Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon Tamers: The Next Level ❯ Episode 15: Thoughts of Past and Future ( Chapter 15 )

The next morning greeted the Tamers with another discussion about what the next step would be. The fact that Takato was, of yet, not present caused a subtly raised eyebrow from Rika, although nobody thought anything of it. That was, until Takato came walking into the room, a smile barely contained on his face. "Good morning!" he said, cheerfully. It was all Rika could do to not laugh; as it was, she managed to contain it to a knowing smile.

"Well," Henry said wryly. "Somebody's in a good mood today."

"And why wouldn't I be?" Takato asked happily. "Well," he added, sitting down, "besides the obvious. What's the situation right now?"

"Well," Henry answered, "Those Greymon were able to point us somewhere in the right direction. We've got some feelers out checking some of the lesser, outer dimensions of this world. With any luck, we should find what we're looking for soon."

"Until then, we're stuck playing the waiting game," Rika sighed, getting up and turning to leave. "Ah, well. If you need me, I'll be in the courtyard or something."

Standing at the doorway, she turned back to Takato. "Anyway, Takato? I'm glad that you and Jeri finally 'made up'." Laughing softly, she slipped the rest out of the doorway leaving behind a furiously blushing Takato and an enlightened Henry.

******

Still laughing under her breath, Rika passed through the grey stone halls and made her way into the grassy courtyard in the center of the complex. Stretching her arms over her head and closing her eyes, she dropped onto the soft grass.

"So peaceful," she murmured to herself. "Almost enough to make one forget everything that's going on..."

The feel of the soft grass and the sense of complete calm would have felt so much better to her if it had been under different circumstances. She would give most anything to be lying there with Renamon and without having to worry about a future of battles and conflict, just being able to fully enjoy the situation.

"A future without battles..." Rika muttered absently to herself.

"It would be nice, wouldn't it?" a familiar voice responded. Opening one eye, Rika looked over to see Ryo sitting on the grass next to her. "A future without battles, I mean?"

"Ryo..." Rika began, levering herself into a sitting position. "It's a nice dream, isn't it?" she said, a wistful look in her eyes. "God, I sound like some silly little kid..."

"Not silly at all. You want to hear my dream?" Ryo said, staring off into the distance. "One day, someday soon if I'm lucky, there will be nothing holding me back. No enemies to fight, just the endless plains before me. Just... freedom... endless freedom..."

"There's just one thing," Ryo said after a few seconds of silence. "In order to fulfill those dreams, we have to fight for them. That's why I've been fighting and that's why I'll continue until one day I reach my dream."

"I suppose that's all any of us can do," Rika realized with a slight sigh. "Keep heading down the path we're on and hope it leads to where we want it to go."

"If all else fails," Ryo said with a soft chuckle, "you can just boss it around until it does."

Rika sighed theatrically. "Yeah, and you can just annoy it until it has no choice."

That brought the both of them a much needed laugh. Ending with a small sigh, Rika closed her eyes and leaned over, resting her head on Ryo's shoulder. "I missed you, bro..."

******

"So, what's up?" Rika asked, walking into what had become the meeting room for everyone. She could only guess that they finally had a solid idea of where to go. She, for one, was anxious to finish everything as soon as possible. "You know where we're headed?"

"That's right," Henry told her. "We've managed to pinpoint the plane we're looking for."

"Well then," Rika said, leaning over the back of her chair, "what are we waiting for?"

"We need to know exactly what we'll be up against before we start any sort of attack," Henry explained, reclining in his seat. "That's why the first thing that we're doing is a reconnaissance mission."

Reconnaissance, Rika thought. Get in, look around, and get out. It wasn't exactly her style, but she supposed it was for the best. Better than nothing, at the least.

"Exactly," Takato nodded. "The plan is to go in, learn what we can and get out. I'm definitely going, but I'll need a couple of others to go with me. Any volunteers?"

"Stealth happens to be my specialty," Renamon answered, stepping forward. "I'll go."

"Sounds good to me," Rika said, rising to stand next to her partner. "Beats twiddling my thumbs here."

"Well, that's perfect for us, Marine Angemon," Kenta said, talking to the miniscule Mega on his shoulder. Marine Angemon nodded enthusiastically.

"They'll never see me," he beamed happily. Kenta moved over to stand with Rika and Renamon

"Well," Kazu spoke up, "I'm out. Guardromon kinda sticks out like a sore thumb. Besides, Ryo agreed to do some sparring with me; give me more experience fighting as Valkyrimon."

"I'm going to sit this one out as well," Henry said next. "Ehh, there's some stuff I need to work out with my father and the rest of the Monster Makers."

"So, it's the three of us?" Rika summarized, looking around the room. "In that case..."

Much to everybody's surprise, Susie and Lopmon stepped forward. "I'm going too," Suzie said with determination. "I can't just sit back here and do nothing any more."

"It's my Digital World too," Lopmon added. "Even though I no longer truly serve Zhuqiaomon, I cannot forget my duty to my Lord."

"But..." Henry began, but he was cut off by his sister.

"Henry, big brother, please... I... I'm tired of feeling useless," she explained, casting her eyes down to the ground. "It's like I'm nothing but a burden around here. I'm not asking to be on the front lines," she continued. She looked up, tears faintly visible in the corner of her eyes. "I just want to be able to do something, ya know?"

"I..." Henry said after some length. Scratching the back of his head, he slumped in his seat. "There's no way I'm going to be able to talk you out of this, is there?" he finally sighed.

"Then, you mean..." Suzie said excitedly. Henry nodded in response to the unasked question, and Suzie ran over to give him a hug. "Thank you..."

"All right!" Takato exclaimed, standing up as well. "Not that that's all settled, we'll be leaving as soon as we're all ready."

******

The communications device that the Monster Makers had come upon helped a little in researching an effective way to penetrate the ice wall separating the worlds, but a hesitance to completely dismantle the thing and possibly cut off even the slim connection between the two groups prevented any major discoveries.

The cover was detached from the communicator and its insides were clearly visible, but no further progress had been made.

"So this... does that, right?" Babel mumbled to himself. "No... That does... nothing that I can see... Are we absolutely sure this actually does a damn thing?" he grumbled louder. Leaning back in his chair, he sighed. "I'm starting to think that we've been listening to voices in our head."

"I know it's frustrating," Janyuu replied from a schematic he had drawn up, "but we need to figure it out. Any luck on the coding front?"

"We're looking at literally several thousand lines of code," Dolphin answered. "It's like finding a needle in a continental haystack."

"If there's one thing to say about our old friend Shibumi," Curly put in, "he can code one heck of an icewall."

As Janyuu sighed loudly, the comm. device crackled to life startling Babel. "This is Henry. Is anyone there?"

"Yeah," Janyuu answered into the still partly unassembled machine. "We're all here."

"Great," Henry replied, "Because there's something I'd like to run past everybody."

******

"Try again," Justimon ordered, dropping back into a fighting stance. His sparring opponent, Valkyrimon faced him and crouched lightly before vanishing once again.

Ryo sighed to his biomerge partner, Cyberdramon. "He's... behind us again, isn't he?"

"To the right this time," Cyberdramon confirmed. Ryo sighed again.

Their sparring match had begun in earnest, although Kazu's fighting experience was notably lacking. The boy had yet to learn that speed meant nothing if it wasn't used properly. Which reminded Ryo...

He quickly flipped his right fist up, connecting squarely with Valkyrimon's face. Valkyrimon staggered backward, rubbing the sore spot. "Man, that hurt," he grumbled. Justimon half turned to face the other Mega.

"You're being too predictable," he advised. "I know you're fast, that much is evident. However, you can't rely on pure speed if the enemy can tell which direction you're coming from."

He dropped into a fighting stance once again, so did a sighing Valkyrimon. "Again," Justimon ordered. Once more, Valkyrimon vanished from sight. Justimon turned in place, attempting to follow the rapid movements.

"Here he comes," Cyberdramon reported. "Ahead and to the right."

"Is it possible that he's getting worse, not better?" Ryo frowned. Turning to face Valkyrimon's very visible form streaking towards him, he cocked his right fist back, and shot it forward, jabbing for Valkyrimon's stomach... only to have his arm pass right through. His momentary shock only deepened when he felt a sharp impact to the back of his head, the momentum causing him to a couple of steps forward.

"Not bad!" Justimon laughed. Valkyrimon, now directly behind Justimon, chuckled proudly. Justimon, however, wasn't finished. He dropped quickly, sweeping one leg out behind him, taking Valkyrimon clean off the ground to land flat on his back. "Tip number 2!" Justimon announced. "NEVER let your guard down!"

From a perch above the pseudo battle site, Valkyrimon's falcon twittered softly. "Great," the warrior Mega sighed. "Even the bird is laughing at me."

Justimon extended a hand and pulled his sparring partner to his feet. "Now that you've made contact," he continued, "it's time to get a little more serious. Ready?"

Valkyrimon nodded and prepared for the next round of sparring.

******

"I don't think we've been given the right directions," Kenta remarked as he and the small recon group scanned the horizon for activity. "There's nothing and no one here. You see anything from up there, MA?"

Marine Angemon had taken up a position above their head to get a better view, although there had been nothing to view. "Nothing!" he reported back.

Rika grumbled softly to herself. They had been walking for quite some time, but so far they had found no trace of any sort of army or even a single Digimon. "This is getting tiresome. You'd think that there would be something out here."

"Which must mean something in itself," Renamon replied. "It's highly unusual not to see even one Digimon in an area like this."

"You getting anything, Guilmon?" Takato asked his partner. Guilmon was bent low to the ground, nose sniffing constantly at the ground. Suddenly, he let out a large sneeze and rubbed at his snout with the side of his claws.

"Other than a lot of dust?" Guilmon answered. "Not really. Someone might have been here, but if so, it was quite a while ago."

"Maybe those Greymon were mistaken," Rika shrugged. "Or lying. Who knows?"

"Umm, you might wanna hold that thought," Kenta told his friends. "You've seen something?" he asked his partner who spiraled down onto his shoulder.

"Yup," Marine Angemon nodded. "That way."

"Finally," Rika sighed. "Shall we?"

"Lead the way," Takato told Marine Angemon.

******

"What's on your mind?" Janyuu asked his son through the communicator.

"Well," Henry replied. "First I had a question. About the original Digimon program... did it include anything about gender? You know, male and female?"

"No," Dolphin told him. "We never got beyond the basics of the 'survival of the fittest' mentality before the funding for the project dropped out."

"I've been trying to figure out why our partners have genders," Henry said, chin in his hand. "My first theory was that they were just imitating us, their partners, acting like us. But then, everything with Rika and Renamon came up. And then yesterday..."

"Wait, what about Rika and Renamon?" Janyuu asked.

Henry winced at his error. "That's right; we never actually said anything about that... Let's just say that it ties into what I saw yesterday."

"Which was?"

"Well, we met a pair of Greymon and several Agumon, and... I think the Greymon were a mated pair and that the Agumon were their young…"