Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Chosen Warriors ❯ Chapter VII: The Book of the Gods: The Digital Codex ( Chapter 7 )

I was once jealous of Sora and Yamato, jealous of the love they shared, but no more. I now have that love, a true love that fills me and gives me strength. Even as I remember this adventure, evens as I recall these thoughts, even as I transcribe these memories. Years later, he is here, smiling and watching over my shoulder. We have been together since that day I finally confessed my feelings to him. He has stood by me as we lost those closest to us, our family and friends gone, but he was there. I would have broken if not for Daisuke, my only love.

Oddly enough, the time when I finally told him was also the time that the Qinglongmon Warriors would almost give up everything for me: everything that we worked for in exchange for me. Sora lost her friendship with Mimi, and we crossed the point of no return with the Baihumon Warriors. Our closest friends, were now our enemies.

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The Chosen Warriors

Chapter VII:

The Book of the Gods: The Digital Codex

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The Qinglongmon Warriors stopped for a small reprieve as they stood atop a mountain ridge, glowing a bright yellow light in the daylight sun. “So,” Takeru said, placing a hand over her eyes in an attempt to keep the sun out of his eyes. “These are the fabled Mountains of Gold, huh?”

“That’s right,” Ken said, “I once heard about these mountains, rumor has it that the rocks have properties similar to gold, that’s why it glows like that.”

“You mean the entire mountain is made of gold?” Daisuke asked. He smiled slyly, “Hey, if this mission doesn’t work out, maybe we can buy our freedom, right?”

“Daisuke!” Hikari gasped.

“Sorry,” he said, sheepishly, “I was just trying to make a joke. Everyone looks so serious.”

“It’s a stressful time,” Yamato said. He sighed. “All right, so now that we’re here, what do we do?”

Hikari removed the scroll from her pocket. “To locate the Digital Codex, journey to the Mountains of Gold, and seek out the stone goddess that watches over the land. The power of the sun and the moon shall light the way.”

“Stone goddess?” Noriko asked.

“Probably a statue or something,” Taichi said. He stared at the mountain range before his eyes, “But where?”

“I guess we’d better start searching, huh?” Sora said, a depressed expression on her face.

Taichi glanced over at the small group. He counted off by two, splitting the group into four small groups. “I know Yamato and Sora want to be together, how about Hikari and Takeru and Daisuke and Ken?”

Takeru shrugged. “That’s fine.”

“No problem,” Daisuke said.

Taichi nodded. He turned to Noriko and smiled, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “That leaves you and me. Come on.”

“Okay, Taichi-san,” she said, trailing behind him.

The group quickly separated and started to search the massive mountain before them. Hikari and Takeru climbed up a path near the center of the mountain that twisted through a myriad of caves and tunnels. “So,” the blond boy said, “Have you told Daisuke how you feel yet?”

She sighed. “Not yet. It’s kind of hard when you’re constantly running for your life, and it’s all your fault. How can I even say something like that to him? He probably hates me.”

Takeru stared at her in shock. “How can you even say something like that? I can think of more then just a few times when we were running for our lives.”

“Yeah, but how many times have you all been in danger because of me?”

The blond boy simply stared at her. She glanced to the ground. “Sorry. Sometimes…I…I try to forget.”

“No problem.” He walked over and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “But listen to me, Daisuke does not hate you, none of us do. We all chose this path: you may be the Priestess of Qinglongmon, but we are your warriors. It’s our job to protect you and fight for you. None of us would be here if we didn’t want to do this.” He smiled. “Talk to Daisuke, I don’t think you’ll regret it.”

Taichi and Noriko were walking through a very narrow path near the left side of the massive hill. The younger girl trailed behind him, as if she was debating whether to stare at the back of his head or keep her gaze on the ground. She thought back to the time when she was still acting under the influence of the Dark Seed, when she treated the world as if it was not even worth her attention. The Chosen Children were just trying to help her, and she nearly attacked them. How could they even stand to be around her?

She then remembered her partner, Snow Agumon. Once she received that white dinosaur, they were inseparable. She became the friends Noriko desperately needed, and now she was gone, destroyed simply because of who she was. It wasn’t fair!

Taichi raised his head when he heard the sound of crying. He turned around and saw that Noriko was sobbing, but attempting to hide it. “Noriko?”

“I..I’m sorry Taichi-san,” she sniffled, “I’m okay, we can still keep looking.”

“No, you’re not okay.” Due to their height differences, the older boy had to kneel down in order to be at eye-level with her. “What’s wrong?”

She hesitated, not wanting to bother him. She stared at his face through tear strained eyes and finally broke down, displaying the first signs of emotion Taichi had seen from her “I was so mean to you when the Dark Seed controlled me, you should hate me! I want to help you make Hikari’s wishes come true, but I know I’m not very strong! Mostly, I just miss Snow Agumon!”

Taichi waited until the younger girl was finished before speaking. “Well, Noriko, we know that you were being controlled by the Dark Seed, and you are helping to make Hikari’s wishes true. If it wasn’t for you, the others wouldn’t have gotten out of that Digital Hunters’ base.” He sighed, “And I know it’s hard to think about the loss of our digimon partners, but we have to move on, Snow Agumon wouldn’t want you to stay depressed forever, and I know she’s looking down on you right now.” He smiled, “My Agumon, Tailmon and all the others.”

Noriko sniffled again and finally stopped crying. “Thank you, Taichi-san,” she said.

The older boy smiled slightly. “And maybe we can work on you calling me that.” He stood up and took a small step nearer to the edge of the path. The small cliff gave way and Taichi fell. He did not fall from the mountain, but instead the ground collapsed under him, bringing him into the mountain itself, specifically, a cavern.

“Taichi-san!” Noriko shouted, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah!” he called back, coughing. “I’m…hey, wait a sec, there’s something down here.”

“What?”

There was no response. “Taichi-san?”

She suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped into the air and spun around, only to see, to her surprise, Taichi standing there with a smile on his face.

“Sorry. There was a tunnel that leads up around here.” He pointed over his shoulder to a large opening on the side of the wall a few feet down the path.

Noriko nodded. “W..what was down there?”

Taichi reached for his D-terminal. “Let’s get the others first, then I’ll explain.”

As it turned out, Yamato and Sora had found something similar on the other side of the mountain. “A giant stone carving of a sun?” Daisuke asked.

“That’s right,” Yamato said.

“Noriko and I found a moon carving on the other side,” Taichi added.

“That’s probably the sun and moon the scroll was talking about,” Ken said.

“That’s not all,” Takeru said as he and Hikari reached the group on the left side of the mountain, “Hikari and I found the statue!”

“Where?”

“In the middle,” the Priestess of Qinglongmon explained, “It’s gigantic, and it looks just like an angel.”

“So we’ve found those three things that the scroll talked about,” Sora said, “But how do we use them?” She looked over at Ken. “Any ideas?”

Ken shook his head. “The scroll just said that the power of the sun and moon would guide us. There’s probably something at the two carvings. Let’s go and examine them.”

Taichi and Noriko returned to their discovery, along with Hikari and Takeru. The foursome examined the carving in near silence. “It just looks like a normal carving to me,” Taichi sighed, “What’s so special about this?”

“There’s got to be something here, Taichi-san,” Noriko said.

“Yeah, I know,” the older boy sighed, “I’m just a little stressed out right now, don’t mind me.”

Takeru knelt down and examined the bottom of the wall that the moon was carved onto. He discovered a small square jutting out the side. “Hey, what’s this?”

Hikari reached for her D-terminal when she heard it start to beep. She flipped open the cover and read the message she had received. “It’s from Ken. They found the same square thing on their side. I’ll tell him we found the same thing.” She entered the message and sent it. A moment later she received a response. “He thinks we should try pressing it at the same time, but someone needs to be at the stone statue, just in case something happens there.”

“I’ll go,” Takeru said, running up the cavern to reach the top floor of the mountain. He ran over to where he and Hikari had found the stone goddess and stood before the elegantly carved statue of an angel. He sent a message via his own D-terminal. “All right, I’m ready.”

Ken sent a message: “In exactly one minute from the end of this sentence, we’ll press the square objects. Okay, from right now!”

Each side counted off the seconds until one minute had passed, and Taichi and Ken pressed the small square objects. Instantly, the entire mountain began to shake. Takeru stared up at the stone angel and watched with awe as it slowly slid apart, moving into two halves and revealing a hidden tunnel behind it. He grinned and ran inside.

The others became concerned when they did not receive a confirmation e-mail from Takeru, so they abandoned their sections of the mountain and ran to the center. They ran inside the newly revealed cavern, only to see the blond boy slowly walk back out. He was slightly surprised to see them. Hikari put his hands together in front of her chest, “Takeru, did you…?”

The blond boy shook his head. “It wasn’t there.”

Later that night, the warriors had set up another camp and were staring at the campfire, extremely depressed. “I still don’t understand how it could be missing,” Hikari asked.

“Treasure hunters probably,” Ken sighed, “They’re the worst, stealing priceless treasure just to sell it.”

“And we were going to use it for ourselves too,” Yamato sighed.

Sora shook her head. “What should we do now?”

Taichi glanced around. “Hey, where’s Hikari?”

“Daisuke isn’t here either,” Noriko said.

“He’s not?” Taichi and Takeru asked at the same time. The two older teenagers shot glanced at one another. The remaining warriors caught this.

“Is there something you two want to tell us?” Sora asked.

“No!” they both shouted. “”””””””” 221;””””””””””& #8221;”””””””””” ;””””””””””R 21;”

Daisuke was standing at the base of the Mountains of Gold, staring up at the area that held the stone goddess. He heard a strange crack and when he spun around he saw the brown-haired Priestess of Qinglongmon standing behind him.

“Oh, Hikari!”

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” she said.

He nodded and looked back to the mountains. “I’m sorry that we couldn’t find the book.”

“It’s…”

“No, it’s not okay,” he cut her off, “We needed that book, and we let you down…I let you down.”

“Daisuke,” she said, “I’ts not your fault. You have been the greatest to me. You have always been there for me, no matter what. And..” She hesitated, then took a deep breath and said, “…and I love you.”

Daisuke turned to her. “W..what?”

She nodded slowly, her body shaking. “Y..yes.”

Daisuke was silent for another few moments before reached over and hugging her. “Hikari-chan, I love you too, always have.”

She smiled and rested her head in his chest. “I know, and I wanted to tell you for so long, but I couldn’t.” She gave a content sigh. “But now you know.”

“Yeah, I do,” he said. He hugged her tightly. “So, now what do we do? Tell the others?”

She hesitated; then nodded. “Yes, let’s go.”

They returned to the campsite, only to find that the others were waiting for them. The expressions on their faces seemed to indicate that they already knew. Takeru smiled broadly, while Taichi gave Daisuke a frightening glance. He got up from his seated position and walked over to him. “If you break her heart, I’ll break your back,” he said.

Daisuke nodded. “Y..yes.”

Hikari frowned. “Oniichan!”

“Just kidding,” Taichi smiled. His flashed a nasty snarl at Daisuke, but quickly turned it back into a smile when his sister glanced his way.

“I always knew you two would make a cute couple,” Sora smiled. She eyed Hikari. “If you need any advice, just ask, okay?”

The Priestess of Qinglongmon nodded. “R..right, thank you.”

“It’s beautiful,” Noriko smiled.

Sora turned to her boyfriend. “Oh, Yamato, doesn’t this remind you of when we fell in love?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said quickly.

Takeru smiled slightly as he mentioned to Taichi, Ken and Noriko. “First Yamato and Sora, now Daisuke and Hikari, everyone’s getting paired up. There are four of us left right now…” His smile grew and he chuckled slightly as he looked at Noriko. “I think you’re going to be very popular in the next few days.”

She stared at him with a confused expression on her face, clearly not understanding his joke. “I’ll explain it later,” Ken said.

“Well,” Taichi sighed, “Not that I’m not happy for you, but we need to think of what to do next. The Digital Codex is gone, and without it, Hikari can’t make her wishes.”

“Maybe we should ask Gennai, or even go back to Qinglongmon’s Temple,” Ken suggested.

Suddenly, the area was flooded with light as a loud, yet familiar sound appeared over head. They looked above and saw a helicopter hovering overhead. Lord Sentry appeared at a small doorway on the side. “Greetings, Chosen!” he shouted.

“You!” Taichi screamed, “What do you want?”

Lord Sentry reached inside of the floating vehicle and emerged with a gold book in his hands. “I think perhaps, that you want this!”

“The Digital Codex?” Hikari shouted.

“That’s correct,” the Digital Hunter commander answered, “We arrived before you and took this book.”

“That’s Hikari-chan’s!” Daisuke shouted.

“Finders Keepers,” he sneered, “If you want it, meet us one hundred kilometers north of here tomorrow morning. There we shall decided who claims the Digital Codex!” He jumped back inside the helicopter and the vehicle vanished into the night sky. “””””””””” ””””””””””̶ 1;”””””””””” 221;””””””””””& #8221;”””””””””” ;

In an area close to the Mountains of Gold, the Baihumon Warriors were resting in a similar campsite. The Priestess of Baihumon sat on the ground with her back resting against a soft fallen log; she was wrapped tightly in blankets, recuperating from the attack she suffered from Sora and Yamato. She eager ate her soup before placing their make-shift bowl onto the ground.

“Are you full?” Mimi asked.

She nodded. “Yes I am, thank you.”

“Are you feeling any better?” Sam asked, sitting down beside her.

She nodded, rubbing the back of her head. “The swelling wasn’t bad, so it’s almost gone now.”

“That’s good.”

“What are we going to do about this?” Lou asked.

“I don’t know,” Wallace said, “but if they want to attack our Priestess, then theirs is free game.”

Michael nodded. “According to Tatum’s reconnaissance, the Digital Hunters have the Digital Codex, and they’re forcing the Qinglongmon Warriors to fight them for it. While they’re distracted, we should put our own plan into motion.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Tatum said.

Michael nodded. “All right, let’s do it.” “””””””””& #8221;”””””””””” ;””””””””””R 21;””””””””””&# 8221;”””””””””” ”

“You know this is a trap, right, Taichi-sempai?” Daisuke asked, running behind Taichi.

“Yeah,” he muttered, “But they’ve got the Digital Codex, what other choice do we have?”

“I don’t know about this,” Hikari said, “I don’t want you guys getting hurt because of me…”

“We’ve been through this before,” Takeru sighed, “We all know what we’re getting into. It’s not your fault in any way.”

“I know that,” she sighed, “But it still doesn’t make me feel any better.”

They passed a few more trees and exited the forest only to appear in a wide open desert. “I guess we finally got out of the forest, huh?” Daisuke asked, “But now we’re in complete desert.”

“I think I liked it better in there,” Sora said, wiping her forehead, “It’s so hot out here.”

“Yes it is, and it’s about to get worse!”

The Qinglongmon Warriors frowned when they saw a collection of Digital Hunters moving towards them from the left. There were tree in the front, while one stayed in the back: a young woman with blond hair who held the “I’m glad to see that you’re here,” Nimrod grinned, “I’ve got to say that it’s always more fun when I have to beat my prey into submission.”

“Where’s your boss?” Taichi asked, “Too scare to show his face?”

“Nah, just too busy,” Artemis said, stepping forward, along with a massive man wearing a beard, who stood on the other side of Nimrod.

“We are here to apprehend you,” the man said, “You can make it difficult if you want.”

Nimrod whipped out his sword and jutted it forward. “My colleague Ahab here is only part right. We can apprehend you, but we are required to use extreme force if you resist.”

“We’re not going peacefully,” Taichi said, “Give us the Digital Codes, now.”

Nimrod mentioned over his shoulder. “Tracker’s not giving that book away, you’ve got to get past us first.” He grinned, “Now, are we gonna fight, or not?”

Taichi nodded at the Qinglongmon Warriors. “Evolve, now!”

Both teams quickly changed into their armors, before their armors cracked and changed into their next forms: Taichi into Goku, Daisuke into Serge from ChronoCross, Yamato into Seiji from Samurai Troopers, Sora into Sailor Venus, Takeru into Squall from Final Fantasy VIII, Ken into Yugi, and Noriko into Malon from The Legend of Zelda.

Ahab, the bearded man, smiled amusingly, “So, this is their transformations, interesting.”

“If you’re through old man,” Nimrod glared, “Let’s get to work.”

The sword carrying Digital Hunter charged forward aiming his sword directly for Noriko, but Yamato jumped in the way, using his own sword to block it. He pushed the Digital Hunter back and started a fierce sword battle with him. Sora leapt to his aide, and added a few kicks whenever Yamato’s sword was pushed backwards. Ahab held a spear in one hand and a hammer in the other, which he used to simply bash Taichi, Daisuke and Takeru to the side. Artemis stood in one place and fired arrows at a fanatic rate, too fast for either Ken or Noriko to get too close. Luckily, their attacks were mostly long-range based, so they were able to stay at a distance, with Ken summoning the Black Magician onto the field and Noriko singing powerful blasts of sound that disrupted Artemis’s arrows, sending them falling to the ground. One arrow managed to make it through her sound barrier, however, and flung directly towards her. Ken directed the Black Magician to block the projectile with his staff.

“Thank you,” Noriko said.

“No problem,” Ken smiled, “But we’ve got to keep going.” He made a series of movements with his hands and the Black Magician fired a blast of powerful force, once again disrupting Artemis’s arrows. Noriko sang a high note, sending a powerful blast of sound that knocked the female Digital Hunter onto the ground.

Taichi, Daisuke and Takeru were having a more difficult time against Ahab. This was the first time they had a chance to battle this Digital Hunter, so his moves and method of fighting were unknown to them. Takeru and Daisuke teamed up and swung their swords at the massive Digital Hunter’s back, but were horrified when he spun around and blocked both blades with his spear. He twisted his body around, pulling both swords and the hands that were holding them into the ground. Taichi flew in from the other side in an attempt to try a sneak attack. Unfortunately, Ahab spun back around and slammed his large mallet into Taichi’s face. He twisted around in the sky before falling into the ground.

Yamato swung his sword at Nimrod’s side, but he spun out of the way and the blond warrior’s attack only sliced empty air. His girlfriend tried to redeem their attack by firing her energy attack, but Nimrod swung his own sword around, deflecting the beam into the ground. The Digital Hunter was surprised as he did not know that Sora had attacked him. His surprise gave Yamato a chance to finally actually hit Nimrod in the back. Sora took this chance to attack again, smacking Nimrod in the face.

The Digital Hunter stumbled back, rubbing his injured jaw. “Not bad,” he said, “but I’m still gonna kill you!”

“Then do it!” Yamato shouted, pointing his sword at him, “I am sick and tired of your mother, Nimrod!”

As the battle continued, Tracker stood guard with the Digital Codex between her arms. Her cybernetic enhancements included enhanced senses, so she was able to smell Hikari’s sent as soon as the Priestess approached. She spun around and grinned at the shocked brown-haired girl.

“Can I help you?” she asked, eyeing her wickedly.

“Just hand over the Digital Codex,” she said, “It’s not yours.”

“It’s not yours either,” Tracker said, “We found it first.”

“I can’t let you keep it,” the Priestess of Qinglongmon said, “We need it, you don’t.”

Tracker grinned slyly. “Really? And what exactly are you going to do about it? Fight me? You can’t, you’re completely helpless.”

“I used to be able to fight,” she thought, “I was one of the strongest Chosen Children, but that’s when I still had a digimon partner. Oh, Tailmon, I wish you were here.”

She was about to reluctantly give up when she noticed that Tracker turned her attention away from her. The Digital Hunter was looking into the sky, unfortunately, her enhanced senses did not register quick enough before an armored figure dropped down on top of her. This figure grabbed the Digital Codex from the unconscious hunter.

“Wallace?” Hikari asked. She did not notice Tatum sneak up behind her.

The others did he her scream, however. “Hikari-chan!” Daisuke screamed.

“Hikari!” the others shouted.

“What?” Artemis asked, quickly turning around. Ken’s eyes flashed and he made motions with his hands, motions that the Black Magician copied. He fired his Black Magic Attack, knocking the unaware Artemis into the ground. Ken grabbed Noriko’s hand and they jumped over top of the fallen hunter.

“Hikari, hang on!” Ken shouted.

“I’ve got to help them,” Daisuke said. He executed a back-flip in order to avoid the swing of Ahab’s hammer. He landed next to Taichi.

“We need to combine our power together,” the elder boy said.

“I’m with you,” Daisuke said. He stared at Ahab for a few moments, then jumped into the air. He pointed his sword at the massive Digital Hunter, then pulled it back, before pointing it forward again, sending a white arrow forward. “Flying Arrow!”

Taichi put both of his hands together, pointing his open palms at the Digital Hunter. A small ball of energy formed in the cup of his hands as Taichi called out a familiar attack, “Kamehameha!”

Daisuke and Taichi’s energy attacks combined together into a mighty beam of light that slammed into Ahab. Takeru used this opportunity to use his Lionheart ability to bring the massive hunter to the ground.

“Artemis! Ahab!” Nimrod shouted. He threw up his sword in order to black Yamato’s weapon, but that left him wide open for Sora.

She raised her hand and a string of hearts began to twirl around her body, before it was sent flying towards the Digital Hunter. “Love Me Chain!” The chain of hearts smacked into his hand, making him drop his sword.

Yamato leapt into the air, his sword covered by electricity. He swung it forward, sending a giant ball of electricity into the hunter. “Thunder Light Cut!”

Nimrod was hit, hard. He screamed as his entire body was covered with electrical energy. The force sent him falling into Ahab and Artemis. The three hunters moaned deeply before passing out.

Taichi glanced at Yamato. “Not bad.”

He nodded, smiling. “Thanks.”

“They’re taking Hikari!” Ken shouted. The other Qinglongmon Warriors quickly abandoned the fallen Digital Hunters and followed the fleeing Baihumon Warriors back into the forest. They traveled through a winding path until they abruptly reached a sharp cliff. “Where the heck did they go?” Daisuke asked.

“Taichi-san!” Noriko called, walking over with a piece of paper in her hands, “I found something. It was hanging on that tree over there.”

The older teenager started reading. “It’s from Michael.” He scanned the page, then crumbled it in his hand.

“What?” Daisuke demanded.

“The Baihumon Warriors have her,” he growled, “And they have the Digital Codex! If we want to get Hikari back, we need to go to the Temple of Baihumon and surrender the two Keys we have.” His frown grew into a snarl, “They have us right where they want us, damn them!”