Senna shivered as she shuffled her feet quickly, the team following Leomon and Guardromon. The sun had almost fully set, and behind the blood-purple scar in the sky the moon and stars were starting to pop into existence. Glancing back, she saw the trees getting smaller, and the small figures that were the Frigimon and their wards sat huddled together by them. Senna hoped they'd be okay, but if what they described was accurate it was better out here for them than whatever they were going into.
Senna had debated waiting back with them, afterall she had no skin in the game. But, she was starting to like these people and she wanted to help them get back home. At least the Digimon here had good fashion sense.
They had unwrapped their bundles during the short break, and Senna had loved what she had gotten. Brown, fur trimmed boots and a long, light pink overcoat that went down to her ankles. It had a brown sash across the waist and was made of a thick wool-like material. Brown fur trimmed the collar, and it just went sooo well with the light green sleeveless top they had made her. She wore earmuffs, gloves, and a scarf of the same brown material. She was warm and looked fabulous.
Imogen's jacket was relatively thick, so they had made her a light grey sweater to go under it, along with black gloves, hat, and scarf. Her boots were the same brown as Senna's to match her jacket. She looked elegant with the contrast to her light blonde hair. Imogen gave her a slight smile as she noticed her looking.
Tavaras wore a thick, jet black jacket seemingly made of the same canvas material. It only went down to his waist, and didn't have the fur lined collar. He wore black earmuffs, gloves, and boots. The Digimon really tried to capitalize on their aesthetics, with Tav and his all-black he almost blended into the night.
Deon had a pair of over-pants made for him, a dark tan that matched the pants they had made for her. He wore a navy blue jacket in the same style as Tav's over his striped shirt, and had a hat, gloves, and boots the same colour as the ones she wore.
The Digimon all seemed to be fine; Biyomon was covered with warm feathers, and Leomon, Dorumon and Veemon with fur. Chrysalimon, she didn't think it could feel anything and Guardromon was a robot. She wondered if Wormmon would have been okay.
As they shuffled along, she turned to Deon. "Say, when you get back, what are you going to do?" Deon looked up, startled, and pondered.
"I dunno. Prolly just go back to living life." He shrugged his shoulders.
"How old are you?" Senna realized she never actually knew any of their ages. She could guess, but that's all it was.
"17. You?" Senna squealed
" Yaaaayy!. ME TOOOOO!! So you're almost done highschool!" Deon nodded.
"I already got a scholarship to some of the top universities in the world." He sighed.
"What's wrong, that sounds incredible! Ooh I've always dreamed of traveling around the world."
"It's boring, is all. Everything is just so... boring. Stale. The same." He ruffled his own head. "I wanna tell stories, you know? Make up a world, create something fun. Kinda like some of the great authors and filmmakers. J.R.R Tolkien, George Lucas." Tavaras snorted at that last name, and Deon took a deep breath at that slight. "My mom wants me to go into something like business or law. Make a ton of money, she said. Well, I guess I could." He looked down.
Deon was trapped. Maybe not like Senna, but the expectations of parents were sometimes crushing. She remembered the look on her own mother’s face as the days went by and she realized even if Senna recovered she would have lost so much time.
She looked forward and smiled. At least he had a future. She probably would have thought the same as him if she hadn't been where she was. It was all about perspective, she thought, as she stole a glance at Imogen.
—
"Be ready." Leomon growled quietly as they reached the temple. It lay on a tall hill, and looked to Deon almost as though it came from ancient Greece. It had piercing white stone columns in the front, holding up an overhanging white roof that shone bright in the moonlight overhead. The door was a giant rectangular hole in the middle, twice as tall as it was wide, and looked like it would be able to fit Metalgreymon himself through it.
Winding steps led from the base of the hill to the top, and the group ascended, apprehensive but quickly. Glancing back, the trees were but small specks on the horizon, behind a gleaming white ground. Deon gulped. This was it. Senna's questions had made him question his own desires to really go back. His mother, she would miss him for sure. He had to go back, if only for her and his older brother.
As they winded up the steps, Deon felt a chill emanate from the temple despite torches automatically lighting their path forward. Steeling himself, they followed Leomon through the door, and Deon's eyes widened in awe. They stood in a large room brightly lit by surrounding torches. The side and back walls were a deep brown and had carvings all over them, as if telling a story. He could spend weeks, if not months here! And this was only the first room!
He then noticed something else. The floor was damaged, and there were cracked and broken torches splayed across the floor. Benches and tables were torn apart, and ahead of them stood a red, hooded creature riding what looked to be a round robot with metal arms and legs. The robotic portion was a mix of steel with gold shoulders and feet, and its right arm was a gun. It carried a heavy looking mallet in its real arms, and there was a golden key like that from a toy sticking out of its back.
"Clockmon?" Leomon asked, carefully. The creature sprung to life and turned around. Deon could see the metal body had a clock face on it, and the organic being riding on it had a crazed look on its face, covered in sweat.
Clockmon [https://wikimon.net/images/thumb/8/8c/Clockmon.jpg/320px-Clockmon.jpg]
"GAHHH!" The thing was yelling manically, and it leapt forward swinging at Leomon. Tavaras and Dorumon got ready to jump in, but as Leomon blocked his swing he held up his free arm.
"Wait! Don't get involved yet." He turned to their attacker. "Clockmon! What's wrong? We're with Sanctuary Village. We're with Metalgreymon!" Clockmon didn't register Leomon's word, and swung its mallet again, the Lion blocking with his sword. Deon noticed something interesting; the hands on the clock were moving faster than they would on a normal clock. Almost twice as fast. Leomon growled and with force shoved Clockmon back.
"HIT SINGLE" A woman's voice called out as the two prepared for a second bout. Flames appeared between them in a line, and a flaming disc spun back to its origin. A woman about Senna's size jumped towards Clockmon from a hallway in the back wall. Grabbing two needles, she jabbed them into either side of his shoulders, and leapt away, the large clock Digimon's eyes becoming less manic and then closing, as if falling asleep.
The woman turned towards them. She had red eyes and a large red spike jutting out either side of her iron helmet. She wore blue jeans with black boots and a black shirt with a flaming sash around it, and carried two red discs on her belt. She glanced at each of them, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Welcome to Log Temple. I am known as ROOT, and I am the Keeper of the Chronicles."
ROOT [https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/immortalfork/97476102/2709/2709_original.png]
"And you," she pointed at the humans. "Must be the ones the Digital World brought to us." She sighed at the nod from Deon and looked to the ceiling. "So it's come to this... are humans to be our saviors once again?" she said in a whisper, and sounded almost resigned. "My apologies." ROOT told her guests, and gave a curt little smile. "As Keeper of the Chronicles, I am what you would call this world's historian. I hold and maintain the secrets and vast history of this world." She looked down. "And you being here means the Digital World is desperate."
"So this is the elusive Keeper," Leomon whispered under his breath, almost in awe. "Do you know why Clockmon was attacking so senselessly? I've only ever heard of him as gentle, if a little bit eccentric" He asked in his normal, booming voice.
"Ah Leomon, so the world calls forth yet another hero." ROOT looks at him, and Leomon looks at her confused. She shook her head. "It's nothing, just an oddity I've noticed." She turned to look at Clockmon, slumped over and his head hanging down as he snoozed. "Please forgive him. He is the Keeper of Time, but has been slowly losing sense ever since the scar appeared in the sky. He is almost as ancient as I am, but that has never happened before." She mused.
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They heard the torches rippling in the small silence that followed.
"So, you are here to try and figure out how to save this world?" She nodded in approval. "That is wise; to pave a path to the future, you must first understand the past."
"What? No!" Tavaras sputtered. ROOT looked taken aback. "We're here to try to find a way home!"
ROOT seemed to shrink back a little bit, eyes glazed over a little. "I see." Was all she said.
"Look, I'm sorry. I really am. But I didn't ask for this. None of us did." Tavaras gestured to the team. "Your Digital World got the wrong guy - I'm not the guy who's going to sacrifice the rest of my life to help a bunch of... people I've never seen before."
Deon looked down, feeling a little bit guilty. This was the Digimon's home afterall. But Tavaras was right - he had to go back home.
ROOT stood there in silence, and Deon could see her lose what little hope she had when they arrived. "The Digital World brought them here." She mumbled almost as if to herself. "You saw fit to look at these four humans and deem them able to help? Able. But maybe not willing."
"Please, ROOT." Leomon pleaded. "These children have no part in our plight. Let them go home and live their lives if they wish. We cannot ask so much of them."
ROOT sighed, and walked over to the wall left of the entrance. "Perhaps one will lead to the other." She sounded bitter but with a tinge of hopefulness, faith shaken but not yet gone. "Very well. It is not my place to judge, and it's not as though we have a choice. The world is collapsing and there is nothing myself nor any of the Digimon can do about it." She sounded frustrated, but closed her eyes and took a deep breath and began her history lesson.
"The Digital World can almost be considered as... Alive. Like a body itself. To understand how you came to be here, you must first understand it ."
ROOT looked up and pointed to the carvings on the wall. On it Deon saw multiple symbols that looked to be flying away from one central point - a solid, black dot. Among the over dozen symbols he could see, he picked out one that looked like a snowflake, one that looked like sand, and one that looked almost heavenly. "We are a Universe in and of itself. Multiple worlds were created in the inception of our existence. Our world is one of them, as is the Ice World that has now taken over the grounds this temple stands on."
"It looks like they're flying away from each other." Deon mused. "How can they come together like this?"
"They shouldn't be able to, " The ancient Keeper answered. "These world’s have never touched one another, and there has never been a way to cross the void of space between them. You can say they've been partitioned away from one another." That word; the brown haired young man had heard it before, when Jijimon had told them of the Dark Area. She moved along the wall, and Deon saw the symbols an equidistance away from each other, as if floating in place. Above all of them there was a large figure that looked human, arms wrapped around them in a full circle, surrounding the different world’s as if warmly caressing a precious toy. Lines flowed from the figure, connecting to each symbol like a tether.
"Most of them had been given structure and life based on the data flowing in from the human world." She pointed at a symbol that looked like a mountain. It was on the outer edge of the carving closest to the arm, and was neighbored by Ice and Sand. " This is our Digital World." Deon's eyes widened, starting to see how things were fitting together. ROOT pointed towards the dark lines within the circle, spidering between the symbols as if the rigid borders on a map, holding them in place. "The partitions and connections here dictate what data is sent from the human world, and where they are sent."
"As you can see, there is a hard limit to the amount of space we have at any given time, as defined by these partitions." She expanded her arms as she described the world. "We are still moving; our Universe is ever expanding, and with it more space is being created. However, it is not expanding fast enough . The massive influx of data recently from the human world is causing the partitions to weaken and cause the worlds to intersect with one another, something which should not be a possibility."
"Oh. I see." Deon snapped his fingers, and ROOT looked up at him. Deon, stunned at her inquisitive look, blushed and elaborated. "Um, the internet in the real world has become a lot more accessible to normal people recently. That must be the cause of the sudden influx of data." The red eyed being took that in silently.
"I see, so this is only going to get worse."
Deon pointed to the human figure carved above the Digital Worlds. It looked almost God-like - featureless but with a presence full of reverence. "So this is us then? Humans?" ROOT nodded. Deon's eyes widened as his brain spun, working overtime. "What, what's between us and this world?" He asked. The Keeper pointed up.
Oh.
His brain clicked as he made the connection. "You said the Digital World can be considered as alive, right?" ROOT nodded, stoically but Deon could see light shine in her red eyes as he was figuring this out for himself. "And that scar, it appeared only about a week ago?" ROOT nodded again. "Oh no." Deon clutched his head and turned to his companions. " We're the cause of that scar in the sky." He glanced at ROOT. "Our world is just beyond it, isn't it?" ROOT nodded affirmatively.
"What? How? Why?" Tavaras said in shock, he had had a confused look on his face the entire time they'd been talking.
"The Digital World sensed a threat, and opened itself up in a last ditch effort to cure itself." ROOT said. "Think of yourselves like medicine, just brought in externally through the skin, like with a needle. A very large needle needed to transfer all the "data" humans are made of. And just like when you humans get a wound, your body tries to close it up to prevent anything else from coming and going. That is what the scar is. If you were able to see through it, I'd wager you may be able to see your own world. But, it has closed itself off with a barrier to protect itself from further infection."
"What? So how are we supposed to get home?" Tavaras demanded.
"And how are we supposed to help? Even if we wanted to, we don't know the first thing about how any of this works." Deon added, earning Tavaras's glare. "We don't know what the Digital World wants us to do; we're just regular normal humans. We overheard the Digimon in Sanctuary Village talking about governing?" He continued, ignoring his new friend. ROOT looked down, and she seemed frustrated. Pain filled her eyes.
"I do not know how you are to get home." She whispered. "And I do not know what the Digital World wants from you. I can only guess, and governance is a likely possibility." She looked at them, and walked to the back wall. ROOT pointed to multiple figures. Some demonic looking, some looking like beasts, and yet others looking almost Godlike.
"These are The Guardians. They are the beings, individual to each World, that help govern the data flowing into their respective space." ROOT scanned Deon and the others, almost as if wanting to say more, but struggling to do so. Suddenly her eyes stopped on Imogen. She scanned around again, and her eyes widened as she noticed the pendants he, Senna, and Tavaras were wearing, now visible after having unbuttoned their coats.
"Come to Echo Mountain." She said, "Here I can show you these carvings; there , I can access the full range of my capabilities. There is more yet that you may be able to learn. Perhaps... the Guardians. And the Dark Area. Yes." ROOT sounded excited. "Yes. You must learn about what happened back then, thousands of years ago."
—
Tavaras clutched his head as the group sat on the benches Clockmon had not broken. What the fuck. What the absolute FUCK was going on? Data? Wounds? Guardians? He wanted to strangle Deon for asking how they were supposed to help. He wanted to get home. Screw this place - it didn't have anything to do with him. He barely knew how to turn on a computer.
"Dorumon, can't you like, fly me up there and shoot a hole through the scar?" As Dorumon started to flex, ROOT snickered.
"Please, do you really think a mere Digimon would be able to bust its way through it?"
"Then what?" Tavaras demanded, anger at not having gotten any clear answers grating him.
"I. Don't. Know." ROOT shot back, clearly frustrated at how things were going. Well screw her anyways. "I don't know how to open the way between worlds. All I can do is show you what happened in the past. It's up to you to figure out what to do with that information."
"HOW! What's this Echo Mountain of yours gonna show us? What the hell are these Guardians? And what do they have to do with us! You can't drop something like that and then decide to leave it for later!" Tavaras was standing up now, glaring at the humanoid lifeform in her red eyes. She glared at him with equal intensity.
"I TOLD YOU WHAT THE GUARDIANS ARE." ROOT gritted her teeth. "As to what it has to do with you? That's. Why. I. Told. You. To. Come. To. Echo. Mountain. Within that place I can show you echoes of the past. Perhaps. Just maybe , that can tie everything together and help." She walked up to Tavaras and pushed him back down on the bench. He grunted in surprise; she was strong . She glanced at his pendent. "Until then. Try to stay cool. Remember, I have just as much invested in you figuring this out as you do." She turned away and spoke in a barely audible whisper. " I don't want to die either, afterall. "
That woman had some nerve. "Wait," Tavaras said. "Why are we talking to you and not this... Guardian?" ROOT stopped and glanced into space.
"Impossible. This world does not have a Guardian."
"What? Why?" Deon asked, stunned at this new revelation. ROOT shook her head.
"I don't actually know. Perhaps it felt a Guardian wasn't necessary? I know we were supposed to have one, but for some reason it just never materialized. Not sure why another attempt wasn't made." She chuckled derisively. "Certainly, the blame for the state of this world falls in no small part to the Digital World itself." He thought it impossible, but Tavaras found himself getting even more pissed off. Let the world burn then.
"We might be able to do both?" Senna suggested, hopeful tone to her voice. What was her deal? "Save the world and go back home, I mean. Nobody said it has to be one or the other. Maybe we can just like, flip a switch or something and then fly off into the sky?" ROOT shrugged; it seemed she was out of answers. At least until they could make it to this Echo Mountain.
"Whatever. If we can save the world while still getting home, I'll do it. But my first priority remains that." The older boy replied with finality. Imogen kept quiet throughout all this, looking conflicted. Tavaras knew her strong urge to protect was raging a fierce battle within her; he hoped she would be able to make the right call when she needed to.
Fine. They can all hate him all they want. If he needed to be the bad guy and the voice of reason, he'd be it.