Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Passage Through Shadow 2 : Heart of Sincerity ❯ Chapter 1

PART REVISED - 6th February 2003

All due credit for the fact I'm revising this fic must go to Chris (aka Phoenix, aka Shatter_Storm) since he is my ideas board and I bounced the change in plot I'm making off him and he liked it.

Firebird: Ah, well, another week another instalment of my endless Digimon fanfiction and timeline. Notice that word fanfiction… it means that I own nothing in this fic. Not even the plot I created for it. Who does own the plot is a murky area because while Toei owns Digimon they can't own my plot. Bizarre, ne?

Ken: You don't own the plot?

Firebird: Well assuming fanfiction is a derivative work… and I'd say it is… then I, the author, cannot claim any rights over it apparently. Then again ideas can't be copyrighted so, like I said, it's a really murky area. Anyway, I don't own Digimon like I said and this is not making me money so please don't sue.

Ken: …

Firebird: I had some trouble get this story started. Only story I ever wrote where I was more confident about the middle than the start. If it seems a little strained you know why. Oh and once again. YOU REALLY NEED TO READ MY OTHER FICS FIRST. This is part of an AU timeline for season 2 where weird things have happened that have changed the course of digimon history from canon. If you haven't read my other fics you won't understand what on earth is going on.

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Passage Through Shadow 2

Heart Of Sincerity

Part One

"Athenamon did this?" Hikari stared at the scene in disbelief. "No wonder it made me ill."

"She did." Devimon confirmed. "With much help from her followers. It seems that she's pretty much subverted the vaccine population of this region. The ones she hasn't, along with most of the data type digimon, have either fled or are in hiding. They are probably organising a resistance but right now this is not a good place to be anything but an outward attending vaccine. I don't know how she pulled this off so quickly."

"Unless she's been back longer than anybody realises." Hikari suggested as glanced back over he shoulder at the army of virii that she had brought with her. "We need to find somewhere for a field headquarters." She added as she looked back at the devastation. A cold determination filled her eyes. "I shall have to teach the inhabitants of this place a lesson they'll never forget about where to put their attention and clip Athenamon's wings in the process. Anyway this is a good defensible place to begin my own campaign. I'm sure that's why she picked it." She glanced down at Gatomon who was silent. "Aren't you going to disapprove?"

"No, I don't think I am." Gatomon said in a slightly confused tone. "The more time I spend as Bastemon the more I understand this new you, Kari-chan." She looked back at where the Minomon village had stood and her eyes hardened. "Anyway any Digimon who would do something about this deserves whatever happens to them." Distress entered her tone. "I think I'm going to be sick."

-----

"I think I'm going to be sick." Miyako unknowingly echoed Gatomon's sentiment when the digidestined arrived at the site of the Minomon village later that afternoon.

"I've never seen anything like it." Sora nodded in agreement and put a hand on Miyako's shoulder. "What the hell could do this?"

"Well it wasn't an explosion." Koushiro said. "There's nothing about this crater to indicate that. Not an impact either. It's more like something just scooped the village out of the landscape."

Ken walked to the edge of the rift and looked down. A terrible suspicion was forming in his mind. "I hope I'm wrong but I don't think it was scooped." He said softly.

"What do you think it was then."

"I think something has absorbed the village's data. For want of a better word I think that it was eaten."

"Eaten?" The others looked at him with shock.

"To make the consumer stronger. Like Diaboromon on the Internet that time only with a chunk of the Digital World."

"It's possible, Koushiro." Tentomon said. "There have been legends about code eaters for centuries."

"Except that this code wasn't eaten." A cold voice said from behind them. They turned to find a Piddomon watching them. "The land tainted by the presence of those creatures was removed by Athenamon and will be cleansed in her holy light!"

"Yes and I heard they're removing the word gullible from the dictionary." Ken muttered just as Daisuke yelled at angel type vaccine.

"Don't make excuses for this… Minomon are harmless in training types." His voice cracked. "They've never hurt anyone. Who gave you the right to decide who lives and who dies?"

"They were virii!" It shrieked. "Virii are evil." But there was a slight tremor in its voice like it was just slightly uncertain of that.

"How can they have been virii? In trainings don't have types." It was Takeru who yelled this time.

"I have never known a Minomon become a vaccine." Its tone remained cold but the hesitation before replying was noticeable. "And the ones who becomes datas are so rare it scarcely matters."

"Scratch the I think. I am going to be sick." Miyako muttered.

"This guy's thinking is warped on an epic scale." Yamato agreed.

"Piddomon! You are supposed to be blasting them to smithereens not talking to them!" They turned and found a Parrotmon staring at them. "Noble Athenamon wants their heads on pikes by sunset today." The children barely scrambled out of the way of the bird's attack. "Come on." If we both attack the interlopers' digimon won't have time to digivolve between blasts."

"Okay, now this isn't good." Daisuke muttered. "It isn't good at all." The digidestined looked at each other and then they and their Digimon ran for it without needing to consult.

"Quickly! Over here!" hissed a voice from the undergrowth. They looked down and saw a Tapirmon looking up at them. "Come on quickly! Before Athenamon's followers catch up with you! It took only a split second for them to decide to follow it. The route it led them by was convoluted and they kept pausing to check for pursuit but eventually they ended up in some old ruins. It appeared to be some sort of hidden enclave and was full of datas, a few virii and even the occasional vaccine like Tapirmon.

"What is this place?" Ken asked.

"This? It was built by the original five Chosen Children as a base against Athenamon's incursion back in their time. It seemed an appropriate place for those of us who refuse to let that monster hold our region to rally our resistance from."

"How come so many of you are Data types?" Koushiro asked. He sounded like he was dreading the answer.

"Because most of the vaccines have either sided with Athenamon I'm afraid or are trying to keep out of it and the virii are either dead, fled or…" It trailed off.

"Or?"

"Or they've gone to join your friend." It finished.

"Our friend?" Daisuke frowned. "You mean Hikari? I'm not exactly sure that I'd call her our friend at the moment."

"She's your friend. Not even the current situation will change that I think. Odd as that may seem to you." Tapirmon replied. "True friendships don't break so easily and if she wasn't your friend her choices wouldn't hurt you so much."

Daisuke blinked. "Well that's insightful!"

"Humans seem unusual to us in many ways but in other ways they aren't that different from Digimon."

"Never mind that. I just hope we weren't followed." Iori said practically.

"He's right, that should be our concern." Jyou agreed.

"We weren't." Tapirmon reassured them. "We were careful and the scouts would have warned us of any pursuit."

"Then we need a plan." Iori said. "Just going in blasting is going to get us killed."

"We also need to think about getting home. We've lost a lot of time today." Takeru looked worried. "And I'll bet she's got the local gates guarded."

"She almost certainly will…." Tapirmon agreed. "But we have access to one here that she doesn't know about. Do you intend to hit her hard tomorrow?"

"Yes." Daisuke and Takeru said simultaneously.

"We should hit her central base then. We have a map we'll give you copy."

"We? So you want to fight her with us?" Daisuke asked.

"Of course we will. You'll need an army to fight an army."

"Right then let's see about this may before we go."

-----

In New York Mimi's parents were hosting another party. They'd allowed her to invite a few of her friends from school so that she wouldn't get too bored. However, even as she laughed at one of Elliot's jokes, she was wondering if putting him and Michael in the same room was a mistake.

"I bought you a present by the way." Elliot said with a warm smile and produced a small box wrapped in pink paper.

"Oh, Elliot, you shouldn't have!" She smiled back at him and tried to ignore the glare Michael was aiming in Elliot's direction. She opened it and gasped. Nestled in folds of pink tissue paper was an antique brooch. It was gold and enamel in the shape of a bunch of pink flowers. "Oh!"

"I saw you admiring it yesterday. I thought that you'd like it."

"I love it! Thank you! I went to buy it myself today. I was so disappointed when it had sold."

"I bet you aren't disappointed now." He smiled. "Now you can have your brooch and something else."

"You're so sweet!" She laughed again and gave him a quick hug. As she did she noticed that Michael was still watching them and looked very unhappy. She still didn't know why he didn't trust Elliot. Michael said it was just a feeling but she suspected he was unnecessarily jealous. After all the three of them were Chosen Children and if they couldn't rely on each other who could they rely on? Though she had occasionally noticed that in unguarded moments Elliot glared at Michael. She had to diffuse this now so she smiled at Michael and walked over. She was about to ask him if he was okay when he grabbed her hands and stared into her eyes.

"I know you think I'm jealous, Mimi, but I'm not! Please don't trust him. There's something off about him." He sighed quietly. "He dangerous… especially to you."

"But he's digidestined! How off can he be?" She protested.

Michael sighed. "You don't listen too well sometimes, Mimi, or read your emails apparently. People can be duplicitous and you are so open that you don't see when other are closed." He shook his head. "There's something about him that you don't know. He's always… reminded me of someone I once met. And didn't you say you felt weird the first time you met him?"

"I did." She conceded. "But how could he have caused that? It was probably something that I ate." She held up the brooch. "Why would he buy me this if he wasn't my friend? I mean his family are well off but not as well off as my family. It must have stretched his pocket more than a little."

"I don't know. Maybe he's just trying to buy your trust. Don't tell me you sense nothing. There's no way that you don't. You're just ignoring it." He sighed again and shook his head. "Just be careful, Mimi."

"Whatever." She sighed. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Okay." Michael glanced over Elliot once more with narrowed eyes. "But if he ever hurts you," he hissed, "I'll crush him." The venom in his tone rendered her speechless. Especially turned back to her with a warm smile and added in a normal tone. "Now what do you want to talk about?"

-----

"The Human Interlopers managed to go home. Apparently the rebels must have managed to retain at least one gate under their control."

"I know." Athenamon said. "It was inevitable." She moved her owl feather wings slightly and adjusted her breastplate. Otherwise she showed no reaction as she looked over at Parrotmon. "Fear not. The hour of cleansing is still at hand." She paused. "Only one of the digidestined worries me right now. The one who had the nerve to bring an army of virii into purified territory and then managed to disappear with it. Kamiya is out there somewhere and I'm sure that we'll hear from her soon."

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If this seems a little rocky tell me. This turned out better than the draft but I wouldn't be surprised if it's still a little rocky.

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