Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Ethereal ❯ I Don't Know You Anymore ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter IX

Intrusions were never a good thing. They always, always happened when something was going all right. So when Daisuke finally got the chance to sleep properly, of course something had to pop up. He was awakened, naturally, by V-mon and he had to contain himself from punching the digimon out the window. The digimon was nearly frantic and Daisuke had to hold him down in order to get an explanation out of him.

"Something came into the Digital World!! It landed near the Dark Plains!!"

"Fuck."

Daisuke immediately blanched and went into charge mode as he stood up and headed out of his room to the main computer room where amazingly enough, Wallace was.

"What are you doing here?" Daisuke asked as he went to the computer Wallace was standing by. A whole mass of nervous Koromon were jumping around there and Daisuke had to fight his way in order to analyze the situation.

"Just decided to pop in for a bit. I didn't expect all this, though. What's going on?" Wallace replied, staring at Daisuke critically.

"According to V-mon, we have some intruders in the Dark Plains," he answered as he gazed at the current map of the Digital World. Presently there were a few new bright dots beeping along the Dark Plains, making Daisuke hiss. "This is not good," he muttered under his breath as he thought up some ideas of capturing the intruders. They could have been Pathogen's troops trying to get to him-or they could be lost digimon. But they appeared out of nowhere, though. Daisuke got an ominous feeling about it.

Turning around, he looked at Wallace. "You are staying here. I'm heading out with Aero, V-mon, and Agumon to do some spying. There is a possibility that old slimy sent us some of his troops but hey, it's just a possibility so don't worry," he explained quickly as he headed out of the small hut to see three digimon he was speaking about already prepped up and ready to leave. Daisuke grinned at them and headed towards the dragon digimon.

"Be careful, Dais!"

"Of course!"

Daisuke mounted the dragon digimon and with an enthusiastic call, began flying upwards with Agumon and V-mon perched on his shoulders. Wallace watched from below in mild confusion and amusement before heading back inside to calm down the Koromon.

Meanwhile, up in the sky, Daisuke was busy calculating how much distance they would have to cover and how much time they had. If the intruders were digimon, then most likely Pathogen would go after them as well. Daisuke gritted his teeth at this thought. He would not let Pathogen get his hands on innocent digimon without a fight. But why would any digimon be in the Dark Plains? That region was nothing more but a barren wasteland where numerous digimon in the past died. It was akin to the Wilderness, but more treacherous. Even Daisuke didn't dare try to enter the land for there were the spirits of dead digimon lingering there. The lost data of these digimon compiled there and developed into something greater and more terrifying-codenamed ghosts. Nobody knew why lost data went there, but they just knew it did. Perhaps once the Dark Plains were brighter and more like the rest of the Digital World but now it was a graveyard. Daisuke narrowed his eyes as the mists of the region came into view.

"See anything, Aero?"

"Nothing yet."

Daisuke sighed in frustration as they neared the region. Aero began flying lower until they touched the ground. Daisuke jumped off quickly with V-mon and Agumon following doggedly. Aero remained still for a moment before gliding over to Daisuke mutely. The foursome walked on quietly while scanning the area for any signs of life. Daisuke frowned to himself at the dead silence. Were they too late? Did the ghosts already get to them? Or did Pathogen arrive first? Suddenly his ring of questions was cut off by a yell-from Agumon. Daisuke spun around angrily.

"Agumon! What-?" he began before the fire digimon cut him off.

"Taichi!! Taichi!!" Agumon shouted joyously as he bounded forward like a hound. Daisuke was left standing in shock with V-mon and Aero looking at him expectantly.

"Taichi?" he murmured again before blinking in realization. He started running after Agumon. If Taichi really was there then… Daisuke couldn't even think about it. He didn't want to put his hopes up too high. But if Agumon kept running like that, he was going to attract the ghosts' attention to them. Daisuke cursed under his breath as he finally caught up with the digimon and grabbed him by the shoulders.

Agumon squirmed in Daisuke's grip but the boy didn't relent. He glared at the lizard digimon dangerously. "Calm down, Agumon. We can't risk the ghosts ganging up on us!" he hissed. Agumon seemed to realize this and calmed down noticeably. Daisuke sighed and looked at V-mon and Aero warily.

"Keep your eyes on the watch. I got a bad feeling about this place," he warned. The two digimon nodded understandingly and V-mon remained quiet, which was very unusual for him.

As they continued trekking down the misty area, Agumon's words kept running through Daisuke's mind over and over. Taichi!! Taichi!! Could it really be that they had returned? Agumon was usually a stable digimon. He wouldn't just react like that for nothing. Daisuke remained grim, however.

After a few more minutes, Daisuke stopped and turned to his companions. "I think we should head back. There doesn't seem to be anything h-" he started to say before a loud cry in the distance silenced him. Daisuke froze and looked at Aero sternly. "What do you hear?" he asked the digimon, who had the most sensitive hearing out of all of them.

"Humans," he answered quietly.

Daisuke blinked before starting to run off in the direction where the cry was sounded. The digimon hurried after him, half in fear and half in curiosity. The lands and trees seemed to speed by Daisuke in a whirl as he ran towards his destination. There was nothing on his mind except getting to that point. Humans…humans was what Aero said and he never lied. Daisuke kept that in mind as he began to run even faster. When Wallace first came into the Digital World, he had thought it might have been the other Destined, but now… Could it really have been them? It had to be more than a coincidence that Agumon would scream out Taichi's name and Aero identify the cry as humans. Daisuke nearly went into a blind rush now. It has to be… If it isn't… The boy couldn't even think of the possibilities.

When he finally came upon the scene, Daisuke was breathless and ready to collapse from exhaustion. Aero, Agumon, and V-mon joined up with him wordlessly and eyed the picture before them in shock. There was perhaps the largest ghost they had ever seen hovering in the air and below it-a group of humans. Daisuke stared at them in complete astonishment. They were trying to fight off the ghost, which seemed to have a brown-haired girl in its grip. Daisuke stared at the girl harder. Hikari. The name made its way into his mind slowly as he stood up. The others were trying to release the ghost's grip on her and the ghost grew furious. It lashed out one of its arms and it passed straight through the blond one's arm, weakening him to a degree. Daisuke slowly began to register each person's face. Ken, Taichi, Koushirou, Yamato, and…Takeru. It was as if someone sounded an alarm for Daisuke then bounded forward with the three digimon behind him.

"Aero, you know what to do!" Daisuke shouted at the digimon. The digimon nodded before gathering energy for an attack. Aero's specialty was lightning attacks and he released one particularly powerful one at the ghost. Of course ghosts were nothing but complied old data and the attack had no consequence on it, but it did surprise it into letting go of Hikari.

The ghost eventually dissolved away, leaving the others staring at each other in shock. Hikari was being fussed over by a terrified Taichi and Takeru was clutching onto a bleeding arm, a look of relief on his face. Yamato, Koushirou, and Ken were all laughing at the near death situation they were in before Yamato spotted Daisuke and the three digimon. He stared at them blankly before turning to face Takeru in question. Finally the entire group faced Daisuke and they stared at each other in silence for a while until Hikari stepped forward timidly.

"Daisuke?" she asked. Daisuke looked at Hikari suddenly. His expression remained impassive until slowly a smile made its way to his face.

"Hey," he replied softly. Hikari squealed in happiness as she hugged him. Agumon couldn't hold in his joy anymore as he ran forward and jumped onto Taichi, who stared at the digimon in horrified shock. His memory was still patchy but somehow the digimon brought him a sense of happiness and joy that mystified him.

Finally after a few seconds passed, they all looked at each other again. Hikari was smiling at Daisuke and the others were all grinning as well, save Takeru, who remained still. Daisuke's eyes hardened as they stopped on the blond.

"So…you finally decided to come back, huh?" he asked icily. The atmosphere seemed to lose some of its enthusiasm as Daisuke spoke. Takeru stared back at Daisuke before answering.

"Well, sorry it took so long," he replied in an emotionless tone. Everyone stared at the two in surprise and Hikari, Ken, and Koushirou wore sad expressions for they were the only ones who knew why Daisuke was so angry with Takeru. Daisuke stared hard at Takeru for one last time before turning to the others.

"So! I guess we ought to be heading back. You really did place one hell of a place to land in you know," he exclaimed cheerfully as he placed an arm around Hikari. They began walking away while Yamato lingered by Takeru worriedly.

"Are you all right?" he asked lightly, gazing at Takeru's bleeding arm.

Takeru's grip on it seemed to tighten as he nodded. "Fine," he stated simply as he began following Daisuke's trail. Yamato frowned at Takeru before shaking his head in confusion. Something was definitely wrong between Takeru and Daisuke but he still couldn't figure it out. It aggravated Yamato that he couldn't remember everything but it was returning to him slowly. Maybe then he would get some answers. Sighing, the blond began walking after his brother.

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"I really think you should get this arm checked out by Daisuke," Koushirou remarked worriedly as he watched Takeru's face scrunch up in pain when Yamato wrapped some white gauze around his wound.

The blond merely shook his head and concentrated on not crying out in pain. The wound was strange-looking, yes, with slim, red codes running down the side of his arm from his elbow to the side of left wrist. It still scorched at any touch and Takeru found it difficult to move.

Suddenly the door slammed open, revealing Hikari and Ken followed by a new person with blond hair. Hikari and Ken joined Koushirou on the couch while the stranger remained standing, a smile on his face. Takeru eyed him warily before Daisuke came in just that second.

"Where are the others?" Daisuke began.

Takeru glanced at the others and noticed the uneasy expressions on their faces before sighing. "We weren't able to find them yet," he finally answered, grimacing slightly as Yamato tucked in the last piece.

Daisuke stared hard at Takeru. "So why did you bother coming with only half of you?" he asked shortly, his tone cold. This time it was Hikari who answered.

"We wanted to see how you were and try to get some facts of the situation here. I'm sure we'll find the others easily enough," she said in a rush, trying to avoid any conflict. She had seen the look in Daisuke's eyes when he addressed Takeru, and she did not like it all.

The dark-haired boy frowned slightly before crossing his arms. The stranger beside him seemed to shift slightly and this caused Daisuke to jump. "Oh! This is my friend, Wallace. He's from the real world as well and as far as I can tell, a potential Destined," he introduced, gesturing to the blond.

"Hello all," Wallace greeted with a grin on his face. Everyone seemed to smile back at the boy's cheerfulness. Daisuke scratched his head before sitting down on a wooden chair reluctantly.

"So…how's everything in the real world?"

"I think it's us who should be asking you questions," Ken remarked quickly. Daisuke looked at him in surprise before smiling slightly. "So what happened here in the last four years, huh? How did you survive? How's Pathogen? How're the digimon?" he asked in a hurry.

Daisuke laughed at Ken's eagerness before placing his hands in front of him. "Whoa, slow down, pal. I can't talk that fast you know," he said, before taking a deep breath. "In the last four years I've basically been hopping all over the Digital World trying to gather what reinforcement I could I get and led, unsuccessfully, a campaign against Pathogen. Most of the digimon that are part of that campaign are still around but some have been taken over by Pathogen. After our last fight with him, I basically fled and went back to Gennai's place. Pathogen is still growing stronger every day and soon, all the digimon will be under his control. You guys came pretty much at the right time."

There was a long pause after Daisuke's explanation before Taichi finally spoke up.

"Umm…and how are we involved in this?" he inquired in confusion. Hikari sighed in exasperation while Daisuke looked at him in wonder.

"Don't you remember?"

Taichi continued wearing the same clueless expression as Daisuke stared down at him. "Remember what?"

"Taichi and Yamato haven't quite remembered their pasts yet," Ken cut in before Daisuke could question Taichi any further. The latter looked at him in obvious surprise.

"Are you serious? My God…that is weird," he remarked to himself, his tone curious. He looked at Wallace for a second before sighing. Crossing his arms, Daisuke looked at everyone fiercely. "So you guys managed to break into Pathogen's firewalls, eh? I never would have thought that would happen."

Koushirou grinned and gestured to Takeru. "He was the one who gave us the program that was supposed to lead to the Digital World," he said before looking at Takeru in mystification. "How did you get that thing anyway?"

"I have a good memory," Takeru replied quickly. "But it wouldn't have worked anyway unless…" he wondered aloud as he looked at Daisuke quickly. The dark-haired boy nodded slightly.

"Me and a few of the other digimon took down the Lighthouse a few weeks ago. We pissed off Pathogen quite a bit and nearly got deleted for it if it hadn't been for Aero's quick flying," he replied, smiling slightly at the digimon's name.

Takeru nodded slowly and thought to himself. Aero… He had been the one who found the rookie digimon in a lying heap of ruins. Back then Aero was still quiet but a lot smaller and showed much potential for flying. Aero was also very attached to Takeru and the blond smiled slightly at the memory. That white and silver dragon he saw before with Daisuke must have been Aero-he had changed quite a bit.

"So Wallace? How did you get here if the Lighthouse was still blocking off any outside invaders?" Ken inquired.

The blond looked slightly taken back by the question but smiled nonetheless. "I guess the old-fashioned way. I got sucked into my computer. To this day I still don't know how I managed to get through the defenses of Pathogen's system, but I did. When I met up with Daisuke, he brought me to Gennai who dubbed me a 'potential Destined,'" he explained.

Everyone nodded slightly in wonder while Yamato and Taichi looked even more than confused. They just stood and agreed with whatever Wallace and the others said, though to them it made a very faint sense, as if they had heard it all somewhere before but just couldn't quite note where. Hikari was cheered up by Wallace's presence. He was very light spoken and upbeat-something that reminded her of…Takeru's former self before all of this. She eyed him carefully and thought sadly of what had changed in him.

"Well, I guess you guys are going to stay over tonight, eh?" remarked Daisuke as he leaned back against his seat comfortably. "I don't mind since we have a lot of room. And it'll also give us a chance to catch up on old times," he added with a grin.

Hikari grinned back and glanced at Ken and Koushirou for a second, who nodded back at her with secret smiles.

"Sorry, we can't join you, Dais. We got a lead on where Jyou, Miyako, and Iori are and Hikari, Koush, and I want to investigate on it. But we can join you tomorrow maybe," Ken said slowly, as if still pondering whether or not what he said was right. Takeru looked at him in surprise, but the dark-haired youth ignored his stare. This had been something they had planned for quite a while now.

Daisuke looked at Ken dubiously before frowning to himself. "All right then…so it'll be me, Wallace, Taichi, Yamato, and…Takeru," he murmured. Ken smiled.

"Yeah, maybe you and Takeru could help jog up Taichi and Yamato's memories, eh?" he suggested as casually as he could.

Most likely Takeru had figured out their agenda by now and Ken prayed the blond wouldn't be mad. They all had known that things between Daisuke and Takeru would be a bit fragile considering what had happened. Though their memories were erased, Takeru escaped with it intact. Daisuke had somehow remained in the Digital World for some unknown reason, probably out of an effort to bring Takeru to the real world and it had took the blond four years to come back. Daisuke must have told Takeru to come for them, Ken guessed. But Takeru didn't give any explanation as to why he remained almost obsolete for the past four years. And if they were confused, Daisuke must have been more than furious with the blond. This was Ken's theory, as well as everyone else's. But there were still gaps waiting to be filled in by Takeru.

Daisuke shifted in his chair and looked at Takeru's direction. "Great," he said darkly. Ken laughed nervously and turned around to face the blond.

"So we're going to be heading back now, okay? We'll see you tomorrow most likely…or even the next day. I don't know how long it'll take to convince the other guys to come with us," he said.

Takeru's eyes remained fixated on the wall behind Ken as he nodded faintly. The dark-haired boy frowned slightly at this and was about to say something before Hikari and Koushirou came up behind him, pulling his arm towards the door.

"Then we'll see you guys soon and with us shall come the rest of the Destined! Have no fear!" Hikari exclaimed in a mock Taichi imitation. The older boy seemed to realize this and glared at his sister angrily before she and the rest headed out the door.

Again there was a long pause before Yamato spoke.

"So…where are we again?"

"This is going to be a long night," Daisuke muttered to himself as Takeru silently agreed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

TBC