Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Emperor ❯ Eclipse ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Alright, so, I'm gonna try a fic that's a bit more mainstream and in the style of the adventures they had in the actual show. This is a fairly original idea, though I may borrow concepts from popular culture here and there.

This takes place...after the defeat of Malomyotismon, minus the stuff about there being thousands of digidestined, and then at the end everyone becomes a digidestined, because I hate that. Just sticking with the traditional twelve digidestined plus a few added of my own creation.

Rated K+ for some violence, maybe the occasional dirty word. I'd say it's more or less on par with what was shown in the show during the end of Adventure 02, so in that context I think that's a fair rating.

Also, please review if you read, if I get the sense that people are reading and enjoying my fic I'm more likely to work quicker to write it.

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Chapter One: Eclipse

"No. No, you need to steal some nuts to breed Chocobos. Go to...go back to bone village, then head south and cop some nuts off the monsters on the island right there. You need nuts to breed a golden chocobo." TK reinterated.

"Don't tell me what to do." Davis said dismissively. "Maybe I'll flatten that island with Bahamut, ever think of that?"

"It doesn't work like-...fine, you know what? Whatever, it's your loss. You know I'm right, you just don't want to admit it." TK put his right hand on his forehead. "As soon as I leave, you'll head right to those islands."

"Will not!"

"Okay, okay, I don't care." TK sighed. "Do whatever you want." He leaned back on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. "Lemme know when you're willing to take some advice."

Davis was lying prone on the floor, controller in hand, looking up at the television screen. "Yeah, yeah, you just watch."

"You mean like, watch you fail? I do that too much as it is."

"Can you just-"

And then, a shrill ring came from TK's jacket, askew on the bed. "Mine." He said casually, reaching up for it. He fumbled inside the pockets for a minute. "C'mon, c'mon..." and then, he had it. He pulled it and and placed the earpiece up to his ear as he pressed a green button on the upper left of the face. "Yes?"

"Hey, it's Izzy. We've got a new development."

"No Kari, I told you, the tongue thing was an accident. I don't care if you liked it, I'm not doing it anymore." TK replied, watching Davis freeze up.

A pause from the other side of the connection. Then, a sigh. "Will you stop messing with Davis? If he has a coronary we'll be down one digidestined."

The magic word snapped TK back into serious mode. He knew Izzy wouldn't have mentioned 'digidestined' if it wasn't relevant to what he had to say. "What is it, Izzy?" He glanced back down at Davis, who was rolling over to face him. He put his fingers to his lips and lightly tapped the face again, putting it on speaker mode.

"Well, don't get too excited, but...you remember that old western style town? The ghost town?"

"Sure, what about it?"

"Well, I've just received word that a...foreign object has appeared in the town center."

"You mean like a clean drinking glass?" Davis asked. TK couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

"This might be serious, Davis. It's been described as a crystal about six inches in length. It's just...appeared in the middle of the town."

"And this might be serious...how?" Davis couldn't resist asking, feeling Izzy was being slightly paranoid.

"Well...they're unable to get near it. They've claimed that there's...a great energy coming from it and it prevents them from getting too close."

"Count me in." TK replied. "I don't like the sounds of this, it's our duty to check it out." He briskly hung up, placed the phone back in his jacket, and jumped up as he put it back on. "You know, it occurs to me that a good 'leader' should be there too."

"I know, I know. I'm going. But why'd he call you before me?" He suddenly demanding, realizing the implications of such an action.

"He was going alphabetically." TK said casually as he booted up Davis's computer.

"Oh...right."

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"Alright, this is everyone I could get to come." Izzy said as he counted off Tai, Sora, Davis, Ken, TK, Kari, and himself.

"Some digidestined group we are." Tai grumbled, looking down at the sand.

"Calm down, Tai. This is probably nothing, we can't expect everyone to show up over a strange crystal."

"I guess. This isn't gonna take long, it wouldn't kill Matt to put his guitar down for two seconds and-"

"Hostile much?" Ken asked, looking at Tai warily.

"Sorry! Sorry, it's nothing."

He looked to his right and saw Sora and Kari talking in private. "Hey, hey! Let's see some distance over there!" He walked up to the pair, pushing them apart. "Break it up, break it up! No secretive discussions."

Suddenly, Davis's face went blank. "Hey...wait! If he was going alphabetically, I would have gone before you! D comes before T!"

TK turned to Davis. "You think? Perceptive, very perceptive."

Davis just gave a strangled growl before turning back to face Izzy.

"If everybody could please leave their personal lives here, we can get going now!" Izzy said, a slight touch of annoyance in his voice. “I told our partners to wait for us by the crystal.”

The group began to stroll towards the town just a short distance from where they had landed. It was a barren desert as advertised, sandy with hills and valleys, occasional tumbleweeds, cacti, and wind blasts. And what was worse, extremely hot.

"Jeez, you'd think Oikawa could have cleaned up a bit around here when he-"

Sora gave a light gasp, and Tai grabbed Davis by the back of his shirt.

"Go on. Finish it." He said flatly.

"Ermm...when he...you know-”

“Come on, guys. What’s the deal? Nobody tries to destroy the world for two months and we all turn into this? We’re a team, we need to start acting like it.” Izzy said to the pair. “That goes for everyone.”

“You’re right.” Sora finally said after a short moment of silence. “C’mon guys, this might be serious. What if something happens because we were too busy bickering?”

A newfound silence struck the group at this thought, and they continued the march on.

They went over a small hill in the sand, and present before them just over it was the ghost town.

Except it was hardly a ghost town anymore. The town was alive and jumping with dozens of digimon of all shapes and sizes going about their business. And that was just what they could immediately see, there could easily have been hundreds more inside the facilities themselves. The saloon's doors almost never stopped swinging as digimon walked in and out. Across from that, a goods store was filled with activity. Just beside it, what appeared to be a hotel had constant movement in and out of it's doors.

“Nice to see it made a comeback.” Tai stated as they walked into the town itself. “Sure is alive alright.”

“This kind of thing is exactly what we fought for so many times.” Sora said slowly. “It’s beautiful.”

“Yes indeed. Now where’s that sheriff guy...Starmon I think it was.” Davis said, looking about.

“Nevermind that. There it is!” Kari stated, pointing into the middle of the town. Sure enough, a small object reflecting the sunlight was set right in the middle of a four way intersection. Anybody passing through the intersection seemed to avoid it, as if surrounded by an imaginary wall ten feet in diameter. Otherwise, they ignored it, not overly concerned with what it could do or what it might mean. Their partners were gathered around the object, waiting.

They ran through the crowd, pushing through unconcerned digimon, going rather unrecognized inspite of the fact that they were human.

“Geez, for an old western style town it sure feels like a concrete jungle.” Ken noted. “We could be walking around with chainsaws and nobody would care. It’s like New York City.”

“You’re not kidding.” Davis added. “Lets get this over with, I don’t like this place.”

“It’s a walking contradiction.” Izzy mused. “Funny.”

“Hey guys.” Patamon said as the group walked into the circle around the crystal. “Check this out.”

The group looked it over. It was a crystal about six inches long, an octagonal tube that tapered at both ends into dull points. It was standing on end, seemingly balancing on one of it’s tips. It was very shiny and clean, you could see right through it to the other side. It could have easily passed for a wind chime piece.

“Okay, so...what’re we looking at?” TK inquired. "It's...a crystal. Can I take it home and convert it into a decoration? My mom's birthday is coming up."

"Sure, if you can grab it." Gatomon responded. "Go ahead, try it."

TK looked around. "Alright then." He rolled up his sleeves. "Nothing to it." He began walking up towards it, aware of all the eyes beating down on him.

And then, he suddenly felt a strange weight dragging him down. As if gravity had suddenly tripled, trying to pull him down to earth. He tried to ignore it and continue pushing towards it, but with every step it got worse. He felt as if something was coming down from the skies, pressuring him with several tons of weight. His limbs started to ache, and breathing was becoming a labor. He was within three feet of it, then it was too much. He fell to his knees, pushing hard on the ground, afraid he'd be crushed into nothing if he let up.

He looked up with great effort. Everything was blurred and hazy. It looked as if massive amounts of steam were emitting from the sand and rising up into the air. Foolishly, he tried to crawl forward, not yet giving up on getting to the crystal.

Every time he pushed himself an inch closer to it, the pressure got worse and worse. Yet, he couldn't stop. He could not let himself give up. He had to have that crystal...had to...

He was within a foot now, and felt his eyeballs might very well pop, and could care less. He reached out, preparing to lunge the final distance. He propped his legs up to pounce, and then leaped forward.

His hand came down on top of the crystal, but could go no further than about an inch from it. No matter how he push, his hand would not go through the invisible barrier that just surrounded.

The pressure was unbearable. He thought he may very well get crushed into nothing. But he wouldn't leave without that crystal.

He had to have it...had to...

And then, he felt someone grab him by the feet and pull him back. He tried to claw at the crystal one last time, but to no avail. There was nothing to grab onto except desert sand, and after a moment the pressure was gone. He was now several feet from the crystal, feeling perfectly fine.

He turned over and saw Tai at his feet, having been the dragger. "You alright, TK? What was that?"

He shook his head violently, then started to push himself up. He saw the entire group crowded around him. "I don't know. It was...I was being crushed by something. But I couldn't leave."

"How?" Izzy inquired.

TK paused, then turned around to look back at the crystal. "I'm not sure, I just...I thought I couldn't leave until I had it. I thought..."

"What?" Kari asked, looking just a little worried.

"...I thought that I'd be willing to risk my life for it." TK finished.

"Well that's a little ridiculous." Davis started. "I mean, you can always buy your mom a nice box of chocolate, it's only like-"

"No. Davis, that's no decoration." TK turned to Davis, looking just a little off steady and worried. His eyes were wide and sweat pasted his face. "I've never felt like that before, I'm telling you." He glanced back at the crystal, then back at Davis. "I thought the pressure might have killed me, but I-I didn't care!"

Ken looked down at it. "So it's certainly something. But you couldn't get it?"

"No, there was this...this barrier. An invisible one, I couldn't touch it."

The entire group looked back at the strange object.

"Now what?" Kari asked. "There has to be a reason why it's so secure."

And then, quite suddenly, a collective gasp came from the crowd behind him. They turned around, now noticing everyone had stopped moving and was looking up at the sun.

They saw a tiny part of the left side of the sun covered by a black object. Slowly, almost too slowly to see at normal speed, it was spreading over the entire sun. An eclipse.

"Wow, they have eclipses in the digital world too." Izzy noted, looking up at it cautiously. "Interesting."

"Nice." Davis commented. "It's moving fast."

"You're not kidding." Tai commented. They could actually see it move across the sun, ever so slowly, of course impossible with any earth eclipse.

Izzy rubbed his chin, looking up at it. "Yeah, looks like we might have a total eclipse in ten minutes."

"Guys?" Kari's voice suddenly spoke up. The group turned around to look back at the crystal, which Kari was already observing. It had turned red. A light red, but a red nonetheless.

"Maybe it's like one of those mood rings." Davis said. "You think maybe it likes the sun?"

"In case you guys didn't notice, this might be serious!" Tai said, glaring down at the crystal. "Red's a bad color, isn't it?"

"I guess."

And then, a small burst of smoke came up from the crystal. It floated in the air just above the crystal for a moment, then formed a sentence in the middle of the air.

When the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

After a short second of displaying this, it formed the shapeless cloud once again, then formed a series of symbols and numbers.

6:37

Then the seven formed into a six...then a five...then the smoke formation blew away.

"Hey! What was that?" Davis asked, yelling in the general direction of where the smoke went.
"We've got six and a half minutes." Izzy said, looking at his watch. "Something's gonna happen when that eclipse comes total." He shrugged his shoulders so his backpack fell off, then grabbed it and reached into it for his laptop. "Come on people, we don't know what it might do!"

"Maybe that's good motivation for us to leave." TK said. "I think it's capable of quite a bit from my experience with it."

"Should we evacuate the town?" Davis asked, looking at the hundreds of digimon peering up at the sun.

"No time, we're better off trying to stop whatever it is." Tai answered, though he made no movement towards that objective as he had no idea on how to accomplish it.

"C'mon, c'mon..." Izzy muttered, trying to find something that could help.

"Um...guys?" Sora finally spoke up. The group froze and looked at her. She was looking off in the distance, beyond the town, into the barren desert itself.

The group looked at where she was looking, stunned for a moment by what they saw. Sitting cross legged on a sandhill was a boy, perhaps a teenager like them, He wore a black coat with grey pants, and was sitting there, chin in his hands, watching the town with almost wide-eyed interest.

"What?" Kari finally said. "Who's he?"

"I dunno." Tai said quietly. "But we don't have alot of time, so we gotta get moving."

"Doing what?" Davis interjected. "We've got no idea what to do!"

"Maybe he knows something." Izzy suggested. "Let's go see him."

"We don't really have a choice." Sora conceded. "Be careful though."

The group began a sprint down the main street of the town, towards the human figure on the hill. The streets were now full, as everyone had come out to watch the developing eclipse. They jumped over, past, and through any digimon that got in their way, occasionally tripping. Davis had the bad luck of tripping over a Mamemon and spraining his ankle. TK and Ken had to assist him the rest of the way.

Finally, the group stood at the foot of the small hill, right before the child. They were all panting heavily, looking up at the boy, who had yet to acknowledge them. Izzy told the digimon to back off and wait in case something happened. Finally, Davis spoke up.

"Hey, kid! You just blew my soccer game on saturday, so you better start talking, and you better have something good to say!" He exploded, clearly blaming the boy for his injury.

"Who are you?" Sora asked, a bit more friendly, though still cautious.

"A boy who loves a good eclipse." He said simply, pushing himself up into a standing position. "There's nothing like a total one. Beautiful. The very definition of beautiful."

"Hey, astroboy! We don't care about the eclipse!" Davis said, limping forward from Ken's and TK's grips. "We care about that!" He pointed emphatically down to the crystal in the middle of the town. Though it was just a large dot in the distance from here, they could see it had become an intense red now.

"Oh! So I see." He said, clapping his hands together in front of his face. "I wish I could help, but I'm afraid not even Azulongmon can disturb it now. Fret not, the barrier will be gone as soon as the total eclipse hits."

"Who are you?" TK finally asked again.

"Me? Who wants to know?" He responded, his language quick and light.

"How'd you get here?" Davis said, calming slightly now that the boy was talking. "You aren't exactly in Kansas anymore, in case you didn't know."

"I know where I am, boy." The child said. "Don't worry about me, I'm well aware."

"Okay, then how'd you get into the digital world?" Izzy asked, trying to remain calm inspite of the circumstances. "And how do you know about that crystal?"

He looked down at the sand, slowly reaching into his pocket. "What is this, an interrogation? I'm not that different from any of you, you know."

"How?" Kari asked, watching his hand go into the pocket of his black coat.

"Like this." He said quietly, pulling out his hand. The digidestined team pulled back, fearing the worst, but his hand held something quite harmless, though shocking. A D-3 was the object now resting in his hand, but unlike all the others, this one was colorless, colored the same as the original digivices.

"Whoa!" Came the general outcry from the group as they looked at it.

"So don't think yourselves to be that special. You have nothing I don't in this world."

"What are you talking about?" Ken asked.

"I mean about you running up here and condescendingly questioning me, like you have the right to be here and I don't. As you can see, the greater powers at work have granted me all they have granted you."

"Okay, okay. Sorry, we couldn't have possibly known, calm down." Izzy peered down at the D3 again. "So...you would be a digidestined then? Where have you been?"

"...around." He said slowly. He began to look in all direction, slowly rotating around. "Wish I had been here though. Such a wonderful place. The place where dreams come true and fantasies become reality." He threw his arms up into the air. "What a place."

"Yes, yes, now...what's your name?"

"What's in a name?" He shot back quickly.

"Okay, fine, forget the name..." Izzy looked down at the town center. "We've got like two minutes, so-"

But the child had stepped up to Ken and was looking him over carefully. "So this is the great Ken?" He said, almost mockingly, but not enough to trigger a defensive response.

"Yes." Ken said flatly, shying away slightly.

"Wonderful." He looked Ken over again.

"What do you think you're doing?" He finally asked.

"Nothing. Nothing at all, just..." he paused for a moment. "Why'd you stop?"

"Stop...what?"

"You know...the whole cape, glasses and whip thing, with the flying base and the flying black bands and towers...the whole gig...why'd you stop?"

Ken glanced around uncomfortably. "Why'd I stop? It was...wrong. I was being...you know, evil, selfish, greedy, the whole nine yards, what kind of a question is that?"

"So...it just suddenly occured to you that you were being evil? It just...suddenly hit you?"

"No...but...well, It was like...." he looked up at the sky, thinking. "What's it to you anyway?"

"Did you stop because you believed yourself...beaten?"

Ken snapped his head back down at the boy. "Of course not! That had nothing to do with it!"

"No shame in it, Ken. If you can't lick em, join em, makes perfect sense to me."

"Hey, kid, we've got like a minute before the eclipse goes in full, so if you've got something to say-" Izzy began.

"I have nothing to say to you." He responded icily. "I'm afraid the onus is on you to come up with something." He turned back to Ken. "But...I wonder..."

"Wonder what?" Ken asked, liking this boy less and less by the second.

"Were you truly beaten? Ken, be honest now...had you been beaten? What did you believe?"

"I'm really not comfortable talking abo-"

"Were you?" He said again, no emotion in his voice.

Ken blinked twice. "If you must know..." he glanced at Davis. "Yes."

"So I see." Slowly, the boy nodded. "Chimeramon was the peak of your reign, so it happens?"

"Maybe, what's this have to do with anything?!" Ken growled, fed up with this inquisitive boy.

"Everything."

"We've got about fifteen seconds." Izzy said warily, knowing all that was to be done now was to watch and hope.

"You were good, Ken. You were very good. Just not good enough." He continued.

"What are you trying to say?" Ken glanced behind him at the town, then back to the child.

"Watch, Ken, and see what you might have become, because if you think they had defeated you that day, you are sorely mistaken."

"What-"

But the boy simply pointed up into the sky behind Ken. Ken pivoted around just in time to see the final bit of the moon cover the sun. It was dark, if only for a few seconds.

Or it would have been. Suddenly, the entire town was engulfed in a flash of brilliant light, more than canceling out the effects of the darkness of the eclipse. The light covered the entire town, though it did not extend so much as an inch past the town borders.

Two seconds later, the flash died as soon as it had come to life. Slowly, the sun began to reappear from the left side, shining light back on the digital world.

Only it had nothing to shine on but sand. There was, quite literally, nothing left of the town. It was as if it had never been there. Not a single splinter of wood or drop of beverage could be seen. A massive crater was all that remained.

In a matter of two seconds, it had not just been destroyed, but obliterated from existence. The group stared in utter disbelief at the unbelievable sight for some time.

"Destruction can be beautiful, says I." The child finally spoke up, snapping everyone back to full conscious. They turned to look at the boy. "Shame so few live to tell such tales of beauty."

"What...what..." Tai tried to say, but wasn't quite sure where to begin.

"Oh no you don't." The boy said, watching a long stream of data emerge from the crater and begin to fly into the sky. Suddenly, the stream changed direction, heading straight for him.

The digidestined watched as the stream entered his body through his left arm. He shook the arm twice, and then, three crystals, like the one that had seemingly perpetrated this destruction, appeared in his hand.

"Give up one, earn three...that's quite the return on an investment."

"Okay, that's it! Who are you, and what are you doing?!" Ken exploded, the revival of his unfortunate memories enraging him along with the destruction of hundreds of innocents.

"Touch a nerve, perhaps? Bring back fond memories of...what was it called...'The Digimon Emperor'? Ain't that just a shame?"

Davis stepped forward, grabbing the child by the collar. "Okay! Not cool anymore! What was-"

And then, quite suddenly, he was gone. Disappeared, almost as the town had.

"That, my friends, was instant respect from my peers in physical form. A moment ago, I was nobody, but now, I am somebody. Now run on home, before I decide I don't have any qualms about fighting unfairly." Came his voice from behind Davis.

After a moment's pause, Davis turned around and swung wildly, finding only air. "Dammit!"

"...Davis...we should go." Tai said slowly. "We need to get everyone..." His voice shook slightly.

"You alright?" Kari asked.

"Yeah, it's just..." he looked down at the ground. "I've never seen anything like that before. It was just, all gone in an instant...not even destroyed, just...gone."

"I'm not ready to leave until I get that kid and give him what he deserves!" Davis insisted. "Who's with me?"
"We can give him what he deserves tomorrow." Izzy said. "If he's capable of that kind of destruction, we're gonna need everyone."

Davis gave a sigh. "Alright. But we can't allow this to happen any more, it's just too much."

Tai looked at the digimon, who were still starring at what had been, just a minute ago, a proud and upbeat town. "You guys should hide...we'll be back tomorrow...don't worry, we'll do something."

"All that life...all those digimon...gone." Wormmon said slowly. "How could..."

"I've never seen anything like it." Tentomon said sadly. "This is...I don't even know." Slowly, the group began to walk away, clearly emotionally effected by what they had seen.

Still slightly shellshocked, the group trotted off, unsure of what to really think.

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