Chapter 2: Beginnings
~~ Kakeru
"How do we get there?" Ryo asked again when none of the grandparents answered him.
"You don't, said Tillie. "You are not going to get involved. Your parents made us promise them that no matter what happened to them that we wouldn't let you guys leave for the Digiworld."
"They can't protect us forever," Hime said. "We can't just sit here and do nothing."
Kitana nodded. "With your help or without, we are going. We have to. I'm not going to lose my father. We won't give up our parents without a fight."
"We don't know any way to get into the Digi-World." Lacie said.
I stood up. "Well, if you don't know, you don't know. We'll have to find another way." The rest of the team followed my lead and began to walk out. Except for Kitana, she was looking into her grandmother's eyes and she stated with calm certainty:
"You're lying."
"Nani?" Grace replied.
"You're lying, you know a way, but you won't tell us." The Grandmothers looked at each other. Then Grace sighed.
"Yes, we know a possible way." She got up and left the room, coming back a few seconds later holding a box. "These were your parent's Digi-vices. They used them to get to the Digi-World. But, Each one was made specifically for each of them, they may not work for you." She opened the box and looked inside. "I'll give each of you one of the ones that belonged to your parents, but it is your choice which one you take." She moved to stand in front of Ryo and I. She held out two Digi-vices. "This one belonged to Tai," she said indicating her right hand, "And this one to Sora." Ryo looked at them, thinking, I chose quickly. I took my mother's. Ryo looked at me a question in his eyes.
"Dad's suits you better, you're more like him than I am." Hime took the one belonging to her father, Joe. Her sister Reika, her mother's. Mai got Kari's and Motoki TK's. Eiji took his father's. Which left Hibiki and Kitana.
~~Kitana~~
Grandma stood in front of me, my mother's Digi-vice in one hand my father's in the other. I couldn't pick. I didn't know my Mother, so I didn't know whom I was more like. Dad's Digi-vice was a metallic blue, his favorite color I suppose. Mom's was metallic purple. I decided to take the one with my favorite color, then I realized I loved both in the same amounts, I wore both of them often. In fact I wore both colors now. I looked at my Grandmother and raised my eyebrows. She shrugged. 'No help there.' I thought. I didn't want to choose between them. I closed my eyes took a deep breath and took both of them into my hands. One of them hummed with power, energy I could use, that was the one I chose. The other I tossed to Hibiki. "I think it'll work for you. Don't ask how, but I think it will." He nodded.
"So now what, how do these things work?" Ryo asked.
"I don't think they'll work indoors." Eiji commented.
"How do you know?" asked Motoki.
"Well.."
"Don't please!" Mai shouted. "We trust you Eiji, you don't have to give us a lecture!" Eiji blushed while the rest of the kids laughed.
"Let's head to the park, I like it there." Kakeru suggested. We agreed and left after giving our grandparents hugs and reassuring them that we'd be back. Out in the hall Ryo suggested that we go back to our apartments and pick up anything else we thought we would need. Half an hour later we all were in the park.
"What is she doing here?" Ryo asked Hime. She looked behind and up, where perched on a tree, was a red-tailed hawk. Hime shrugged. The hawk was their pet. It was smuggled from America to Japan, and somehow got away from the person that bought it. It got electrocuted on a power line and was taken to Mimi's animal hospital. After the poor thing recovered, Mimi was unable to find it a home. So she trained it and it became Hime's pet. She named it Maria, after the person in one of her mother's favorite songs.
"She refused to stay at home," Hime whistled and Maria flew down onto Hime's arm that was covered in a tough leather gauntlet. Hime shrugged. "I thought you guys would have changed clothes, I know you hate to dress exactly alike Kakeru." She said, but she said it to Ryo.
"I'm Ryo, that's Kakeru."
"Oops, Gomen. So why are you two dressed alike?" Hime asked.
"Well, we wanted to drive the camp counselors crazy." Kakeru said. "We were too busy trying to decide what to do next that we forgot about what we were wearing."
"Can we go now?" asked Motoki.
"Yes, it's about time we left." Mai said. The rest of the kids nodded, and held out their parents Digi-vices so that they were in a circle. The portal appeared and the kids stepped through.
~~Ryo~~
When we arrived in the Digi-world we all looked around us and saw that there was not a single digimon in sight. I sighed, 'well this is a great start, aren't we supposed to have guardians or partners or something?' I thought.
Eiji was already on his computer. "Okay, I transferred some of my dad's files on the Digiworld into my laptop. I have a map, and a list of people who might want to help us."
"Where'd you find that?" asked Hibiki
"Uh..."
"You hacked into Dad's private files didn't you!!! Oh, man, we're in trouble, he's going to be so MAD at us when we get home." Hibiki said. "Who taught you how to do that anyway?"
"Dad."
"Oh, well, I guess he can't really be mad then." Eiji shook his head and continued what he was saying. "Anyway, we're pretty close to Genni's house. He was kind of our parent's, umm, you know, like Yoda to Luke Skywalker." Kitana had one of those 'Ohhkayyy...' looks on her face.
"How far is it?" I asked.
"If we walk the whole day with two one hour stops, I think we can make it there by early morning tomorrow."
I cringed, could we survive a whole day in the Digi-world without any digimon to protect us? "Well if we're careful, be quiet as possible and do nothing to attract attention we should be able to avoid any bad digimon." And as if on cue a Snimon decided to come after us. "AHHHHH!!! Run! Which way Eiji?"
"This way!" Eiji took lead and they ran into the forest in the direction of Genni's house. Maria flew effortlessly behind us. A few hours later we finally lost him by hiding in one of the hollow trees. After we thought he was gone we cautiously stepped out. Eiji reevaluated our situation. "I think, with all that running we did, we can reach our destination tonight."
"There's a but in there somewhere." Kitana said. Eiji nodded surprised.
"Well, we can't take any stops." Everyone looked at me.
'Why me? I'm not sure what to do. I know that the older kids can make it, I'm just worried about Reika and Motoki.' "Do you guys think you can walk that far with no stops?" Everyone nodded bravely including our youngest members. "All right, we'll go for it. If it starts to seem as if we can't make it I guess we'll have to stop for the night. I don't want to push it to the point where we won't be able to fight against anything that tries to pick a fight." After everyone consented to the plan we began the trek. Around nine o'clock we got to where Eiji said Genni's house should be, but there was nothing but a lake. Suddenly the lake parted revealing stairs. Eiji shrugged.
"I guess we go down them." He said. Kitana shrugged. "Whatever, at this point I don't care how weird it gets as long as it means I can sit down somewhere." With those words she marched down the stairs.
~~Tai~~
I woke up in a large stone room, I remembered what happened to me; Sora and I had been attacked by Evil digimon, and we lost the fight. I didn't want to open my eyes, afraid I would find myself in the apartment, and Sora dead. My whole body ached, and I could feel that I was lying on a metal table, and that there were shackles around my wrists, ankles, and waist. I heard a soft moan somewhere off to my right, so I knew I wasn't alone. I opened my eyes to see that all the Digidestined on tables similar to mine, some more awake than others. I saw Sora on the table next to me, her eyes were closed and she was breathing quietly. "Sora, Sora, wake up." I said Her brandy brown eyes opened.
"Tai? Where Are we?" she asked me.
"Is everyone here?" I asked out loud.
"No! Ellis isn't here!" Izzy said panicked. "She got taken too I saw it."
A dark familiar laugh filled the room. "Myotismon." Kari whispered
"Don't fret about the girl, Digidestined." Myotismon said to Izzy. "I have her in stasis somewhere else."
"If you hurt her-" Izzy began.
"I wouldn't worry about her right now," Myotismon smiled evilly. "Right now I would be worried about myself." He waved a hand in a circle, and out of thin air, a syringe filled with a black fluid appeared in his hand. I sucked in a shaky breath. "I'd be worried about what's in this shot."
"What's in that!" Mimi demanded an angry look on her face.
"Just a little something that will corrupt you into working for me." Myotismon smirked. "I'm going to let you destroy the new Digidestined."
"What?" Matt breathed. Then, as realization sunk in, "No, Kitana."
TK swore loudly and heatedly. "If you harm any of them I will rip your heart out of your chest with my own two hands, assuming you have one!!"
Myotismon smiled mockingly and then said "Who's first?" He looked at the Digidestined one at a time, thinking, and then, to my horror, looked straight at Kari. "No! Leave her alone!!" I shouted. TK was shouting just as loud. Myotismon walked to stand next to Kari. That's when I saw it; a ripple in the air, a movement, but no one was there.
"STOP WHERE YOU ARE!!!!!" A female voice boomed through the room. The ripple in the air turned into a transparent version of a woman I hadn't seen for fourteen years (Give or take a few). Raina Ishida. Matt's eyes were wide and disbelieving, but under it all, he seemed happy to see her.
"I knew you were hanging around somewhere. Or should I say, floating?"
"Stop right now Myotismon, or suffer the consequences." She said in a commanding tone.
"I'm calling your bluff dear, you can't harm me or anyone in the living realm. Even if you ran for help they wouldn't get here in time." Raina's confident stance disappeared and she sighed in defeat. Myotismon took the final steps towards Kari's table... and suddenly, in desperation, Raina lunged at him. Her fist back ready for a punch. I held my breath, hoping she could do something to save my sister's life, like she had so many times before. But when her spirit reached Myotismon's body, it went right through him. Raina's 'body' halted, floated, a few centimeters off the floor. As if she was still alive, she propped herself up on one elbow. Myotismon looked down at her. "Told you so."
"Bastard." Raina growled.
"Tsk, tsk, such language from a proper young lady."
"I never was a 'proper young lady' Myotismon." She returned.
"True." Myotismon now stood next to Kari. He reached out with his hand and stroked her cheek, Kari tried to move away but the binders held tight.
"Get your hands off her!" TK shouted. The rest of us were shouting Kari's name, as if it would somehow stop what was happening.
"TK!!" Kari shouted as Myotismon stuck her with the shot. "Ahhhh!" She screamed in pain, before passing out.
'Kari, no... I can't believe this is happening, I thought we were through fighting, that we were free to have lives. That our kids wouldn't have to fight our battles.' Tai thought. I fought tears, but even though I didn't want them to, they still ran out from beneath my eyelids.
"Not so brave now, are you Digidestined?" Myotismon gloated.
I opened my eyes and looked at Myotismon, then said the only three words that came to my mind: "Screw you Myotismon."
~~
Half and hour later, at least I think it was half an hour, Matt and I were the only ones left. Raina floated in the corner nearest to Matt who was at the end of the row of tables. I suppose he was too tired to struggle as Myotismon made his slow way towards him, he just lay quietly, acceptingly. I wanted to shout, to scream, but my throat was raw. Raina was crying again, she had run out of tears about the time that Myotismon turned Joe. Now that she saw that her husband was next she began to cry silently once more. She stared at Matt's indigo blue eyes, and he stared back. Neither said anything, but, just as Myotismon was about to give Matt the injection, Raina turned around and fled, floating through the wall, going to who knows where. Matt nodded and smiled very slightly; I almost didn't see it. A few moments later, Matt was gone and I was alone. I closed my eyes and waited. Myotismon began to mock me but I ignored him, instead, I fell into myself, searching for happier memories. The time Izzy fell in love with that girl he met on our vacation to America. My first kiss from Sora. Matt's restaurant's Grand Opening, the way he had smiled when he saw that everyone loved the food. Kari's wedding day, and watching her walk down the aisle. Mimi announcing her engagement, all smiles and giggles. Joe reluctantly helping them set up a prank on one of their teachers in collage, and his laugh at the final result. TK making the winning basket for his high school team. My favorite birthday present from Sora. She had bought a picture holder for me; it had a base with soccer shoes, and a soccer ball, lying on a small bed of green grass. A wire came up from the middle, on top of that was a soccer ball that had a slit in it to put the picture in. I felt the prick of the needle, and then pain as the poison began to distribute through my body, desperately I latched on to my happier memories. The picture frame, I put it on my desk and for awhile it just sat there empty then, when Ryo and Kakeru were born, I put a picture of them in it. Every year I got a new one, but my favorite one was one TK had taken of the four of us. Sora was holding Kakeru up trying to coax him to walk to where Kari and TK sat across from them. I was doing the same for Ryo. TK hadn't been able to resist getting a picture. Ryo and Kakeru's first steps, their first day of school, teaching them to ride their bikes... The pain increased to the point where I couldn't ignore it anymore. As I blacked out my last thoughts were 'Ryo, Kakeru, Sora, I'm sorry, I wish there was some way I could stop this. But I'm too tired to fight anymore, I so tired I can't even scream.'
~~Motoki~~
Genni was nice and helpful. He seemed to be expecting us too, he was standing at the foot of the stairs. He led us inside to the kitchen, where he had supper ready and waiting. He even had a perch for Maria to stand on. Ryo had wanted to get right down to business but Genni wouldn't have it.
"You need to rest before you fight, talk of battles will come tomorrow." He said.
"All right." Ryo agreed. Soon we all began to break off into separate conversations. Genni told us stories about our parent's adventures and what they were like when they were kids. Reika laughed with her pretty laugh when she heard about the time that Joe said he was a nuisance because he was a teenager, to the bad guy of the day. After dinner was done Genni told us where there were rooms that we could rest in, and we all began to file out of the kitchen.
"Kitana," Genni said suddenly.
She turned, smiled and said, "Yes"
"I would like to tell you a few things."
Kitana nodded and turned to Hibiki, who was standing next to her. She gently put a hand on his arm "I'll be along in a minute." I saw Eiji's frown. Hibiki nodded and smiled at her before leaving.
'Are Hibiki and Eiji in love with Kitana?' I thought. 'Oh well, even if they were, I don't think those two would fight over a girl, what's more, I don't think Kitana would let them.' I looked around the room I was going to spend the night in. I looked around the room I was going to spend the night in. It was simply decorated, and furnished but I felt at ease. The walls were colored country yellow, and a bed with blue sheets was in one corner. I set my bag on the wooden desk on the adjacent wall, and got ready for bed. I just stared at the ceiling for awhile, thinking. I had a feeling that this adventure was going to be harder than we thought. Something bad was going to happen, but I didn't know what, after awhile I fell asleep.
~~Kitana~~
Genni had wanted to know if I knew where my Mother's crest was. I told him the same thing I had told my Grandma. I had never seen the crest in my entire life. Genni looked skeptical, as though he didn't buy it, but let me go to bed without further questions. I walked into my room; it had a bed, a bookshelf with very few books, and a desk that looked as though someone had used it at some point. There was a small radio with a cassette player on the desk that had a bit of dust on it. I put my backpack on the top of the desk and in the process knocked something off the edge and onto the floor. 'This backpack is so clunky.' I thought. I took a second glance at it. I unzipped it and took out the wooden box. I tapped my foot, and glanced at the door. I toyed with the idea of opening the box and looking at the Crest. Then changed my mind. I hated to lie and if I saw the Crests than I couldn't say I had never seen them. 'Oh, one quick peek.' I opened the box a crack and took out the first thing that came to hand. Surprisingly it wasn't a crest. The first ting I touched was a small book. Confused I took it out shut the box, and opened the book, the Crest forgotten. It was a diary. Filled with small neat handwriting. Just from the purple cover I knew it had belonged to my mother. I read well into the night.
~~Genni~~
It was late, the kids had fallen asleep two hours ago, but I had stayed up restless. I sat in the kitchen alone, thinking about how things had turned out in the end. Not the way anyone wanted I suppose. I know that they had wanted quiet lives, and happy endings, and quite frankly, calling in the new Digi-destined was the last thing I wanted to do, but it couldn't be helped. I knew that Kitana had Raina's Crest with her, and not only her's but Matt's as well. I felt the energy of them near her. I wondered if she would be able to use them to supplement her power.
"GENNI!!!" Raina floated through my kitchen door and then stammered "Myotismon, h-he- I couldn't stop him, I ran..." she flitted about the kitchen not making any sense.
"Raina! RAINA!" I moved into her path. "Get a hold of yourself! What happened?"
" I left him, I left!! I should have stayed!" She stammered. Floating down into a kitchen chair.
"Raina! You're hysterical! Calm down and tell me what happened." When she finished her story I was shocked to say the least. This made things infinitely more difficult.
"Now what? The kids can't fight their parents. It's too.." Raina trailed off.
"I don't think we have an choice about this. Raina, I've taken the liberty of calling some old friends who are willing to fight against Myotismon. They'll be here tomorrow."
Raina nodded. "I guess we'll start working tomorrow. Listen, I don't want Kitana to know about me. I don't think the idea that her mother's a spirit stuck on this world would please her."
"Very well, I think I'll head to bed. Goodnight, Raina."
"Goodnight."
~~
AN: So ends another chapter of my story. Next the kids are going to meet their Digimon and receive their Crests. Getting them will be easy, making them glow will be hard. It will also feature the debut of Alita, an old girlfriend of Izzy's, remember that girl that Tai mentioned Izzy falling in love with on vacation? That's her. That story, Izzy's First Love is in the works. So see ya in the next chapter.
