Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Passage through Shadow 4 - Memento Mori ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer. Shutsumon doesn't own Digimon. She just has a really weird imagination.

IMPORTANT: PART OF EXTENDED AU TIMELINE. IF THIS IS THE FIRST OF MY FICS YOU HAVE READ PLEASE CHECK PROFILE FOR DETAILS OR YOU WON'T KNOW WTF IS GOING ON IN THIS FIC.

Sorry this is a little short. I had to cut an entire scene because it weirded out my beta reader because he had no idea what was going on. The scene will be back eventually once I've foreshadowed it a little more... it was just too soon.

--------------------

Passage Through Shadow IV

Memento Mori

The Crest Chamber was cool and calm as always. The perfect haven from the Chaos that so often engulfed the Digital World. Even when the Dark Masters had reconfigured it into Spiral Mountain the wards on this Cave had kept it sacrosanct and untouched through the chaos. Sometimes Gennai wondered if it was actually properly part of the Digital World or if it was some kind of annex. In the end of course it didn't matter. What mattered was that since accepting the position of Monitor with all the sacrifices that that had entailed this, not the so called home he had shown the Chosen Children, had been his only true refuge. He often went there to think and tonight he really needed to think.

The email that he had received from Koushiro describing what had happened to Ken had come as close to driving him into a blind panic as anything that had happened in all the time he'd been here.... which had been too long even when he thought in human not Digital World time for the time prior to three years ago.

The Chamber was always lit by a constant soft glow from carvings in the wall in the shape of the crests that represented the state of the Chosen Child with that crest. Absently his eyes sought out his own 'discernment' which was already brightening in response to his presence in the cave then he turned to look at the representation of 'Kindness' and sighed with relief. It was shining steadily - which meant Ken was well - and with a constant lilac light that meant he was still in tune. Whatever had happened this afternoon no major damage had been done. Back when Ken had been the Kaiser the symbol had glowed all right but the colour had flickered and changed randomly with very little lilac in it.

He headed to one of the alcoves that surrounded the great round circle of the main chamber to sit and think but then paused and looked around as he noticed that the 'Fate' carving was also brighter than usual. Sure enough Jun was seated in another on the alcoves with a stack of scrolls in front of her. So intent was she on what she was doing that she hadn't even noticed him enter. Of course she must have been as worried as him by what happened if not more so. He'd never known something like this get past her before. From the way she was searching through he writings he guessed she was hoping that she had forgotten something. He walked to the entrance of the alcove and cleared his throat. She looked immediately but without any alarm. No enemy could get in here after all.

"Oh, hi." She said. "I guess Koushiro e-mailed you about what happened earlier?" She leant over and hefted a scroll that was wrapped in silver silk.

"Yes. I came to check the symbol." He looked at scroll she'd just picked up and frowned. "But isn't that?"

"The Prophecy of the Guardians of The Digital Plain? Yes it is." She unwrapped it and placed it on the table in front of her. It unrolled by itself. "One of the few visions that I had that I never really understood. It's also the only one that showed me Ken having more than minimal problems with the dark seed. I assumed it was separate from 'Light and Shadow' but given that I didn't understand it I may have been wrong. I'm going to cross reference them... see if they fit together." She lifted a full copy of the Prophecy of Light and Shadow and unwrapped. "I'd be grateful if you'd help. Your discernment may well spot something I'd miss."

"Of course I'll help." He sat down on a nearby chair. "Let's start with the references to Ken." He suggested. "After all that's who the question is about..."

-----

"I still don't see anything." Ali told Logan as they approached the cave cautiously. Logan looked at her in surprise.

"You don't? But it's glowing so much... and it's getting brighter." He turned to their digimon. "Do you see anything?" Black Agumon said that he could see the light Logan mentioned but DemiDevimon couldn't. He glanced back at Ali and noticed that she looked worried - really worried. "What's wrong? You've got that 'oh, crap I hope I'm wrong' look of your's on your face."

"It's... it's... I hope I'm wrong but I don't like what I'm thinking. Let's find the source and if I'm right I'll tell you."

Logan rolled his eyes and sighed. She obviously had some idea what was going on. Why did she always clam up when she got worried or upset. He was about to press her for details when the clattering of gravel alerted him and he was just about able to catch her before she slipped and fell off the pass and over the edge of the cliff. "Ali! Don't scare me like that!" he said as she clung onto him for dear life. "You shouldn't get so upset you forget to watch your footing!"

"I can't see my footing!" She snapped but he knew it was because she was scared by the close call not real anger. "Unlike some people I don't have a light source."

He considered that for a moment and realised that it was true. Without the glow from the cave he wouldn't have been able to see well enough either. Night was coming on fast and he didn't have torch with him. "Okay." He gently disengaged her death grip from him and took her hand. "Then I'll lead you, Ali, make sure that you don't slip again."

"Okay." She agreed though she still sounded nervous. "Thanks, Logan."

"No charge." He smiled and led her the last few steps into the cave. "Uh oh."

"Uh oh?" she repeated nervously. "What's wrong?"

"The glow is coming from a tunnel." He knew Ali well enough not to mention how long it looked.

"Ah." She said. "So let's go down this tunnel."

"Yes." He shifted so he could hold her shoulders. "I'd imagine it's going to get pitch dark for you pretty quick so I'd better guide you like this."

"Yeah. You'll have to stop me falling down any crevasses." She said in such an artificially light tone that he knew that she was terrified.

"I don't know." He mock sighed as he began to guide her down the passage. "A dark Chosen Child who's afraid of the dark. Isn't that an oxymoron?"

"Probably." she was still trying to sound calm and amused but he could hear the growing tremor in her voice as the bit of light from outside faded. He could see fine by the light ahead but he knew that she couldn't see a thing.

"Are you ok?" He asked. She shook her head.

"J-just don't let go, Logan, a-and keep talking to me." She replied. "I-I'll be okay as long as I can hear and feel something."

"I could sing for you." He suggested knowing exactly how she's react.

"Oh no! I've heard the caterwauling you call singing. Eardrum destruction is not a form of torture that I favour." She said in only partially mock horror. He punched her playfully and she laughed. "No fair! you can see me to aim but I can't see you to duck."

"Then I'll tell you if he starts to hit again." Demidevimon said from where he flew by her shoulder. "I can see perfectly well in the dark." He looked at Logan. "We'd better get this over with quickly. You know how being afraid effects her."

"Yeah." Logan could feel how tense she was but as he kept up a constant stream of reassurance she managed to keep going without collapsing. When they reached the end of the tunnel however he was so startled by the sight that met his eyes that he unintentionally not only lapsed into silence but let go of her shoulders as well.

"L-logan?" She said nervously. "Are you there What is it?"

"Um... um...." He couldn't figure out what to say but he reached out and took her hand as he stared. "It's amazing." He stared out over the cavern. The tunnel had emerged on a ledge high up the wall - the floor of which was a large lake that covered the entire floor of the vast, obviously artificially carved cave. An ornate pillar rose from a small island at it's heart to the roof and other islands, some small others quite large, dotted it. It looked familiar but at first he couldn't quite place it. Then he realised -- it was a stylised map of the digital world. Once he got over the initial surprise he described it to her in detail as he looked for the light source which had drawn them here. "Oh!" he said finally when he realised it was coming from the ceiling. The light is coming from the ceiling. Or more accurately from what I think is a prophecy carved into the ceiling. The words are glowing." He took a breath and read out to her what, though neither of them knew it, was the second part of the prophecy of light and shadow.

"It sounds like a prophecy all right." She agreed in a flat tone. "This is even more bizarre than I thought. You'd better take a copy... but we can't tell the others about this."

"why not?" He let go of her hand and grabbed is d-terminal. "It mostly seems like gibberish but I'm pretty sure that it supports my points about Daemon."

"It does indeed." She agreed. "But think, Logan, how do you think the others will react to the fact that the Digital World let you see this?" He considered that for a moment.

"Badly." He said finally. "And come to think of it why did it let me see this?"

"Especially with me along." She sounded appalled. "I might have turned on you!"

"They probably knew you'd talk some sense to into me." He mused. "Which raises the question of how much it knows about us?" He took Ali's hand again. "Anyway let's get out of here and go to the den before we worry any more about this."

----

"What could cause this?" Gennai asked when they finished going through the prophecies. "What in the world could cause this?"

"Something very strong... strong enough to break timelines and reassemble them. I think we should send Dai and Ken to Ryo. Risks be damned if this is what I think it is they need to remember it all now. I just hope that they can cope with it."

"What do you..."

"A very strong digimon, strong enough to play havoc with the timelines and subtle enough tot to alert me. Ken and Dai found it familiar..."

"Is that possible?" he asked. She shook her head.

"It shouldn't be but with that one you never know. Then again all digimon have freewill just like humans and sometimes freewill can break a prophecy but that I should sense... I can't think of anyone else who could do this... what I can't figure out is the why." She gave him a shrewd look. "Now what's bothering you?"

"If the prophecies are becoming unreliable should we still have given it to the Child of Vengeance What if the factors behind the decision no longer hold true."

Jun smiled wryly. "It's a calculated risk but we can't assume that they don't.... and he can't really do much damage with it."

"And why did you show it him when Al... when the child of Cruelty was there. What if she'd flipped out again?"

"In the Map Cavern? It'd never happen. It's almost as secure against dark infiltration as here." Jun pointed out. "And he needs her to stop him telling the other Dark Chosen... they would flip."

"That's true." He paused. "I'll tell Akiyama-kun to be ready." His eyes were sad for a minute. "Poor Ryo, at least I'll get to go home some day but he's stuck here..."

Jun gave him a long, thoughtful look and touched his arm. "You can go home any time you want without too much risk."

"Even a small risk is too much." He replied. "I'll stay at this post until it's safe... but, Jun-san, will it be soon?"

"Sooner rather than later if things play out as I predicted but..."

"But recent events mean you can't say if they will." He sighed. "I knew this was the long haul when I agreed.

----

At the den Ali located a bottle of coke and some crisps. "Shall we start with what I promised I'd tell you before we got sidetracked."

"I think we'd better." Logan agreed. "Unravelling this prophecy thing is important but it's going to take time." He sipped his coke. "So tell me about Michael."

"Remember you promised to let me finish." She said. He nodded. "Good." she took a breath. "the boss - the old boss - always told me not to tell you this. He said it would be hard enough for you to work in any team containing Sean without knowing that they'd done this. Which is odd because Sean was peripheral to all this.

"Okay, now you've got me really curious. Tell me what happened." He opened the packet of crisps and took one out.

"Well there's no easy way to say this so I'll just say it. Michael was your predecessor." The crisp froze halfway to Logan's mouth as her words registered. He was vaguely aware that he was staring at her stupidly as she continued. "I have no idea how he lost the crest. The only person other than Michael who might know is Motomiya. I knew the moment it happened though. We all did. It echoed through the who Digital World like a bell." She paused and took a mouthful of her coke, apparently steeling herself for what she was about to say. Logan suspected he knew what it was but knew he had to hear it. "What he did next was either really brave or really stupid. Possibly both in equal measure. He came back. He said we were his friends and he wouldn't betray us. He still wanted to help." She stared at the ceiling for a moment. "If Milleniummon had been there it might have been different... in fact from his reaction to what happened next I'm sure it would have been -- but he wasn't. He'd taken Kage and Mira off on some special mission. Anyway Chiharu flipped out totally... I don't mean she was crest led either, you know how Denbe can be about potential enemies and Liam would happily kill us all if he could. Psychotic little brat." She paused and scowled. "When the vote reached me it was tied. I opened my mouth to say we should lock him up until Milleniummon-sama got back and then everything went black and when I came to I... I .. I...I w-was..." She trailed off, obviously on the verge of tears again. Her distress snapped him out of his shock and he reached out and touched her hand.

"It's okay, Ali, I can figure out the rest from what you said earlier." He finally ate the crisp as he considered this. "You were right." He said finally. "You shouldn't have done that... but," he added firmly, "You were not exactly acting of your own volition. So cheer and focus that anger on whoever was controlling you, okay?" He tucked into another crisp. "And much as it irks me to say it you were right to let him go as well. You can't go around killing people just for being weak."

"Weak is one word I'd never use to describe Michael... whatever happened after the cave collapsed it must have been dramat... why do you look puzzled?"

"If it was Chiharu, Denbe and Liam who wanted him dead then Sean must have voted to spare him."

"Well, yes... that's a no brainer." She seemed relieved by something. Probably the fact that he hadn't rushed off to kill something. "Dana voted first as usual and can you actually imagine Dana voting to kill him?"

"Oh, right. I forgot about that." He admitted.

"Well it was a little odd." She agreed and then glanced at her watch. "Oh, hell! I have to get back! I'm supposed to be the one visiting Nii-san tonight!" She grabbed her bag and jacket. "We'll have to discuss the prophecy tomorrow." She added as she ran for the port. "Sorry to hop out on you like this!"

-----