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Chapter 13: Until Next We Meet

Universe 351: The Real World- Shinjuku Park

The first thought that crossed Calumon's mind when he opened his eyes was how pretty night's sky looked. It was clear, so he had a perfect view of all the stars. He sat up, trying to remember what he had been doing before he passed out. Upon seeing his friends, all his memories came back at once.

Calumon's first instinct was to hobble over to the unconscious Impmon. He recalled feeling Impmon's presence while being tortured by the D-Reaper, as though the purple digimon had been inside the core with him. It was sometime after that that Calumon had blacked out.

Standing over his friend, Calumon began to shake him in order to get a response. Impmon remained unmoving. "Get up, Impmon!" Calumon shouted. He shook Impmon again.

"Calumon…" The little Celestial turned around to see Izzy standing over him, with a sad look on his face. His shouting had apparently caused everyone else to wake up. "I don't think you should do that."

Calumon couldn't come up with a reason why he shouldn't. Impmon needed to wake up eventually. Just as Izzy began to reach out to pull him away, Calumon came up with an idea. He leapt up a bit before crashing down on Impmon's tail.

"Yeow!" Impmon screamed as he jumped to his feet. Clutching his tail, he turned to Calumon with an angry look on his face. "What's da matter wit you, Creampuff? Have you lost your mind?"

"I had to thank you for saving my life somehow," Calumon beamed.

"You got a funny way of showin' your appreciation, pal."

"Impmon!" two voices screamed, drawing the attention of both digimon. They belonged to none other than Ai and Mako, who were running towards their shared partner.

"What's goin'-?" Impmon was interrupted when Ai grabbed him by the ear.

"What's the matter with you?" she reprimanded. "You left in the middle of the fight. We were worried about you."

"Yeah, I thought we were a team," Mako added.

"We are a team, guys," Impmon said. "Now, would you please let… go." Impmon managed to pry his ear lose only for his Tamers to catch him in hug.

"We'll think about it," Ai teased, getting laughs from the older kids standing nearby.

"We won, right?" Calumon asked Izzy. With the day they had had so far, he wanted to be sure that it was over.

"I think so," Izzy replied confidently. "The D-Reaper's gone, and since I can't hear anymore fighting going on, I bet the others have dealt with Myotismon."

"What about Lucemon?" Tommy asked.

"He said that Myotismon had absorbed most of his data. I doubt he could have survived on his own once the D-Reaper was deleted."

"Stranger things have happened," Koichi added as he looked upward. Calumon sighed, wondering how he could still be so serious after they had won.

Deciding he was bored of this conversation, Calumon left the humans to talk amongst themselves. He decided to go find Jeri. Calumon was hungry, and he was sure the girl would want to help him find something to eat.

"So, who wants to do that again?" Takuya asked as he tried to catch his breath. No response was given as everyone else seemed to be as tired as he was. Still, the exhaustion did nothing to dampen the mood of the group. They had finally won.

Gatomon looked around to assure herself that everyone had come out of the battle in one piece. They were all still scattered throughout this area of the park, but the group was slowly coming back together. Kari and T.K. approached Gatomon and Patamon, and Gatomon could finally see the humans allow a sense of relief to come over them.

"You guys okay?" T.K. asked.

"We're okey-dokey, partner," Patamon replied happily as he settled himself on top of T.K.'s head. "Say, do you think we can ask the forces of evil to take the rest of the month off?"

"I'll see what I can do."

Kari said nothing, instead kneeling down to offer Gatomon her usual spot on her shoulder. Gatomon was about to accept, but a twitch of her ear and a tingling feeling on the scar on her paw told her to hold off. She followed her instincts and turned back to the scene of the fight.

"I have to go check on something," Gatomon explained. "I'll be right back."

"Okay," Kari replied. Gatomon wondered if she had gotten the same feeling. Either way, Kari had enough faith in her to not question her decision. "I'll be right here if you need me."

"I know." Gatomon gave her partner one last smile before heading towards a sizable crater in the middle of the park. Nearby the crater, she noticed the Tamers and their digimon. As a result of their combined attack, they had all landed on top of one another, with Guilmon somehow ending up on top of the pile.

"Are you guys still in one piece?" Takato asked.

"Everything hurts," Guilmon moaned.

"Any more bright ideas, Goggle-head?" Rika strained to ask.

"Moumantai, Rika," Terriermon interjected. "It worked, didn't it?"

"How about I moumantai my foot into your face?"

"Okay, that doesn't even make any sense."

Gatomon allowed herself a small chuckle at the scene before turning her attention to her former master, who lay at the center of the crater. At first, it seemed as though Myotismon had reverted to his original form, or at least the form she had originally known him as. This proved to not be the case as Gatomon got closer. Myotismon now seemed older and more decrepit, and flecks of data were falling off him. This was likely the result of his repeated deaths and resurrections. Gatomon was willing to bet that all he had left was his core data.

"Come to see me off, old friend?" Myotismon asked weakly. Even in his sorry state, he still maintained some level of arrogance.

"I guess so," Gatomon said plainly.

"Next time, you and your friends won't be so lucky." This last declaration left Gatomon more disappointed than anything else. It affirmed her fear that Myotismon was a monster who would never change. No matter how these battles turned out, he would always find a way of blaming the Digidestined for his own shortcomings. He was probably plotting his next return as they spoke.

"What made you like this?" Gatomon asked calmly. It had to be more than just being one of Apocalymon's spawns. Something had to have happened to him to make him this way. "You don't even remember, do you?"

"I'll make you all suffer," Myotismon said, almost as if he hadn't heard her question.

"No, you won't," Gatomon replied. She held up her right paw as she spoke and looked it over. She had no doubt that Myotismon would try to return again. Whether or not he would be able to succeed was anyone's guess, but Gatomon knew it would be the job of her and her friends to stop him. She was one of the Chosen Digimon, after all, and she would do whatever it took to keep the world safe from evil like Myotismon. "You've caused us enough pain."

Looking down on Myotismon, Gatomon was reminded of what she had learned earlier. One cannot escape their past, not entirely anyway. Her past was her shadow; easy to ignore, but always a part of her. Gatomon was one of the Chosen Digimon, yes, but she was also all her past experiences. Unfortunately for Myotismon, that meant she was still capable of being the killer he made her into.

Gatomon drove her claws into Myotismon's chest, right in the spot where his heart should have been. As her old master finally burst into data, she inhaled both physically and mentally. She loaded Myotismon's data, bit by bit until it was a part of her own.

Once the process was done, Gatomon left the crater and began making her way back to Kari and the others. She gave no further thought to the data she had just acquired. If she already carried her past with her, a little more weight wouldn't make a difference. If it did become a strain, Gatomon had plenty of friends who would help her with it.

Hypnos HQ

Twelve hours had passed since their victory in the park. With few other options available to them, the three teams of Digidestined had taken up temporary residence at Hypnos. The arrangements actually reminded Izzy of summer camp a bit. So much had changed since that fateful day all those years ago, when he and six of his closest friends got swept up into the adventure of a lifetime.

Bringing his mind back to the present, Izzy continued to address the relatively small group in the conference room with him. Present were Ken, Henry, Yamaki, Riley, and Tally, all of whom were genuinely paying attention and had at least a basic understanding of what he had to say. For him, it was a nice change of pace. Usually his explanations were only grasped by Ken and Yolei, with the rest of his friends usually giving him blank stares and requests to use plain language. The fact that everyone else was absent was probably for the best, as interdimensional travel could get pretty technical to say the least. Izzy was likely to just call the process "invisible magic" if anyone else bothered to ask about it.

"That's about it, really," Izzy concluded. "Conceptually, it's not all that different from the digital gates we use back home."

"Except ripping a hole in the universe requires a bit more… kick," Ken added. It was also going to require slightly more equipment than a couple of laptops. Izzy had already taken the liberty of coming up with a list, which Tally was going over.

"We should be able to put this stuff together pretty quickly, as long you don't mind pulling a couple strings, boss," Tally stated. Yamaki only grunted in response.

"We should do this as soon as possible," Izzy explained. "That way, we can take advantage of the residual temporal energy in Shinjuku Park."

"My only question is about how you'll be able to differentiate between the different universes," Riley said.

"That's my favorite part," Izzy pressed a button on his computer and a chart appeared on a display screen. "Based on the readings I got from each portal, they each only had one real difference. They each seemed to be operating on a different frequency."

"Like different stations on a radio," Yamaki surmised, to which Izzy gave an approving nod. "What's each frequency based on?"

"Like I said, it's my favorite part. Each frequency is identical to the ones emitted by digivices native to said reality. We just have use an appropriate device as a key to each world." Izzy left out the fact that this would make traveling between universes difficult once everyone was home. Hopefully, that kind travel wouldn't be necessary again or at least for some time. He had already added it to the list of things he would be looking into once they were home.

"This is some incredible work, Mr. Izumi. Are you sure I can't tempt you to stay behind with a job here?"

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm needed elsewhere."

"We'd be lost without him," Ken added.

"Still, Henry and I are trying to come up with a system so that we can stay in contact." All eyes turned to the boy in question.

"It's really just a bunch of theories at this point," Henry explained. "We don't think video or audio communication is possible, but we were talking about how setting up an email system might be possible."

"Wormmon's always wanted a pen pal," Ken joked. Izzy chuckled a bit before briefly returning to his own thoughts.

On the surface, it didn't seem like the last twenty-four hours would have a huge impact on everyday life. Only a select few outside of this building would even know what took place. Izzy himself would go home, return to school and his everyday life, and work with the data he had collected. If nothing else, however, Izzy knew that this information proved that their lives had been altered forever.

Shinjuku Park

Koji took a second to take in the sights around him. While he knew for a fact that his own reality had a park just like this one, he felt like there was something special about this iteration. It wasn't something that could be put into words. The only thing he had been able to gleam from the Tamers was that it was closely tied to their own personal history as well as the city's history with the Digital World.

"What's the hold up, buddy?" Takuya called out to him. Koji had fallen slightly behind him, Tommy, Zoe, and J.P.

"It's nothing," Koji replied as caught up to them. They were currently en route to a meeting place in the park. While no specifics were given other than the location, they knew that a way for them to return home had been determined.

Unsurprisingly, this news received mixed reactions. Many of them had made new friends in their brief time together, and there was no telling if or when they would see each other again. Tai expressed interest in staying to be present for Ryo's memorial service, but that was quashed by a few factors. Takato had explained that it felt wrong to hold a service before the boy's family knew the truth, and the consensus amongst the Tamers was that they wanted at least a little more time to process what had happened. Also, Izzy seemed to imply that they had a limited window for returning home.

"Where did Koichi get to?" Zoe asked, likely to break the silence.

"He went on ahead," Koji replied. "Izzy needed one of us to help with the portal, so he volunteered."

"He sure makes friends fast." This was unsurprising to Koji. Despite being the Warrior of Darkness, his twin was actually one their group's warmest and most open personalities.

"I'm a little jealous," J.P. said while looking down at his broken arm. "I was at his side for pretty much the whole time and all I'm leaving with is this sling."

"Tell me about it." Zoe looked at her back as she spoke. A set of bandages could be seen through the tears in her clothing. "Who knows how long it'll be until these scars fade?"

"Hey, scars are distinctive," Takuya said casually. "I bet they'll look good on you." Koji expected Zoe to say something in response, but the Warrior of Wind simply turned a little red and faced forward so none of the boys could see her face. Takuya scratched the back of his head nervously, probably only then realizing what he had said.

"Takuya and Zoe sittin' in a tree…" Tommy sang.

"Like you're one to talk," Takuya snapped as he pulled Tommy's hat down over his face, effectively muffling his chant. "Don't think I didn't see you getting chummy with Suzie yesterday."

"It wasn't like that, Takuya," Tommy whined as he pulled his hat back up. "She was sad and I was just trying to make her feel better."

"I bet you were." At that, Tommy leapt onto Takuya's back, which resulted in the two wrestling and arguing with each other all the way to their destination.

Everyone else had already arrived. As the five Legendary Warriors walked by, the Tamers were actually in the middle of saying goodbye to Tai's group. At this point, Jeri was talking to Ken and Sora had somehow coerced Rika into an awkward hug. While Koji opted not to stop and interrupt anybody, he did exchange nods of acknowledgment with Matt and Henry. Though his interactions with them both had been brief, they had both been key in helping him work through his issues.

The five of them made their way over to a set of generators hooked up to a sizable computer tower. Koji didn't have to be tech savvy to guess that this was the device that would be getting them home. Operating it was Izzy, with Koichi and T.K. standing on either side him. The two of them were chatting between themselves.

"And if reason fails, punching him in the face works just as well," T.K. concluded.

"As usual, your logic is sound," Koichi replied. The pair shook hands before moving to join their respective groups.

"What was all that about?" Koji asked his twin.

"Nothing you need to worry about yet."

"Listen up, everyone!" Tai called out. The Digidestined of Courage had moved near Izzy's computer tower, and no one hesitated to turn their attention towards him. "I know that this fight wasn't easy. For some of us, things will never be the same again. We lost a couple friends to get here, but I think it's safe to say they would be proud of us. We saved at least three worlds that we know of, and that's always been the mission. I guess what I'm trying to do is thank all of you for upholding the mission."

"Quit grandstanding, Fearless Leader," Matt mocked, getting some laughs from the group. "Some of us want to get home."

"You heard him, Izzy. Take us home!"

After a couple key strokes from Izzy, two adjacent portals opened up in the middle of the park. With Izzy directing his own friends towards one, it was obvious to Koji that their way home was the other. As his friends began to pass through the threshold, Koji noticed Takuya holding back.

"What's the hold up, buddy?" Koji asked.

"Give me a sec, Koji," Takuya replied with a smile. "There's something I want to do."

"You're not thinking of staying behind, are you?"

"Are you kidding? What would you guys do without me to bail you out of trouble? Trust me; I'll be right behind you."

"Okay, I'll see you on the other side, partner." Koji nodded to his best friend one more time before turning around and going home.

Takato and Guilmon stood at a point in between the two portals. While his friends had since moved away from the spot, Takato remained. In his mind, there was still one more thing he wanted to do. Tai, Davis, and their partners were standing to his left as Takuya approached the group from his right. None of them had spoken yet, but they had all held up for a similar reason.

"I guess you got the same idea we did," Davis said to Takuya as he joined the group.

"I guess I did," Takuya said nonchalantly. "I'm usually not one for mushy goodbyes, but I felt a little left out when I saw you guys standing here."

"So, where do we start?" Takato asked. There was a brief pause. If Takato had to guess, there was nothing specific that they needed to say to one another. Still, despite how short a time they had known each other, there was still a strong connection between them. Takato had felt it when they had met, but was still having trouble expressing it with words.

"Why is saying "goodbye" so difficult for humans?" Veemon asked, breaking the silence.

"'Goodbye' is sad," Agumon explained. "It makes it seem like they're never gonna see each other again."

"Then don't say 'goodbye'," Guilmon suggested with a laugh. "Say 'see ya later' or something like that."

"Can't argue with that logic," Tai said. "So, what's on your schedules for tomorrow?"

"School…" three disappointed voices replied at once.

"Yeah, I guess I should have been able to guess that."

"It's not all that bad," Takuya said. "At least I have soccer practice tomorrow."

"Hey, so do we!" Davis affirmed.

"Really?" The statement caught Takuya's attention. Takato had already known Tai and Davis played soccer, but that was only because it had been consistently brought up in the TV show. Thinking back, they hadn't had a lot of time to learn about each other's personal lives.

"Yeah," Tai confirmed. "I'm the team's captain."

"For now," Davis teased. "Between you and me, Takuya, I think he's getting a little too old to keep up with the rest of us."

"Still not too old to kick your ass when I need to." Tai then turned to Takato, obviously detecting the Tamer's lack of interest in the current conversation. "What about you, Takato? Do you play any sports?"

"Do video games count?" Takato joked. "Honestly, I'm more comfortable off to the side with a pencil and a sketchpad."

"So you're an artist?" Takuya asked.

"An aspiring one, at least." Takato was actually proud of how much his abilities had improved over the years, but still wasn't comfortable bragging about them. He didn't feel like he had the right to call himself "an artist" yet.

"I like to draw sometimes too," Davis said.

"I'm not sure what you do could be considered drawing, Davis," Veemon stated to his partner's irritation.

"You know, you would be the worst wingman ever."

"It's funny," Agumon observed. "You four actually have a lot in common."

"I guess you're right. Takato definitely has Tai's fondness for redheads." Takato felt the back of his neck heat up. He shifted away a bit to hide his embarrassment.

"You don't have to be embarrassed, Takato," Guilmon said confidently. "If it makes you feel any better, it's actually pretty obvious."

"Is it?" Takato asked, raising an eyebrow to his partner.

"Well, you drew me, and my head's pretty red." Takato sighed and the other three boys laughed. As he suspected, Guilmon was a bit too naïve to grasp what they were actually talking about.

"Guilmon, that's not-" Takato's explanation was cut short when the computer tower powering the portals began to beep. Before any of them could ask what it meant, the two portals began to flicker.

"I guess that's our que," Tai pointed out as he turned towards his portal. "We don't want to miss our ride home."

"I don't know," Davis pondered. "Being trapped in a parallel universe seems like a legitimate excuse for missing school."

"Just get going, you blockhead." Tai gave Davis a shove and the younger Digidestined stumbled through the portal.

"Take care, guys," Takuya called back. "Feel free to rip a hole in reality if you ever want to hang out." With that, the boy disappeared.

Tai looked back at Takato one final time, giving him single nod. Takato felt the need to thank Tai for his help one more time, but just returned the nod instead. Thinking back to what Agumon had said, he didn't want to treat this like their final conversation. Knowing how their lives tended to go, there was a good chance they would see each other again. After watching Tai pass through the portal, Takato turned away from the closing portals and walked to where Rika and Henry were waiting for him.

"Are we good?" Henry asked.

"I think so," Takato replied.

"Did you and Tai have enough time to profess your love for each other?" Rika teased.

"We decided a long-distance relationship wasn't for us. I think I'm gonna try and find something a little closer to home." Rika turned away from him slightly as he smiled in her direction.

"Well, good luck with that." Like the rest of them, she was still a little down. Takato took a deep breath before taking a step towards her. Whether Rika liked it or not, he refused to sit there and do nothing while she was hurting.

"Hey…" Takato placed a hand on Rika's shoulder and gently turned her to face him. "Honestly, how are you holding up?"

"Is 'I don't know' an acceptable answer?" There was no sarcasm or snark in her voice to mask how she was actually feeling. Takato couldn't hold the vague answer against her, as it was how he was feeling as well. He decided to treat it like a small victory, as Rika typically didn't like to express how she was feeling.

"I think it'll be a little bit until any of us will be giving a straight answer to that question," Henry added.

"Well, someone's feeling optimistic today," Terriermon commented from atop his partner's head. "Moumantai already, Henry."

"Sorry, I'm just worried about the others." He was right to worry, of course. Kazu and Kenta had become quiet again after the fighting had stopped. Suzie was putting on brave face and trying to act normal, likely because that's what she thought Ryo would want her to do. Jeri wasn't supportive of this idea, having said that someone Suzie's age shouldn't keep grief bottled up. If his friends continued to act this way, Takato knew he would have to intervene.

"We just have to give them a little time," Takato said as he dropped his hand from Rika's shoulder and turned to face Henry. "We'll get through this as long as we do it together."

"Just like we always do," Renamon pointed out.

"It's worked for us so far," Guilmon said cheerily. "Why change now?"

"I suppose you're correct."

Takato looked back and forth between his two best friends one more time. Neither spoke, but they didn't have to. In the end, they would always have each other's support. As the three Tamers and their partners moved to rejoin the rest of their friends, Takato knew that was all he needed for the time being.

If you've read this far, I feel like I owe you an explanation as to what this fic was. Like many of the users on this site, I'm an aspiring writer, but have been having trouble when it comes to sitting down and actually writing a story or script. Deciding this was due to me not trusting my own instincts, I started this fic as a self prescribed writing exercise. While I started off with a rough story outline so I wouldn't get lost on any tangents, a good portion of it was free-written. This has yielded some interesting results. Looking back on what I've done, I do like quite a bit of what I came up with. Granted, not all of these ideas were executed perfectly, but that's to be expected when you write a story the way I wrote this one. There were also a couple parts where I left myself scratching my head, wondering why I felt certain plot points needed to be included at all. Time will tell if what I did here will affect future projects, or even if it helped me solve my particular problem.

Funniest thing to come out of this is that I'm actually interested in doing a sequel, or a follow-up of some kind. I have a couple ideas, and am developing one right now to see if it has any merit. If nothing else, I know I would want it to be a little more focused than this fic was. We'll see what free time and motivation allow.

Anyway, I've typed at you enough. Again, Thank you to anyone who made it this far. You take care of yourself, leave a review if you feel up to it, and I'll see you around.