Chapter 1

Beginning Again

People tend not to worry when a problem is just out of sight. They disregard that feeling of danger and impending doom that wells up from the pit of their stomach thanks to the defenses humans have built up over years of struggling to survive. This often leads to trouble, but the trade-off is a sense of peace and the ability to go on with the normal riggers of life. Unfortunately one of those times of disharmony is quickly approaching the real and digital world.

Deep within the heart of the digital worlds Dark Area three figures stand cloaked in the shadows of a large room, only briefly illuminated every few seconds by the flash of lightning that would come crashing down from the skies above. These sudden and unpredictable flashes would streak across the room only long enough to reveal features like black wings, dull metal, and the twisted horns of the three shadowy figures that occupied the room.

As another bright splash of lightning once again fills the room with white light and countless shadows; the moving lips of the three figures become visible. It is apparent that the three are having a heated discussion, but what about is lost to the boom and crash of the constant strikes of lightning and thunder that drowned out all other sounds. Only in-between the roar of the strikes can their words be heard.

"… when will it be ready…"

"… why delay, let's go now…"

"… how to proceed…"

"… when will be the time…"

"… not until it's stained with their blood…"

"… in good time…"

Splitting the sky and crashing to the ground below came the most monstrous bolt of lightning that had been produce by the ever raging storm in a long while. In this flash of lightning the room filled with a blinding white light and the shadowy figures disappeared within it. When the light had receded it left an empty room where the three had once stood and a hollowing message lingering in the air.

"… The digidestine will pay for what they have done…"

That great bolt of lightning had become the starting shot of a new adventure and the beginning of the coming battles for the digidestine. In this coming war they would learn about the past and what part their families had played, but for now it will begin slowly and quietly.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

The sound of an alarm filled the once quiet bedroom. As the beeping continued something underneath the bed sheets began to slowly stir. Suddenly an arm shot out from within the tangled mess of cloth and grabbed hold of a palm sized black and red device that had been left on the nightstand next to the bed and pulled it into the mass. Underneath the material the arm sleepily fiddled with the device trying to make the beeping sound stop. These movements continued until a low muttering could be heard from under covers as the person under them realized the sound had in fact not been coming from the device in their hand.

With this realization the arm once again reached out from within the sheet aiming for the alarm clock next to the bed. Unfortunately this maneuver would have gone over much better if the person in question had used their eyes instead of just blindly reaching for it. The first attempt ended with the arm hitting nothing but the air and eventually the floor as it overestimated where the clock was located. The second attempt ended with a solid thud upon the nightstand with a little bit of pain mixed in. The third attempt ensure there would be no others as it went wild and knocked the alarm off the table and onto the floor out of reach from the bed.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

With the alarm clock now on the floor the figure under the covers realized that they would have to get up if they wanted the noise to stop. In a whoosh of fabric the sheets that had once protected the one hiding under them from the early morning sunlight, that had filled the room and bathed everything in a cheerful glow, where cast aside to reveal the beds single occupant.

Dark brown hair with hits of red is set in a messy bed head look from a night of tossing about in his sleep. Brownish red eyes that opened and closed repeatedly as they tried to adjust to the morning light that poured in through the window on the other side of the room. Lightly tanned skin from the countless hours spent outside in the sun every day. This teenage boy is Takuya Kamiya, age 15, and the digidestine of fire.

Once the sheets were removed Takuya swung his legs over the side of the bed and set them upon the floor of his room, which had been warmed by the gentle rays of the sun. With a quick push of his arms he was up off of the bed and standing on his own two legs. He took a step forward and using his bare foot pushed the alarm button to finally silence the annoying sound that had filled the bedroom for the last ten minutes. After it was quiet he released a loud yawn as he stretched his body to shake off a good night's sleep.

"I can't believe that I forgot to turn that off on one of my only mornings off." He lazily said to no one in particular. "Well since I'm up I mine as well get dressed and have some breakfast." Again he stated to empty room.

Takuya walked over to dresser on the other side of the room and quickly pulled out a pair of loose dark blue pants and a black short-sleeve shirt, both which he slipped into before returning to the side of his bed. Taking a few seconds to look his bed up and down he reached into the mess of sheets and grabbed hold of his red and black D-tector that he had left in his bed after accidently grabbing it in his early morning battle with the alarm clock. He then turned and walked over to the chair in front of his desk and picked up the crimson red leather jacket off of the back and in one swift motion put it on before slipping his D-tector into one of the inner pockets. Following this he grabbed the pair of square frame pilot's goggles that his great grandfather had given him before he died and hung them around his neck. The last accessory he needed to complete his look was also the most important device he and the other five warriors had been entrusted with by Lady Ophanimon, the Dat-X.

The Dat-X was a key that allowed Takuya and the other digidestine to open the locks that had been placed on the digital worlds gates after the defeat of Lucemon. This had been done in an effort to prevent any uninvited guests from entering the digital world and to keep digimon from entering the real world and causing trouble. With the Dat-X the digidestine could turn any computer into a digital gate and enter the digital world which would flare up with trouble every so often. The Dat-X itself was a shiny, translucent, multicolor sphere of what Takuya assumed was glass or whatever CD's were made of surrounded by four white locking mechanisms that formed a square around the ball. It was slightly bigger than the D-tectors but thinner and rested within a holster attached to his belt.

Taking the said belt and running it through the all the belt loops on the left side of his pants and purposely missing all the other loops on the right side, so that the belt would rise on his left side and fall down the side of the right leg where the Dat-X was positioned at the lowest point.

Now that he was dressed and fully armed for the day he left his room and headed for the stairs. On the way to the stairs Takuya caught sight of himself in a mirror attached to one of the walls along the hallway. He took this time to look himself up and down and reflect on the past four years. He remembered how he and the rest of the team had originally thought that after defeating Lucemon that it was going to be the end of their digital adventures. In a year's time this would prove to have been a false assumption when they were once again contacted by the rejuvenated Lady Ophanimon, who now pleaded with them to return and save the digital world. Once again they took up the spirits and fought against the evil army of digimon that had arisen within the digital world until they reached the main cause of all the problems they faced this time around, Barbarmon. Just like Lucemon this digimon was extremely powerful and evil. It was at this time that the digidestine learned of the Seven Great Demon Lords to which Lucemon had belonged.

The battle with Barbarmon was a hard fought one, only coming to an end with the reappearance of Susanoomon. At the end of this battle the Three Great Angels had decided to permanently entrust the six of them with the spirits and the Dat-X. This would prove to be a wise decision since only six months later another of the Seven Great Demon Lords would appear to threaten both worlds.

This demon lord had been called Leviamon, a monstrous digimon who could easily be mistaken for a large red island. This battle would take place in a world the warriors had never seen before. It was neither the digital world nor the real world, it was something new. The place they fought was black and white with all the shades of grey in between and gave off a strange uneasy feeling. For each of them what they felt from that place had been different. For some it was fear for others it had been anger or even a sense of wanting, even now Takuya can't remember what he had felt while there, he just knew he like the rest didn't want to ever see that place again.

It was in the battle with Leviamon that the warriors had learned something important about their connection with their spirits. They discovered that the stronger that they themselves became the stronger their digimon forms became. Since the incident with Barbarmon they had taken up different types of training to make themselves stronger in case they had to return to action again. This hard work paid off when the powered up EmperorGreymon and MagnaGarurumon were able to take down Leviamon without having to fuse together into Susanoomon. The six months following the fight with Leviamon were peaceful, which the digidestine took advantage of to continue training and go to school.

Soon that peace would be broke by yet another call from Lady Ophanimon to return to the digital world. They once again entered to digital world expecting to be told they would have to fight yet another of the Seven Great Demon Lords. That was not the case this time. They had been called so that Lady Ophanimon could inform them that uncontrollable rifts in the digital world had begun appearing and evil digimon were coming through them into both the digital world and the real world. The warriors would now have to act as a peace keeping force by protecting the digital world when called and hunting down evil rouge digimon in secret in the real world before they caused any trouble.

This is how they've been living the last two years. Living like normal children, going to school, playing sports and having fun. While secretly defending the two worlds from the Rifted digimon, as they had knick-named them, and trying to get in as much training as they could in-between. They were just like any normal group of teenagers he thought to himself.

"Yeah, just like any group of teenagers that has to battle the forces of evil as legendary beings from a different dimension and prepare for High School Entrance Exams, which are much scarier than any of the Demon Lords." Takuya exhaled with a sarcastic tone, which if anyone had heard they would have sworn it sounded like he was somewhat happy about this.

Takuya quickly moved down the steps until he got half way down them, stopped and grabbed hold of the banister and jumped over the side falling the remaining distance to the first floor. He landed on his feet with both a trained grace and a loud thud that shook everything nearby.

"Takuya Kamiya! Every morning you do that! One of these times you're going to hurt yourself!" rang the voice of Takuya's mother from the kitchen.

As Takuya entered the kitchen he noticed that whatever conversation his parents had been having before he entered the room had stopped. Despite the semi-weird atmosphere he greeted his father and mother with a good morning before sitting down, waiting to be served some breakfast.

"You're up early today. I thought you were taking the week off from your morning routine to prepare for exams?" Takuya's father asked between sips of his morning coffee. In response Takuya lets off an uneasy laugh "You know me I just can't lay around, I'm just that good…" while rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous way hoping that his parents wouldn't catch onto the real reason.

Takuya's father was a tall man who was still a good foot taller than his son. He had brown hair which was cut much shorter then compared to its length when he was his son's age. He had the same brown eyes as his son but his skin was a darker tan then Takuya's and his face held some slight differences. Anyone could easily tell they were father and son, even with a quick glance, and if they got to know their personalities there would be no doubt. This man was Taichi Kamiya, the leader of the first generation of digidestine and the digidestine of courage. This fact was sadly still a secret from his two sons, as was the fact that his eldest son had become a digidestine and taken up the mantel of leader of his own team. If Tai had know he would have been even prouder of the son sitting across from him then he already was.

Takuya actually held a deep respect for his father not only for being the man who raised him, shared half his DNA, and taught him so many things. Takuya was also proud of all the things his father had achieved. Tai had gone to college and finished with honors, which really surprised everyone, then he went on to play professional soccer for a few years, the highlight being that he was selected to be part of Japans World Cup team and brought home victory. Tai would retire after only a few years to get married to the love of his life and start a family. The fact that he went out at the top of his career as one of the greats was so cool to Takuya. Tai was now activate in local politics and was considering running for a political position in a few years.

*THWACK*

Suddenly Takuya felt an impact against the back of his head. While he held the sore spot a voice from above caught on to the truth for his early rise. "I'm sure you just forgot to turn off the alarm before you went to sleep last night." his mother stated with an air of confidence while Takuya began to rub the sore spot. An uneasy laugh from her son as he stared at the wooden spoon in her hand told her that she was right. The fiery red head always saw through her two sons and husband, although lately there were certain things about Takuya she just couldn't read for some reason.

Who is this redheaded family manager and mother of two. She is none other Sora Takenouchi, well Sora Kamiya for the last eighteen years now and the digidestine of love. The mother figure of the first generation was now a true mother with two kids of her own to watch over. She was about the same height as her eldest son; in a few short months he would be taller than her. Sora now had shoulder length hair that closely resembled that of her eldest sons except for the color and length. In her opinion her hair, nose, and a shade off from her eye color were the only thing Takuya got from her. Shinya on the other hand looked more like her then his father.

She had gone to a different college then Tai so they had to make a go at a long distance relationship, they were one of the lucky couples whose love had stood the test of distance. After college she had traveled with Tai while he played soccer, all the time design and drawing new ideas trying to get her name out there. Eventually Tai proposed and they got married. Tai then retired so that they could lay down roots and start a family, three years later Takuya was born and their happy family began to take shape. Sora now worked as a fashion designer with her own little shop, this kept the family in all the best fashions and looking shape. She was very happy with the life the four of them had built and now shared together.

"Takuya why did your father and I even spend the money on steps if you're not going to use them?" Sora huffed from behind Takuya.

Takuya tilled his head back and looked her directly in the eyes before he said, "The stairs are there for you mom." For this comment Takuya earned two things, a laugh from his father and a whack to the forehead from the wooden spoon in his mother's hand.

As Takuya continued to rub the sore spot that was now on the front of his head his mother set down a plate of food in front of him. He took a break from his pain to focus on a higher need, his stomach. While devouring his breakfast Takuya always remember how grateful he was for his mothers cooking after coming back from the digital world. When Takuya was almost done with his breakfast a sudden burst of pings began to emanate from the cell phone in his jacket pocket. To Takuya this meant only one thing, his quiet morning breakfast was over, he had work to do.

Quickly shoveling the last bit of food off of his plate and into his mouth, he pick up his plate dropped it in the sink and ran out of the kitchen mumbling a goodbye and thank you to his mother and father, while trying to swallow his food. Takuya bolted to the door and grabbed his red and black sneakers from the entry way. He attempted to put the shoes on as he exited the house, resulting in him hopping the first few steps out the door as he tried to get the left shoe on his foot. Final it slipped on and with that Takuya was off and running down the path leading to the street that ran past his house. With one last turn he yelled out, "I'll probably be home late! See you all tonight!" before turning again and running out of view, hoping that at least somebody in his family had heard him.

As soon as Takuya was around the corner and out of the sight of his house he pulled the silver and crimson cell phone out of his pocket and opened it to reveal a 3-D map of the area being projected from the screen with a blue flashing target about a mile ahead of him. As he ran he hoped that he would make it before the target turned red. The blue target indicated where a rift had appeared and where a Rifted would soon to appear.

Looking at the map Takuya recognized the location as being that of the old car manufacturing plant that had closed down about five years ago. He knew the location well since this wasn't the first time he'd gone there in response to a rift opening. Somehow those kinds of places really attracted the rifts, which was good for them since those places were big and deserted. They made for the perfect place to have a battle in secret.

After a few minutes of running Takuya reached the empty parking lot just as the target turned red and the Rifted appeared. This time he lucked out it was an easy one, a Dark Tyranomon, he would be done in no time and still be able to meet up with his fellow digidestine so that they could walk to school together. Even if he would be a little late meeting up with them. Takuya took off running towards the emerging dino while pulling out his D-tector. The first thing Dark Tyranomon did after exiting the rift was to prepare his fire breath attack. As the flames began to lick the roof of the dark digimons mouth his attention was suddenly pulled away from the building it was targeting to the sudden flash of blue light to its left. The last thing that this Rifted saw was the red-hot flaming claws of BurningGreymon as they ripped across its line of sight.

After completing his quick transformation to BurningGreymon and even quicker finishing attack Takuya transformed back in a rush of fire and fractal code just in time to see Dark Tyranomon let out a low roar and burst into little bits of data. Just like he had thought, this one was way too easy.

"Alright done already!", "Got to get to Kouji's before he yells at me for being late… again…" Takuya yelled to himself before running off in the direction of his friends.

Unnoticed by Takuya an expensive black car pulled into the parking lot just as he ran off down an alley using a short cut he had found after his last time at the auto plant. Had Takuya been a few seconds slower the driver would have seen him, but luck was on his side and the drive only saw an empty parking lot devoid of people or digimon.

The car makes one loop around the lot before if pulls in to the center of the lot and parks. A few seconds later the car door opens and out steps a man in a sports jacket and jeans holding an open laptop. He looks around the lot as he sets the laptop down on the roof of the car and begins to enter some complex information into the computer until he receives an error message. With this failure he hangs his head saying "I don't get it, how could it have just disappeared?" He turns to the computer again hits a few more keys, sighs, and sits down in the driver's seat to think.

Back at the Kamiya household…

A few moments ago Tai and Sora had just gotten their youngest son off on his way to school so they final had the house to themselves. Sora returned to the kitchen after having watched Shinya turn the corner from the front door. She sat down across from her husband and began to take some sips from her coffee.

After taking a few sips of his own Tai starts up the conversation that had been put on hold when Takuya had entered the kitchen, "It's hard to believe that it's been eighteen years since we last saw the digital world." Tai then looks down with a sad face and adds "And eighteen years since we've seen them."

At the mention of them their minds go to memories of a certain orange dinosaur and pink bird. Grabbing hold of his wife's hands Tai reassures her, "We will see them again, I'm sure of it. And look at how much we have to show them. They will be excited to meet Takuya and Shinya, as well as the rest of the kids."

Sora lets out a bright smile before leaning over the table and kissing he husband on the forehead. "Your right." "I do feel bad about not being able to share the digital world with the children. It meant so much to us and now we can't make the children part of that if we can't take them there. It feels like where leaving them out of an important part of our lives, Tai."

"I know what you're saying Sora, I know." he replied.

To be continued…