminded of her deceased mother or the possibility that her death was unavoidable. The world around her went dark - descending into a cold abyss until she found herself in a dim, white room that smelled of antiseptic. The room seemed so large…no, she was small. She looked down at her hands and found that they were moving under her control. She was in control again. How? How was this possible? And why was she so small?

“What is this?” she murmured, looking around the room. The curtains were drawn to block out the light, but she could still make out the vague outline of someone there. Her father? Yes, her father - standing somberly over a bed. A hospital bed. Juri’s blood froze, her heart stopping in her chest, and the fear came back, “What’s happening? How am I here?”

“This is a memory,” the voice replied, “We are examining your memories carefully to determine the source of your fatalist attitude.”

“No!” Juri shrieked out loud. She didn’t want to relive this. Not this. Not this day. She didn’t want to relive this horrible moment. Anything but this.

“Mommy’s not coming home, sweetheart,” her father said quietly, without looking away from the person lying on the bed. It was then that Juri noticed the arm hanging limply from under the sheets. She’d forgotten about it - how cold and lifeless it seemed to be. She’d been too busy dreading the other parts of this memory - and it only served to make it worse. She wanted to plead with him, to stop this memory from continuing, “Dad, please don’t.”

“I’m sorry, Juri,” her dad said, putting a hand on her head. In any other situation, it would’ve been comforting. But here. It just made her feel patronized - her father wasn’t thinking about her in his grief. His apology was hollow - he was just talking to keep himself from collapsing into tears and breaking down further. Her father added, “Maybe that’s just how things were meant to be. Maybe that was her destiny. She just wasn’t strong enough.”

“Destiny?” she repeated from memory. Her father answered, “Destiny is something no one can run from. It catches up to us in the end. And it’s the destiny of all things to die. It was just her time. Her destiny to die.”

“There is truth to your father’s words,” the voice spoke, “Death is a fact of life.”

Juri shivered, “I don’t want to remember this.”

“Your mother died. What part of that bothers you?” the voice demanded, “It would seem your fixation on destiny could be due to the realization of your own mortality - a subject matter that often afflicts life forms with feelings of intense distress. It would appear that the reason for this fixation is that you never properly learned to deal with this distress and therefore fixated on destiny or fate as a rationalization. However your rationalization only served to hinder you from achieving your true potential.”

Juri tried to tune this all out. She didn’t want to hear this anymore. She didn’t want to be a part of this. Her father turned to face her. She remembered the stoic look on his face trying to hold back tears and emotion. He didn’t have that this time. He didn’t have anything. It was just a horrifically blank face. Then the skin began to tear itself apart where its mouth would’ve been - and inside was an endless sea of horribly misshapen eyes that spoke to her in her own voice, “It is fact, Juri. All things will die. You were born to die. That is your ultimate fate. There is no reason to fear it. You may even find liberation in accepting that!”

She could think of several reasons right now why she should be very afraid of what was in front of her. The inhuman movements of the mouthlike hole wasn’t helping anything, “Rejoice in your mortality. There is no reason to cling to life. Instead, use your life in service to a greater good. Serve your purpose, Juri. Death is your destiny, regardless. But you are not there yet. There is still time to do some good with your life.”

This thing was not good at making compelling arguments. In fact, she couldn’t focus on anything it was saying because of how terrified she was. All she wanted was for all of this to stop.

“Let us resume,” its voice echoed.

...

Cyberdramon, Rapidmon, and Taomon attacked the bird creatures with everything they had but none of it mattered. The damn things moved too quickly to hit and the ones they could hit barely seemed affected by their attacks. Even with the relevant upgrades to their speed and strength, all they were really managing to do was just barely keep up with them. And worst of all was the fact that they were endless.

The soldiers below still held their ground, firing skyward into the flocks although it was anyone’s guess if they were actually hitting anything. Military vehicles came in to reinforce their line: tanks fired their cannons into the sky while gunners emptied their machine guns. However, the attacks were accomplishing nothing against the endless flock of bird creatures soaring out of the mess. The few hits that made their mark weren’t doing any good.

“What are these dumb things even doing? They’re not attacking!” Rapidmon pointed out angrily, frustrated that their efforts were pointless and beginning to think their passivity was mocking in nature. Taomon gestured at a few of them that were sitting idly and explained, “They’re scouts. Spies gathering information for that...thing. Once it has what it needs, it’ll attack us with everything it has.”

“Oh great. Because these guys being tough to hurt wasn’t bad enough,” Rapidmon groaned, still firing his barrage endlessly. Cyberdramon latched onto one of the birds and dragged it across the side of the building - managing to at least scratch the surface layer of its body but otherwise barely hurting it, “Less lip! More hit!”

Once he ran out of building, he threw the bird with all his might straight into another bird, only to watch them bounce off each other and continue on like nothing happened. Cyberdramon growled, “Why isn’t this working? Why won’t they break? WHY WON’T THEY DIE!? KILL! KILL! KILL!”

...

“Hey Ryo! You’re not stewing in your anger again, are you?” Henry called out to him. Ryo’s fists tightened as he grumbled, “Sorry, it’s just...I know that Tamer is involved in this somehow! I just know he’s responsible. Either he knew and he let it happen, or he caused it.”

“We don’t know that for sure!” Henry reasoned with him, “And even if he is responsible, getting angry won’t do us any good unless you plan on letting Cyberdramon run around on a rampage throughout the city!”

Rika punched him in the shoulder, “He’s right! So calm down, Ryo!”

“Right, right,” he nodded sheepishly, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down but knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to let go of the fact that this was all Tamer’s fault. He needed to calm down. Calm down. Just breathe.

BOOM!

While he’d been trying to calm himself, a tank rolled up beside them and fired its cannon up at the flock of birds. It missed of course, the shell soaring through the air and hitting the red mass where it exploded loudly. It was hard to calm down when guns were firing away all around them. Soldiers ran past them with guns, firing away at the flock of birds and one of them shouted, “Hey! You kids get out of here! Itami! Get these kids out of here!”

A young man ran up to them and tried ushering them back, “You heard him kids. Scram! Come on!”

“Are you kidding? We just had this discussion!” Rika groaned in disbelief, “Why can’t you guys just let us do our thing? Hell, we’re doing a better job than you guys are! Those are our partners up there fighting that damn thing and you want us to leave?”

The soldier looked down at her with wide eyed surprise, shaking his head as he scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder, “I’m sure. Now let’s go!”

He grabbed a hold of Henry before he had time to protest and he tried to carry them away from the fighting. Thinking quickly, Ryo kicked the soldier in the shin so that he dropped both of them, “Run!”

The soldier cursed as he massaged his leg, barking for help from the other soldiers in his unit. Realizing the trouble they were in, Rika and Henry raced after Ryo down the street with some soldiers running after them. Henry had a small chance to look up at their partners and shout, “Guys! There’s too many soldiers here! We have to go!”

“I am a warrior! I do not retreat!” Cyberdramon howled back at the top of his lungs, “They run from me! I will make them fear me!”

“Hostile! Incoming! Ten o’clock high!” one of the soldiers shouted, raising his rifle to target the digimon. Ryo shouted out at him, “Cyberdramon! We need to go! Now!”

“I can do this!” Cyberdramon roared back. The first few shots were fired and hit the Ultimate in the back. He roared in anger and turned on the soldiers. Ryo pleases with him again, “Don't attack! Cyberdramon! We need to go! Don’t make it worse and attack humans!”

“Attack them!? They’re attacking me!” the ultimate level dragon protested in anger at being ignored. There was no time. He wasn’t going to listen. Taomon wasted no time and slammed her brush against the dragon’s head - not quite knocking him out but giving him some context for their situation. He growled in agreement, “Fine! We’ll go!”

The soldiers continued to fire upon the digimon until Taomon descended and used her brush to draw a magical field around - creating a bubble that lifted them up into the air and away from the fighting. They fled from the fighting, retreating across the city and away from soldiers charging into battle as citizens ran in terror. And ever direction they looked was filled with those bird things flying in every conceivable direction to block every route of escape. Eventually, Rika pointed out a clear alley, “There!”

“Going!” Taomon agreed, setting them in the alley. The moment they were free, Ryo groaned and kicked over a garbage can, “This is a mess. How can we stop this thing if every new soldier that shows up starts shooting at us?”

“Well what else are we supposed to do? We’ll just have to keep explaining that we’re there to help and hope we don’t keep getting dragged away,” Henry reasoned. Rapidmon sighed, “Yeah, easy for you to say when you’re not the one getting shot at.”

“Excuse me…are you kids…uh, what was it again?”

They looked off to the side to see a young woman with short brown hair wearing a black suit. She was young, possibly in her mid twenties, and didn’t look at all like any of the government agents they’d become used to seeing in the last few days. However, she did have a gun holstered on her belt and they could see a red armband with a leaf symbol around her left shoulder. She reach into her coat pocket to retrieve a notepad and read aloud from it, “Found it. Are you guys Jiangliang…Lee…Ruki…Izumi? Wait, I mean Makino! No, it’s Nonaka!? Man, my handwriting really does suck. Forget that. And…Ryo Akiyama. Well, at least one of you has a normal name. Anyway, are you them?”

They looked between each other and this strange woman dressed in a her formal black suit. She dressed like the government agents but she didn’t carry herself like one. Hell, she was probably barely older than their teacher. Henry raised an eyebrow, “That depends. Who are you?”

“Let’s see: cautious, orange vest, skeptical…that would make you Jiangliang,” the woman rattled off. Rapidmon leaned into his partner, “Wow, she’s got your number.”

“Yeah, and I bet the giant green robot rabbit didn’t have anything to do with it,” Henry fired back. The woman flicked closed her notebook, “Nah, it was completely the digimon. Which make you Ryo and you Ruki. Anyway, I need you all to come with me.”

“Go with you? You haven’t even told us who you are!” Ryo practically shouted at her. The woman snickered, “You’re right, I didn’t. My name’s not important. What is important is who I represent: Burnt Leaf. We’ve been keeping an eye on you kids for a while. Well, most of you. You’ve been missing for a while Mister Akiyama and we had a hell of a time tracking you down. Imagine our surprise when you showed up out of the blue one day. Or should I say flash of light?”

“Is it amazing how little that explains?” Taomon pointed out. The woman laughed, “You can address me as M if it means so much to you.”

“You’re from that organization,” Rika gasped, pointing at her arm band, “Burnt Leaf.”

“Yeah, I just said that,” M answered.

“You know who she is, Rika?” Ryo asked her. Rika nodded and went on, “They got mentioned once in that book. The unpopular one. Last time it was a guy named Hokage. So who are you?”

“He’s my boss. He’s kinda tied up with this mess so I’m here instead,” M explained, “We’ve been slowing down Hypnos’ attempts to track you kids and hindering them wherever we could. But we’re kind of in a tough spot at the moment. So I’m here to escort you back to the Hypnos Program.”

“Wait, if you’ve been hindering them - why are you taking us to them?” Taomon asked. M motioned for them to follow and said, “I’ll tell you on the way. And can you guys shrink down for crying out loud? You three stand out like sore thumbs.”

Cyberdramon looked ready to pounce but was held back by Taomon, though this didn’t stop Rapidmon from trying to throw a piece of garbage at the woman. Sadly, he missed by a mile and the woman kept on walking.

Ryo looked at Rika for some kind of explanation, unsure if they could trust the new woman. It didn’t help that she looked just as weary of the new woman as he did. He scratched his head, “Well, Rika. You’re the expert on that book. Do we trust her?”

“Tamer did,” Rika folded her arms, “In the book, he trusted them…well…he was going to trust them. The book got trippy in that part - something about the future and the past and multiple meetings. It was weird.”

“Okay, but can we trust them?” Ryo repeated, trying to wrap his head around the explanation. Rika paused for a moment, putting her hand to her chin and becoming contemplative, “What choice do we have?”

Ryo didn’t like that answer, “We have plenty of choices!”

Taomon patted Rika on the head, “I say we follow her. If The Digimon Tamer trusted them, then that’s enough for me.”

“You know we don’t share your optimism, right?” Rapidmon pointed out. Taomon stifled a laugh, “I suppose not. All the same, I’m going.”

“Wherever Taomon goes, I go,” Rika agreed. M called back, “If you’re coming, please shrink your partners down! They can’t fit in the SUV like this.”

…

Impmon ran all night, like he’d never fled before. He’d seen enough horrible things in the Digital World to know he didn’t want to be anywhere near that thing. Not after what he’d seen in the memory - a lifetime of knowing nothing he did would matter because he was simply a plaything for the universe at large. He knew it was the other guy’s memory, not his, but it blurred so seamlessly with his own memories that he wasn’t entirely sure of that fact.

Was he even Impmon? Yes, of course he was. There was no doubt about that.

But again the memories came back to haunt him and he couldn’t drown them out. Not after he’d fought the last monster in a fit of rage and lost terribly. What frustrated him the most was knowing that all of his acquired strength and skill amounted to nothing. That big lummox wiped the floor with him and then the others had to step in to save him!

Why? Why wasn’t it enough? Was he just doomed to be a failure like this? He hated it. And he hated himself just as much. No he wasn’t a failure. He knew that much.

It was Ai and Mako’s fault. Who else would it be? If they had just been better partners. If they would quit bickering for five minutes. None of this would’ve happened. Maybe things would have been different. They could have been different. Maybe dwelling on their memory was what brought him to their home - some kind of subconscious act .

Unfortunately he didn’t realize where he was going until he was already there - at the tree just over their backyard where he could look down at them. They were busy playing without a care in the world. Did they even know what was going on in the city right now? Probably not. They were just kids after all - they couldn’t even understand the concept of sharing.

They were playing with a stuffed teddy bear and going about their day like two loving siblings. That was odd. They weren’t fighting over the teddy bear. In fact, they were playing some kind of pretend space adventure game with the teddy bear playing the part of an evil space pirate. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. Nope. It was real. They were sharing their toy.

He should’ve been proud. He wanted to feel pride. But the only emotion welling up inside of him was anger. Jealousy. Rage that he hadn’t been treated with the same kindness. Now they were sharing? Now they were getting along!? What!? Was he not good enough? Did he not deserve that kindness!?

“Ai! Mako!” their mother called, “Come inside! It’s snack time!”

Yeah, they definitely didn’t know. Their mother was busy making them snacks. That definitely meant they had no idea what kind of danger they were in. They cheered and rushed back inside, giving him the opportunity to leap down over to where they’d left their teddy lying on the grass. Impmon examined it bitterly, annoyed that it had been treated with such respect and care. He wished he could’ve had that, and the anger welled up inside until he found himself kicking the doll repeatedly in a fit of anger. Then he stopped, realizing how to stupid he was being. He almost had to laugh.

Was this what he was reduced to? Taking out his frustration on stuffed animals? It made him want to kick the doll again in anger. But that would just prove the point wouldn’t it? Still, he kicked the doll anyway. He wanted to have some control over his life. To feel like he wasn’t some play thing for the world to use as it pleased - jokes it seemed.

“Impmon?” Mako’s little voice called out. He looked up from the doll and saw the little boy standing at the sliding glass door with a half eaten banana in hand. His eyes widened with excitement, “Ai! Impmon’s back!”

Impmon wanted to run, but his legs refused to move - either from fear or from shock, he knew he was unable to leave. Then Ai, Mako’s slightly older sister poked her head out from behind the glass door - crumbs and chocolate smeared all over her face. Her face lit up with a smile and she cheered, “Impmon! It’s you! You're back! Just in time because we’re having snacks!”

She ran back inside and returned holding a bowl of assorted fruit slices, crackers, and chocolate cookies. Impmon looked at the bowl quietly, then back up at the two kids who seemed excited by the prospect that he had finally returned. He didn’t know what to say to them. He expected anger, anguish, sadness…something - hell, he’d even settle to listening to them argue for a few minutes over who would get to play with him first. But they didn’t.

They must’ve noticed his unease because both of their faces turned grim. Ai sheepishly asked, “Are you still mad at us?”

He blinked, surprised that they’d even considered that. Mako nodded in agreement, “That’s why you ran away the first time, right? You were mad at us for always fighting and never getting along. That’s why you ran away.”

There was a lot to unpack there - the biggest thing was the fact that they’d realized it perfectly without him needing to spell it out for them. Ai set the bowl down on the ground in front of him, “We’re sorry Impmon. Please don’t be mad anymore.”

He wasn’t sure how to respond to any of this. Mostly because this show of humility was completely foreign to him. Still, watching them apologize and practically ready to cry made him realize how guilty he felt. He didn’t want to be responsible for hurting anyone else - not even their feelings - so he quietly took one of the sliced apples and started munching. After he swallowed the first bite, he apologized, “I’m...sorry I left.”

“No, we’re sorry. It’s our fault,” Ai answered, hanging her head quietly, “We didn’t mean to make you run away. We just wanted to play with you. And we scared you away. We’re sorry.”

“We promise we won’t fight anymore so please don’t leave again!” Mako added pleadingly. Impmon continued to quietly eat the apple. He didn’t want to promise that. What if he had to leave? What if they started fighting again? He couldn’t bring himself to be responsible for hurting anyone else. But he also didn’t want to leave - not when he knew what was out there. And if he left...what would happen to Mako and Ai? These two kids all the way on the edge of the city, far away from everything that was going on. The world was ending just a few miles away and they probably had no idea. Hell, their parents had probably avoided telling them just to keep them from panicking.

The thought of their scared, crying faces compelled him to answer, “Okay.”

He didn’t want to agree to stay, but right now he didn’t care. All he wanted was to forget about the past, forget about all his problems…to start over. He picked up the bowl of snacks and offered it back to the two kids.

...

Takeru and the rest of the digimon made their way up the hill, listening to the loud noise on the other side. It was like a roar of thunder, accompanied by strong winds and dark clouds swirling overhead. They weren’t sure what the commotion was - all they knew was that whole sections of the Digital World were abandoned - as if everyone had left. And then the noise came in the distance, like a low distant rumble accompanied by flashes of light in the distance.

As the reached the top of the hill, they found themselves looking over what could only be called a massive battlefield occupied by countless digimon. It was crazy enough when they saw the mega level MetalSeadramon and WarGreymon in the mix, but then they saw hundreds of them. Countless MetalSeadramon and WarGreymon among a sea of mega level digimon fighting some amorphous red blob that covered the Digital World.

And the red blob was winning. It didn’t matter how many digimon threw their strongest attacks at it - the red mass would either eat the attack or retaliate with a blast of red fire. It was like trying to fight a rising tide of a blazing fire - everything they could do either did nothing or made it stronger.

Takeru’s heart sank at the sight of it. No, that wasn’t right. It froze - stopped in terror. This…this was not something he’d ever thought to be prepared for. This was something years of experience could not prepare him for. All the other enemies they had faced in the past could at least be understood - Apocalymon, Myotismon, Devimon. This…this was like a force of nature.

He wanted to help. He needed to help. But this…this was beyond him. He’d never seen so much death, despair, and carnage in one place. He froze as he realized he didn’t know what to do. The other digimon seemed just as lost and scared by the sight before them. After all, there were countless mega level digimon fighting and they were doing nothing against it. What good would a few more do? How could they save the Digital World when the only thing they had to offer was just a drop of water in a bucket that was failing.

He would have to be like The Digimon Tamer. He would need to be unpredictable. But how could he outwit or outthink something that was so alien, he wasn’t even sure it was alive? As he tried to process what he was looking at, a flash of light beside him alerted him to the arrival of a more than welcome sight, “TK!”

“Tamer!” he called out, still trying to make sense of what was going on, “What the hell is going on?”

Tamer took one look around them and answered grimly, “You just answered your own question there, Takeru.”

“Tamer! What is all this?” Gatomon demanded angrily. Tamer sighed and gestured around them, “Death. And hell is following it. That’s not hyperbole either - that thing is death! Literally! It exists to destroy Digital Life!”

“So are you just going to talk all pretentious or are you going to do anything helpful?” Gomamon asked, “Seriously...your talk is more obnoxious that Izzy!”

“Take that back!” Tentomon smacked him across the back of the head. Gomamon groaned in pain until Palmon lifted them both up into the air, “Focus guys! Tamer’s here! That means trouble! Pay attention! I want to see Mimi!”

“First he’s got to drop the metaphors!” Gatomon complained.

“That wasn’t a metaphor,” Tamer pointed at the red mass the countless digimon were fighting, “That thing...the Ancients had a couple of names for it. Death was one of them. Found out it’s name is the D-Reaper…kinda anti-climactic really. Sorry, lost focus. Back to the subject! This thing. It’s in the Real World now.”

“How? You need a digivice to travel between worlds!” Takeru asked in disbelief, holding up his digivice to emphasize his point. Tamer waved a finger, “There’s more than one wat to cross the boundary. And I think this one might be my fault.”

“Because of course it is,” Gatomon threw up her hands in disgust. Tamer’s shoulders slumped, and he ran a hand through his head sheepishly, “Yeah. Anyway, the human World is in trouble. More trouble than the Digital World. The Digital World has all powerful digimon. The human world doesn’t...I...look, they need your help.”

“Deal!” Veemon spurted our quickly, until he was pulled back by both Gatomon and Palmon, “Are you crazy?”

“I’m in too!” Wormmon nodded. Now he was the one getting looks as Gomamon turned his head, “Really?”

“Yeah, I figured you guys would put up more of a fight that,” Tamer admitted sheepishly. Veemon wriggled free enough to add, “We all know what you’re going to shay. You need ush to go back to the human world and help shave it. I’m in. I want to shee Davish again!”

“I...Huh...anyone object?” Tamer stumbled, obviously taken aback by the sudden change of heart of the digimon. Takeru watched the remaining digimon confer quietly amongst themselves until Gomamon asked, “And this isn’t a trick?”

“No...why would it be?” Tamer shook his head, offended by the accusation.

“You do have a habit of using us,” Gomamon said accusingly. He had a point there and Tamer didn’t seem to know how to answer that one, “You have a point. I’m not going to force any of you to do something you don’t want to-”

Takeru cut him off, “No, I think it’s time we headed back. If the others are in trouble then it’s time I was there with them. That we were there with them. Before it’s too late.”

“By the way, what’s going on with the other guys? Those kids you were with?” Armadillomon asked. Tamer raised up his digivice, “Yeah…we’re not exactly talking right now. Which is kinda the reason I’m getting you guys.”

“Oh, did they finally smarten up?” Gatomon hissed. Tamer’s shoulders slumped, “Truth is…everything I touch has a habit of going from bad to worse. But they need help. I don’t want to get involved because what if it ends up hurting them? But you guys? Not only could you help them, they’d probably love the chance to fight alongside you!”

“We’re more interested in seeing our partners,” Armadillomon pointed out, earning a cavalcade of nods from the other digimon. Wormmon added, “Besides, it sounds like you just want to use us.”

“That’s not it!” Tamer insisted, pausing again to take a breath, “Look, how about this? I’ll just bring you guys to your partners in the Real World. If you guys don’t want to fight, you’re free to choose not to. You can just be with your partners. Deal?”

The digimon looked between themselves and nodded in agreement, “Alright!”

“Okay,” Tamer held out his digivice, “Next stop! The Human World! Digiport Open!”

#The Tamer v2 In His Name #Digimon Tamers #Fanfiction #Chapter 38 #ArchiveOfOurOwn

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 33 - The Thing Below is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

While the others descended into the depths of the chasm, Kenta found himself left alone with Juri, Calumon, Tamerkato and Guilmon. All four of them were completely out of it - Juri was practically catatonic, Calumon was too busy panicking behind her back to notice anything going on around, and Guilmon was still out cold. Tamerkato was probably the only one who hadn’t shut down mentally but he hadn’t said or done anything since they got here. He may as well have shut down mentally since he just stayed by his partner and who was completely unconsciously. And he wasn’t sure what he could to help any of them.

Kenta would’ve liked to not be in that position; to have gone down into the depths with the others, but knew that he’d probably only manage to slow the others down if he were there. After all, what did he have to contribute without a partner?

So he was stuck here, trying to think of something to say either of them. It was weird to try and talk to Juri - she was Takato’s friend more than his. And Takato apparently wasn’t even the real Takato. So what should he say to either of them? He scratched the back of his head - he may not be the real Takato but he’d spent the last year hanging around him. That was something at least. It beat trying to talk to Juri or the all mighty Sovereign digimon ho wrong around them.

“Hey Tak…Tamer,” he began with his hands in his pocket, “How you holding up?”

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled back quietly, not really looking back or talking to him. In fact, it seemed that he was talking to his partner Guilmon, “I let it happen again. I promised I never would again and instead it happened again. And I’m so sorry.”

There was also a soft glow of warm light coming from Tamerkato - although Kenta wasn’t really sure where it was coming from. He tried to peer over Tamerkato’s shoulder to get a better look but the boy adjusted to keep it just out of view. He tried to peer over his shoulder again but the boy shifted once more to keep it out of sight. Tamerkato let out a small chuckle and added, “The worst part is you probably don’t remember any of it, huh? Not the first time…not the second…”

Guilmon opened his eyes and quietly asked, “Remember what? Where are we anyway? Was I sleep walking again?”

“No buddy. It’s my fault,” Tamerkato answered, his chuckle replaced with a frown. He hugged his partner. Kenta was slightly relieve to see that they were alright. But what was that light? He wanted to ask but Tamerkato was really determined to not let any of them know he was a Guardian for whatever reason. Why all the sudden secrecy?

…

Azulongmon hovered over the crevice, surprised that he was going along with this absurd plan that the humans had come up with. Then again, he knew why he was going along with it. They couldn’t wait for the Digimon Tamer to help them, they had no way of reaching the digidestined, and none of them actually knew how to use the Catalyst. This was as good a plan as any they could come up with. He just wished it wasn’t so embarrassing for him.

The humans and their digimon were descending down the crevice atop their partners, intent to help Baihumon. With any luck, they’d either drive off whatever was down there or help to save their missing ally. Either way, hopefully the problem would resolve itself soon. He gazed down into the crevice, watching them descend and called down, “Are you okay?”

“It’s kinda dark and there needs to be more light!” Kazu shouted back up.

A bolt of lightning shot up from within the depths of the crevice followed by another pillar of fire. Azulongmon moved out of its path and heard the kids below screaming in terror and protest as their flung around by his beard. After a moment of silence, Rika shouted, “Dammit Kazu! You just had to ask for light, didn’t you!?”

“I didn’t mean that kind of light. And seriously, stop shouting at me. You’re making me look bad in front of Azulongmon! Also, what the hell was that?”

Rapidmon laughed, “I love your priorities! We’re going into a part of the Digital World that even they’re afraid to go to, with no idea what we’re doing, and you’re more worried about what his opinion of you.”

“Are you kidding? Have you not seen the show? Or read the books? He’s awesome!” Kazu fired back.

“Kazu, this isn’t any of those things! This is real and you should take it seriously!” Henry added. Then Ryo, the boy who claimed to not be the Digimon Tamer, called out, “Focus guys! Whatever we’re going to find down there scares the Sovereigns! How about we concentrate on that instead of arguing? Keep your eyes open down there!”

“I have no eyes. Just a hunger for battle,” Cyberdramon growled.

“Yes, we noticed,” Rapidmon pointed out.

“We should all be cautious,” Taomon pointed out. Azulongmon began to reconsider his opinion that this group might be the hope that they’re waiting for. No, everything would be fine. He just had to have faith in what destiny foretold. However, he’d known what reliance on destiny had done for those who came before. Should he have faith in it now?

…

Juri looked over from Tamer to Kenta to Guilmon...and felt nothing but useless. They probably didn’t need her anymore. What use was she without a partner? What use was she when she couldn’t keep a partner alive? This was her fault! It was all her fault.

Beelzemon lay unconscious just a few feet away. She wished he didn’t. Being near him was a reminder of what happened. Being near Tamer was a reminder of what was. She hated it. Why’d she even come here? Everything she cared for died. She knew that for a fact. If she stuck around any longer, the others would die too. It’s no wonder they were keeping their distance from her.

“Target acquired...scanning...status: indeterminate.”

“Juri?” she heard Calumon whimper out quietly, “Are...are you okay?”

No she wasn’t. She shouldn’t be near Calumon either. He’d end up just like Leomon if she stuck around. Just like her mother. What was the point of her?

“Scanning for vulnerabilities.”

Vulnerabilities? She was probably the queen of that for all the trouble she caused. Her partner Leomon. Her classmate Takato. Her mother! Everything she came close to died.

“Vulnerabilities found.”

She didn’t want to be found. She wanted to go away. To be anywhere that wasn’t here. So that she wouldn’t hurt her friends. So that the people she cared about would stop dying.

“Identifying insecurity type.”

There was so much wrong with her.

“Identification complete. Preparing transfer.”

Take her away. Be anywhere but here.

“Juri! Juri! Please listen to me!” Calumon pleaded, “Juri!”

…

Kenta looked over his shoulder at Calumon shouting in a panic while Juri sat there with her eyes fixed on the ground. Tamerkato didn’t even seem to notice, his eyes still fixed on Guilmon. But Guilmon, friendly dinosaur that he was, scrambled to his feet and walked over to investigate, “Juri? Are you okay?”

“Transfer complete,” she answered quietly. Guilmon sniffed her and began to growl. Now Tamerkato was paying attention to her and he was quick to jump on his partner, “Guilmon, stop.”

Guilmon’s growling turned into bared fangs and Tamerkato had to start pulling his partner back. When he didn’t make much headway, Kenta hurried over to help, “Tamer! Don’t tell me you’re still mad or something! This is the last thing Juri needs.”

“A little, but not as mad as I was before! I have no idea what’s up with Guilmon,” he answered, taking a few deep breaths to try and calm himself. However, Guilmon continued to growl and snap at Juri. His bare fangs turned into an open mouth snap and an attempt to actually bite Juri, something Tamerkato stopped by slapping his mouth shut. Despite the attempt at her, the poor girl barely even reacted. Somehow, she appeared unfazed by what Guilmon had done. She even seemed indifferent to the danger she was in. Calumon however was still freaking out, before finally hopping out of her arms and scrambling towards the sovereigns. Calumon’s panicked frenzy caught Zhuqiaomon’s attention and he turned his head angrily, “What’s happening?”

“Guilmon’s being difficult!” Tamerkato answered loudly. Zhuqiaomon glided over to them and examined the dinosaur, “YOU! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!”

Guilmon let out another loud roar that Tamerkato had to slap his jaw shut again, “Sorry. When he gets likes this, he becomes wild. I’ll get him under contro-WAAGH!”

Guilmon lunged at Juri with his mouth wide open, eyes focused solely on attacking her. He was only stopped when Calumon yelped, releasing a flash of light that blinded everyone. When the light faded, Guilmon crashed into the ground beside Juri, throwing Tamerkato off and sending both of them rolling along the ground.

Tamerkato scrambled to his feet before his partner could and Kenta joined him in trying to pin Guilmon to the ground, “Stop it Guilmon! What’s gotten into you!? If you’re hungry, I have bread in my bag!”

The digimon finally stopped struggling against them and repeated, “Bread? You have bread! Yay! I’m hungry!”

He leapt off them and helped Tamerkato up, mostly to go through his backpack better while he helped to himself to some food. Kenta took a moment to catch his breath before realizing Juri was still unmoving, staring down at the ground blankly. Then she jerked her head up to face him. Her eyes were somehow both vacant but staring with an uncharacteristic intensity that Kenta found chilling.

It was like a statue was staring at him and he hated it. He wanted to ask her to stop but was sure that she’d throw herself at him full force if he tried. So he sat there quietly, hoping that she would stop staring if he pretended to not notice. It didn’t help. In fact, her continued staring became horrifying the longer it went on - like she was staring straight into his soul. She only stopped when Tamerkato helped lift her to a stand, “Juri! Are you okay? You’re not hurt are you? I’m sorry. I have no idea what came over Guilmon. He’s never done that before to anyone. Well, anyone who wasn’t a digimon.”

She jerked her head towards him next, and now it was Tamerkato’s turn to be unsettled. Or should’ve been. He didn’t even seem to notice anything was wrong with the way she was acting, instead droning on, “I swear, I’ll make it up to you. I promise. Seriously though, you are okay right? The last thing I want on my conscious is to find out you’ve been hurt in some way.”

“Are you all done? You’re being loud and annoying. I’d smite you all if you weren’t the best chance our world has at surviving at the moment,” Zhuqiaomon asked. Tamerkato stepped away from Juri and shrugged, “I guess? Maybe he was hungry? I don’t know.”

Despite that, Calumon was still minding his distance with his big wide eyes brimming with tears. He approached Juri slowly, “Juri, are you okay?”

No answer. How could she be okay after everything they’d seen happen? Her partner killed, Tamerkato going into a blind rage that made her partner’s killer powerless. And then he did something to Beelzemon. He didn’t know but it broke the digimon mentally. Then Azulongmon comes along and blows Megidramon apart like it was nothing. On that note, he was impressed with how the rest of them were handling everything that had happened. This had been quite the day for everyone.

Tamerkato scooped up Calumon and stepped away from Juri, “Give her some space, Calumon. I think she wants to be alone right now.”

…

Ryo leapt off his partner and dropped down to the ledge just below him. They’d gone down as far as their partners were carrying them and they were still nowhere near Baihumon or whatever he was fighting at the bottom. It must’ve been half a mile with how far above the light of the surface was; it was so far that the light barely reached this far down. If it weren’t for the occasional flashes of lightning and fire, they wouldn’t be able to see anything more than a few vague shadows moving in the dark. The flashes of lightning and fire were becoming more frequent too. Either they were getting closer to the source or the fighting was getting more intense. It was hard to say which of the two was worse.

Every one took a moment from that point to collect their thoughts and catch their breaths before they proceeded further down. Maybe it was just now sinking in how serious the situation was. Or maybe it was the nervous tension from not really knowing what they were about to go up against. Whichever it was, everyone was on the edge of their seat in anticipation.

They proceeded another mile, sticking as close to the sides as possible to avoid more arcs of lightning and blasts of fire. Not only that, but they also had to proceed single file as the crevice narrowed - likely from the fighting shifting loose earth and rock.

During those few gaps where there were no blasts of electricity or fire, they had to proceed in total darkness. They could only barely make out the light filtering in from the sky above and a soft red glow below. If hell were real, Ryo was sure that it was what awaited this far down. Maybe the devil was waiting to meet them?

“WHY WON’T YOU JUST STAY DEAD!? TAKE THIS! AND THIS! WE CAN DO THIS FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES! I HAVE ALL ETERNITY!”

“We’re getting close guys,” Kazu announced, craning his neck to get a better glimpse of what exactly was going on beneath them. Despite that, it was still too far down to properly see and Kazu’s shifting made it harder for anyone else to see either. Then Rapidmon pointed out, “Normally I let Henry be the stick in the mud, but I think it deserves pointing out that its really tight down here. This is going to become really messy if we need to fight.”

“THEN WE GO FIRST!” Cyberdramon roared proudly, descending faster than the rest. Ryo smacked his partner and protested, “No we don’t! We still don’t know what to expect down there. We could be flying down in the Digital World’s biggest trap.”

“THERE’S NO WHERE TO GO BUT DOWN, RYO,” Cyberdramon protested grumpily, “AND I GET THE FIRST PUNCH IN ANY FIGHT!”

Ryo raised an eyebrow, “Are you kidding? We’re not even the first ones into the fight! Look, just slow down! Let Taomon and Rika go first!”

“Hey! Don’t go volunteering us!” Rika shouted back at them angrily. Taomon laughed, “It’s not like you to turn down a chance at a fight.”

Ryo realized how that sounded and quickly explained “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s because you can throw up a shield, Taomon. You go first because you can throw up a shield to protect us from whatever is down there if it attacks. I mean, you held back Megidramon without breaking a sweat.”

“Yes, and he was defeated by a Sovereign in one hit. And now we’re going up against something that can take a Sovereign no problem. What chance do you possibly think any shield I could create has?”

Ryo felt stupid for even suggesting his idea now but he still didn’t really like the idea of going first. He sighed, “Yeah, good point.”

“Then it’s settled! Me first!” Cyberdramon roared. Ryo yelped as his partner suddenly descended faster into the depths until the faint red glow of light became as bright as day. Ryo was right, it was like descending into hell. The chasm opened into a large cavern whose walls were scarred from battle and looked ready to collapse on top of them at any moment. Just below them was a tiger like digimon wearing a blue helm and followed by orbs of light that fired flares of lightning at a moving mass of what looked like red gelatin. The gelatinous ooze would rise up to try and strike the tiger, before bursting and unleashing a blast of fire onto the unsuspecting digimon. The two traded blows but it was obvious the mass of ooze was winning, slowly driving the tiger Sovereign back with every passing moment. For all the Sovereigns efforts, it seemed all he could really do was slow whatever the thing beneath them was.

“That looks like our missing Sovereign. What’s the plan guys?” Rapidmon asked.

“What else would the plan be? Attack!” Kazu shouted, slapping his partner’s back and signaling him to charge ahead. Guardromon obliged and dove straight down into the battle. And was promptly struck by a stray blast of electricity from Baihumon. And Kazu, holding on to his completely metal partner, convulsed violently until the arc passed through - both falling towards the goop of red mass. Right away, Rapidmon and Cyberdramon flew down to save them - snatching them both and rising back into the air before either got too close to whatever that red thing was.

The mass seemed to sense how close they were and rose after them before it collapsed on itself. For a moment, it really seemed to be alive and aware of their presence because a pillar of fire shot at them. Right away, Taomon flew in front of them and drew a symbol in the air with her brush, “Talisman Spell!”

A sphere of green light appeared around them, blocking the blast of fire and finally drawing Baihumon’s attention, “Who are you and why are you here? ARE THOSE HUMANS!?”

“Hiya! We came down here to help! Or we did until Kazu and Guardromon got knocked out by your electricity,” Rapidmon explained, gesturing at the two unconscious members of their party. Baihumon’s eyes narrowed and he grunted, “If you want to help, stay out of my way. This enemy requires my full attention. Now, where was-NO! CLOSE BUT NOT QUITE!”

A blast of fire shot out from the blob towards Baihumon, who narrowly avoided getting struck, and hit the cavern wall just above them. The cavern shook and loose rocks fell down on them, bouncing off the shield and continuing downward until it hit the blob below. At first, it seemed the rocks injured the red mass as it writhed in pain. At least, that’s how it looked until the rocks burst into data. The data didn’t even linger, sinking into the red mass below like it were a digimon absorbing the data.

Ryo supposed that made sense. Everything in the Digital World was made of data so, in theory, something could absorb the data left over from destroyed bits of the Digital World. But then what was that thing? It wasn’t any kind of digimon he’d seen but it was absorbing the data no problem. And what did it mean for them since they weren’t from the Digital World? Could it harm and absorb them? Who knows how much of the Digital World had already been eaten by this thing. More terrifically, what chance did they have?

Baihumon was unfazed and unleashed another torrent of electricity at the red mass, striking the creature. On closer inspection, the parts hit with the electricity dissipated but only briefly. As quick as Baihumon could put dents on its surface, the red mass would regrow and continue its advance upon them.

Cyberdramon grumbled, “Are we just going to sit here and watch, or are we going to fight back!?”

“Right, of course. Here we go,” Taomon waved her hand and let shield dissipate. Terriermon hung back with the unconscious Guardromon and Kazu tucked under his arms, leaving Taomon and Cyberdramon to go on the offensive. Taomon opened by drawing a character in the air with her brush, “Let’s go with this! Bon-Hitsu-Sen! Talisman of Light!”

The symbol flew towards the red mass below them and exploded in a violent blast of light. Cyberdramon followed up the attack with a beam of red light from his claws, “DESOLATION CLAW!”

The attacks hit their mark and the red blob appeared to retreat for all of a moment. The two digimon cheered excitedly, “Alright! We hurt it!”

“YOU FOOLS! YOU ONLY ANNOYED IT!” Baihumon roared back at them. Ryo wasn’t sure what that meant. After all, their attack had hurt it. It barely scratched it, but damage was damage. And this thing was barely fighting back. As long as they stayed out of reach, defeating it would be no problem!

At least, that’s what Ryo though until the red mass regurgitated a red bubble that floated up towards them. They moved aside and let it past, watching it bump into the cavernous ceiling. And on contact, both dissipated into data before being absorbed by the D-Reaper.

“Okay, avoid the bubbles. Got it,” Ryo grumbled, trying to think of what he could do to counter this new attack. If it could even be called that. It was more like a burp or fart - that is to say, it was disgusting but seemed harmless.

“GUYS! WATCH OUT!” Rapidmon called out to them. Cyberdramon jolted to the side as they narrowly avoided another bubble belched out from the red mass beneath them. And then another bubble narrowly avoided them. Baihumon had gone from the standing his ground to a full retreat, ascending towards them and shouting, “There’s too much. Run! Now!”

Cyberdramon jerked upward again, and Ryo held on for dear life as they retreated upward. Baihumon was the last one up the chasm after them as more rocks collapsed from the ceiling. Behind them, Ryo could see the sovereign firing as much electricity into his surroundings as possible to narrow the chasm behind him. But the bubbles continued their pursuit. In all his years traveling the Digital World, this was a first for him: running for his life from bubbles.

It would be funny if he didn’t know his life was in some kind of mortal peril. If the fate of the Digital World wasn’t in peril What exactly was his life right now? Or rather, what had his life become?

He glanced down once more to see the chasm narrowing behind them only to see it reopening as more bubbles destroyed the loose earth and stone raining down on top of. This thing, whatever it was, was eating threw the rock as fast as Baihumon could bury it. Even with the weight of the Digital World collapsing on top of it, it continued to advance upon them without slowing down. They had to do something though. If they didn’t, this thing was going to escape. But their partners were already at the Ultimate level and that wasn’t enough. And no amount of power ups were ever going to match a mega. So what else was there to do?

He would’ve looked through his cards but there was no way he could hold on to Cyberdramon and shuffle his deck at the same time. He’d just have to hold on and hope they got away before

“AAAHHH!”

Ryo glanced upwards and his eyes widened in terror, “RIKA!”

She was falling and Taomon was right behind her. He tried to grab her as she fell past him but she was too far away to be reached. So he watched, powerless as she fell downward towards the swarm of red blobs coming after them and hoping Taomon was fast enough.

...

It was a careless mistake. An accident. Rika’s grip slipped as Taomon accelerated upwards and she fell downward towards the red mass. Ryo tried to grab her as she fell past but she couldn’t reach. And his eyes widened in terror. She’d seen what that the blob could do to the Digital World. What chance did she have? None. That thing was going to kill her the moment she made contact.

Wind rushed past and her heart raced so fast that she could hear it in her ears. During that brief moment she was in free fall, she glanced upwards at Taomon diving down to save her. And a calm washed over her as she realized that her partner was gaining. She was going to make it. She trusted her partner. She would save her. They were partners. That was what they’d promised each other. She reached out to Taomon as the digimon got closer, knowing that they’d make it if they reached out just a little more. Her fingers brushed Taomon’s fingers for a brief second and-

A blast of fire shot past them, loosing a rock that struck Taomon in the back. After everything they’d been through today, that strike was probably the last straw as she regressed back to Renamon. Now it didn’t matter it Renamon caught her. She couldn’t fly.

No, that wasn’t true. She just had to believe in her partner. Renamon was still trying to save her. She hadn’t given up. And neither would she. They outstretched their hands towards each other, brushing fingers a few times before they finally clasped on to each other. Right away, Rika felt a warmth inside of her she hadn’t felt before. Her heart beat grew louder - her digivice began to glow.

“Biomerge Digivolution,” It announced. And the light wrapped around her. Renamon’s voice cried out, “Renamon! Biomerge to!”

She felt something warm wrap around her - enveloping her in golden armor and black leather. She felt a weight on the back of her head and in her arms - a metal staff and helm wrap around her, “Sakuyamon!”

Her head spun wildly as the world turned upside-down and corrected to right-side up. She felt light and like she was flying. It took her a moment longer to understand why - she was flying in the air. She was flying. In the air. How was that even possible?

“Are you okay, Rika?” Renamon’s voice echoed. She looked around in search of her partner but found nothing, “Renamon?”

“I’m here Rika. Or rather, we’re here,” she answered. Rika looked around, “Where?”

“This is DNA Digivolution. Or Jogress. It’s only ever been done between digimon. I never would’ve thought it could be done between human and digimon,” Renamon’s voice echoed inside her head, “It really is something different to have to be inside your head like this.”

Inside her head. Renamon was inside her head, “Or maybe I’m inside yours.”

“LOOK OUT!” Ryo’s cry snapped her attention back to the swarm of rising bubbles. Almost as if on instinct, Rika felt her body propel itself upwards to the others. And that was when she noticed the staff she was holding in her hand. She had no idea where this staff came from. Taomon hadn’t been holding one when they came down here and Renamon certainly didn’t need one. It must’ve been a part of the digivolution - like Taomon’s brush or Beelzemon’s shotgun. Yeah, that’s what it had to be.

But how to use it? She could only think to swing it and felt embarrassed by the fact that this was the kind of plan the goggle head would come up with. With a twirl, she tried beating back the encroaching bubble and watched a wave of light stream out from the base, “Amethyst Mandala!”

She didn’t cry that out. But she did. Her voice acted on its own. Or maybe Renamon had forced it. Either way, the stream of light spread out and split amongst the various red blobs floating upward - shattering them like glass and weakening the structure of the crevice walls so that loose stone came tumbling down on top of any digimon unfortunate enough to be standing in the way.

Then silence.

Nothing else was coming up. But that wasn’t going to hold them for long. Eventually, they would just eat their way through and they’d be back in the same problem all over again. They needed to get back to the rest of them and explain what just happened. The whole trip up, she tried her best to ignore the fact that the others were staring at her - but she knew why. She’d done the impossible. She had become one with her partner and become Sakuyamon.

“Renamon?” she thought quietly, “Can you hear me?”

“Yes, although this is going to take some getting used to. It’s…different, having to share a mind and body,” Renamon’s voice echoed. What did that mean? Sure, they shared a body but they weren’t sharing a mind. Were they? The more she thought on it, the more confusing it became. She tried to recall something only Renamon would but it made her head hurt.

Like the time she was traveling alone in the desert zone after a group of Chrysalimon ganged up on her. Wait, that didn’t happen. Did it?

This was more confusing than the time she’d gotten herself wrapped into a marriage ceremony with a WereGarurumon. Wait, that definitely didn’t happen.

“Are you alright?” Renamon’s voice echoed. Rika tried to shake the dizzying headache but it was hard to focus on anything, “I think so? I keep remembering things that didn’t happen.”

“They did happen Rika. Because those are my memories. You can see into my mind. As I can see into yours. I can see Ryo is very important to you. Before me, he was your only friend. Or at least, the one person you saw as a friend,” Renamon answered quietly. That revelation gave her pause as she realized that her mind was an open book to her partner. But if anyone should know her deepest darkest secrets, who better than her partner Renamon? Then she gasped, “Wait! You never told me you were going to get married!”

“You never asked. Besides, what would it have mattered if I had? I thought that kind of thing didn’t even matter to you?”

If she was at all capable of blushing like this, she really hoped it wasn’t obvious as she averted her attention away from the others. She was just glad no one could hear what she was thinking right now. The last thing she wanted was for any of them to be able to see how much of an open book she was. At least, until she noticed Ryo staring at her again, “What?”

“Sorry, just…taking in everything that’s happened today,” he replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his head anxiously, “I’m glad you’re alright, Rika. Er, Sakuyamon. Come on, we should get these guys back up to the surface of the Digital World before things go crazy again.”

Rika nodded. Or rather, Sakuyamon nodded. It was hard to think of herself as being one of two people. Or for her to be sharing a body with her partner Renamon. It wasn’t a bad thing, it just...felt different. Or rather, it didn’t feel different.

“You know I can hear your thoughts, right?” Renamon’s voice echoed in her mind. Rika forgot that they were also sharing a mind now, “So does that mean you know I’m wondering when you were going to get married?”

“Why? Curious?” Renamon asked.

“You know the answer.”

“Well then, let me start at the beginning...”

#The Tamer v2 In His Name #Chapter 33 #Fanfiction #Digimon #archiveofourown #The Tamer

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 32 - Monsters and Sovereigns is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

The air was heavy and breathing was hard. Megidramon hovered over them, leering down with his fiery red eyes. As if to make the digimon more ominous, the sky darkened with storm clouds every passing second. The Digital World itself seemed to be protesting this monstrosity’s very existence and looked to be doing all it could to drive him away. If only a little inclement weather would be enough to drive it away. It would save them from the worse fight of their lives.

“I’m suddenly having second thoughts about this,” Rapidmon said. Megidramon roared at the top of his lungs and spewed hot ash at them, “MeGiDo FlAmE!”

The ash came at their too fast for them to try to get away. But worse was the fact that the attack was coming right at them. Rika shouted, “What the hell goggle head!? Are you trying to kill us!?”

“No, I’m trying to kill Beelzemon. You guys just won’t get out of the way,” Tamerkato snapped.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Taomon drew her brush through the air and along the ground, “Talisman Spell!”

A green yin-yang symbol appeared beneath them, encompassing them in a green light that split the ash apart and protected them from the burning heat. But the heat still had them sweating just from the proximity. If this much heat was able to get through...how much hotter was it outside the protective field?

When the ash subsided, Megidramon brought his massive fist down upon the protective barrier. The first blow made a loud thunderous boom and they heard Taomon grunt “This won’t survive a second hit.”

“Guardromon! You were Tamer’s friend before. How do we stop this?” Kazu asked. His partner scratched his head, “Last time this happened, the digidestined talked sense into him.”

“Oh great. The one thing he doesn’t want to do,” Kazu groaned. Taomon called out, “We’ll figure this out later. Everyone, get ready to run. On my mark! Ready?”

Everyone readied to take off, setting themselves up to run. Rika went to Juri, hoping to help the poor girl away since she was still too shell shocked to do anything.

“Now!” Taomon cried out. She dispelled the shield as soon as Megidramon wound up a second attack, and everyone scattered away to avoid the massive claw digging into the ground. That was their chance and everyone scattered away in different directions, hoping to get away before things got worse. Rika drag Juri along, the poor girl still staring at the spot where Leomon fell just moments ago.

Rapidmon carried Beelzemon away while Cyberdramon charged forward to block the attack. He uppercut Megidramon, stunning the monster for a moment while Guardromon and Taomon set up for a combined attack. As soon as they were safely away, Ryo, Kazu, and Rika acted quickly to support their partners, “Digimodify!”

“Speed boost Activate!”

“Strength Boost Activate!”

“Machinedramon’s Cannon Activate!”

Taomon attacked first, clasping her hands together and summoning an array of red talismans to fly at Taomon, “Thousand Spells!”

The attacks hit their mark, but only served to bring Megidramon’s attention onto Taomon. At least until Guardromon fired the cannon’s on his back and struck Megidramon in the chest. It flashed like light as the digimon was pushed back, until he opened its mouth again to spew out hot ash, “MeGiDo FlAmE!”

Once again, the hot ash came and followed Guardromon as he rushed towards the water. Before the hot ash and smoke could harm him, Cyberdramon flew in and decked the mega from above, slamming his jaw shut. But that left him open and Megidramon grabbed him off his head and slammed him onto the ground, “RARGH!”

He did it again and again until the digimon was limp in Megidramon’s hands. Megidramon hissed and threw Cyberdramon aside. Ryo gasped and raced to where his partner landed along the sand. Tamerkato proceeded towards them, calmly saying, “Guys. Fighting each other isn’t going to do any good. We really ought to work together to destroy Beelzemon.”

“You’re the one attacking!” Kazu shouted angrily.

“No, Megidramon’s attacking Beelzemon. You guys are attacking him. Big difference,” Tamerkato said, just as his partner roared again angrily. This thing, this monstrosity, was not the sweet and kind Guilmon they remembered. Now all they could see in it was malice. Anger. Bloodlust. Henry jumped in front of Tamerkato, grabbing a hold of him by the collar, “Takato! Get a hold of yourself!”

He just looked at him indifferently, “My name isn’t Takato.”

Henry groaned, “Fine! Digimon Tamer! Whatever! Will you come to your senses!?”

“I am at my senses! He killed Leomon! That needs to be punished. Therefore, he needs to die. You don’t get more sensible than that,” Tamerkato explained calmly. The fact that he said it so calmly was the most terrifying. It was then that Rapidmon finally dashed in with his cannons aimed at Tamerkato’s head. Tamerkato looked from the Ultimate to Henry, his eyes more cold and analytical than they’d ever been before. Henry remembered the stories from Takeru, the things Rika had warned about, the grumblings of the digidestined. For the first time since he’d met Tamerkato, he was sure all of it was true. Then he chuckled, “What is this? Your gamble to stop me? Going to pull the trigger? Shoot me in the face? Why are you all trying so hard to protect Beelzemon?”

“I’m just trying to protect my partner!” Rapidmon said, keeping the gun trained on Tamerkato. He looked back from Rapidmon to Henry, “You two are acting just like Beelzemon.”

That accusation struck Henry. And he hated. It made him mad. Mad in a way he didn’t know he could be. He pulled Tamerkato closer and shouted, “WE’RE ACTING LIKE BEELZEMON!? YOU’RE THE ONE GOING ON A RAMPAGE!”

“No, I’m being deliberate. I’m just trying to get to Beelzemon. You’re the ones going on the attack,” Tamerkato answered back quietly. It took all the self restraint Henry had to not punch him right there. He took a moment to catch his breath and think for a moment but had nothing to say to that. Tamerkato brushed his hands off him and remarked, “If you’re done, I think I said I was going to murder that piece of crap. And I intend to follow through.”

He adjusted his clothes and proceeded towards Beelzemon, getting far enough to be just beside the digimon when Rapidmon fired a shot into the air. The shot went so close that it managed to blow past his hair. Megidramon roared and Tamerkato spun in his tracks to look at the Ultimate. Henry’s eyes widened as he looked at his partner, “Are you crazy?”

“Maybe I am. Maybe I’ve gone stupid too! I mean, he’s not the only one able to lose his mind and start doing very stupid things at the drop of a hat!” Rapidmon blurted out angrily. Tamerkato looked at him quietly, staring for the longest time before remarking, “Stupid? Is that what you think this is? Stupidity? It’s not. This isn’t stupidity. It’s clarity. I mean...I tried to be kind. I tried to be merciful. I tried talking things out. And it doesn’t work! Well today, I’m not going for mercy. I’m not being kind. Because it doesn’t work - the Dark Masters, Myotismon, Armageddomon, Apocalymon, the traitors! Kindness just means they’ll come back worse later on. Today, I’m honoring everyone who’s ever died because I tried to be kind. Because I tried to be merciful. Right now, only one person is going to die. And he’s right there!”

He pointed at the injured and dying Beelzemon, still shooting a defiant look at Tamerkato. It was hard to deny that Henry wanted to take revenge for Leomon. But this...this wasn’t right. He shook his head, “If you do this Tamer, you’re going to be just like him. And we can’t be like him. You can’t...if you really are the Digimon Tamer, you need to be better than him!”

There was a pause. Tamerkato looked back sullenly like he was weighing Henry’s words. But then he sighed and answered, “That’s where you’re wrong Henry. I’m not better. I never have been. I’m The Digimon Tamer. Ryo is right to hate me. Rika’s mom is right to scorn me. Because I am so much worse.”

He’d made up his mind. Henry looked over to Rapidmon, knowing what his partner had to do and afraid of actually doing it.

...

Juri watched silently as Tamerkato continued on towards Beelzemon. Rapidmon trained his gun but was whipped away by Megidramon’s tail. Guardromon and Taomon jumped in front of the digimon in a last ditch effort to protect the injured mega and were batted aside by Megidramon’s massive arms. Beelzemon drew his shotgun one more time to get off one last minute shot. Tamerkato didn’t even try to get out of the way.

They were going to kill each other. Juri couldn’t take it any more. She wanted to scream. To shout. To let out all the pain and guilt building up inside her, “STOP!”

Tamerkato and Beelzemon paused to look at her. She must’ve looked absolutely pathetic, kneeling on the ground with tears streaming down her eyes. Between pauses her breath, she pleaded, “No more. Please...don’t...there’s been enough death. I don’t want anyone else to die. So please...don’t.”

Tamerkato looked at her mournfully, his expression breaking out of his impassive state for the first time since the island. Without looking away from her, he snatched the shotgun out of Beelzemon’s hand and threw it aside. Then he kneeled down at the digimon’s side, “Juri’s right. There’s been enough death. But that doesn’t make what you did right.”

He raised up his hand and touched Beelzemon on the forehead, “You need to be punished.”

It was hard to understand what happened next. All he did was press a finger to Beelzemon’s forehead, but the mega started screaming at the top of his lungs. Screaming. Pleading. Pushing Tamerkato away and crawling away on the dirt, “NO! MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP! WHY?”

He stopped screaming only to violently vomit on the ground, before screaming again, trying to crawl away as fast as he could. Henry and Ryo were on Tamerkato again, pulling him back and away from Beelzemon as the digimon continued to drag himself away. Ryo snapped, “What the hell did you do to him?”

“I put a memory in his head,” Tamerkato answered quietly. Henry looked from the boy to Beelzemon, “What the hell kind of memory did that?”

That was the question wasn’t it. Ignoring how he did it and assuming it was just some kind of Ancient thing, what memory did he put in Beelzemon’s head to reduce him to a scared and frightened digimon crawling away for his life. And the answer Tamerkato gave was probably one of the least reassuring answers he could’ve given, “A really bad one.”

It was strange how four little words could be the scariest thing any of them heard - four words they’d probably heard a million times on their own. But in this time at that order, they were scarier than anything else Tamerkato had done. Juri’s eyes lingered on Beelzemon, finding him pitiable now despite the senseless violence he’d unleashed upon Leomon. She almost felt sorry for him. Almost. But Leomon’s death kept her from feeling more than pity for him. It was a hollow feeling, because no amount of suffering inflicted on him would ever bring Leomon back to her.

And then she remembered that a digimon’s memories became a part of the digimon who absorbed them and she was compelled to wonder if some part of Leomon was still alive. Did he linger on in Beelzemon, somewhere? Or were his memories part of Beelzemon now, just another thing to be angry about. She hated everything about that - how powerless she was to do anything about it. The fact that someone else had been taken from her life unfairly. And all of it was Tamerkato’s fault. If he hadn’t egged Beelzemon on...

She looked his way, seeing him watch Beelzemon crawl along the sand screaming and begging for mercy. He was like a monster. No, The Digimon Tamer was a monster. Rika was right. They’d all been right. He was horrible.

“So...are you okay now or should we be worried?” Kenta asked nervously, looking back at Megidramon growling at them. Tamer seemed calm but that didn’t explain Megidramon...or why the digimon was still there. Kenta added, “Because Guilmon’s not turning back and he’s still terrifying to look at. He isn’t going to eat us, right? Right? Takato? Right?”

The Digimon Tamer didn’t answer, looking back at the massive mega digimon hovering over them. He ran a hand through his hair to swipe it back and adjusted his goggles up over his head. A moment of silence followed as he drew a deep breath, seemingly to calm himself but that did nothing to regress Megidramon back to his rookie form. He was still angry. Of course he was. It made her wonder...

...if Leomon were still alive, what would her anger turn him into? Would he be strong enough to make even Megidramon tremble in terror? If only she had been stronger...braver...she would have been able to save Leomon.

...

Henry wasn’t sure the situation could get any worse and was glad it hadn’t. But he was sure something was going to set either Tamerkato or Megidramon off at any moment. His attempts to reason with Tamerkato hadn’t quite gone anywhere. And now he was silent, staring at his partner calmly as his partner leered back.

Then the clouds parted and a blinding pillar of light descended from above to strike Megidramon. The mega let out a howl of pain as it crashed into the ground, gnashing its teeth and thrashing its arms angrily. The massive monster turned its head skyward, opening its mouth to reveal rows upon rows of teeth, “MeGiDo FlAmE!”

Hot ash spewed out of his mouth towards the sky, only to disappear into the light. His backlash seemed to empower the pillar of light and it grew in size until the digimon was consumed completely by the light. All they could make out was his silhouette for a split second and even that disappeared eventually.

For a moment, it seemed they’d lost two digimon in the span of a few minutes: Leomon and Guilmon. Then the light faded to reveal the little red dinosaur resting unconscious on the ground. Tamerkato gasped and ran to his partner’s side, cradling the unconscious rookie in his arms - or at least as much as he could cradle the adult sized rookie, “Guilmon! GUILMON!”

The fear was back, this time for whatever was able to single handedly take out the monster Megidramon so easily. The clouds parted to reveal a light blue serpent made of clouds and wrapped in long chains, bathed in a glow of light that made the world around them seem dark. As the serpent came into view, so did its long wispy beard that reached so far down that it almost touched the ground and waved in a nonexistent wind. The digimon looked down on them, “What the hell is going on?”

The voice was not quite what he expected from such a large digimon. He expected it to be booming and commanding but instead it spoke softly like a parent. Still, Henry knew this digimon from the show and was more than excited by the fact that he actually got to see it in real life. He was sure everyone knew this digimon’s name too.

“Who’s asking!?” Rapidmon shouted back at it. Well, almost everyone should’ve known who this digimon was. Guardromon slapped Rapidmon across the back of the head and explained, “That’s Azulongmon! A Sovereign Digimon!”

“Hey! Rapidmon! Maybe don’t anger the giant digimon in the sky that just took out Megidramon!” Rika added. Rapidmon threw up his arms in frustration, “Does it matter? This makes three crazy digimon trying to attack us just today. Why break the streak? Let’s see how many we can get! Let’s aim for four! Five! Sky’s the limit today.”

“I really hope you’re kidding,” Henry slapped his forehead and called out to Azulongmon, “Azulongmon!”

It was very daunting to be this digimon’s center of attention. Even more daunting when it leaned in closer to look with his four eyes. He put on the bravest face he could as the dragon asked, “Humans? Wait! Are you the digidestined!? It’s been so long! It’s good that you’re here! We don’t have time to lose! Is the Digimon Tamer with you? Please say-”

“He’s not,” Tamerkato answered quickly, keeping his attention focused on Guilmon. He lied. He wasn’t sure why but decided against calling it out right now. He wasn’t sure adding more to his bad mood would do any of them any good right now. Azulongmon glanced down at Tamer and Guilmon briefly, “Was that your partner?”

Tamerkato nodded quietly and Azulongmon rolled his eyes, “Work on your anger issues. Seriously, we’ve got enough things on our hands without having to deal with a human who can’t keep his emotions in check. Which digidestined are you, by the way? I don’t recognize any of you. You’re not that one who wore the fire jacket were you? Your fashion sense has barely gotten better.”

“I think he runs a noodle cart now, actually,” Kenta added quietly.

“We’re not the digidestined!” Rika answered the digimon above them. The flying dragon examined them carefully, “Are you sure? You have digimon partners. And what look like digivices. Just not any digivice I’ve seen before.”

“We’re sure,” Taomon assured the flying dragon. Azulongmon mumbled something under his breath before asking, “Well if you’re not the digidestined, then who are you and...wait, Tamer?”

He looked directly at Ryo when he said that and the boy groaned, “For the love of...why does everyone think I’m Tamer? I’m Ryo. I’m human too. The Digimon Tamer is-”

Tamerkato shot him another dirty look and Ryo paused, considering what he should say and settling on, “Not here. And certainly not me.”

Azulongmon stared down at them quietly before sighing, “It doesn’t matter. Since you’re here, there’s...the Catalyst! Why do you have the Catalyst!?”

Calumon cowered at the sound of being called the Catalyst and retreated to safety behind Juri. Tamerkato’s attention was back on his partner and he hardly noticed that the subject was now about the little digimon. Or maybe he did notice and was feigning ignorance. Henry hater the uncertainty that accompanied Tamer’s actions, “Calumon is actually why we’re here.”

He paused as he considered what he was going to say next. Admitting to a Sovereign that he had been the one stopping the Devas seems like a bad idea. Then again maybe he would be understanding? Azulongmon seemed like an understanding digimon. On the other hand, he had knocked Megidramon back to Guilmon with one attack. So what chance did they have if they made him angry? He swallowed the growing lump in his throat and again, “The Devas came to our world. And they were looking for this little guy. So we decided to come to your world and ask why. We know your world’s in trouble. We gathered that much from the Devas when they fought us. But what exactly is it?”

The sovereign gazed down on them from on high, and Henry wasn’t sure which unnerved him more: the monstrosity Tamerkato had released or the sovereign staring down at them. He was sure they were about to be attacked, when Azulongmon spoke, “Come with me and I’ll explain everything to you. But not here. Time is a factor and we can’t afford to waste it.”

The dragon descended upon them so fast that they weren’t prepared for the flash of light that followed his descent, or the sudden rush of wind as he encircled them. He coiled around them, moving in a serpentine spin at such speed that the whole world seemed to go crazy as he spun around until they felt their stomachs turn and the world spin.

When he finally stopped spinning around them and uncoiled, they found the sandy beaches of Gekomon Village replaced by miles of endless desert. And worst of all was a blinding light just a short distance away that they needed their hands to shield themselves from. Rika groaned, “What happened? Where are we?”

“The Tier of the Sovereigns,” Azulongmon answered proudly, hovering just before the light to shield them from it. Now that they were better able to see, they could make out the silhouettes of several other digimon present - a tortoise, a giant bird, what looked like a rabbit, an overgrown dog, a pig, and a mouse in a metal ball. Rika rubbed her eyes, trying to get them to focus but wasn’t able to concentrate properly. It didn’t help that Beelzemon was still screaming bloody murder and she cried out, “Will someone shut him up!?”

Taomon leapt over to Beelzemon and apologized, “I’m sorry. This is for your own good.”

She hit him across the back of his head as hard as he could, finally rendering the mega level digimon unconscious on the ground.

“AZULONGMON! WHY DID YOU BRING INTERLOPERS HERE!?” a voice cried out, prompting Calumon to shriek, “That’s him! That’s the mean and scary voice the monkey took me to!”

His screaming panic sent him burying his face into Juri out of fear, as if looking away from the silhouettes would make whatever digimon they were about to meet leave him. The voice added, “Oh, it’s the catalyst. Where are Makuramon and the dragon digimon?”

Azulongmon flew straight into the light, apologizing as he went to confer with the silhouette, “Will you stop with the light show, already? It’s not impressing anyone - you’re just making it hard to see anything!”

Silence followed before the light began to fade, revealing the silhouetted digimon along side six new massive digimon they had never seen before. Although it wasn’t hard to figure who they were: the Sovereigns and whatever remained of the Devas. The large crimson bird swept its way towards them, “Hmph...why are there humans here? Are these the digidestined?”

“I’m afraid not, although I wish they were,” Azulongmon answered dryly. If it was possible at all to feel any more unwelcome in the Digital World, Henry was sure they were feeling it. Azulongmon added, “However, they have digivices that can affect digimon partnered with them. So perhaps they are.”

“I see. Wait, isn’t that the little imp that I rewarded some power to? What’s he doing here?” The large crimson bird asked loudly, gesturing towards the unconscious Beelzemon with his beak. Then it occurred to Henry that this must’ve been the digimon that Impmon had given Calumon to. The bird gazed down upon them expectantly, its eyes moving from one to another until it finally rested on Henry, “You! Explain!”

“Um...well, he attacked us because he was looking for a strong opponent,” Henry answered quietly, trying not to avoid the large digimon’s ire. The bird grunted its disapproval, “Hmph. He did strike me as weak willed. Even with a fraction of my power, he was weak. Very well, I am Zhuqiaomon - crimson bird of the south quadrant of the Digital World! Tell me who you are, humans, and why you are intruding in our domain!”

“Um...I’m Henry, that’s my partner Rapidmon. That’s Rika, her partner Taomon, Ryo, his partner Cyberdramon, Kazu, his partner Guardromon, that’s Kenta, Juri, Tam...Takato, and his partner Guilmon,” he answered quietly, “And you already know Calumon...the catalyst as you call him. We’re here because we’re trying to figure out why he was in our world and why the digimon were crossing over into our world to get him back. We got the basics down, there’s trouble in your world but what exactly is going on?”

“I see, I see. And how exactly did you get to our world?” Zhuqiaomon asked next, “Travel between worlds should only be possible for the digidestined and the Digimon Tamer. And you are neither.”

Henry paused, moving his gaze over to Tamerkato as he struggle to come up with an answer. Tamerkato just shook his head at him, as if he were begging him to not answer the question. He really wished he’d snap out of whatever was eating at him because he was not the quickest thinker in this kind of situation. Thankfully, Guardromon answered, “I helped them. I went to their world in search of the Digimon Tamer. I found them.”

He breathed a sigh of cautious relief. At least he hadn’t lied. After all, it was technically the truth. There was just one thing he didn’t understand. Why was Takato or Tamer choosing now to have his mental breakdown? Why now was he regressing back to using secrets.

“He’s been down there a long time. Maybe we should go down to help?” The turtle said, looking away from them. Now that they could get better a look at it, the realized the turtle was massive, with a large oak growing from his back and a second head protruding from the side of his neck. The second head, “Quit worrying about the little prat for five minutes. He’s fine! We haven’t even introduced ourselves. Humans! We’re Ebonwumon, Sovereign Lord and Black Tortoise of the Northern Quadrant!”

“I’m just saying that maybe we should go down there and help him,” the first head countered, still ignoring them, “It’s not like he can take care of it by himself. We couldn’t take care of it together. Maybe we should’ve sent him some back up? Some of us definitely should’ve gone down with him.”

“Focus!” The second head countered. As soon as he said that, a giant pillar of red fire shot out of ground from behind the Sovereign digimon. It was followed by several large blasts of white lightning and the ground shaking beneath their feet. Once the shaking subsided, the first head said, “I was right to worry. Something is going horribly wrong down there!”

“So what exactly is going down there?” Ryo asked. Azulongmon glided past them towards a large and growing crevice that was just behind the gathered digimon. Azulongmon answered, “We Sovereign digimon serve as the guardians of this world and the last line of defense against danger. One day, we sensed...something...wrong and came to investigate. We found this crevice that tunnels far below the surface of the our world. And we found...a thing. We don’t know what it is. We’re not entirely sure if it’s even alive. But it attacked us, and it was unfazed by anything we did to stop it. That was when we realized a horrible truth about whatever this...thing is. It’s not digimon...or human. But it is Digital. And it seems to only want to destroy. We fled from it. And then WarGreymon came to help. He saw the danger and sacrificed himself to buy us time - collapsing the very earth on top of himself to bury it. But the time he bought wasn’t enough. The thing beneath us started to escape. Now, one of our own, Baihumon has gone down to battle.”

There was another flash of lightning from deep within the crevice, followed by a pillar of red fire. Kazu walked over to the pillar of fire and commented, “Wow, he must be a really brave digimon to go down there.”

“More like he was the only one small enough to actually venture down into the new crevice,” Ebonwumon’s second head pointed out, “Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the rest of us are too big to actually get down there.”

“But then what about the rest of you?” Taomon asked, gesturing towards the rest of the digimon - the dog, the pig, rabbit, and the mouse. Kazu readily agreed, “Yeah! The rest of you have got to be small enough to fit inside! Well, except for you big guy.”

He readily gestured at the pig. Kenta adjusted his glasses, “That’s why they needed Calumon. They’re not strong enough. If the Sovereigns ran scared, what chance would these guys have?”

“WE WERE NOT SCARED!” Zhuqiaomon roared at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing through the Digital World. Ebonwumon’s second head cleared its throat and clarified, “What he means is it was a tactical retreat.”

The first head countered, “They have a word for that. It’s called scared.”

Their inability to agree was amusing, made all the better when the fire on Zhuqiaomon’s body erupted into emboldened flame. It stopped being funny when Calumon yelped, prompting Rapidmon to point out, “As funny as it is to watch you guys argue, shouldn’t you be more worried about your friend? You said he was down there by himself. And besides, you have Calumon now. What are you waiting for?”

A beat of silence followed as the digimon sovereigns looked amongst themselves until the rabbit groaned, “Oh for the love of...fine, I’ll tell them. We don’t really know how to use it. We were hoping to either find the Digimon Tamer or that Makuramon would find the information to use it first. But we haven’t seen either Makuramon or Majiramon since they left to get the Catalyst.”

“SILENCE ANTYLAMON! Until you learn to hold your tongue, go guard the Western Gate to our domain!” Zhuqiaomon roared, the fires on his wings growing ever brighter. Antylamon’s ears slunk down as the giant bunny shrank away, turning to leave with her shoulders slumped. Henry looked hard at Tamerkato now, who still sat on the ground beside his silent partner. He seemed to be saying something but it was too quiet to actually hear. Probably disturbed by what he’d done to his partner. And as for Juri, she’d also seemed to have shut down. It seemed both of them were out of the fight on this end now.

...

Ryo wondered if the reason none of them had mentioned what happened to the other Devas was a fear of reprisal from the Sovereigns. He was about to explain when Rika opened her mouth, “If you’re waiting for the monkey and the dragon, don’t bother. They’re dead.”

“WHAT!?” Zhuqiaomon roared angrily, an apparent habit of his. Rika didn’t cow like Antylamon, actually appearing annoyed with Zhuqiaomon for exploding like a child, “Hey! They attacked us! Besides, it’s not like they were going to listen to us when we told them to stop.”

“You...YOU’RE THE ONES WHO KILLED THE OTHERS! MIHIRAMON! SINDURAMON! SANDIRAMON! PAJIRAMON! VAJRAMON! EVEN INDRAMON!”

Zhuqiaomon was mad now. As he roared, pillars of fire erupted from the sand around them and encircling them in a brilliant display. Ryo tried gesturing at Rika to knock it off, hoping she would stop antagonizing the giant fire bird in front of them. Especially since that worked so well for them last time. Instead she only seemed empowered by his rampage and she rolled her eyes, “That’s not impressing anyone. Take it from me: you’re just coming off as really childish.”

Zhuqiaomon paused to consider what she said and the fires died down, leaving only blackened scorch marks along the ground. The bird leaned in on Rika, and they were able to better appreciate his massive size. His head alone was probably the size of an SUV, “How can a human like you be so unintimidated?”

“Are you kidding? We’ve been fighting for our lives against crazy digimon since we got here. Why should you be any different?” she countered grumpily, “I mean, the last guy had eight heads. Then there was Megadramon who came out of the snow, Beelzemon over there actually showed up on a motorcycle and was trying to shoot us. At this point, I think we’re all tapped out for being surprised or scared.”

Zhuqiaomon examined her carefully, and he was sure she was about to get herself killed. He hurried ahead of her and pulled her behind him, “If you’re thinking of hurting her, you’re going to have go through me.”

He’d lost enough in his time here in the Digital World. Ryo wasn’t about to lose anymore, especially not to this overgrown bird. Zhuqiaomon shook his head, “I wasn’t planning on anything. I was just thinking on how much she reminds me of the The Digimon Tamer. For a moment, it seemed she was. But the look in her eyes is different. They’re younger, more optimistic. The Digimon Tamer had the eyes of a warrior. Eyes that already had a plan to stop you before they’d met yours.”

Ryo tried his hardest not to glance at Tamerkato, wondering how Zhuqiaomon would take the news that he was the Digimon Tamer. Whatever warrior fervor Zhuqiaomon thought he had was gone a long time ago, only coming out as spats of pure anger whenever he was provoked enough. Now he just seemed broken. He contemplated what to say or do now but was unsure for the first time since he’d come to the Digital World. All he wanted for now was to go home.

“Well, what if we helped?” Kazu asked aloud, “I mean, since you don’t know how to use the Catalyst, how about we go down and take a look at...whatever it is that has you all spooked. Maybe we can do something about it!?”

Zhuqiaomon turned his attention to Kazu and growled, “And how do you propose to do that?”

Kazu gestured at their partners, “Between Guardromon, Cyberdramon, Taomon, and Rapidmon? We fly down there! It’d work since we could just squeeze into the gap. If we can’t stop it, we can definitely help Baihumon get out.”

The sovereigns and Devas looked between each other, silently communicating with their eyes until Azulongmon answered, “Why not? What’s the worse that could happen?”

#The Tamer v2 In His Name #Fanfiction #Digimon #archiveofourown #Chapter 32

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the-digimon-tamer · 5 years

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Chapter 26 - The Hallowed Bastion is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Rika walked along behind the rest of the group, leering at Ryo as he was bombarded with questions from both Kazu and Kenta. Partially because she was annoyed that he’d forgotten her, and partially because she couldn’t believe this was where he’d been after all this time. More than that, she hadn’t forgotten how Hagurumon and Clockmon addressed him. They called him The Digimon Tamer. She thought back to everything that had happened - everything from the books, everything from Ryo’s disappearance. He insisted he wasn’t, but the digimon they’d encountered identified him as such. And he seemed to fit the description from both Renamon and the book - a great warrior, someone who subverted expectations, could think quickly and creatively, and seemed to be more in control of situations than he was willing to let on.

She hated to think it, but it seemed that Ryo really was the one called The Digimon Tamer. And his partner - Cyberdramon. A digimon so strong, he was able to stay at the Ultimate level without slowing down or losing speed. Something that both Kazu and Kenta brought up with their constant questioning.

“So where did you meet Cyberdramon, anyway?” Kenta gestured towards the hulking dragon a few behind him, “He’s not a digimon I’ve ever heard of. And he’s kinda scary - sorta weird for a guy like you to have for a partner.”

“That's because he’s not your average digimon. He’s one of a kind - a weaker form of a much more dangerous digimon called Milleniummon. He was tough, but I worked together with some…well…help to beat him. I’ve been stuck trying to rein him in ever since,” Ryo answered with a bitter tone, quietly grumbling about having to explain, “Cyberdramon is okay when he’s calm. It’s when his bloodlust comes out that he becomes unbearable. All he wants to do is kill and destroy everything he sees. It’s all I can do to just keep him in check, and even then I can’t contain him from destroying stuff around him.”

“But a digimon that strong took on Megadramon on his own! That’s got to be worth it!” Kazu pointed out ecstatically, “Man, what I wouldn’t give to have a partner like that.”

“You really don’t,” Ryo frowned, gesturing ahead at his partner, “He’s probably the strongest digimon at his level, but he’s got the anger of ten digimon at his level. Besides, don’t you guys have partners?”

“Nah, we’re just here to help out the others,” Kazu answered gleefully. Ryo raised an eyebrow, “Like carrying their stuff? Or are you acting like bait? Just asking because I’m not sure how you guys are helping.”

Kazu was not prepared for that response, nor was he prepared for Rika to happily point out, “Yeah, and some help you’ve been. Renamon and I have done most of the work since we got separated from Juri and the others. But I like the idea of them carrying out stuff!”

She removed her backpack and thrust it into Kazu’s hands, “Besides, Renamon and I have practically carried you guys since we got here anyway.”

Kazu groaned and dropped the bag, “What’s your deal with me? It’s like you personally enjoy crapping on me!”

Rika put a hand on her hips and raised her eyebrows grumpily, and the boy quickly picked the bag back up in a panic.

“Well, you do make it easy for her,” Kenta answered. Ryo stopped in his tracks to look at Rika, staring unblinkingly at her. She wished he would stop doing that, “What?”

“Sorry,” Ryo averted his gaze and ran a hand through his hair nervously, ending at the back of his neck which he scratched nervously, “I just can’t believe it’s only been a few months. It’s been years for me. I know. I counted the days. And…it’s hard to find the right words…if I’m having a hard time talking to you, it’s because I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what I’m going to say to my parents.”

She understood that better than she wanted to admit - with her dad having been absent for a long time and her relationship with her mom not…in the best of places before he came back. Compared to him, her time gap hardly seemed to be worth mentioning. So she flicked his forehead, “I wouldn’t think about it. Otherwise, you’ll just make it weird. And stop staring at me, creep. It’s freaking me out. How much further do we have to go? I’m sick of walking through desert. I bet the digidestined didn’t have to walk through this much heat.”

She was careful to leave out the part about her parents being digidestined, and shot a death glare at both Kenta and Kazu when they tried to open their mouths. Ryo pointed across miles of desert to a cloud of fog in the distance, “Over there. Once we get into the fog, we’re probably another day’s walk away. Then we can use the computers there to find your friends.”

“What’s up with all that fog? I thought this was a desert!” Kazu groaned, already cramping under the weight of the second backpack he had to carry.

Kenta patted his shoulder, “It snowed on us a couple of nights ago. Why should the fog be any weirder?”

“I don’t know, man. This place is just messing with my head,” Kazu grunted, struggling to keep up with them.

Kenta added, “Kazu, basic math messes with your head! I mean, you don’t even do your own homework!”

“We’ve all been avoiding our homework! Right, Rika?” Kazu looked to her for support only to be shot down, “What are you talking about? I’ve been doing it while you guys are sleeping!”

It was a bold lie but she knew it would annoy him.

“What!? Dude, let me copy of you!” Kazu shouted, failing to see the obvious flaw with that. Kenta had to pull him back and explain, “Kazu, she doesn’t go to our school.”

“I miss school. And homework. Never thought I’d say that,” Ryo laughed from ahead of them, not noticing that they were now silent. Kazu was the first to ask, “You’re not serious right? I mean, who misses homework?”

“Well, when you spend years fighting for your life in another world, it’s amazing what you start to miss,” Ryo explained with a half smile, “I mean, if you told me I would miss doing my chores one day, I’d think you were crazy too. But it’s not just my chores or my homework. I miss my parents, my family, my bed, home cooked meals, TV, internet, computers, school, my friends. Everything. You know what I mean, right Rika?”

Rika looked away when he looked at her, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She did, but she wasn’t going to admit to anything in front of Kazu or Kenta. Renamon looked like she was about to add something but stopped instead to laugh. Which was good because she could’ve said any number of embarrassing things right then. Rika didn’t want to think about Kenta and Kazu knowing anything about her that they didn’t need to know.

…

They continued on straight into the fog, which was so thick that they could barely see more than an arm’s length ahead of them. On Ryo’s insistence, they walked along with one arm on each other’s shoulders so that they wouldn’t get separated. In this dense fog, it was a surprise anyone could navigate. But Ryo would stop on occasion to look at his digivice before pressing on. The Digital World became deathly silent, marked only by the sound of their feet shuffling along the sand. Even the wind seemed to die in this thick fog.

Eventually, they heard noises echoing around them. Faint whispers that were indiscernible and what sounded like sobs mixed with moaning. But all of that was nothing compared to the overwhelming sense of dread she got. Every time a noise passed, Ryo would stop in his tracks and change his course slightly before pressing on. Eventually, it became too much for Rika, “Hey Ryo! What is this fog? It’s giving me the creeps.”

It took a long time to give his answer, “It’s better not to think about it. The Digital World is a terrible place and not everything that dies comes back. And it doesn’t get absorbed either. Sometimes, the data just…gets stuck.”

“What? No way! We’ve seen digimon turn to data and this is way too thick to be that,” Kazu said disbelievingly. Ryo was quiet a little while longer before adding, “If you want to sleep tonight, you won’t think on it any more than you just did. But…this is why I don’t like The Digimon Tamer and I wish digimon would stop calling me that name. Because this…was partially him.”

Rika looked around at this fog, the weight of everything Ryo said now beginning to make sense in her head. This was the result of the war she’d read about in the book and…if it was true…this was the result of the Digimon Tamer. These were dead digimon. And goggle head…Takato…caused it. And if the book was also right, the murmurs she was hearing was also the half deleted remains of some digimon in unbelievable agony begging for a death that wasn’t going to come. Because The Digimon Tamer refused to give them the mercy. She shivered.

They proceeded further into the fog until they saw the distant shape of a barren old castle atop a craggy rock face appear in the distance. It ascended just high enough to escape the fog of digimon data and, looking out on the plains from above. The sheer size gave context for just how expansive the fog was, and they could finally see how far the fog went. It reached out for miles in every direction, disappearing into the horizon. Whatever this war was, it seemed the books really gave no context for just how devastating the scale was. How many digimon must’ve died here…at this place…to make such a wide cloud of data. And the castle itself was hardly inviting. It was almost evil to look at, marked by the statues of Devidramon leering down at the courtyard below.

“Here we are! This is the Hallowed Bastion!” Ryo said with arms outstretched for them - as if he expected them to marvel at how outright terrifying this place was, “Stick close to me and try not to get lost. This place will mess with your head.”

“Whoa sweet! Check out the Devidramon!” Kazu said excitedly, pointing out the chipped statues lining the courtyard. Ryo ushered them forward, “Don’t get too close. They shoot lasers from their eyes. And Stick together guys! Come on!”

He led them past the entryway and further into the castle. It lived up to its evil exterior. Inside was dim and drab, illuminated only by dying candles and flickering lights. What little they could see revealed dusty hallways, thick cobwebs, and tattered decorations scattered everywhere. In spite of that Renamon craned her neck at every possible sight as she took it all in, “To think we’d ever stand in the home of the Guardians of Destiny themselves.”

That marvel turned to surprise when they entered a nonsensically large room with what looked like a single walkway bridging an infinite void of twisting corridors and stairs. Just looking out on the empty space around them made Rika sick to her stomach and her head spin. At least at first. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw multiple staircases and walkways spiraling and twisting into the void. Occasionally, they would disappear and reappear without warning. Kenta gasped at the sight of it, excitedly asking, “Is this an Escher maze?”

“I don’t know what that is but if you mean this mess, then sure!” Ryo said, “It took me forever to figure out my way around this place and I don’t want have to figure out how to find any of you guys if we get separated. Just hang on and don’t let go until we’re on the other side. And...uh...sorry if this next part is weird. We’re going to have to go over the edge. And then some other stuff.”

“What?” was all Rika managed to get out before Ryo grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the guard rail and over the edge. She felt like she was falling, but only for a second before she felt herself standing upright. They were still on the bridge. But that couldn’t be right. That shouldn’t even have been possible. They walked right over the edge of the walkway. They should’ve been falling. Instead, they were still on the walkway. Behind her, she heard Kazu and Kenta groaning like they were sick. Kenta was the first to manage to speak, “Oh man, what the hell was that? I think my stomach’s in my mouth.”

“At least it’s still in you. My stomach feels like it’s back wherever we were,” Kazu groaned. She was glad her stomach was stronger than theirs, but she couldn’t help but feel sorry for them as she was left to wonder just what they were experiencing to feel like this. Ryo was quick to apologize, “Sorry guys. I know it sucks.”

“Why aren’t you messed up by this?” Kazu groaned.

“Because he’s been here long enough and he’s done this enough that it doesn’t affect him as much,” Renamon answered for him. Cyberdramon grunted his approval of her answer before growling impatiently. Ryo sighed, “Just try to power through. We’ve got a lot more of these to go.”

“Oh man!” was all either of them managed to get out before they were dragged along by Ryo through more jumps and odd sidesteps that made the world around them shift and change even though it seemed like they were staying on the same walkway they had been before. At some point, it became too much for even Rika as her stomach started to turn with unease. It wasn’t until they were suddenly on the other end of the walkway that Ryo finally stopped dragging them along and said, “Okay, we’re on the other side. You guys rest up before we carry on. It should be safe now, as long as we don’t go back.”

“Please...tell us...we don’t have to do that again,” Rika groaned, before going to the edge of the walkway to puke uncontrollably. Kazu and Kenta joined her in puking over the edge, only to watch their puke disappear from existence and reappear on some stairs on the other end of the room. Kenta was the first to look up, “Why did we have to do that?”

“This room is a defense mechanism. It’s made so that you can only go through it a certain way. If you don’t follow the only path through, you could end up falling for eternity or worse,” Ryo answered. Rika would’ve raised an eyebrow if she wasn’t so busy puking her guts out, looking at him in disbelief, “What could be worse than what we just went through?”

Ryo opened his mouth to answer, before pausing and picking up a stone from the ground. He cast it over the edge and they watched it fall for some distance. It only fell for a few seconds before several beams of light shot out of the room at different angles and vaporized the rock. Then Ryo finally answered, “That’s the bastion’s defense mechanism. It was designed to keep this place safe from any invaders. Invaders would get trapped in this room trying to find their way to the other side, and anyone straying too far from the safe paths gets vaporized.”

“Then how did you figure it out?” Kazu asked, looking up briefly before puking over the edge again. Kazu rubbed his back to help him get it out before answering, “I’ve been stuck here for years Kazu. Believe me, I’ve had nothing but time to figure it out. Mostly by trial and error. But I was here once before and that time, I had the Digimon Tamer to help guide me around. And believe me, I’m as eager to find him again as you guys are.”

“I don’t think you ever said, what’s your deal with Takato anyway?” Kazu wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and slid down the back of his guard rail. Ryo massaged the back of his neck, “I guess I didn’t say, did I? Well, we’ve got nothing but time now. The truth is he’s the reason I’m stuck here. One day I was on my computer talking about digimon, and the next thing I know I’m getting pulled into the screen. Then I woke up here in the Digital World. Wandered around for a few days before I ran into this Kuwagamon that started chasing me. That was when I met The Digimon Tamer, Agumon, Ken, and Wormmon. He said he would help us get home until we got to this place and he found out why we were in this world. That digimon I told you about before, Milleniummon, tore a hole open in reality that broke the Digital World. He said he couldn’t send either of us back until we fixed it. And we did. But that was before I got sucked into this weird...other world. It took forever to find my way back. I’ve been trapped here ever since trying to figure out a way back to our world.”

“So why the anger for The Tamer?” Renamon asked seriously. Ryo’s eyes narrowed, “Because he’s the reason I’m in this mess. It took me a while to understand but that guy always knows more than he lets on. He always knows more than he lets on! He will keep things from you if it means fulfilling your destiny, even if it means trapping you in another world for years against your will. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If I meet him again, I’m decking him! Hell, I’ll kill him.”

“Dude, harsh,” was all Kazu managed to say. That was the understatement of the century. The goggle head was the reason Ryo was gone for so long. She wanted to be mad, to be angry and hate him for it. But part of her was also sure that he had no memory of any of it. Then again, with how messed up his memory was, it’d be a miracle if he remembered anything. The guy could barely keep his own head straight. Odds were, Ryo would punch him across the face and he’d just stare in confusion. All that frustration did do one thing: it settled her stomach enough for her to stand up. She looked over at Ryo who seemed genuinely angry, a sight she’d never seen before on a normally calm guy. After a few moment and deep breaths, he calmed down enough to sigh and stare at Rika. Again with that creepy, off putting stare of his, “What?”

“Nothing,” He shook his head. It took a bit longer for everyone to feel okay enough to move on and they proceeded further into the castle. Now, instead of that mind-twist of a labyrinth, they were in a normal labyrinth of endlessly twisting halls that seemed to continue on forever with no sign of stopping. Once again, Rika found herself in awe of how calmly Ryo was handling the absurdity of their situation - mostly because it reminded her of the fact that he’d been trapped here for what seemed like years to him.

At the end of their long walk, Ryo guided them into a large chamber marked by computer screens on every inch of wall with several keyboards and terminals set up around it. Of the screens, only one appeared to be in any working order though and it displayed what appeared to be a map. Rika looked around the room, certain her dad would have a heart attack to see so many computers treated with such disregard. If anything, he’d probably disappear again to start fixing these. She smiled at the thought before asking, “What is this?”

Ryo blew a layer of dust off the nearest keyboard and started typing away on it. Strange characters appeared on the screen, a language she’d only seen on the ring around her digivice’s screen. It further solidified the fact that whoever made these digivices was from this world, “This is The Network. At least, that’s what it was the first time I was here. It was the Tamer’s pet project at the time - a reality wide system to monitor the different worlds and everything going on in them. If I had to guess, someone didn’t like the idea and shut it down. I don’t blame them. Thankfully, they weren’t thorough and I was able to savage this one. It should still tell us where your friends are.”

“How can you read any of that?” Kenta asked, adjusting glasses to better view the screen and the strange characters that were displayed on it. Kazu pointed at some of the letters, “What’s with the fake sci-fi language?”

“That fake sci-fi language is the language of the Ancients. And don’t ask me what any of it means. I can’t read it. The only reason I know what I’m doing is because I’ve had time to figure it out. Twenty years of being trapped here is enough time to figure out some basics. It’s not like I had anything better to do besides keeping Cyberdramon in check,” Ryo answered, smacking their hands away from the screen, “And don’t touch that. The screen is touch sensitive. You might do something.”

All it took was a few more button presses to blow up the map of the Digital World. On that map were several dots - two of them were together, three were in another part of the Digital World, and there was a sixth and seventh by themselves. Ryo gestured at the dots, “These signals are digivices. Those two are us here in the Hallowed Bastion. I’m guessing the others are your friends?”

Rika pointed, “Those three are! Right there! That’s gotta be Henry, Juri, and Takato.”

“But what is the other two?” Renamon asked, pointing at the lone dots. Kazu jumped, “That’s got to be Andromon! He drifted down the river by himself! I hope that guy is okay.”

“If that’s Andromon, then who’s the seventh?” Kenta gestured at it. Ryo examined it more carefully and frowned, “Its at the bottom of a lake. If your friend Andromon got carried off by a river, that’s probably where he ended up.”

Rika crowned, “They can’t both be Andromon. So which is it?”

“Hang on,” Ryo produced a marker from his pocket and started copying the map onto his sleeve. Suddenly, the dingy state of his clothes made a lot more sense. They must’ve been the clothes he wore when he first arrived and they’d become worn from the years. He finished his scribbles and explained, “Okay. So this one is closer than the one under the lake. We can head there first. Then go to the other one.”

“What about getting back to the others?” Rika asked. Ryo pointed at their three dots and traced their movement, “It looks like they’re already going to the one under the lake anyway. We can meet them there. Now we should hurry up and go.”

He put his marker away and sat up, “If we hurry, we can get to the second spot before we catch up with the others when they get to the lake. Sound good to you?”

“Does that mean more walking?” Kenta asked sheepishly. Rika rolled her eyes, “No one asked you to come.”

...

Yamaki led the exceptionally large entourage into the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, which took longer than it should’ve because he had to stop security from checking every single one of them before letting them through. It also didn’t help that neither the ‘chosen children’, the ‘monster maker’, and the parents of the assorted kids wouldn’t stop leering at him from the back. Security must have thought he was bringing his own personal execution squad with him. Once he’d convinced the guards they were harmless, he took them upstairs to the office space set aside for them if they ever decided to cooperate. And he was sure they’d be surprised by what he already he had there waiting them.

He could hear their gasps of surprise as they made their way up the glass elevator and past the different levels of the organization. One laboratory level where they had been experimenting with the technology used to create the Juggernaut, another level where they had been containing the digimon that came through for study, several offices and barracks. Finally, the elevator came to a stop at a near empty office space complete with desks and computer terminals. On the far side of the office was a large screen being attended by the others - the ones Yamaki and his team had been able to track down. They ones they’d convinced to join them.

Naturally, Zhenyu Li recognized them all right away, “Are those who I think they are?”

“After the incident with the three digimon in downtown, it was hard to keep everything secret. You and Shibumi were the last hold outs,” Yamaki explained to him, watching Zhenyu quickly meet with the rest of his old team. They were the ‘Founders’ or ‘Monster Makers’ as they preferred. The team that was responsible for the creation of the digimon. And as always, they referred to each other by their nicknames which worked for him because it would save them time on code names.

First was Babel, an African-American specializing in theoretical physics and who had a thing for wearing shades at all times. Then there was Daisy, a robotics specialist currently working at MIT to develop some kind of autonomous robot. Curly was an Indian woman working for Miscatina University in India, where she taught quantum theory. And finally, there was Dolphin, a red haired American teaching as a professor at Palo Alto University who developed an odd fascination with the occult. Once introductions were out of the way, Yamaki began to explain Project Hypnos to them, “We’ve been monitoring the situation since the Odaiba Incident as well as the incident at Christmas several years ago. There’s a subtle pattern in our world’s electromagnetic spectrum that sometimes presents itself as static if observed through a radio or a television. However, if you pass it through a machine able to read the pattern like a computer or radar, the end result is clear.”

As they drew closer, it became easier to tell that the screen on the far end displayed a world map brimming with moving dots. But it wasn’t their world. It was different. Miss Kamiya pointed at it, “So you’ve got a map that’s been monitoring the Digital World from here? How?”

“A lot of our equipment was reverse engineered thanks to Mister Izumi here,” Yamaki gestured at the wheel chair bound man wheeling his way to the computer, “His help, coupled with what we’ve learned about digimon over the last few years, means that we’ve been readying our defenses against them. At least, that was the plan. The explosion a few nights back was the result of a power surge in our main weapon: the Juggernaut Program.”

It was hard to miss their glares - why wouldn’t they be? They were just told that their government had been creating weapons and forced one of their friends to make it. Thankfully, he was spared the embarrassment of talking more when Izumi decided to explain for him. His voice was hoarse, as if he were ready to break down, “It’s a worm hole. It forces open a gate between our world and the Digital World. Only the gate isn’t stable. Weaker digimon forms…don’t survive the trip back. It rips them apart.”

Izumi’s wife placed a hand on his shoulders and squeezed, “Whatever you did, you had your reasons. None of this is your fault, understand?”

“I…I’m sorry,” was all he managed to get out, turning his head away from the rest of them, “But I want to make it right. I think if we put our heads together, we can figure out how to get the gate to the Digital World open. But this time, we use it to save our kids.”

Zhenyu Li agreed, “There’s a lot of work for us to do but we need to save our kids. It’s hard to believe the Digital World started off as a simulation on a computer. This…all this is just ones and zeroes on a computer! It’s a kid’s game based on a college project! I haven’t felt this excited in a while.”

“To be fair, there’s a lot of this that we don’t understand,” Izumi offered to the confused man, “And we’ve been going there since we’ve been kids.”

“Yeah, even after all of our trips, we still don’t know what exactly is going on there,” Ichijouji’s wife added. Yamaki sighed, adjusting his glasses to massage the bridge of his nose. If they were going to work together, there was going to be a lot of information he would have to declassify - a lot he would have to fill them in on, “Our top scientists have been studying this since we captured the first ones during the Odaiba Incident. The fog that interferes with electronics whenever digimon appear isn’t just normal atmospheric moisture. It’s energy from across the electromagnetic spectrum modifying free molecules in the air, bringing them together and coalescing them into proteins, carbohydrates, and fats to create a physical form for the digital creatures. However, their electromagnetic signature still allows them to interfere with electronic equipment: radios, telephone signals, internet access points, traffic lights…I’m sure you’ve all experienced this.”

“Okay, and what does any of this have to do with finding my daughter and helping her?” Izumi’s wife demanded angrily. The scientist named Dolphin spoke up, “With your expertise on the subject of the Digital World and our knowledge of its base code, we should be able to pinpoint their location in the Digital World and pull them out.”

“Who are you again?” she asked, a little lost on his identity. Yamaki sighed, “We can introduce ourselves again later. Right now, we have six kids lost in another world and we’re going to pull them out before things get any worse.”

As he said that, Mimi’s device beeped again. This time, she opened it to read, “Met another boy in the Digital World. He can help us. We’re going to stick with him for a while. We’ll keep you updated. Updated? Another boy? Who are they talking about?”

“You don’t think there’s another Tamer running around, do you?” Sora asked. The disgust and horror on their faces was impossible to miss. Yamaki had no idea what this Tamer had done to them in the past, but he had a few ideas from the few times he talked to the kid. And he was sure none of it was good. And that just made time more pressing. Time was moving faster in the other world compared to this one. They didn’t have a second to lose, “I’ll get some coffee going. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us if we’re going to pull those kids out.”

“Right now, I’m giving all of you unlimited access to all the resources Hypnos has at its disposal,” Yamaki added, gesturing to the many computers around them, “Whatever you need, you have a blank check.”

...

Makuramon knelt down before his lord and master Zhuqiaomon to present the caged Calumon for him, “I apologize for the delay, m’lord. This little buggar was more trouble than he was worth. But he’s here now for you to do with as you please! The Catalyst of the Ancients!”

He looked up slightly to see the large crimson bird staring down at him, expecting some reward for his service. Instead Zhuqiaomon kept his gaze fixed on Calumon, completely ignoring him, “Are you sure? It’s…kinda pathetic.”

Makuramon wasn’t expecting that response but raised the cage up so that his lord could get a better look, “I am sure, m’lord. The humans went through great pains to make sure we didn’t acquire him!”

“What great pains, exactly?” Zhuqiaomon asked.

“They left him in the care of a little girl at their home,” Makuramon said, slowly realizing how absurd he must’ve sounded. He quickly added, “But worry not my lord! I know this is the Catalyst because I saw it for myself. Inside this weak, pathetic thing that can barely protect itself and - I am sounding insane.”

Makuramon paused to clear his throat, “Anyway, the point is: this creature holds the light of digivolution inside of it! With its power, we can finally strengthen ourselves and prepare to battle the foe.”

“It’s just…so small. And it looks weak,” Zhuqiaomon noted, looking at it more closely. The small digimon was cowering against the back of his cage fearfully now. Makuramon wanted to join the little digimon in shaking, but did his best to keep a brave face. His master may have been tough but he was fair. He would surely be willing to show mercy if there had been a mistake. Even if it had cost the lives of half the devas at this point. After a long and drawn out silence, Zhuqiaomon eventually asked, “Can it at least release the power within so we can be sure?”

“Of course,” Makuramon bowed. He jabbed the digimon in the cage, shouting, “Let out your power, little one. Show it to our lord in all his splendor that we may bathe in your power!”

Calumon shook, “That doesn’t sound very hygienic and I think I want to go home now.”

Zhuqiaomon grunted his disapproval and Makuramon scrambled for words, “Worry not, my master! I can take care of this! Listen you! We didn’t go through all this trouble just so you could hold out on us! Let out your power! NOW!”

He shook the cage more furiously, trying to get some kind of reaction out of the little creature who could only wail in terror. Lord Zhuqiaomon groaned and turned to him, “Are you sure you’re okay, Makuramon? Because I doubt this creature is it!”

Makuramon became desperate, “I swear my lord! I saw it for myself! We just have to trigger it! LET OUT YOUR POWER!”

He shook the cage and slammed it against the ground, causing a trickle of light to start streaming around the cage. He breathed a sigh of relief and held it up for Zhuqiaomon to see, “All it needed was a little gentle persuasion, see? Now, let us bathe in its li…what are you doing?”

It took him a few seconds too long to notice, but Lord Zhuqiaomon noticed the lights weren’t coming from the cage right away. In fact, it was dancing around the cage. And there was more than one. Calumon stopped panicking and began playfully speaking to the lights as they continued dancing around the cage. All at once, the lights came together to pull at the cage and yank it away from him. Makuramon tightened his grip, intent on keeping it close only to find himself being lifted into the air. Or rather, the cage was being lifted and he was just along for the ride. Calumon looked down at him and smiled, “Bye bye!”

“What?”

Before he got an answer, the cage jolted so hard that Makuramon’s grip slipped and he fell back to the ground. Then the cage was carried off by the lights into the distance. Makuramon’s eyes widened in horrible realization as he looked form the lights to Zhuqiaomon. He expected the full wrath of the sovereign upon him. Instead, he heard the mega level digimon remark, “Well, that’s new. Is it supposed to do that?”

…

#The Tamer v2 In His Name #Fanfiction #Digimon Tamers #archive of our own #Chapter 26

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the-digimon-tamer · 5 years

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Chapter 27 - Lake House is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Days passed as they continued their trek through miles of desert, impeded only by the occasional random digimon coming to attack them. At least, it should have been days. It felt more like weeks with endless the endless desert heat beating down on them. They stopped only when it was dark or when they could find shelter to rest. It was simply too dangerous to be wandering in the dark or rest out in the open. Soon, desert sand turned to grassy plains and verdant forests. The air cooled the further they went until they reached a large serene lake in the middle of the forest. It was a welcome sight after spending several days wandering the desert of the Digital World.

Everyone ran straight for the water to get a fresh drink, except for Guilmon who simply dove straight in. They washed their faces and cleaned themselves up short of taking a bath. Takato was the only who didn’t get into the water, opting to instead walk the water’s edge and occasionally dip his toe into the water, “It should be here somewhere.”

“What are you doing?” Terriermon asked, looking up from the water long enough to notice, “If you didn’t pack a towel or a swimsuit, you’re gonna get yourself sick jumping into the water!”

“I’m trying to find the steps,” Takato answered, still dipping his foot into the water every few feet, “Wet. Wet. Wet. Wet. Dry!”

As he said that, Takato’s leg disappeared into the water up to his knee without making a splash. He pulled his leg out and dunked his head into the water, staying under far too long for anyone to still be alive. Terriermon tilted his head, “Did he just drown himself?”

“He doesn’t smell dead!” Guilmon sniffed the air, then made his way over to his partner to sniff his side. Then he started poking Takato’s side until his head emerged from the water as dry as it had gone in, “Good news! I found the front door! Bad news! The stairs are falling apart so we might trip on our way down. Best news! There should be some beds down there we can use to rest up. Not sure if the food is still good though.”

“Stairs? Beds? What’re you talking about?” Henry approached the edge of the lake and dipped his shoe in. He pulled it out, inspecting the dry footwear carefully before slowly lowering his foot deeper into the water, “There’s a step here!”

“Yeah! See!” Takato demonstrated by casually walking into the water and disappearing completely beneath the waves. This took the cake for all the strange things Takato had done until his hand broke the surface to wave at them. Takato climbed back out, “Are you guys coming or not? It’s perfectly safe. Mostly safe. The stairs are still crumbling.”

Henry paused and looked back at the rest of them quizzically. They were all looking back anxiously, none of them wanting to be the one to go down first. Realizing they weren’t going to go anywhere like this, Juri took a deep breath and followed Takato‘s path into the water. Like he said, it was dry and she felt her shoe step on something solid. Emboldened by this, she took several more steps that slowly descended into the water until she was completely submerged. And she found a staircase descending into the depths of the lake that was surprisingly well lit. The water stopped at the sides of the stairs, held back by an invisible barrier that stopped any of the fish swimming in the water from passing through. The sight was as beautiful as it was impossible, “What is this?”

Takato put his hands to his hips and smiled cheerfully, “Ancient technology! It’s...um...how did this work again? Um...oh yeah! It’s called hard light! Think like a force field except you can use it to make whatever you want.”

“Aren’t you worried that it’ll break and we’ll all drown?” Juri asked nervously, tapping the side of the water and feeling something hard there. It was like a glass window. But glass could break and they couldn’t breathe under water. Takato shrugged, “Not really. Why? Are you planning on breaking it?”

“No. I’m not a great swimmer, so I wouldn’t even try,” she answered sheepishly. Takato smiled, “Then that makes you all the braver for coming in. I see Henry and the others are still hanging out up there. That makes you braver than them.”

Juri looked back up the stairs to see Henry still only knee deep into the water before forcing himself down in, followed by Terriermon, Guilmon and Leomon. Leomon looked around, jaw hanging open in awe of the sight, “Ancient technology again. It never ceases to amaze me.”

Guilmon sniffed the air, “This smells familiar.”

“Does it?” Takato tilted his head, jogging back up the stairs to examine his partner. He turned Guilmon’s head with his hands and pried his mouth open, “It shouldn’t be. You shouldn’t even know what this is. This is your first time here...right?”

Guilmon pulled his head out of Takato’s hands and sniffed the air, “I don’t know. It smells...yummy.”

Terriermon laughed, “I think he’s smelling the bread in your bag. So what are we doing here? And where are we going?”

“I’m just coming here to get something,” Takato said again, turning back down to the stairs and leading the way, “Don’t worry, we won’t be staying long. Once I find it, we can get going. Or we can stay the night, your guys’ call.”

“Yeah, you still haven’t told us what you’re getting or where these stairs go,” Leomon pointed out skeptically. He groaned, “I don’t mean to be cynical Tamer, but it would be nice if we knew what was going on. What does this have to do with finding the others?”

Takato stopped in his tracks, shoulders slumping quietly and he looked back up at them. There was a slight hesitation in his voice as if he was wrestling on whether or not to actually say anything, “You’re right. I’m going to get...something personal. Something that might help me sort out my memories. After that, I promise we’re going to go the Hallowed Bastion and find the others.”

“It’s amazing how little of the question that answered,” Henry stated dryly, scratching the back of his head before continuing to follow Takato. They descended downward in uncomfortable silence broken only by the occasional fish slamming into the invisible barrier, until they reached the very bottom and found a small house surrounded by an old wall. It was made the traditional Japanese style, and within they found an overgrown garden marked by a stone path leading up to a sliding front door. Trees and bushes looked like they’d been hastily trimmed with the debris carelessly piled in the corners of the garden. It even had a small stream allowing fish to pass through the garden and back out into the lake. Henry glanced around at the entire structure before gasping, “Wait a second, I remember this! This is the lake house from the show!”

“That’s right!” Takato said, proceeding past the entry way, “Took the digidestined here years ago when they were your age. It’s been a while since I was here. It belonged to someone else and I’ve been taking care of it for them for a while. Or I was...then I got busy. It’s odd though. It’s not nearly as overgrown as I thought it would be.”

“That’s good, isn’t it? It means you don’t have to do much work,” Terriermon answered. Takato nodded and proceeded towards the front door and slid it open, kicking off his shoes and calling in, “I’m back! Home sweet home! It’s been ages.”

“POISON IVY!”

Dozens of vines shot out of the front door and wrapped themselves around Takato, Juri, and Terriermon - raising them into the air and holding them up there. A large group of small digimon charged out to surround them - a Gabumon, a Biyomon, a Veemon, a Hawkmon, a Gatomon, an Armadillomon, a Wormmon, a Patamon, a Tentomon, and a Gomamon surrounded them from all sides. The last to appear was a Palmon standing at the front door, using her vines to hold the others up. Henry retreated behind Leomon quickly, recognizing who these digimon were but unsure he’d be able to convince them they were not dangerous. Despite the danger, Takato remarked, “Haven’t been dangling upside down since the puppet in the Bastion. Are you guys going to put us down?”

“This is some hello,” Terriermon added, his ears flopping around as he dangled precariously. As for Guilmon, he didn’t seemed alarmed at all by the danger and started sniffing the Gabumon, “You smell funny. Do I know you?”

“I think he’s making fun of your fur,” the Palmon said to Gabumon. The Biyomon sighed, “Guys! Focus! We’re looking bad in front of the intruders!”

“Intruders?” Takato scoffed in disbelief, “THIS IS MY HOUSE!”

Palmon answered by shaking Takato in place. Juri gasped and tried pleading while Leomon drew his sword, “Put them down!”

The threat of violence put the digimon on their guard and they readied themselves to attack, “We don’t listen to you! Who are you and how did you find this place?”

“I lived here!” Takato spat out. The digimon looked between each other and then at Takato, “What do you mean you lived here?”

“Oh come on, guys!” Takato whined, “You remember me, right?”

The digimon all looked between each other cautiously, before Gomamon spoke, “I don’t like the cut of his jib. I don’t trust him.”

“Me either. But he says he lived here,” Tentomon pointed out, “That’s gotta be The Tamer!”

Takato pointed at Tentomon, “Yes, I am! I am the Digimon Tamer! That’s me!”

“Yeah! That’s the Digimon Tamer!” Leomon added quickly. The digimon paused again, looking from Leomon to each other. The Hawkmon frowned, “Do you think we can trust him?”

“If he is The Tamer, would you trust him?” the Palmon asked, continuing to keep them raised up in the air. Takato shouted again, “I swear! It’s me! Put me down! This is ridiculous!”

Watching the scene unfold was perhaps the most surreal thing any of them had ever seen. Realizing things weren’t going to get any better if things kept up like this, Henry stepped out with his arms raised, “We’re not going to harm anyone! We’re just here to get something and then we’ll go. Well, Takato or Tamer is here to get something. Then we’ll go. So can you please our friends down?”

The digimon continued to stare up at them cautiously. Why wouldn’t they be? They were probably freaked out to see random humans and digimon showing up at a place no one should’ve known was there. Especially in the Digital World. Eventually, the Veemon spoke up, “To be honesht, I don’t think they’re going to hurt ush. If they were, they’d have done it before we got the jump on them. Beshidesh! They’ve got humansh with them! You guysh remember your partnersh, right? Maybe they’re digideshtined?”

At that, Palmon dropped everyone but Takato. Juri and Terriermon landed with a thump, “Ow!”

“It’s about time!” the little digimon complained, massaging his head. Now it was only Takato dangling up in the air and he complained, “So I’m just going to hang up here? Because the blood is starting to go to my head and I’m getting dizzy.”

“Not until you get this!” Palmon answered, shaking the boy in the air and spinning him around. Juri gasped, “What are you doing? What did he ever do to you guys?”

“Long story. I’m just venting,” Palmon replied, continuing to shake the upside down boy against his will as he jostled up and down. After giving him a good throttling, Palmon finally put him down head first. The boy sat up, massaging his head and grumbling at his mistreatment. The Gatomon approached, “So what brings you back after all this time?”

“Good to see you too,” was all he said, still rubbing his head and looking up at the cat digimon, “This is some hello. I haven’t seen you guys in forever and you jostle me upside down. What are you doing here, anyway?”

He was answered with Gatomon pressing her claws against him, “How about you tell us where you’ve been!?”

“What’s going on out here?” a voice called out from the entry way. All eyes were on the door now as a young man with blonde hair stepped out of the entry way wearing a loose fitting tracksuit and a baseball cap. The man looked between each of them with an unimpressed frown and folded his arms, “Gatomon, I don’t think Kari would appreciate you holding your claws at someone.”

“I was just making a point,” Gatomon said with a friendly smile, retracting her claws a little and stepping away so that the man could offer Takato a hand up. Takato glanced at his hand nervously, before getting pulled up and being dusted off, “Sorry about that. They’re anxious because they haven’t seen their partners in a while. Speaking of which, I see you’ve got a strange partner yourself. What kind of digimon is that?”

Takato gestured to everyone as he introduced them, “He’s Guilmon, I’m his partner Takato. These are Henry, Terriermon, Juri and Leomon.”

Before the man could even respond, the Gomamon interrupted, “Takato? A second ago, you were telling us you were Tamer!”

“Tamer?” the man repeated quietly, a small smile drawing itself on his face, “Of course. How else would you have found this place? I should’ve known it was you from the beginning. Come on in. We have a lot to talk about.”

“Wait. Sorry, hang on a minute,” Takato called out, massaging his temple and circling this strange man, “Sorry, I’m a little lost. Actually, I’m very lost. Who are you and what are you doing in my house?”

The man laughed and flicked Takato across the forehead, “What? Don’t you recognize me? It’s Takeru. Y’know - TK?”

Takeru - the missing digidestined. The guy who’d vanished. Henry did his best to keep his mouth from hanging open. But Takato continued to rub his chin in clear confusion, “Wait! The hat kid? Oh! It’s good to see you! What are you doing here? The others said you were missing! What are you even doing here? We have to tell the others!”

“Tell the others? Who are you to tell us that! YOU’VE BEEN MISSING! FOR YEARS! WAY LONGER THAN WE’VE BEEN HERE!” Patamon blurted out in frustration, until Takeru pulled his partner back. He massaged his partner’s back until he calmed down, “It’s alright, Patamon. I’ll get some drinks. Let’s take a moment to relax.”

Takeru disappeared back into the house, followed by all the other digimon who came storming out. They’d calmed down but there was still an air of frustration coming from them. Henry swapped a nervous glance with Juri, and both looked down at Terriermon, “Do you think it’s safe to go in?”

“Not if that’s how they greet us,” Terriermon answered, still massaging his sore head. Leomon sheathed his sword and asked, “Tamer, are those really the partners of the digidestined? The famed heroes of this world?”

“Yes, they are,” he answered dryly, scratching the back of his head as he nervously added, “And I don’t think they’re at all too happy to see me. Big surprise there. Man, I know my memory’s fuzzy but I hope I wasn’t that bad in my last life.”

“You’ve been kinda wimpy. Maybe that’s why they’re mad?” Terriermon suggested, ears spreading out wide again in a playful manner. Takato sighed, “Yeah, I hope so.”

Takato’s frown returned and Henry was left to ponder what exactly happened in the real version of events that left him sulking. The more time passed, the more clear it was that whatever actually happened was not what the books or the tv show described. He was pulled from his thoughts by Leomon loudly proclaiming, “You mean...they...but...that can’t be right. I’m an idiot! Of course that’s who they were! It’s been so long that I forgot what they were. I can’t be this foolish. Do you think they’re mad at me? The heroes of the Digital World and I almost started a fight with them.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it. They’re more mad at me than you,” Takato said, “But let me go in first in case they feel like attacking again.”

They proceeded inside, just behind Takato and Guilmon into the quaint little home that was far more modern in design that it would have suggested. There was a television, radios, several computer monitors and keyboards strewn across the floor of every room. The kitchen had its share of modern appliances which Takeru used to busily warm up some water for tea. Takato made his way through every room quietly, looking around with wide eyed astonishment, “I see you redecorated my house. Hmm. I don’t like it.”

Takeru chuckled from the kitchen, “Well, you weren’t here so we just made ourselves at home.”

While they continued to wait, they joined the digimon at a long dining table where they all sat quietly - awkwardly trying to avoid eye contact with the potentially angry digimon for their intrusion. Or rather, while they tried to keep their mouths shut as everyone of them stared at Takato in silence.

The only thing making it more awkward was a middle aged man with a beard and mullet resting with his head down on the table, wrapped beneath a blanket as he snored loudly. Eventually, the long and awkward silence was broken by Gabumon asking, “Okay, so I need to know because it’s bugging me: why are you a kid again, Tamer? Shouldn’t you be older than TK?”

“Would you believe that I have no control over my reformatting?” Takato answered sheepishly, “I just…kinda woke up like this. Believe me, this wasn’t my first choice in appearance. Legs were too short, arms aren’t long enough, and my hair is just…awful. I haven’t cut my hair since I got this new face and it still won’t get longer. I liked it better when it was all up. Now it just kinda…droops. Even when I push my goggles up.”

“I still don’t believe that’s actually him,” Gomamon grumbled. Takato looked at Henry and Juri quietly, unsure of what to say next. Neither of them were sure what he expected them to do - it wasn’t like they were able to say anything. Henry could think of a few things he wanted to say to the digimon but he was sure they’d bite his head off if he tried. Thankfully, he didn’t have to as Guilmon made his way around the table sniffing everyone, “You all smell familiar too! You smell like…disappointment. And you smell…like angst. And you smell…like you don’t want to be seen without your fur!”

“Yeah well, you smell like-” Gabumon sniffed Guilmon back, “Bad breath. Although you do smell…familiar?”

…

Juri was getting anxious just sitting here, “Um, I don’t want to be rude, Takato. But can you get what we’re here for so we can go. I’m kinda uncomfortable here.”

“Believe me, I am too,” Takato assured as he sat up from the table, “It might take me a bit longer since things have been moved around. I’ll definitely get started.”

“What are you looking for anyway?” Gatomon asked, watching the boy as he made his way from room to room, examining every cabinet, closet, and dresser he could find. When he didn’t answer, she rose up along with the Gomamon and they started following him around, “HEY!”

They were eventually stopped by Guilmon getting in their way to sniff them, “You smell really familiar. Like you’ve got an abandonment issues!”

“Okay, I’m scratching your face now,” Gatomon said calmly, giving up her pursuit of Takato to bare her claws. Unfortunately, she was knocked over when Guilmon shoved his snout in her face to sniff her. Worried, both Juri and Leomon separated the two before they tried to kill each other. The next room appeared to be a bedroom where Takato was busy reaching underneath for something. Once again, Gatomon snapped, “What are you looking for, Tamer?”

“Clues, hints, guides,” he replied sheepishly. He retrieved nothing but empty boxes, notebooks, and more, before finally grunting, “Something to help me…well, figure out what I missed. I get the feeling that old me…last me…wouldn’t have taken steps to make sure that I didn’t just walk out into the world unprepared for whatever I needed to do. I feel like he…I…would’ve left hints for myself to find. The question is, where would they be? Where would I have put it? It doesn’t help that the house isn’t the way I remembered it.”

Juri frowned, once again reminded of the fact that this boy walking around with her classmate’s face wasn’t him but someone else. Living his life. The real Takato’s life. Before he could get any further, they heard Takeru call from the dining room, “Tea’s ready guys! And I have snacks!”

At the sound of that, Guilmon hurried out of the room and back into the kitchen to help himself, “YAY! I’M SO HUNGRY!”

“You’re always hungry,” Terriermon called out.

“You guys had better hurry back before he eats everything,” Takato remarked quietly, still digging under the bed before giving up and hurrying over to the closet, “I’m going to be a while. I’ll join you when I find...literally anything at this point.”

“Juri, you should eat something,” Leomon added, resting a hand on her shoulder and gently trying to move her from the door. She nodded and followed Leomon, noting that only Gomamon chose to join them. The cat-like Gatomon stayed beside Takato, tapping her foot impatiently as he made his way from one end of the room to the other. She wanted to trust that Gatomon wouldn’t pick a fight, but wasn’t sure Takato would make it easy for her. He seemed to have a knack for annoying people. At least they’d be nearby in case anything happened - If they could hear it that is. The dining room was packed with noise as the digimon happily gorged themselves on plates of cookies, cakes, crackers, rice balls and more. Henry sat at the far end of the table, trying his hardest to not get swept into the feeding frenzy while also getting some extra plates for Leomon and herself.

Meanwhile, the older man on the far side of the table continued to doze quietly. He must’ve been drunk if he was able to sleep through all the noise the digimon made. Takeru took a seat beside him and said, “Don’t mind Shibumi here. He works himself to exhaustion and sleeps for days at a time once he burns himself out. He’ll wake up...eventually. So, you’re Henry and Juri. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. The same for your partners. It’s a little nostalgic to see Leomon again after all this time. You don’t happen to...remember me, do you?”

“I do, but I’m not that Leomon,” her partner answered quietly, crossing his legs and resting his arms on his knees, “I’m...um...one of the Koromon from Koromon Village. You probably don’t remember me but I digivolved into one of the Agumon back when we were guarding ShogunGekomon’s palace.”

“I do remember that, yes,” Takeru nodded quietly, “But I’m sorry, I don’t remember which one you are specifically. Although I understand it’s normal for only digimon of the same type to be able to differentiate each other.”

“Yes, that’s quite true,” Leomon nodded quietly, struggling to keep himself from bursting with excitement. At that moment, Takato returned into the room with his hands in his pockets, “You guys should just try using names then. It’d help. It’s not like Henry or Juri go around calling themselves human or I just call myself Guardian.”

“No, you go by Tamer,” Gatomon snarked from behind him before finally joining the table to eat. Takato leaned against the door frame into the dining room and crossed his arms, his gaze shifting around the room as he mumbled, “It’s gotta be around here somewhere. Where else would I put it? Never mind. So TK, what are you doing here?”

Takeru’s expression turned dour, taking a small sip of tea before answering, “I’m hiding and the Digital World seemed like the safest place at the moment. My books might’ve made me famous but they also put a target on my back. One that put all of our digimon in danger. You remember that ninja guy? Well, he warned me about some shady government officials with express interest in both the digivice and our partners. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if they fell into government hands - our partners or the digivices. So I gathered them together and took them back to the Digital World.”

“We didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye,” Armadillomon frowned, “I miss Cody.”

“It’s still hard to believe that your books weren’t just fiction, but that everything in them was real,” Henry added excitedly, “All of it. The digimon...the Digital World...the digidestined.”

“Of course they are. Why wouldn’t they be?” Takeru answered with a raised eyebrow. Henry’s mouth fell open, “You mean you don’t know?”

“Know what?” Takeru looked around the room cautiously. Takato hung his head as he answered, “He’s human. Just like the rest of you. He probably hasn’t even noticed anything wrong yet. Not to mention the fact that he’s been hiding here for some time - he has no idea what’s going on in the Real World. You at least know what’s going on in the Digital World, don’t you?”

Takeru shrugged, “Just some stories that I’ve heard whenever we go out. A lot of digimon have been fighting each other to get stronger for some reason. Some pick on the easy targets for whatever reason. We try to help out where we can and intervene, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. And conflicting stories about how either you specifically have been seen traveling the Digital World with a violent digimon, you’ve been found in the Real World, or WarGreymon was defeated by something even the Sovereigns are afraid of. That last one turned out to be true.”

“I heard,” Takato remarked quietly, moving to finally take a seat at the table, “There’s a lot you need to catch up on.”

That was when Gatomon interrupted by slamming her paw against the table, “You can start by telling us where you’ve been all this time.”

“Nuts to that. I want to know how Davish ish!” Veemon jumped up, “Ish be okay!? How’sh hish noodle shop!?”

Takato nodded, “I guess I owe you that much. The others are okay so far as I can tell. They’re worried about you guys and want to find you. Your brother is worried sick about you, Takeru. As for me, I’ve been stuck in the human world for the last year trying to remember everything. Reformatting messed with my head a little, and I’ve been trying to get my head straight. Which leads to what I have to say: it turns out the reason why I can’t concentrate is because there’s more than one version of your world sitting on top of each other. They’re overlapping with each other in a way that’s messing with reality. I’d love to fix it, but first I need to get my head straight so that I don’t make a bigger mess. And I was hoping to find something...anything. I feel like the old me wouldn’t have left anything to chance.”

“The Digimon part is true though. They’ve been showing up in our world a few at a time. At first it was just a few of them, but they kept getting stronger and stronger. It wasn’t long before a really strong group of digimon started to appear called the Devas. And they were after the Catalyst...some kind of energy source that would make them strong,” Henry added, “That’s why we’re here. They turned it into a little digimon named Calumon and we’re trying to rescue him.”

At the sound of the word Catalyst, Shibumi finally jolted awake and asked, “Huh? Is it here!?”

“Good morning!” Takeru greeted cheerfully as the man groggily stared around the room, eyes still half shut. Once he took notice of the new arrivals, he cracked a tired yawn and waved, “Oh, hello. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude to guests by sleeping. I’m Gorou Mizuno but my friends call me Shibumi. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”

“Hi!” Juri waved nervously. Shibumi looked around the room quietly, his tired expression hardly changing from a frown until he finally asked, “So it’s safe to say that the digignomes haven’t returned?”

“Haven’t seen anything,” Takeru answered, gesturing towards them, “I thought it was them for a while because of all the noise they were making. It turns out it was just our guests.”

Juri was how completely lost and leaned over to whisper in Takato’s ear, “What are the digignomes?”

“I don’t know. Never heard of them, before,” Takato shrugged, before loudly asking, “Sorry, what’s a digignome?”

Shibumi’s face lit up in excitement, while the digimon all groaned, “Please don’t get him started.”

“He goes on forever about this stuff,” Tentomon groaned, “It’s like Izzy but without Mimi to shut him up.”

Their pleas didn’t stop Shibumi from beginning a lengthy explanation, “I’m glad you asked. You see, when my friends and I created the Digital World several years ago, we also created several programs to act as moderating agents. Some were there to make sure none of the digital life forms became too dominant and overran the program, while others were there to help facilitate the growth of disadvantaged life. Those are the digignomes. They’re small, curious little creatures that only want to help and are smart enough to know what you want when you ask. And they always answer.”

Gatomon rolled her eyes, “See, that’s why you don’t want to ask him too many questions about them. I’ve lived in the Digital World all my life and I’ve never heard or seen digignomes until this guy showed up. Now nothing in the Digital World makes sense. And I bet you had something to do with this!”

She pointed a finger at Takato angrily and he could only throw up his hands, “Would you believe I had no idea what’s going on? Because I really don’t. I was hoping getting out of the mess that was the Real World would help my headache out but the Digital World didn’t help things. If anything, it proves what Kenta said. The Digital World that I’ve spent all my life in, the one that you guys all know, is merging with the Digital World made by Henry’s dad and his friends in college. And if that’s the case...well, then we’re in a lot of trouble. There are cracks in reality now, cracks that a lot of evil things that prey on the fragile balance of the worlds will take advantage of. It’s already started to affect the flow of time. The other digidestined aren’t even experiencing time at the same rate anymore and they’re all in the same world. Whatever is causing this has the Sovereigns scared. I just wish I had remembered before it was too late.”

Takato fell quiet again, and Juri tapped his shoulder out of concern - worried he may get lost in his own head again. Terriermon on the other hand wasn’t in the mood to deal with his disbelief and frowned, “Hey! Don’t get all quiet on us again! You’re the only one who knows where he’s going right now. The last thing we need is you spacing out if there’s danger. What’s got you so down anyway?”

Takato didn’t answer, “It took until Leomon and Andromon jogged my memory for me to remember. WarGreymon. My partner. That’s who I was supposed to find - my best friend. He was supposed to help me remember myself after I reformatted. I didn’t find him soon enough. Or he didn’t find me. It doesn’t matter...it’s too late to do anything about it now…”

He paused again, “When those drawings I made started sliding into the card reader…and it turned into a digivice…I felt guilty at first. It was like…choosing to forget something really important. Having Guilmon…felt wrong for a reason I couldn’t understand. Some part of me must’ve remembered Agumon. But I took care of Guilmon anyway - he was a baby digimon out of his element in a world he didn’t know. I just hope I don’t lose him the way I lost Agumon.”

Juri understood why he’d been so quiet. It was just like her mother. She’d only known Leomon for a short while and she didn’t know what she’d do if anything happened to him. But Takato must've known his partner for a long time before then. It was hard to imagine what it must’ve been like to lose someone you’ve been close to for that long. Sensing his partners unease, Guilmon pushed his head against Takato’s arm.

“But he’s right there,” Takeru gestured at the red dinosaur.

A beat of silence followed. Henry’s mouth fell open and the other digimon stopped eating. All eyes were on him like he was crazy. Takato raised an eyebrow at Takeru, and Juri looked back at Guilmon again. His name was Guilmon, not WarGreymon. Takeru noticed their confusion and frowned, “The moment I found out, I went to Primary Village hoping to find his DigiEgg. It took me a while. The data was corrupted - it was missing pieces like something had tried to devour it. With Shibumi’s help, we were able to recover some of the data and send it to you.”

“Me? But how did you find me!? I was right under Kari’s nose for months and she didn’t notice!” Takato repeated quietly. Takeru smiled, “I didn’t know who you were right away, but I kept tabs on you. I mean, a scrawny little kid with no memory in baggy clothes wandering around the back of my brother’s concert? Something was up. The others told me to leave it alone but eventually, I pieced it together when I saw Davis’s sister’s photos. Your clothes were the ones Tamer wore when we last saw him. You were Tamer.”

“But why didn’t you tell WarGreymon?” Henry asked, “If this is true, and you knew, why not tell WarGreymon?”

Takeru’s frowned deepened, “Don’t get me wrong. I tried to tell him but he didn’t want to know. Or rather, he wouldn’t let me tell him. He said, destiny would sort itself out in the end as long as he did what came naturally. I tried give give him hints but he wasn't interested. I asked if he could give me some hints on what to expect next. He just promised me that it would be taken care of. Since he wouldn’t tell me anything, I decided to take matters into my own hands and start helping out wherever I could. Before I knew it, I ended up being you. I think that’s why there are rumors going around that the Digimon Tamer is back. The digimon probably think I’m you.”

Patamon whistled, “For what it’s worth, you would make a better Tamer than the actual Tamer.”

Gatomon frowned, “I don’t think it’d be that hard to be honest. Tamer was annoying for a reason.”

Takeru, for his part, didn’t seem bothered by the comparison. He even seemed flattered, smiling as he added, “To be fair, it’s not like I was trying. It all just sort of worked out. It’s like what WarGreymon would say: do what comes natural and destiny will sort itself out. We’ve been keeping tabs on the Digital World ever since - in your name, Tamer.”

Takato didn’t seem to be paying attention to them, instead staring at Guilmon quietly. The digimon realized he was being stared at and looked up with a half eaten rice ball hanging out of his mouth.He offered one to Takato, who brushed it aside to hug his partner. There was something sad about that hug though - something Takato wouldn’t say and Guilmon didn’t understand. Once he let go, Takato rubbed his eyes, “Huh. So this is what it feels like to be on the other side of the whole not knowing destiny thing. I don’t like it.”

“Welcome to the club,” Gomamon rolled his eyes. Leomon cleared his throat, anxiously asking, “There’s one part of this I don’t understand. Why do all this? Why not just come out and tell everyone?”

Takeru’s gaze went downward, “Because I haven’t forgotten what happened when the Digimon Tamer and Agumon weren’t around to protect the Digital World. The moment I realized he was a clueless kid in Japan…I knew I had to step in. But, the truth is, I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. But I still had to try. We did it in his name because the alternative would’ve been worse. I didn’t realize until I started that this is a duty that never ends. There’s always something about to go wrong, something about to destroy the Digital World or our world. And it’s all we can do to keep the world from falling apart.”

…

Henry found himself carrying a feeling of dread. Takeru’s admission carried an air of guilt and his expression became tired as he said that. Is this what it meant to be a digidestined? Wrapped up in an unending mission to save a world always on the verge of tearing itself apart. The more he thought on it, the more he was terrified of his own future. And his own family was partially involved in this. Making it worse was Shibumi’s gaze on him the entire time. Bothered, he asked, “Um…Shibumi, why do you keep looking at me?”

“Sorry, you just remind me of a friend of mine,” he answered with a soft smile, “An old friend of mine, and I was wondering if you might be his relation. You wouldn’t happen to know a Zhenyu Lee, would you?”

“That’s my dad,” Henry answered, remembering something his dad told him, “I thought I remembered your name. Your that friend of his that went missing after your project was shut down. But what happened to you? How did you get here?”

Shibumi beamed, “I’m glad he still remembers me. Truth be told, I have no idea. My memory becomes hazy between the project being shut down and waking up here. I remember graduation, vaguely. I don’t know what else happened afterwards. But since I’ve been here, I figured I might as well continue my project and research life as it evolved here. Inconsistencies aside, the complexity and variety of life here is enough to make me marvel. And this Ancient technology Takeru introduced me to is a whole other thing to behold. I could spend a lifetime researching this and only scratch the surface.”

“But you managed to learn enough to manipulate the data of a deleted digimon and send it to me,” Takato stated skeptically, scratching his chin, “Color me impressed. But I’d like it if you stopped. The last thing we need is anyone using reality altering technology while reality itself is crumbling around us.”

Shibumi waved his hands, “No can do. I still have bug fixes on the digivice models I’ve been working on. Takeru would like these ready as soon as possible.”

“Wait, so you made these?” Takato lifted up his red trimmed digivice, “Because I have a lot of notes you should consider! First of all, I can’t figure it out. Second of all, I love the card reader! Can you add more features like that? Third! How does this radar function work? Sometimes it detects digimon and sometimes it doesn’t! What exactly is it doing?”

Shibumi waved his hand dismissively, “It’s not meant for one like yourself to use. It’s meant for children. Like the digidestined and their partners before them, with a few improvements suggested by Takeru. I’d be more than happy to show you how to use it to its full potential. That way, you won’t have any trouble in the future.”

“Yes, please!” Juri said quickly, jumping at the chance in front of her. She looked at Henry and Takato too, hoping they would join her. Henry nodded in agreement but Takato held up a hand and gestured at Takeru, “Wait, why do you want to make working digivices? I’m pretty sure we’ve been down this road before...somewhere...and I vaguely remember dying afterwards.”

Juri jumped at that statement and noticed Takeru’s attitude become more serious, “In truth, Tamer, it’s because I’m not going to be around forever and I know for a fact that you’re not always around. I had to take steps to prepare everything for a moment when the Digital World would need help and we weren’t going to be around. And with everything going on, I figured now would be a good time to test drive it - so Shibumi and I each picked a child we knew. I picked Izzy and Mimi’s daughter - you’ve probably met her already. Her name is Ruki.”

“You mean Rika!” Terriermon said cheerily. Shibumi gestured at Henry with a smile, “And I chose you. Although, I thought you’d be a lot younger than you are now. I suppose what Tamer here was saying about time was true. Although I can’t imagine it’s been that long.”

“My dad says he hasn’t heard from you since college and that would’ve been before I was born,” Henry answered quietly, unsure how the man would take the news, “That would’ve been before I was born. And I’m ten!”

“Huh, I guess it has been a while,” Shibumi mused. He took that all surprisingly well - no shock, no alarm, not even a gasp. Just a small smile and a nod. His dad’s friend was either really good at maintaining his composure or really didn’t think missing ten years of his life was a big deal. Juri broke the silence by raising her hand, “Um, excuse me. Why did I get a digivice?”

“What?” Both Takeru and Shibumi said together. She raised it up, “I got it when I helped Leomon. But you said you each gave a digivice to your friends’ kids. Did you know my dad? Or my mom?”

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t. I have no idea why you got a digivice,” Takeru scratched the back of his head. Shibumi snapped his fingers, “I think I do. I’ve always wondered how much of my work actually affects the Digital World. After all, I am altering the fabric of the Digital Space. I tailored the algorithms of my digivices to work for children with strong ties to digimon. It’s entirely possible that went from being a hard code in my digivices design to a fact of the Digital World. So now any child with a strong enough bond to a digimon could, in theory, receive a digivice.”

“Oh,” she frowned. Leomon returned the smile on her face when he added, “It just means that we’re really close, Juri.”

Shibumi cracked a small, tired yawn and rose from his seat, “I think we’ve talked enough for now. How about we get started on the lesson? First up, how digivolution works!”

…

Shibumi spent the rest of the day showing them how to use the digivices, even introducing features they didn’t even know it had. Before they knew it, day turned to night and Takeru set up some extra futons for them to sleep on. It was nice to have a comfortable bed to sleep on for the first time in a while, and Juri found herself resting comfortably in a way she hadn’t in a long time. It was ruined only because eating and drinking her fill made her wake up in the middle of the night to relieve herself.

She was careful to tiptoe her way around the room so as not to disturb the other digimon and made her way out into the restroom. On her way back, she noticed the front door was left open and went to close it, stopping only when she saw someone just outside on the edge of the garden. She was alarmed at first, until she heard Takato’s voice, “It has to be here, somewhere. If I were me, where would I leave it?”

“Takato?” she said quietly, rubbing her tired eyes and stepping out into the yard towards his voice. She found him walking the edge of the garden, examining the outer wall carefully and tapping it occasionally as he pressed ear against it. He jumped when she asked, “What are you doing?”

He corrected himself and tried to play it off, “Still looking for clues, hints. I keep thinking about it. I wouldn’t have left myself or anyone out in the dark like this. There has to be something. But where? I had to have put it somewhere!”

“Shouldn’t we get Guilmon?” Juri asked. Takato shook his head, “He’s had a long day and he needs to rest. Besides, he’s probably like me - only very fuzzy memories of being who he used to be. And I don’t want to force him to remember something he can’t.”

“Well, do you mind if I look with you?” Juri asked quietly, sure of how alone Takato or Tamer must’ve been feeling right now. He nodded, “The more, the merrier.”

They continued searching the perimeter of the wall, examining things carefully until they eventually came upon a white stone on the far end of the yard obscured by some bushes and plants. It was an odd decoration, worn by time and slightly overgrown. She pointed at it and asked, “What’s that?”

“A reminder,” Takato answered quietly, approaching quietly and removing some of the brush that had overgrown it. He wiped the dust off it, seemingly intent of restoring. Juri looked down at him and asked, “Of what?”

He sighed, “I don’t want to talk about it. But maybe Takeru was right. Maybe we should just follow Agumon’s advice. Just do what comes natural and destiny will sort itself out in the end.”

He continued to dust off the white stone until something fell off the top from beneath the brush and dust. Juri picked it up but it was to dim to see properly, “A piece of paper? What is this?”

“Here,” Takato took out his digivice and turned on the screen for them, holding it like a light on the photograph. It showed an assembly of kids in armor beside digimon, standing beside another adult in armor. Beneath it was text she couldn’t read but there was one thing that stood out to her. Takato was on the picture, dressed in black clothes beneath white armor. Takato stared down at the photo in surprise, “I forgot about this. It’s my old unit - Thirteenth Youth Corp. A recon and supply unit back in the war.”

“You were all just kids,” Juri said in disbelief. She’d known about the war. She didn’t know they were kids. Takato nodded, “The war was getting desperate, back then. But that wasn’t me. That was.”

He pointed at another boy on the picture, one with fiery brown hair standing beside a small orange dinosaur. Juri looked at the boy, standing just a few heads away from the Takato she knew. The one who vanished. She pointed at him, “If that’s you, then what happened to Takato? The real Takato.”

Takato was quiet for the longest time after she asked that question, and it took her perhaps a moment too long to understand why. Once she did, she dropped the photo and felt tears start to stream down her eyes. She didn’t know why though. She had barely known Takato before - he was just a kid in her class who was really into digimon. But knowing now hurt her in a way she couldn’t understand. She did manage to calm herself down enough to ask, “What are we going to tell his parents?”

“The truth,” was all Tamer answered, folding the photo in half and sticking it into his back pocket, “They deserve to know that much. Their son is gone. The most we can do now is make sure he’s not forgotten. And that means I’m going to have to do whatever he’s supposed to be here doing. And Juri…I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

She wasn’t sure why he was apologizing or why it hurt to know what happened to the real Takato. But it hurt her in a way she couldn’t put into words.

#The Tamer v2 In His Name #Digimon Tamers #Fanfiction #The Digimon Tamer #Chapter 27

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the-digimon-tamer · 4 years

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Chapter 30 - The Village on the Coast is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

They rested another day at the house, part to recover from the day’s fight and part so that the information could sink in for Kazu and Kenta. The rest of them hadn’t really interacted with the real Takato before but he was Kazu and Kenta’s friend. And they’d become uncharacteristically quiet ever since learning he was dead.

The mood was hardly any better the next day when they headed off towards the lights in the horizon, and the travel was awkward the whole way. Thankfully, their journey eventually took them to a beautiful coastline that seemed to go on forever. And the sight of it seemed to raise everyone’s spirit if only slightly. Rika, however, was focused intently on Ryo who’d been quiet ever since the battle over the lake. Although she was unsure if it was due to the battle, Tamer, the truth about how his anger made Cyberdramon crazy, or something. She was sure he was still steaming about everything though and was trying his hardest to not lead it into Monodramon becoming violent again. Admittedly, the interactions between the two partners was out of sync now that Ryo knew the truth. Meanwhile, his partner Monodramon was grumbling about not being able to fly and wanting to hit everyone around him. Likely because of whatever pent up anger Ryo wasn’t dealing with.

The funny thing was, everyone except Terriermon and Calumon would just push him away whenever he tried to take a swing at them. Even that idiot Guilmon was able to keep him at arm’s length. Sometimes with his tail. Since Ryo had been hanging back, Rika slowed her pace to keep up with him, “You alright?”

“Yeah, just...taking everything in,” Ryo answered quietly, “And processing everything that’s happened. It’s...aggravating.”

“I know the feeling. Goggle head got on my nerves a lot. But the thing about Takato…I mean, wow,” Rika nodded in agreement, trying to think of some positive points to add. One look at Monodramon was all it took, “At least your partner’s a lot...easier to handle now that you’ve…mellowed out.”

As she said that, Monodramon made another attempt at fighting and charged at Leomon. And for his efforts, Leomon picked up the digimon by the scruff of his neck and held him up at arm’s length, “Please stop that. It’s getting annoying.”

“I’ll stop when I knock you down a peg!” Monodramon hissed until Leomon knocked him on the head. The little dinosaur calmed down, whimpering in pain and rubbing his sore head. Ryo sighed, burying his face in his hands, “I don’t think I did. It’s hard to not get mad every time I see Tamer. How do you guys not get annoyed by him?”

Rika shrugged, “You’re asking the wrong person. Kazu and Kenta are his friends. Were? I don’t know, you’ve gotta ask someone else. Although I’m not sure who the right person to ask is.”

“How about Juri? She seems friendly. Although the puppet is kind of weird. I’ve been meaning to ask: what’s up with that?” Ryo gestured towards her, fiddling with her sock puppet anxiously. Rika recalled their conversation in the park about how hard it was for Juri to talk to others. In a strange new world, her anxiety was probably getting the better of her. And having Ryo question her might not be the best idea. Maybe Henry was a better choice? She waved it off, “Never mind. Let’s ask Henry instead.”

...

The only other sane member of their group walked in the middle with his hands in his pockets, casually asking Terriermon about every little thing in the Digital World as they passed. Part of it was genuine curiosity, part of it was because his partner had suddenly become very talkative. Terriermon gestured ahead, “It’s kinda hard to believe your dad made all this. He must’ve had a lot of free time on his hands when he was in college.”

“It’s scary to think what he would make if he still had that free time,” Henry surmised, thinking on what would’ve happened if he hadn’t lost his project. Would he be working in his lab, trying to make improvements to the Digital World? Would he have gotten married to his mother? Terriermon laughed, “Maybe you and your sister should do more to keep him busy. That way he won’t make any more things that’ll kill us!”

“If only,” Henry laughed, “Maybe Shibumi made some more helped programs while we weren’t looking. Wouldn’t that be nice if we had some of those digignomes following us around. Speaking of which.”

He looked over at the glowing balls of light playfully flying around Calumon as he hopped along side them, amusing him with their aerial ballet. Every so often, he’d bounce on one and ride it for a little bit before falling onto the ground. Terriermon asked, “Do you think Xiaochun is ready to see him again?”

“She definitely liked having him as a playmate,” he nodded in agreement, watching Calumon get lifted into the air by the little lights who continued to carry him around.

“Hey! Henry!” Rika called out to him. He looked over his shoulder to see Rika and Ryo making their way towards him in hurry. Terriermon took the chance to joke, “I wonder if they’re coming to kick your butt.”

“Don’t put that idea in my head,” Henry frowned, worried his partner was right. It didn’t help that all he had to say in response was, “Moumantai!”

“If they kick my butt, I’m kicking you,” he warned his partner. The little digimon laughed at the empty threat and hurried off to join Calumon, who was busy being flown around by the Digignomes. Henry mentally prepared himself for whatever tai chi training he would need to defend himself when Rika stopped, “Ryo’s got a question for ya.”

“For me? What’s up?” he asked the other boy curiously. What did he have to offer a guy as experienced in the Digital World and as skilled in the card game as Ryo? He got an answer when Ryo shot Takato a sideways glare, “Tamer. How do you guys put up with him?”

Henry laughed at the oddness of the question, “It’s not hard when you have a partner like Terriermon around.”

Ryo frowned, obviously disappointed with the answer and added, “I’m not talking about his personality. I mean, how have you not gone completely crazy because of him? He drives me insane! All I can think about is how he dropped me off in this world for twenty years!”

Henry thought about that, recalling everything Ryo had said the day before and chose his words carefully, “Honestly, I’d be pretty mad if he did that to me. But the truth is, I guess I had more of a choice in the matter than you did. I could’ve walked away with Terriermon. It sounds like you didn’t have a choice. I think that would’ve been easier than getting the choice. Because the choice becomes standing by while others get hurt, or putting yourself in danger to protect others. If that makes sense.”

Ryo grumbled, “It really doesn’t. It sounds like he just hasn’t thrown you guys under the bus yet. I mean, you’re right about one thing: I didn’t have much of a choice. To be honest, I’m not sure you guys did either. After all, it’s only a matter of time before he says something like ‘all according to plan’ or something stupid like that. For all you know, he’s been pulling your strings since the beginning.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that about him,” Henry glanced at Takato once, walking in the front with his digivice out to navigate. Maybe he should stop thinking of him as Takato - the real Takato was dead. Then again, he never even knew the real Takato. So what did it matter if he called the guy Tamer or Takato? He seemed like the plain old guy who was just trying to stop all the craziness before it got out of hand, “But he doesn’t seem like the kinda guy who would.”

“He would and will,” Ryo said bitterly, before taking a deep breath to calm himself, “Sorry, I guess I’m still fuming about what happened.”

“Moumantai,” Henry patted the guy’s shoulder. He raised an eyebrow at him, “I keep hearing your partner say that. What does it mean?”

Henry laughed, “It’s Chinese and it means relax. Don’t ask me where he learned it. He says its because some Terriermon learned it from a human a long time ago..”

“Huh,” Ryo frowned, “Probably because of Tamer or something Tamer did.”

Henry frowned, noticing that Ryo still seemed to be seething a little. The fact Monodramon was still trying to jump the other digimon was a dead give away. He’d need to talk to someone else to get all that aggression out. But who else could Ryo ask that question to? After all, Rika had her own issues with Tamer and wasn’t the right person to ask. Kazu and Kenta wouldn’t be safe bets since they each knew the real Takato and Henry wasn’t sure what was going through their heads right now. It was almost unnatural how quiet things could be when they were chatting excitedly between themselves.

Juri seemed like a safe bet since she was following closest behind Tamerkato...that seemed like an odd choice of name for him but it worked. The Tamer was too weird, even a little too formal - but he couldn’t keep using Takato’s name. In either case, Juri seemed like she wanted to join the conversation but didn’t know what to say. She might be the answer, “You know what, I think I know the person you should be talking to! Juri!”

The girl jumped at the sound of her name, looking up sheepishly but still managing to smile. She had been quiet ever since the morning before the Devas showed up. Ever since Takato revealed the truth about the real Takato. Still, she seemed to be the least agitated about it. She slowed down so they could catch up, “What is it, Henry?”

“Ryo here wants to know how we’re not all being driven crazy by Takato,” Henry explained sheepishly, “And I figured you would be able to answer since you know him better. Well, know him better than either of us. You are in his class after all.”

Juri paused for a moment, her gaze moving skyward slowly as she rattled off anything that came to mind, “Well, he does drive our teacher crazy sometimes. But I guess it’s because they know each other? Although I’m glad when he interrupts the class because then I can try to catch up with notes. It was also weird, getting strung along with everything that happened-”

“That certainly sounds like him,” Ryo rolled his eyes and leered at Takato, “That guy always strings you along. It’s how he works. And you’d better believe that if it means leading you into something awful, he won’t bat an eye. So what did he do to stick you guys in this mess?”

Rika, and Juri all looked at each other - unsure how to explain their situation to him. Or rather, unsure who should go first. Juri answered first, “He didn’t drag me into anything. I signed up for this. He actually tried to talk us out of it and get us to walk away. But I’m here. And it’s been fun so far.”

“I didn’t even know Tamerkato was involved until a few days after all this started for me,” Henry offered his explanation, “Terriermon just showed up out of my computer one day. Next thing I know, all this is happening.”

“Tamerkato?” Ryo repeated expectantly. Henry shrugged, “Well, his name is Tamer but he’s running around with Takato’s face. But it feels weird to still call him Takato and Tamer is just...I dunno. Every time The Tamer comes up, he’s made to sound like something legendary. And he...well, isn’t.”

Rika was the only one who didn’t give an answer, which was bad since Ryo seemed to trust her over them. Ryo didn’t seem to notice though since he was still hung up on Tamerkato, “You’re not wrong. But wait until you see the real Tamer come out. And when he does, you’ll find out just how far you’ve been strung along.”

Henry was struck by that question and had never really stopped to consider if that was actually the case. Was Tamerkato quietly stringing them along? It sounded like what Rika had talked about in the park - the forgotten novel that described The Digimon Tamer as manipulative. But knowing how’d been acting since the truth came out about the real Takato, he wasn’t sure that was the case. Unless that was how Tamerkato was manipulating them. Then again, there was no way his attitude wasn’t genuine - he was flustered, confused, and well out of his depth.

“Whoa! Check this out!” Kazu called out aloud. They returned their attention forward to a sprawling walled village with a castle in the distance. The castle was decrepit, practically falling apart - like something from a feudal Japanese fortress that had been sacked and left to rot. Juri gasped, “It’s horrible! What is it?”

“That is ShogunGekomon’s Village,” Renamon answered, “The domain of ShogunGekomon and his people: the Gekomon and Otamamon. At least, that was its history. It was a bustling city a long time ago and is home to all sorts of digimon. They would take in anyone who needed a home, so long as they abide peacefully with others.”

“No way! That’s the thing from the show!” Kenta jumped up excitedly, “Kazu! This is the place from the show! Where Rika’s mom sang that song!”

“Man, what a dump. What do you think happened here?” Kazu frowned. Tamerkato grunted as he carried on, “We’re in the Digital World. Take a guess.”

He marched ahead with Guilmon just behind him. Leomon crossed his arms, “I don’t understand. It was not like this when I left.”

Henry was sure that Tamerkato’s statement was truer than he was comfortable admitting. And if it was, it would be dangerous to let their ticket wander off on his own, “We’d better catch up to them before they do something and get themselves hurts.”

It took them a while to finally catch up to them outside the village entrance. The village was populated by a mish-mash of digimon - the toad like Gekomon, the tadpole like Otamamon, small little orange dinosaur Agumon, little bunny eared Koromon, and more. The digimon hurriedly moved oversized barrels towards the edge of the lake, shouting amongst themselves to hurry before someone arrived.

Whatever it was that had them all so worked up, it made Guilmon growl towards the ocean and drew the attention of the nearest digimon. One of the Gekomon took a good look at the group before continuing his business. As Guilmon continued to growl, the Gekomon stopped again to look - obviously annoyed with his growing. Before he could start to yell at them, his gazed fixated on Ryo and his eyes widened. He shouted, “Is that who I think it is? The Digimon Tamer! Everyone, The Digimon Tamer is here!”

The announcement brought all the working digimon in the village to a pause, digimon everywhere stopping in their tracks to look up at them. Then a mad excited rush followed as all the digimon came together to swarm the group. It was all Ryo could do to quietly step back behind the others as they were swarmed, although it was obvious to everyone that they were interested in Ryo.

“You have to help us!”

“We’ve been working for him for years! He never lets us rest!”

“Only you can stop him!”

Everyone stepped back to get clear of the wave of digimon, watching in stunned silence as Ryo was treated like some kind of celebrity. Which should’ve infuriated both Ryo and Tamerkato for the case of mistaken identity. Instead, Tamerkato smiled from ear to ear for the first time since his grim announcement and quietly remarked, “So this is what it looks like from the outside. It’s kinda funny to see it happen to someone else.”

Overwhelmed by the sheer number of digimon and annoyed at once again being mistaken for the person he hated the most, Ryo looked back to them as if he were pleading for help. All he got was Rika joking, “Hey! Ryo! I think they’re talking about you.”

It was weird to see her crack a friendly joke like that. For all of them. And even weirder that it actually managed a small chuckle from Renamon.

“I’ll get them!” Monodramon shouted, baring his claws and charging in for the attack. He got just short of the crowd before bouncing off the backs of one of the Gekomon and landing face first into the dirt. Realizing he was on his own, the boy raised his hand to call for quiet. His lips curled into a frown as he explained, “Guys! I’m not the Digimon Tamer! Don’t call me that ever again. He’s over there!”

The excitement died down as they looked over at Tamerkato, smiling that dopey smile of his as he waved. The digimon of the village were unimpressed by what they saw and returned their attention back to Ryo, “That was funny Tamer, but this is serious! We’re in a lot of trouble!”

Tamerkato frowned and stepped back towards the rest of the group, “That was new. I don’t know if I’m offended or flattered.”

“Why don’t you show them your old digivice?” Juri asked. Tamerkato shrugged, “What good would it do? They already don’t believe me. Besides, I’m more interested in what has them all so spooked and relieved to ‘Tamer’! Let’s see what’s going on with those barrels.”

He led the way past the crowd with Guilmon towards eight large bowls of foul smelling liquid just ahead of them. Guilmon got sick and started retching as they got closer. But Juri knew what it was as soon as she smelled it - it was the smell of strong alcohol. The kind her dad liked to drink and serve at his bar. She also knew that it was incredibly strong. Tamerkato took one sniff of the booze, barely flinching at the smell and remarked, “It smells a little weak.”

It made sense. He was a lot older than he appeared - who was to say he hadn’t drunk alcohol before. She watched him approach the nearest bowl and take a strong whiff. Then he scooped out a handful and took a drink. He fetched and coughed it back up, “Oh god. It’s gone bad. Who would drink this?”

“Tamerk-!” she paused, catching herself before she finished saying the name, “Takato!”

Thankfully he didn’t notice as he mouth and try to get out of his tongue. She was about to say he was too young for that, but then remembered this wasn’t Takato. It was someone else. And she’d just called him Takato. But the real Takato was dead. It never bothered her before to call him Takato. So why now? Was it the fact that she knew the real Takato was dead? She was pulled from these thoughts by Tamerkato wiping his mouth, “Sorry! It’s just awful. Who would want this!?”

“Don’t drink that!” An Otamamon shouted, running over to shoo him away from the drink before he could have anymore. The Otamamon pushed him back with his head, “That’s not for you! That’s for Orochimon. He likes his drink like that and it takes us months just to brew enough for him. So no more for you!”

“Orochimon,” Tamerkato repeated quietly, rejoining Juri’s side. The little Otamamon hurriedly poured more of the contents of the barrel into the bowl. She didn’t know much about digimon and had no idea who Orochimon was. She did think it was odd that the digimon in a place called ShogunGekomon Village were so concerned with the whims of a digimon named Orochimon. Maybe it was connected? Unfortunately, she was distracted by the powerful smell of alcohol coming from Tamerkato now. It seemed the smell rubbed off on him because he reached into the alcohol, “You stink.”

“I do?” Tamerkato sniffed himself and frowned, “Crap, I got it on me. I’m going to jump in the ocean real quick and then we can start asking around. I want to know why ShogunGekomon’s allowing any of this.”

She was about to stop him but was unable to open her mouth without getting a face full of fumes. Instead, she watched silently as he jumped into the ocean with his clothes on - soaking himself in the smell.

...

A great roar blared in the distance and the gathered digimon returned to their panicked frenzy and started pushing the barrels out to the beach again. Of the digimon that assembled to meet them, only one Otamamon stayed to stare up at Ryo with wide eyed excitement, “Is it true? Can you really help us?”

Ryo glowered, burying his face in his hands in annoyance. Thankfully, Kazu stepped in to answer ecstatically by pointing a thumb to his chest and proudly proclaiming, “You bet we can! We’re the new team of digidestined and we’re here to help!”

“Please don't call us that,” Ryo groaned. The Otamamon turned its head in surprise, examining Kazu’s carefully before declaring his ego, “You’re a lot smaller than the stories make you sound. I expected the Digidestined to be taller.”

“I did say new,” Kazu pointed out to the unimpressed Otamamon. Kenta did his best to stifle his laughter while Guardromon had to hold Kazu back from jumping the little digimon. Rika rolled her eyes and introduced herself, “Don’t mind him. His mouth works faster than his brain. I’m Rika, this is Kazu, that’s Ryo, Henry, Kenta, Renamon, Leomon, and Guardromon. What’s going on here?”

The Otamamon gestured out towards the digimon and sheepishly explained, “Our village is preparing its weekly tribute to Orochimon, an eight headed serpent who terrorizes us if we don’t. We need to prepare a special brew of sake for each of his heads but it takes so long to make that we’re running ragged. We have to take turns working in shifts all day just to make sure there’s enough for him. And he starts eating us if we don’t have enough.”

Rika looked out upon the barrels and counted them. There were indeed eight barrels being lined up at the beach like cups. And for some reason, goggle head was swimming in the ocean while Guilmon and Juri watched. A few digimon shooed them away so that they could empty the contents of the barrels into the bowls.

Leomon asked, “I don’t understand. Where’s ShogunGekomon? He’s supposed to be the protector of this place? And what about the village guard?”

Otamamon’s silent expression was all the answer they needed. They weren’t around anymore either - that seemed to be a theme of present. Ryo folded his arms, “Orochimon’s going to be tough. If I remember, he’s an Ultimate and with Monodramon back to rookie, we’re in serious trouble.”

“But we have Calumon now!” Kazu pointed at the little digimon still playing with the digignomes. Otamamon stared at the little digimon and said only, “Are you sure that’s a good thing? Orochimon would probably think he’s a toy.”

That announcement caught Calumon’s attention and the little digimon stopped his excited staring to see what was going on. Terriermon patted the little guy’s head, “I wouldn’t underestimate Calumon. He’s a lot stronger than he looks.”

The Otamamon eyed him skeptically, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Another loud roar got their attention and the digimon gasped, scurrying over to the beach to help put the alcohol into the giant tub. Once they completed their tasks, the digimon retreated back into their houses. One of the Gekomon shouted as they ran past, “What are you doing? Hide! If Orochimon sees you, he’ll eat you for bothering his drinking time! You have to hide! Now!”

Everyone followed the little Gekomon into one of the nearby houses. Rika wasn’t normally one to run and hide but the Digital World had made her more cautious. She didn’t know anything about this Orochimon and didn’t want to walk head first into a blood bath without knowing what they were up against.

“Rika!” her partner shouted out. Rika looked back at Renamon and saw her pointing to Leomon running for Juri, Tamerkato, and Guilmon. All three of them were still standing on the water’s edge as if they hadn’t heard the noise echoing out from the distance. To make matters worse, there was movement in the water. A lot of movement. The ocean looked ready to come alive as the surface shook. And they were acting like nothing was wrong. Rika groaned, “You have got to be kidding me!”

…

“JURI!” Leomon roared. Juri turned away from Tamerkato and saw her lion partner running towards her with his arms in the air. He was shouting something but it was difficult to make out over the very loud rumbling she could hear from behind her. She tried cupping her ears and shouting, “What!?”

“RUN!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. He said something else but it was drowned out by another loud roar, followed by a large shadow appearing behind her. She turned around and saw a large serpent emerging out of the water. A panicked Takato ran back to shore beside her and Guilmon, standing in front of her just as another serpent head emerged from the water. Then another. Until finally an eight headed serpent was staring them down with all sixteen of its eyes. The closest head hissed, “Who are you? Why are you interrupting my drink time?”

Guilmon growled at the digimon angrily, presenting all of its claws. Juri froze in panic, mind racing for words that seemed just out of reach. She was glad Tamerkato was here to quickly put together, “Hello! I’m Takato! This is Guilmon! That’s Juri! That guy running late is Leomon! We’re here to serve you your drinks and make sure you’re taken care of!”

Another head came in closer to get a good look at them, “We don’t need to be taken care of. Go away. I want to enjoy my drink.”

“Our drink,” another head said. The two heads turned at each other, hissing until the largest head roared at them both, “No fighting! We drink now! Leave before we take some hors d'oeuvres with our food!”

Juri wanted to run now but Tamerkato kept talking, “Oh come on, Orochimon! You don’t want to do that! Who’ll stop you from choking on your tongue while you’re passed out drunk? Or worse! What if you choke on your vomit! Admit it, you need someone to take care of you!”

The serpent stared at them with one of their eyes. The pupil moved from one person to another curiously, judging them carefully before one head finally hissed, “That might not be a bad idea. You can stay. But try anything and we will eat you!”

“Don’t worry! We’ll be here to give you pillows and all the care you need while you sleep it off!” Tamerkato gave a thumbs up. Each head took a tub in its mouth and guzzled them all down. While the serpent chugged, Juri leaned over to Tamerkato and whispered, “What are you doing?”

He whispered back, “No idea. I wasn’t expecting Orochimon to just show up. I panicked! Sorry to drag you into this. Just roll with it.”

The first tub fell back to the beach, followed by another and another. Each head let out a loud burp that filled the air with the noxious smell of alcohol and Juri covered her nose to drown out the smell. The Digimon Tamer waved the air, while Guilmon nearly passed out from the smell - staying upright only because Leomon caught him. Leomon covered his mouth to stop himself from throwing up - finally relaxing once Orochimon finished burping. The serpents turned their heads towards them, lowing four of their heads while the lead declared, “Come with us. We sleep off the drink on our island.”

Juri felt her heart sink and looked to Tamerkato to get them out of this. The boy thought quickly and responded with, “Is that a good idea? You just had a hearty drink! It’d probably be better if you stayed here. It’s a bad idea to swim after a drink! You should probably have something to ea...I mean...sleep it off here.”

“Get on or I’ll eat you now,” the serpent hissed. Tamerkato offered her an apologetic look and mouthed a sorry before climbing aboard the snake’s head first. Juri felt a lump in her throat choking her but managed to climb onto its head without passing out. She felt her head spin as Orochimon raised his head into the air and she latched on to keep herself from falling. Guilmon and Leomon followed their lead, climbing onto the head and holding on for dear life as the serpent turned back to the ocean. The lead head said, “Hold tight. I don’t swim straight after a drink.”

Juri held tighter, seeing Takato mouth another apology before they sailed off. She closed her eyes shut just as the first bob happened and she was sure she’d fall off.

...

Rika stopped just short of the water’s edge, kicking the sand in frustration as Orochimon shrank into the horizon. He was leaving and they had to catch up soon if they didn’t want to lose the others again. She groaned, “You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

Ryo folded his arms and smugly said, “See what I mean? He does that and there’s nothing we can about it. We better hope he doesn’t leave us behind. Wouldn’t be the first time, though.”

“Do you think they’ll be alright?” Renamon asked her, staring off as the serpent turned into a speck before disappearing over the horizon. It didn’t take Rika any time to think of the answer, “Nope. Leomon’s good but Juri doesn’t have much experience in fights. As for Taka...Tamer...Tamerkato! He and Guilmon are crazy. Who knows what they’re going to do next.”

“We should definitely go after him,” Henry folded his arms and looked down at his partner, “You mind carrying a handful of people?”

“Sure! I was wondering when we would try out those cards Shibumi gave us!” Terriermon said excitedly. Kazu and Kenta finally caught up, both out of breath and being carried in the arms of Guardromon. Henry produced a set of cards from his pocket and started handing them out, nudging the out of breath Kazu to get his attention. The boy asked, “The crap is this?”

Henry explained as he prepared to swipe, “One of the cards Shibumi gave me. They give our digimon a temporary energy boost that allows them to digivolve. Swipe the blue one to digivolve one level, the red ones to digivolve two levels. DigiModify! Digivolution Activate!”

There was a bright flash of light as Terriermon cried out, “Terriermon! Warp Digivolve to! Rapidmon!”

Rika looked down at the red card in her hand and realizing that she had all this power at the tip of her fingers. She readied to swipe it when she saw Ryo about to do the same, and quickly knocked it out of his hands, “Don’t!”

“What gives, Rika?” he asked like he’d been slapped in the face. She was surprised Ryo hadn’t considered what was wrong and pointed at Monodramon just a few steps behind him, “He’s still attacking everything he sees which means you’ve still got pent up anger issues! Do you really want him to digivolve to something other than rookie?”

“I’ve been on my best behavior!” the little digimon huffed, showing off big watery eyes in a bid for sympathy. All of that went away and he hissed when Rapidmon commented, “That was only because Orochimon actually scared you! That was the quietest you’ve been in a while!”

“So what do we do now?” Ryo asked, “We can’t just sit here and do nothing, and I’ll be damned before I let Tamer abandon us in another part of the Digital World!”

Rika scooped up the card before he could take it back up, “Don’t worry. I won’t let him. Besides, someone’s gotta protect Calumon over there in case more of those Devas come looking for him. Henry, Rapidmon, Renamon and I will go after them. You guys wait here. Deal?”

“What!? I don’t want to be stuck on babysitting duty!” Kazu complained loudly, prompting Kenta to smack the back of his head.

Ryo looked at her quietly for the longest time, almost like he was examining her. It creeper her out until he nodded and agreed, “Alright. I trust you.”

Hearing those words made her blood rush with excitement and she excitedly turned to her partner, red card in hand, “Ready partner? Digimodify! Digivolution Activate!”

“Renamon! Warp-Digivolve to! Taomon!” her partner shouted, appearing in her long flowing robes and holding her massive brush in her hands. She scooped Rika up and took to the air, Rapidmon following just behind with Henry. They didn’t have a moment to lose if they were going to save Juri or the others. But her focus was distracted by what Ryo said, his words echoing in her mind. But it was soon forgotten when Rapidmon added, “Hey, Rika! You’re redder than the red card!”

...

Juri leapt off the serpent’s head and watched the creature slither off into a large mound on the ground. It curled in on itself, coiling its body around its many heads to keep warm, “You are only to care for us. Try anything and we will eat you.”

“Right, rest well Orochimon! We’ll keep you from choking on your own vomit,” Takato waved, hurrying to join her, “Sorry again, Juri. I panicked but we’ll get out of this! Somehow.”

“Well you’d better think of something,” Leomon looked around nervously, “I don’t know how to swim and we’re miles from land. I don’t suppose Guilmon can fly when he digivolves?”

“His breath stinks,” the dinosaur mumbled just as Orochimon burped so loudly that she was sure he was going to break the island apart with the sheer force of it. Then the smell came and Juri covered her nose in disgust. Leomon followed suit, pushing Juri behind him to try and block some of it, “By the Guardians, that smell is horrendous. It’s like a million Numemon climbed in his gullet and died!”

“Three-hundred and twenty-eight,” one of Orochimon’s many heads answered, one of its eyes open so that it could look at them, “They thought they could poison me from the inside and make me sick. They didn’t think their plan through. Then again, they’re about as smart as they are beautiful. Can’t blame them after what I did to ShogunGekomon. Fat bastard had it coming anyway. More important, keep your mouths shut if you don’t want me to eat you.”

“Sorry,” Tamerkato put his hands together apologetically, “We’re new so we didn’t know. But what happened to ShogunGekomon?”

“I’m a snake. He’s a toad. Nature took its course,” the head answered, “Now shut up.”

It hissed that last part, preventing Tamerkato from prodding it with anymore questions. Satisfied, the eye closed and the serpent quietly returned back to dozing. They all waited in silence for the longest time, waiting for a sign to make sure the serpent actually was asleep. Ten minutes later, one of the heads was snoring and they all breathed a sigh of relief. Leomon asked at a hushed whisper, leaning in so they could hear him, “So what now?”

“Outlived another one,” Tamerkato whispered back, shaking his head and scratching his hair, “Okay. Options. We could attack. But we have two digimon and he has eight heads so you’d only manage to startle him before he eats us all. We could actually do the care taker part but he’ll probably eat us over the course of however long we’re here. There are plenty of trees which gives us plenty of hiding spots. Eight heads means he can search more so...so...”

“Tamer, do you have an idea or don’t you?” Leomon asked quietly. Juri knew he didn’t. He could tell by that look in his eye - the same look he had when he was told WarGreymon was dead. Something was eating at him - possibly ShogunGekomon. But what did outlived another one mean? She wanted to ask, but the idea of knowing another of his secrets filled her dread. Why did he keep so many? And what else was there? He’d promised that he wouldn’t keep so many. So how many more things did they not know? Before she could ask, Takato stepped away and started pacing. He examined each of the heads carefully as he walked, “Why does it have eight heads?”

She gave the rest of the serpentine digimon another closer look. All eight heads were nestled in on themselves so that it could sleep off the alcohol. But what did that have to do with the eight heads? It was funny. It made her think of the hydra myth they’d learned in classical literature. It was such an odd story to think about. Tamerkato looked at Leomon, “How quickly do you think can slice through each head?”

“What?” Juri and Leomon answered in unison. Tamerkato pointed at the serpent, “We’ll need to dispatch each head fast because as soon as the first one comes off, he’ll wake up. They’ll wake up. Whatever. Juri, use your digivice to give Leomon a speed and strength boost. As soon as she does, start going for the heads Leomon. Oh, and Juri.”

He went through his deck quickly and handed her a card, “Use this. It’ll help.”

She looked down and saw it said WarGreymon’s Brave Shield in big letters on top. She knew this card from the few times Tamerkato used it. She understood why he wanted her to use the card but not the sudden reversal on attacking Orochimon. He seemed keen to avoid a fight earlier. So why now?

“What are we doing?” she asked nervously, fearful of his answer.

“Letting nature take its course. On your mark,” he replied coldly. She nodded nervously, readying the cards she’d been given along with some cards she knew would help. Tamerkato did the same and they swiped their cards together, “DigiModify!”

“Strength Boost Activate! Speed Boost Activate! WarGreymon’s Brave Shield Activate!”

“Digivolution Activate!”

Their digimon partners glowed with light as they took strength from their digivices. Juri worried the burst of light would awake the giant serpent. It didn’t. What did was Guilmon’s cry, “Guilmon! Digivolve to! Growlmon!”

The first head looked up to examine the noise just as Leomon leapt upon it and sliced it off with a swing of his sword. The remaining seven heads jolted awake, screeching in pain and turning their attention on Leomon. The lion spun his blade in his hand so that he held it in reverse and leapt forward at the next head, cleaving it off before the others had any time to react. Now they were mad and began flying at Leomon. But he easily stayed just one step ahead, dodging through the strikes with his augmented speed. Not that he needed it. The serpent heads were still slowed from their drinking and couldn’t quite keep up with Leomon.

“Bastards! I’ll kill you!” one of the heads hissed in anger. As the fight dragged on, Juri noticed Tamerkato keeping Growlmon from jumping into the fight despite the growling noises he made. He obviously wanted to help and didn’t like being kept back. Until she considered Tamerkato’s emotional state. Growlmon didn’t want to help. He just wanted to attack. And he was only restrained because of Tamerkato.

She asked, “What are you doing?”

“Waiting,” he answered quietly. Waiting for what? As she thought about it, she noticed one of neck stumps writhing as something began convulsing out. It slid out with a sickening splat as a new head appeared. The head leered at Leomon, “You messed up, Leomon.”

“Now,” Tamerkato pointed at the head. Now Growlmon leapt in and cut the head off with his claws, causing the serpent to hiss in pain. Tamerkato called out, “Now burn the neck stump, Growlmon!”

“Pyro Blaster!” he roared, spewing out a ball of red fire at the neck stump. The serpent roared even louder and writhed in agony as its flesh burned and the open neck stump was cauterized shut. The attack was so vicious that Juri covered her mouth in shock. Sure, this was just like the myth she’d read about, she’d never once thought about how gruesome it was. Even for him, this was something else. It was...cruel. Then he called out, “Okay! Leomon! Cut off the heads! Growlmon! Burn them!”

“Juri?” Leomon looked over his shoulder at her. She looked from Tamerkato to the writhing serpent, hesitating for a moment before nodding in agreement, “Do it.”

The lion nodded hesitantly before leaping back into the fight, leaping between the heads and slicing them off when an opening presented itself. One, then another. Every time he cut a head off, Growlmon would burn the neck stump shut so that it couldn’t escape. Any time Leomon couldn’t dodge an attack, he used the brave shield to block the teeth and protect himself from being eaten. This continued back and forth with the two digimon working together until there was only one head left. The main head.

It leered at them angrily, “HOW DARE YOU! YOU ATTACK ME WHILE I SLEEP!?”

“You killed ShogunGekomon,” Tamerkato answered quietly, a glare on his face that she had never seen before. The serpent hissed, “And now I’LL KILL YOU!”

The last head leapt at him in a suicidal maneuver, completely ignoring Leomon who leapt up and sliced his head clean off. Then Growlmon jumped on it and cauterized the wound with his fire before the head could regrow. Once all the heads were off, the serpent fell still on the ground - before dispersing into data that both Growlmon and Leomon absorbed. All the while, Tamerkato stared at the remains with the coldest expression she’d ever seen - a kind of malicious look. Then it vanished, replaced with hurt. A sad and longing look that he had when they first came to the Digital World. The same one when they were at the house under the lake. She reached out to him quietly, “Tamer? Takato?”

“I’m fine,” he answered, pocketing his hands and turning away, “We should figure out how to get off this island. Maybe we could make a raft?”

“JURI!”

“GROWLMON!”

Everyone looked up to see Rapidmon and Taomon flying their way. The two digimon descended on the island, dropping off Rika and Henry who scanned the island for the serpent. Rika asked first, “Where’s Orochimon?”

“We took care of it,” Tamerkato answered matter of factly, continuing towards Taomon, “Get us out of here. I want to go back to the village.”

Miffed at being a commanded like that, Rika snapped, “Don’t boss me aro-”

“I’m not in the mood for your mood, Rika,” Tamerkato cut her off angrily, the malicious look in his eye returning in full force. For once, Rika cowed fearfully and nodded. Once Tamerkato was out of ear shot, Rika whispered, “What’s with him?”

“I don’t know,” she answered sheepishly.

#The Digimon Tamer #The Tamer v2 In His Name #Fanfiction #digimon tamers #The Tamer

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Chapter 24 - Rika in Wonderland is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

The Tamer v2.0: In His Name

Chapter 24: Rika in Wonderland

Rika and the others fell for some time. At least that was how it felt to her. With how traveling worked in the Digital World, she wouldn’t be surprised if they were actually flying up instead. But there was no time to dwell on that. They were still being sent to who knows where and the others were back where they first arrived in the Digital World and they were separated from the others . She tried to keep a mental track of where they were going but it was impossible to keep it all straight without any actual sense of direction. She remembered seeing desert, trees, rivers, oceans, mountains, plains, and then she began to lose track of things.

Before she knew it, they were hurtling down into a ravine and straight into the river below. If there was any consolation with their current situation, it was that both Kazu, Andromon, and Kenta were in this ordeal with them. Then the two boys got knocked out by impact. It would buy her a few minutes of silence, until she remembered that she would need to keep their heads above water so they wouldn’t drown. She struggled against the current and grabbed a hold of one of them as they floated past, trying to turn this one so he’d be face up. From the brief glimpse she could get while she wasn’t trying to keep herself afloat, she could make out a green hat and spiky hair. Because of course the more annoying one would be the one she grabbed.

She tried scanning the water but couldn’t find Kenta, “Renamon! We need to keep these guys from drowning!”

No answer. The silence turned to panic at the thought that Renamon may have sunk into the water too. She tried turning her head and didn’t see her anywhere. Had she already sunk into the water? No, that couldn’t be it. She considered dropping Kazu to go find her - no, she couldn’t live with herself if he drowned. But what should she do? What could she do?

The water broke beside her as Renamon emerged from the water holding Kenta in her arms, “Rika! Rika! Are you okay?”

“Renamon, I’m fine!” she said, breathing a sigh of relief. She was alive. Good. Renamon grabbed a hold of her with her free hand, “Hold on, I’m going to get us out of here!”

“Right,” Rika adjusted herself so that could hold Renamon with one arm and still keep Kazu from getting pulled into the current. Once she was properly braced, Renamon bobbed in the water to prep herself for a jump. And then they were in the air, Renamon angling herself to leap from canyon wall to canyon wall until they were out of the ravine and on solid ground. Instantly, Renamon collapsed on the ground - coughing up water and spit. Rika did the same, throwing Kazu off her so that she could get a good breath of air, “We made it.”

“Yeah,” Renamon gasped, her eyes growing heavy before she fainted. Rika felt a small wave of panic return, but it was overpowered by a growing fatigue and darkness. Maybe she’d rest for a minute. Yeah, a short nap. That would do it. Then she’d check on her partner. She assured herself that she would close her eyes only for a few minutes as she drifted off into darkness.

...

Rika jolted awake when she remembered they were in the Digital World. They had to go find the others before they ran into trouble. Or trouble found them. Renamon couldn’t protect all three of them. She scrambled upright and tried to take in her surroundings only to find they were no longer out in the open of the Digital World. She was lying in a darkened bedroomed on a soft cushioned bed under nice and warm blankets. Glancing around the room, she found two other beds with figures lying under the blankets. And going by the snores, it was Kazu and Kenta. At least they were okay. But when did they get here? And where was Renamon?

She threw the covers off and climbed off the bed to find her shoes at the foot of the bed. Whoever brought them here had also taken her shoes off. Now there was confusion on top of the concern. Who did this and who saved them? She felt her way through the dark room until she found what seemed like a door knob and opened it just a crack.

On the other side was a room dimly lit by a fire in a fireplace. There were two chairs facing towards it and she could vaguely make out two figures sitting comfortably in the chairs. And there was a third figure, Renamon leaning against the fireplace with her arms folded. She seemed calm and at ease. That put her mind at ease, giving her the energy to crack the door open. Renamon turned her head to look at her, “I’m glad to see you’re awake Rika.”

“I’m glad to see you’re okay too Renamon,” Rika smiled at her partner. She was hoping the light would give her a better view of who was sitting in the chairs but it was still too dim to see properly, “What happened? How did we get here?”

“We happened!” a gravelly voice answered her, one of the figures rising from the chair. It reached into the dark and turned on a lamp that lit up the room - enabling her to better see them. They were short digimon dressed in long, flowing robes. One was a scraggly old humanoid with an overgrown beard that completely obscured his face. The other was an older woman with her hair tied into a bun at the top of her head. And both carried walking sticks - or rather a broom and a cane with a paw on the end. The older male greeted her, “It’s about time you kids woke up, I thought I was going to die from the anticipation!”

“Anticipation for what?” Rika asked. Her answer came in the form of the scraggly old man bringing his stick down on her, “TAKE THIS!”

Rika moved out of the way, “What gives? Renamon! Help!”

“Just keep running Rika,” Renamon answered calmly, “Or let him hit you. Either way, he’ll stop from being tired or he’ll stop from disappointment.”

Rika looked at her partner in disbelief, her jaw falling open as she mouthed, “Are you serious?”

Renamon nodded. Rika was not in the business of letting herself get hit, so she stopped in her tracks to face the chasing old man. She grabbed the old digimon’s walking stick before it struck her head and used it to smack the digimon back. The digimon stopped for a moment, seemingly shocked from being attacked.

“Hmph. I’m disappointed. Kids these days ain’t got no respect,” the little digimon grunted, snatching his stick back and resting it on his shoulder. He retreated back to his chair, grumbling about giving them shelter in their home only to be struck on the head by her. The irony wasn’t lost on Rika who wanted to point out they attacked first. The other digimon spoke with a raspy voice, “That wasn’t much of a fight. How do you expect to be entertained if you’re not going to try your hardest at fighting sweetie?”

“What are you guys talking about?” Rika demanded, now as annoyed as she was confused. Renamon finally stepped away from her spot on the wall and explained, “These are Jijimon and Babamon. They’re the ones who rescued us after we climbed out of the ravine. They’re also...different.”

The elder Babamon pointed her broom at them, “Hey! You lot are the one who’re different, falling out of the sky like that and then climbing out onto our lawn! What do they teach kids these days, anyways? Besides, you ain’t a digimon little girl.”

Jijimon agreed, prodding her with his cane, “She’s right, we know you’re a human. Just look at those noodley arms and pineapple hair! You probably can’t even bench one of you.”

All that did was annoy Rika more, “So if you knew I was a human, why did you go trying to attack me?”

Jijimon and Babamon swapped looks, and then looked back at her, “Honestly? We were bored and wanted to see if humans could fight. So far we’re not impressed. Maybe those boys can put up more of a fight whenever they wake up. Either way, I thought humans were supposed to be strong! Or are you just one of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer types?”

Rika wasn’t even sure where to begin dissecting that one. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? What did a Christmas song have to do with anything? She massaged her head to soothe the headache she was having before asking, “Okay, what? Look, why did you help us?”

“It would’ve been rude to just leave you lying out in our lawn while you were injured,” Babamon explained, finally rising off her chair to meet Rika. She was a lot smaller up close now that Rika could get a good look at her. The little old digimon probably couldn’t see as well since she used her broom to pull Rika close, “You look a little thin. Don’t they feed you right in the human world? You must be starving. Poor thing. Come with me into the kitchen and we’ll make you some good eating. I hope you like bread and pancakes because we’ve got plenty of flour to use!”

Before Rika could even try to protest, Babamon started pushing her into the kitchen and threw an apron at her, “Put that on and wash your hands.”

Rika looked at the apron, then at her hands. She wasn’t sure when it happened, but she had lost control of the situation. Worse, she had basically turned into a baker! When had she become goggle head? She sighed and threw the apron on, pondering what the two digimon were playing at. Was this a trick? Renamon always said the law of the Digital World was that the weak died so that the strong could live. And these two could’ve easily taken them out while they were unconscious. Despite her misgivings, she went along with it.

It was just in time as Babamon handed her a bowl with a bag of flour in it, “Here you go! Go ahead and start mixing that with some water while I get the rest of the ingredients!”

She sighed and followed the instructions, being careful to keep an eye on Babamon in case she tried to mix poison into the mix. All the while, Babamon just hummed to herself quietly as she worked in the kitchen. After a while Babamon remarked, “If you’re looking to stare me to death, then you should know that I was quite the looker back in the day and it’ll take more than that to stop me.”

Rika looked away in embarrassment, sheepishly adding, “I’m just trying to figure out why you helped us.”

Babamon laughed, “Relax. It’s like my babushka Jijimon said, it would’ve been rude to leave you kids out there by yourselves after you fell out of the sky and crawled out of that ravine. Besides, if we wanted to hurt you, we would’ve done it in your sleep. There’s enough fighting in the Digital World already. It doesn’t need anymore.”

“Babushka?” Rika repeated quietly, unsure of what that word meant before realizing that wasn’t what she should be paying attention to, “He attacked me as soon as I got out of the bedroom!”

Without even flinching, Babamon answered, “We wanted to see how strong you were! You’re partner said you helped her digivolve all the way to the Ultimate level! A few whacks from a cane should’ve been nothing to you.”

“That’s really not how that works,” Rika answered, only to get a rolling pin handed to her. Babamon added, “Now that you’ve got the dough mixed, go ahead and knead it and used the rolling pin to flatten it!”

“What kind of bread are we even making?” she asked. Babamon shushed her and returned to whatever she was doing, leaving Rika alone again to follow her instructions in utter silence. As much as Rika had questions, she was glad Babamon was not a talker - the last thing she wanted was to engage in some unwanted small talk conversation. Especially when she still wasn’t sure that she could trust the elderly digimon at all. Her mind raced with every possibility - what if food in the Digital World was poisonous to humans? Or what if the food was drugged? Maybe they were already drugged while they were asleep and Babamon was just waiting for them to keel over. Or maybe they were just being lulled into a false sense of security? Or maybe she was just being paranoid.

She turned all these thoughts over in her head until she heard a crash from the living room and went to investigate. Babamon followed along just behind her to see for herself, but neither of them was expecting the spectacle they found. Kazu and Kenta were standing atop the arm chairs - using a fire poker and a broom to fend off Jijimon who was coming at them with his cane. After trading a few bouts, Jijimon leapt at them and the two boys fell backwards off their chairs. It didn’t take long for everyone to scramble back to their feet and the fight to continue, all while Renamon observed from the far corner of the living. Rika sighed, “What’s going on here?”

“We don’t know! He attacked us!” Kenta yelped as he slammed into a wall - or rather was pushed gently into it by Jijimon’s beating stick, “Why are you running away? I thought you humans were supposed to be brave and strong! Stop running away!”

“Who said anything about being brave!?” Kenta cried as he snuck out from under the bre. Not wanting to be lumped in with Kenta, Kazu quickly shouted, “I’m just retreating to a more advantageous position!”

“There’s an expression for that! It’s called running away!” Jijimon growled at them, continuing to chase after them in a hilarious display. Or what would’ve been if it wasn’t painful to watch. That didn’t stop her from smiling with amusement. She even noted Renamon pressing a finger to her lips, signaling to be quiet. Despite that, it was obvious the boys were starting to slow down from getting tired. Once Rika had gotten her fill of laughter in, she finally walked up to the two boys and kicked them to the ground from behind. Seeing this was enough to get Jijimon to stop chasing them, “Hmph. The girl has more spunk than you two. Maybe I was wrong. The human female is stronger.”

“Hey! We’re plenty strong!” Kazu protested, earning himself another kick from behind by Rika. Jijimon smirked, “Whatever you say kid. So what are a bunch of humans doing in the Digital World? You ain’t the digidestined are ya? Here to save us from another world ending threat?”

“We’re actually looking for a friend of ours. A small little digimon called Calumon and the digimon who kidnapped him, a monkey name Makuramon,” Renamon explained to the two elderly digimon, moving to help the two hapless boys up. Both Babamon and Jijimon exchanged looks before the Babamon answered, “We haven’t heard of either of those digimon before. Who are they?”

Kenta offered an explanation, “Makuramon is something called a Deva. A bunch of them have been coming to attack us in our world. He’s the one who kidnapped our friend, and now we’re here. As for Calumon, he’s-”

“A small guy who’s probably going to get himself killed,” Rika interrupted, stopping Kenta from explaining what exactly they were looking for. She shot him a warning look and he understood right away that he’d almost made a serious mistake. Renamon added, “We came here with a much larger group when we were separated, hence how we came to your home. After they’ve rested, we will he leaving to go find the...oh, oh no.”

Renamon didn’t often panic and it made her uneasy to hear her partner worry , “What is it?”

“Andromon was with us,” she answered calmly. Now it was Rika’s turn to panic. That was right. Andromon was with them. How could she have forgotten all about him? He was probably their only chance of getting back to the others! And assuming he didn’t get destroyed when they were hit by that light, that must’ve meant he fell into the ravine and got carried away. She swallowed a lump forming in her throat. She tried to assure herself he was fine, but he was a giant robot that had fallen in water. There was no way he was okay! If he was even still alive.

“Why are you in an apron?”

She forgot all her concerns at the sound of Kazu’s voice and leered at him, only to see he was blushing, “I mean...it’s kinda cute.”

She gave him one more kick for good measure and returned to the kitchen to finish helping Babamon. From behind her, she could hear Kazu whining, “Why does she only hit me?”

“Because you keep opening your mouth,” Renamon explained.

...

After they’d made lunch and had a chance to eat, Kazu let out a burp, “Oh wow, that was really good.”

“Of course! She’s a great cook! She hasn’t killed me yet, anyway. And not for a lack of trying,” Jijimon laughed, fending off Babamon’s attempts to bat at him. Renamon had kept to sipping at some juice and eating handfuls of bread, “Why are you treating us with this kindness? It is unusual.”

“We’ve been around long enough to know there’s enough fighting and violence in the world. What’s wrong with putting some kindness into it every once in a while?” Jijimon explained. Babamon clicked her tongue angrily, “What he means is he’s a dirty coward afraid to pick a fight with stronger digimon.”

“I’ll fight you, you beautiful piece of data!” Jijimon growled. Babamon crosses her arms, “Please. You’re so old, I’m surprised you can even get that stick of yours up!”

“Not for you, I can’t,” Jijimon hissed. Rika covered her ears to try and block out any more double entendres, but Kazu and Kenta started cheering them on. So much for putting a little kindness back into the Digital World. Renamon set her juice down, “If you two are so keen on being friendly, why do you keep fighting? Us and each other?”

“Well what else are we supposed to do in a sandstorm?” Babamon shrugged, “We’re going to be stuck here for a while so best get comfortable.”

“Sandstorm?” Kenta repeated, getting up and making his way to the door, “What sandstorm? Sure it was windy but what would make you think there was a sandstorm?”

Without thinking, he undid the latch on the door and watched it swing open by itself from a powerful gust of wind. Sand poured in with it and everyone broke out into a panic, “Way to go, dingus!”

“MY LIVING ROOM!”

“Sorry! Sorry!”

“Close the door, dammit!”

Rika forced herself up and pushed her way towards the door where Kenta was helplessly trying to shut it again. Kazu and Renamon were just behind her and they were able to push it closed together, holding it shut while Kenta fumbled with the lock, “I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!”

“Now we gotta clean up all this sand,” Babamon complained, snapping her fingers so that her broom came to life on its own. It swept up the sand into a dust tray on the side of the room, that Jijimon picked up to empty so that it could get more sand in. Again, Kenta clasped his hands together, “I’m really sorry! I didn’t know!”

“Meh, it happens,” Jijimon shrugged, “But until that’s done, you kids are stuck here.”

“Which is why we fight!” Babamon picked up a ladle and swung it at Kenta. The boy helped he was struck, “I’m sorry! Please!”

...

They stayed with Babamon and Jijimon for at least a whole day before the winds died down enough for them to venture out into the sand storms. Thankfully, the two digimon were more than happy to provide them with some bread and instant soup packets for their trip before they left. Thankfully, the ravine was literally right at their backyard so they didn’t have to go far to find where they’d started. Much like where they first landed, all they could find was miles of sandy desert in every direction waiting for them. It was as if the Digital World was nothing but one giant desert, unlike everything they’d seen in the shows or the movies. The ravine they fell into continued off into the distance and disappeared into the horizon. Kenta moaned, “Oh man, there’s no telling where Andromon is now. How are we supposed to find him?”

“Not just that, how do we get back to finding the others? We don’t even know where we are!” Kazu complained, “And we lost half of our supplies when we crashed here.”

Rika pointed down the stream, “We follow the river until we find him. Then we look for Takato and the others.”

Kenta looked down at the river below and whined, “But who knows how far he could’ve gone. The current is going pretty fast. It could take days or weeks to catch up.”

“Then we’d better start walking,” Rika declared, taking her first steps towards the horizon, “And if you don’t want to be left behind, you’d better start walking.”

Renamon followed after her at a brisk pace, “Come along you two. And stay close. Without digimon partners, you two are easy prey for whatever is out here that could want to eat and/or kill you.”

The boys yelped at that and hurried after them. They walked for what felt like hours under the blistering heat of the sun, stopping every so often to rest and drink some water. It was about sunset before the river led them to something other than more desert sand. And that was a rock formation that vaguely resembled satellite dishes and skyscrapers.

With it getting late, they opted to rest for the night under the stars with the rock formations as cover in case another sandstorm started up. They made a quick dinner and tried to relax. Despite being the desert, it was surprisingly cold for the Digital World and all three kids found themselves shivering through the night. As she lay there, she contemplated what her parents were doing right now and recalled that she needed to message them. She reached back into her bag for the D-Terminal and examined it in her hand. Thankfully it worked which was a good sign. There was still no reply from her parents though which was depressing. She sighed and thought to update the, typing out her message quietly: 'Resting for the night. We got separated in sand storm. Kazu and Kenta are with me and Renamon. Going to try and find the others in the morning'.

She pressed send and waited but got no reply. Maybe they were t getting the messages? Or maybe goggle head was right and time was all messed up again? Maybe the messages would reach them in days? Or maybe her mom was getting the messages in rapid succession and don’t have time to answer. She set the D-Terminal back in her bag and tried to settle in. Before long, Kazu was complaining, “We’re in the desert! Why does it feel like we’re in the back of a freezer?”

“We all watched the show, Kazu. This kind of thing is supposed to be normal in the Digital World!” Kenta answered knowledgeably. This only annoyed Kazu more, “Okay, genius. If you’re so smart, how about you figure out how to warm it back up again?”

“I would if my glasses hadn’t fogged up from the cold,” Kenta explained, adjusting his glasses for them to see. Unfortunately, it was dark and hard to actually see his glasses. This emboldened Kazu, “I can’t see in the dark, genius.”

Their constant bickering was getting on Rika’s nerves, but she was too tired to actually tell them to the stop. At least until she felt something cold touch her face and she snapped, “Whichever one of you creeps touched me better own up to it now or I’ll knock you both senseless.”

“We’re all the way over here and we can’t see in the dark. How would we have touched you?” Kazu asked. That was all rendered moot when she felt something else cold touch her. And another. Kenta’s voice asked, “Does anyone else feel that?”

“It’s snowing,” Renamon remarked. Kazu groaned, “Because of course it is. We’re in the Digital World. Why wouldn’t it snow in the middle of a desert!”

“Maybe that’s why it got so cold all of a sudden,” Kenta suggested, shuffling around in the dark until he was beside Rika. Rika wanted to smack him away but was unable to ignore how much warmer it was with him beside her. Especially now that it was snowing. It didn’t last long though as more snow continued to fall on her and she quickly stood up to start moving her body. Renamon must’ve sensed her motion and asked, “Where are you going Rika?”

“I’m trying to keep moving to keep warm,” she answered, “It’s freezing.”

It was definitely a bad idea to be walking around when she couldn’t see so she started walking in circles just so that she wouldn’t get too far from them. As she spun around, she started to get a dizzying motion sickness and had to stop - falling flat on the snow-sand mix so she could rest. But the motion sickness didn’t subside, or the feeling of moving in circles. She looked up from her walk to ask, “What gives?”

“Does anyone else feel like we’re spinning?” Kenta asked. Rika nodded, looking up at the stars and noticing they were spinning. Or rather she was spinning. On the ground. She sat up and tried to get her bearings in the dark, “It feels like we’re on something moving!”

“I think it’s a wheel!” Kazu said. No sooner did he say that but they were propelled upwards into the sky. Kenta yelped out, “What kind of wheel flies?”

“I don’t think it’s a wheel! It’s a propellor!” Renamon shouted out as they continued skyward into a patch of clouds that wasn’t there before. Just as they were sure they were going to go flying off, the spinning stopped and they were thrown onto a fluffy cold landing. Rika sat up quickly, trying to warm herself back up to see that they’d gone from miles of desert to miles of snow banks surrounded by floating gears and clocks. And one in particular was stuck making an exceptionally loud ticking noise.

“Where are we?” she asked, trying to find something that looked like the rock formations. It was nowhere in sight. How far had the spinning wheel thing thrown them? Kazu and Kenta’s heads poked out of the snow, like plants bursting forth in spring. Kenta face palmed and moaned, “Did anyone get the number of that frisbee?”

“I’m going to be sick,” Kazu added, before throwing up beside Kenta. Kenta tried to move his head away, “Ew! EW! Get away from me!”

“Come on, you two,” Renamon strolled up to them casually and pulled them out of the snow, “This isn’t the time to be lying about. We do have work to do.”

She set them down and rejoined Rika, covering her ears and pressing them down, “What on earth is that horrible ticking noise!?”

“It’s coming from that clock!” Kenta pointed out one clock in particular - a grandfather clock with a knife embedded between the minute hand and the hour hand so that it was stuck at 11:59. Every time the second hand tried to pass on to 12, the clock made a loud tick as if to protest the knife’s presence. Annoyed, Rika marched straight for the knife and pulled it out, “What kinda idiot would do that?”

As soon as the knife was free, the clock quieted down and the clock reached midnight. She breathed a sigh of relief now that the noise was over and her headache was subsiding. She couldn’t enjoy it for long though as two new voices chimed behind her in a panic. Two new digimon in a frenzy and panic. Going off memory, she recognized the floating gear with a face as Hagurumon and the one riding a giant clock as Clockmon.

Hagurumon yelped, “Oh no! We’re in trouble! He’s going to wake up!”

“Wake up? More like sleep now that the noise is gone,” Rika corrected, “That was giving me a headache.”

“But the headache is what kept us safe!” Clockmon countered, “Now he will wake up and bring a hundred years of death and destruction upon us! He’ll change all the clocks, reprogram our VCRs, change the language settings on our computers, and steal everyone’s left shoe!”

Rika had just about enough nonsense for one day, “Okay, I’m going to start ignoring you guys now. Let me know when you’re ready to start making sense.”

“But you don’t understand!” Hagurumon panicked, “He’s going to kill us all!”

“Who is?” Kazu asked curiously enough, signaling a low rumble to start in the distance. The snowy land began to rip itself apart and split open for a massive orange dragon with mechanical claws and wings to emerge from the earth. Clockmon pointed at the digimon, “He is! Megadramon! Destroyer of lands, breaker of our things, and bully of us!”

The two digimon turned to flee, which was just as well for Rika because it meant she wouldn’t have to listen to their insanity any longer. She produced her digivice and nodded to her partner, both feeling the thrill of a real battle in the first time since they came to this world. If this guy was the threat to the Digital World, then this would be a very short trip. She raised up her digivice and swiped the first few cards she thought she would need, “Digimodify! Speed Boost Activate! Power Boost Activate! Angewomon’s Bow Activate!”

Renamon took off in a flash, dashing towards Megadramon and loosing a few arrows from her bow to get his attention, “Hey! Big boy! Over here!”

The arrows hit their mark and wounded the digimon, making him turn his head. He let out a roar that sent a blast of cold wind their way before firing an array of missiles from his claws, “Dark Side Attack!”

Renamon leapt and weaved through the missiles, leaping onto one and using them as platforms to propel herself up to Megadramon, taking a clean shot at close range that hit him in the eye, “Surprise!”

Megadramon howled and took a swing at Renamon, throwing the digimon out of the air and straight into the snow beside her. Rika gasped and ran to her partner’s side, calling her name in panic, “Renamon!”

“He got a lucky shot in,” Renamon grunted, pushing herself back up, “But he’s wounded and blind in one eye. One more good shot should do it.”

“Are you sure?” Rika asked, helping her partner back up onto her feet, “You can barely stand.”

Renamon steadied herself and knocked another arrow into the bow, “Yes I am fine. I just-”

“Desolation Claw!”

A beam of energy whipped through the air and struck Megadramon in the chest, knocking the flailing dragon back to the ground. Something small and fast then leapt onto him - what appeared to be a mix of a dog and a dragon with four red wings wrapped entirely in metal armor. The brutality with which this beast started beating on Megadramon made Rika turn her head in terror. Every punch made a sickening crunch, followed by a wet splash as the once powerful dragon was slowly reduced to a bloody pulp on the ground. The ferocious dragon only stopped when a beam of light whipped out from behind them and yanked the tiny monster back, “Cyberdramon! Stand down! I said stop! STOP!”

Rika followed the voice to see a spiky haired boy dressed in a mishmash of rags and metal armor topped neatly by a red scarf bellowing commands at the digimon. In his hand was a digivice just like theirs, but black and pulsing with light, “Cyberdramon! Sit! I said! SIT!”

With that last command, the boy slammed his digivice on the ground and brought Cyberdramon onto his knees. Once the digimon was restrained, he took a deep breath and asked them, “Sorry about that. Cyberdramon gets a little over excited. He can’t help himself when he sees a fight. Anyway, what’s going on here?”

Rika did a double take to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. As many times as she looked, there was no mistaking it - it was Ryo. The boy who went missing. Her mind raced with questions as it tried to understand this. Had he been here the whole time? What had he been doing? Who was Cyberdramon? What the hell was he wearing?

Before she could try to ask, Hagurumon and Clockmon chose this specific time to come back from wherever they’d run to, “It’s him! The Digimon Tamer has come to save us!”

The Digimon Tamer? That dumb name Takato had insisted they don’t call him? Why was Ryo getting called that? He wasn’t actually the Digimon Tamer, was he? Ryo grunted as they continued to cheer him, “Don’t call me that. I hate that guy.”

“But how could you hate yourself? You’re the hero of the Digital World!” Clockmon cheered, “Where’s WarGreymon!?”

“Okay, I’m ignoring you. What happened?” he asked Hagurumon. The floating gear spun gleefully and gestured at the clock, “They unbroke the clock that kept Megadramon in perpetual slumber! Now he awakens to destroy our world. And more importantly, my rock collection!”

“That’s a lot of words just to say fixed an alarm clock,” Ryo said, making his way to the clock and punching its face as hard as he could. The clock chimed for a moment before making its loud ticking noise again, prompting Hagurumon and Clockmon to cheer even louder, “Hurrah! The Digimon Tamer saved us!”

“Please stop,” Ryo moaned quietly before properly taking note of the others. He took one glance at the digivice in Rika’s hand and pointed, “Wait! That digivice! Are you a human like me? Are you a rescue party!?”

“Rescue party?” Rika repeated, confused and a little annoyed that he didn’t even seem to recognize her. Kazu jumped between them and pointed at Ryo with his mouth so wide open it looked ready to fall off his face, “You! You’re Ryo Akiyama! The Ryo Akiyama! The Digimon Card tournament champion!”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Ryo nodded, brushing past their recognition of his name to once again ask, “So are you the rescue party or did you get sucked here by Tamer too? Because if it’s the first, how do we get out of here? And if it’s the second, point me at him so I can kill him.”

“Tamer? Oh you mean Takato!” Kazu answered, “He’s been falling himself The Digimon Tamer for a while now. Personally, I think he took a few too many hits to the head. Anyway, forget about that. What’s the Digimon King doing here? I bet you’re kicking butt and taking names!”

“Actually I’ve been waiting for a rescue or something close to it. And it sounds like you guys aren’t it. Thanks for getting my hopes up,” Ryo frowned turning to go until he stopped and looked back at Rika, “I hate to be weird, but you look really familiar. Do we know each other?”

He’d forgotten her! What the hell? She should’ve known better than to think anything of this guy. She was about to tell him off when Kazu wrapped an arm around him, “That’s Rika! She’s the Digimon Queen, second only to you in the card game! You recognize her, right? You must’ve kicked her butt a lot in the tournament!”

The look on his face was absolutely priceless. If Kenta’s camera worked, she would’ve taken a photo of him as he pointed at her in disbelief, “Rika? But...you’re so young!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rika was annoyed now. Ryo threw up his hands defensively, “Wait, I mean...the Rika I knew should be in her thirties by now! I haven’t seen her in twenty years! How...I mean...you haven't aged a day.”

“Twenty years? Ryo! You’ve been gone since Christmas. It’s only been a couple of months!” Rika corrected him, watching the look of surprise on his face twist between what must have been a torrent of emotions for him. There was also a look of longing in his eyes, like he wanted something but was unable to get it. It unnerved her and made her take a step back, “What? Take a picture! It’ll last longer.”

“Sorry, it’s just...been such a long time for me,” Ryo offered sheepishly, “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see any one from our world ever again. What are you even doing here?”

“We’re on a rescue mission,” Kenta answered excitedly, “One of our friends got kidnapped and we’re trying to find him! But there was a beam of light and we got separated from the rest of our group. So now we’re just trying to find each other again.”

“Well then you’re in luck,” Ryo gave them a thumbs up and pointed at himself, “I’ve picked up a thing or two since I’ve been stuck here for the last twenty years. There’s a place nearby where we can go find your friends. It’s called the Hallowed Bastion - some kinda old castle with sensors all over the Digital World. Let’s go!”

Today had just taken a really strange turn and Rika was hating every minute of it. On the other hand, they’d found the last person she expected to run into. The last person she expected to find. And maybe he’d be able to help them. Worse case scenario was they’d get stuck here forever. She could think of worse company to be with.

#The Tamer v2 In His Name #Fanfiction #Archive of Our Own #Digimon Tamers #Digimon

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