The Digi-destined are reunited and have resumed their roles as the Digital World's Saviors once again. But things have taken a twist, since Gennai claims he knows nothing of the mysterious email 'he' sent, nor of the reason behind the traumatic ordeals they gone through, not even of Selkie!

The destined's only answers may lie in a forgotten legend of an ancient power desired by an ancient evil....
A.S.D.A

Secret Shames

by Nefertanya dragongurl Ahhotep

~I have a tale to tellSometimes it gets so hard to hide it wellI was not ready for the fallToo blind to see the writing on the wall~
~Madonna, Live To Tell~


"Does this seem...familiar to you guys?" asked Tai, eyeing their surroundings. On Gennai's behalf, the team of reunited heroes had gone off on a quest to find his identity thief.

But they also wanted answers. Answers to questions like why had they been put through such terrifying tests? Of what use to them were the voices that had pledged themselves, and to what did they belong to? Who were Merlin and Nimue, and why had they never been heard of before?

Tai shivered slightly as Matt walked up next to him-the blonde, while still much warmer than when they'd first found him, still had kind of an icy aura around him.

"You know, I was thinking the same thing!"

"Where *are* we?!" Sora wailed. She was still a bit stressed, but then, being thrown out into outer space will do that to a person.

"TAI! TAI! Come here and take a look at this!"

The wild-haired brunette led the others to where the 'new and improved' Agumon was waving excitedly.

"What's up, little guy?" Tai still couldn't believe how much he, and the other digimon, had grown.

"Look!"

There were several large gasps as they recognized, but couldn't believe, what they were seeing.

"It's the forest of crazy road signs!" Matt cried.

"So does this mean we're on File Island?" Mimi queried.

"It can't be! If we're on File Island, where's Infinity mountain? Ten years is a long time, but even *that's* not long enough to lose a mountain!" Izzy yelled as Tai winced at the volume.

"It's been a wee bit longer than that, Koushiro."

"Huh?"

"Serenamon's right, Izzy." Tentomon buzzed over the celestial's shoulder and hovered at his eye level. "You guys have been gone longer that that."

"How...long is that?" Sora asked weakly.

"Twenty-five years."

"TWENTY-FIVE YEARS!" Eight voices screeched in unison.

"Incredible! So for every year that passes in the Real-er, *our* world, two and a half passes here! But that's strange....I thought Gennai said it was fixed..." Izzy stopped his methodic tapping when his laptop suddenly ^binged^. "Oh. I got mail...from Gennai."

With a frightened squeal, Kari latched onto the closest figure-TK. "I don't want to go back into the dark again!" she whimpered.

TK's expression was somewhere between panic and ecstasy. "Don't worry Kari. You're safe with us. Besides, you can glow now, remember?"

"Do I open it?"

Tai looked over to Matt, who looked back as apprehensively as Tai felt, and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"Do it."

Izzy took a deep breath and held the computer at arm's length like it was a dirty diaper. Scrunching up his face, eyes closed, he clicked the button...

....

"Phew!"

The genius quickly scanned the text, then laughed. "He says to tell you he's the real deal, not some weasel faced copy.

Hm. Gennai says that although the time frame was indeed stabilized after we first left, there's still a problem correlating time between the two worlds. In the time since then, there was a *major* tectonic shift due to the stabilization and File Island crashed into Server. Infinity Mountain broke apart, and much of the topography was changed."

"So we must be near the further part of the Island-the part that faced away from Server when it crashed." Tai theorized.

"Most likely. Hey! Gennai gave us a new map! Prodigious! Now we can get a better grip on the new landscape and confront that old legend, and find out who's that clone!"

8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 888888888

It was creeping into early evening. Matt had warmed up, Tai and Sora had cooled down, and Kari had finally stopped glowing (well, almost). Gennai's map, though highly detailed, couldn't override the Destined's memories. Several times they got lost due to someone remembering someplace that no longer was. So it was a great relief when TK spotted the small village in the distance.

"Tai, use your mini-scope and find out what kind of village that is." Agumon instructed as he stood on tiptoe as high as he could.

"I can't..." the human replied, staring at the digimon who's nose was by now up to his shoulder.

"Why not?"

"Cuz I didn't bring it with me!"

"Our dad broke it when he sat on it." Kari giggled as Tai pouted and whimpered over the loss.

"Something's coming." Gatomon warned, ears pricked forward.

A soft padding grew louder as two gabumon suddenly broke into a clearing. Like Gabumon, they traveled on all fours, but sat up on their haunches to smile at the team

"Greetings!" the slightly larger called out. "This is the Land of the Forest Clan. How can we assist you?"


So now you know why I made it a point to mention that the digimon were X yrs old in human years. No telling how old they really are, time stabilization or not. Anyhoo, who are these gabumon, and do they know about the mysterious evil?

On to Sun House

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