Not much to say except I went on an insane writing spree and wrote almost all of this in one sitting.


July 4, 2005

It's wierd. Yesterday I felt absolutely horrible about what I had to do, but now I can't think about anything but this headache. It's like someone put up a wall, so I can't feel bad about yesterday even though I know I should.

Signed,

Takeru Takaishi


Datamon crossed his arms and huffed, "I simply refuse to believe what you saw was the Loch Ness Monster. That is a creature from the Human World that you read about in a book."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Gizamon pointed out.

Betsumon agreed, "Yeah, Data, you learn everything from books!"

"Well yes, but I don't try and apply other worldly legends to our world… Lilithmon, help me out here," Datamon pleaded.

"Pass," she answered airily while flipping another page of her book.

A thump could be heard from the other side of TK and Patamon's door. A few moments later TK stumbled out clutching the door frame tightly. He rubbed his head messing up his shaggy hair even more then automatically checked to make sure his hair still covered the ear with the communicator.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the digi-egg this morning," Betsumon sing-songed.

TK blinked sleep out of his eyes and let go of the door frame, stumbling a few steps as he continued forward. "What? No, my head just… ugh, I feel-"

"Like you got ran over by a Greymon?" Gizamon tried.

"Like there's pressure all around your cerebral cortex?" Datamon offered.

"Lousy!" TK finished abruptly and flopped into a seat at the kitchen table next to Datamon and across from Gizamon and Betsumon.

"Maybe some fish will cheer you up!" Betsumon exclaimed while tossing a whole fish in front of TK, "Gizamon caught them this morning."

The blonde rubbed the sides of his head just above his ears and kept his gaze concentrated down at the fish as he tried to get the pounding in his head to stop.

"We don't have mushrooms for every meal," Gizamon informed assuming that was the reason for his hesitation to eat.

TK attempted to smile but ended up biting his lip with his forehead to the table. "My head hurts," came his muffled voice.

Datamon clapped his metal claws together in excitement. "Oh that's a human disease! It's called a headache. It's when your head… aches…. You humans aren't very clever are you?"

Lilithmon shifted her position on the couch but didn't say a word. His headache must be a sign the headphones were working.

TK sighed then assured, "It'll go away soon. Just ugh, it's annoying!"

Betsumon looked up from his already half-eaten fish. "Oh awesome 'cause the Boss wanted to see you today. Probably something good with all the damage you caused yesterday."

"Right… good," TK mumbled as a creek came from the metal front door. Beelzemon stomped inside being forced to duck due to the ceiling in the process.

Lilithmon glanced over the edge of the couch and asked, "Beelzemon actually came in here? Oh dear, he must want something that requires a lot of effort."

"Not on your part," Beelzemon snapped then turned to TK who tried his best not to lay his head down or wince from the pain. "Did you just get up? What, have you been moping all morning?"

"There's nothing to mope about," TK replied. He tried to sound emotionless, but there was evident pain in his voice as he tried not to reach up to massage his head.

"That's the spirit," the large digimon soothed in a way that made the human's skin crawl, "So today I'll be taking you upstairs to the Control Room."

"But, Boss, we never get to go up there!" Gizamon whined.

"Yeah!" Betsumon agreed.

"Neither of you have any business being up there. On the other hand, Lilithmon, Datamon, and now TK and Patamon do."

Betsumon leaned back in his chair mumbling, "But I bet it's so cool up there with flashing lights and people all lined up in chairs at their desks, and they've all got head sets, and everything is all silver…"

000

"Silver? Why would we paint it silver?" Tai questioned as he studied their new base. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it had four walls made from the surrounding trees, stood on its own, and could house a good number of allied digimon plus themselves. Tai personally thought it felt very homey with its log cabin vibe.

"Because Matt already said no to putting flames on the side," Davis grumbled obviously still bitter about it. He rubbed his tan gloves together and hopped from foot to foot. Even with all the time he's spent here he still wasn't used to the cold.

"Wouldn't it make sense to just keep it white because it'll blend in with the snow better?" Tai suggested causing the other to squint at the structure as though deep in thought.

"Oh yeah I guess it would… Right, glad I thought of it! Let's go find everyone!" Davis rallied as Tai lagged behind while rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, you thought of it."

They entered to find the usual hustle and bustle. Various digimon from the area of all shapes and sizes shuffling into the base, some through the front door but a good number of the smaller ones through windows or holes they'd burrowed through the floor. It was morning, and the sun was fairly high in the sky; this was the time the three Chosen had decided on for a daily head count. In exchange for their allies helping them, they had promised to always keep them safe while working with them, but with so many digimon there was no way to keep track of them all without a roll call.

Matt leaned on the back wall skimming through his list as the last of the digimon filed in. He caught sight of Tai and Davis. The ladder gave a thumb up to signal that there was no one else coming. Matt nodded slightly, pushed off the wall, and practically yelled over the crowd, "Alright, if you're here you better speak up! Gekomon?"

"Here!" answered a high-pitched squeak from over by the window.

"Mojyamon?"

In contrast, a low voice replied, "Here."

Matt went through the usual roll call, and it went smoothly besides the Chuumon who didn't reply because he was accidently being squished by Mojyamon and the Floramon who arrived late and nearly gave Tai a heart attack because someone suggested she was captured.

"All accounted for," Matt muttered to himself as he scribbled the date and the headcount down on his list.

Tai and Davis shouldered their way past the crowd making sure not to step on any smaller digimon as they made their way across the base to Matt who informed, "There are way too many of them."

"You can't have too big of an army," Davis countered.

"You can when you wake up with Mojyamon's hair in your face."

Tai chuckled and suggested, "Maybe what we really need is more space. All we have to do is take out a wall and extend it."

"We just finished building it!" Davis complained. A passing mushroommon rammed him in the back on accident and after regaining his balance, he slumped his shoulders and muttered, "Maybe we do need more space."

Tai stuck his index finger in the air with a grin. "But first I think we're still missing someone."

"Everyone on the list was here…" Matt trailed off as he caught Tai's drift, "Wait you're not talking about who I think you're talking about are you?"

Tai shrugged as the grin grew wider. "Izzy said to find all our old friends."

"Man, he's really old," he thought aloud, "Do you seriously think he hasn't moved in all this time?"

"Hey, we know he didn't leave the snow," Tai reasoned as Matt scratched the back of his neck with his gloved hand still hesitant.

"Do I get to know who we're talking about?" Davis asked as he stuck both his hands in his coat pockets.

"Don't worry about it," Matt assured as he started pushing his way through the crowd prompting the other two to follow suit, "You stay here with them today while we build up the army a bit more."

"What am I supposed to do alone all day?"

"You're not alone! You're surrounded by an army. Get to know 'em, train 'em, show them some battle plans, you know what to do," Tai threw over his shoulder as he pushed past a wall of digimon and breathed a sigh of relief when the door was in sight.

000

The door into the main base, the one TK had been living under, slid open smoothly, and Beelzemon entered causing a loud clank with every step he took on the shining, metal floor.

"Why's everything around here metal anyway?" Patamon muttered to TK who chuckled softly. His mind had been on his headache that mysteriously vanished in less than a half hour of waking up.

'I'm sure it was nothing. Even if it was bad it went away soon.' He calmly followed Beelzemon inside letting his gaze wander around as Patamon's grip to his head grew tighter.

The room wasn't that cluttered and remained an open area that was vacant besides a crowd of about twenty Meramon that sat listening to a Floramon.

"Now you see, possibly our greatest strength and weakness is how divided the enemy is right now. They're attempting to gather troops from all across the globe, but in their search for greater numbers it has harmed their strength since there's no more than three ultimate digimon in one place. Give them enough time and they'll have the numbers, so it won't matter. That's why we must be quick and direct."

As he went on, whispers from the group could be heard here or there as they discussed the information, but the overall vibe from the Meramon was a tense one. They must have been nervous about war and going up against a large army or perhaps fighting in general.

With a touch of pride TK mused that they should be nervous if they wanted to go toe to toe with the Chosen Children. He hoped Izzy was picking up this new knowledge on their war plans.

"Keep walking," Patamon urged once the heat from the flaming digimon had become too much causing TK to realize he'd come to a complete stop by the group, but Beelzemon hadn't halted and continued towards a set of black, winding stairs at the edge of the room. TK trotted to catch up as he caught sight of a Numemon shining the floors in a way that was reminiscent of a kicked puppy. Patamon opened his mouth to say something but shut it shortly after knowing that from his current position there wasn't anything he could do to relieve him.

Looking up from the bottom, you'd think the spiraling staircase went on forever as it faded into the distance but climbing it took a relatively short time as they arrived on the second floor.

Without stepping off the stairs, Beelzemon simply stopped and explained, "This is the Control Room. They keep track of all of our information, check through footage spies have gathered, run battle scenarios, and the like."

TK raised an eyebrow. "I thought Datamon was the brains of this operation."

"He is; he's in charge of all of them," The large digimon let his hand sweep out over the thin, wire railing to indicate the room. Surprisingly enough it fit Betsumon's earlier description. Large screens, computers, and control panels with tons of different colored buttons and flashing lights lining the room leaving little space for anything else besides the digimon who shuffled around going from machine to machine, flipping a switch here, checking a panel there. Unlike the previous floor there were no hushed whispers or side conversations. The only noise came from the beeping of the machines since the digimon had no need to talk, just do their job.

Without a word Beelzemon kept moving upward prompting TK and Patamon to follow. They now understood why the stairs looked so long because it took about three times as long to reach the next and hopefully final floor.

In sharp contrast to the rest of the base, the top level had a carpeted dark red floor and monitors covering the walls all the way up to the top of the dome shaped room. Four black, office chairs, one three sizes bigger than the others, faced the monitors in the center.

"This is the Master Room where all of the big decisions. Where to send troops, how many, what's our next move, things like that. There's a chair for me, Lilithmon, Datamon… and you."

TK's blue eyes slowly drifted from the monitors on the wall to the four chairs circling the center of the room. His was opposite the largest one which was obviously Beelzemon's, but where normally the thought of having to sit in some room with the guy would enrage him, all he could think about was the level of power and authority he'd just received. Being on level with Lilithmon and Datamon meant he was among Beelzemon's most trusted allies. He was in.

Carefully as though he were balancing on cherry blossoms and challenged not to break them, he walked towards the chair. With only a moment's hesitation in front of it, he turned and lowered himself into it during which Patamon flew off his head and landed on the ground a few feet away.

A chill ran down his spine as he contacted the chair. The cushioning on it was extremely comfortable and sitting in it made him both relaxed and tense at the same time like any moment Izzy or Matt would pop up and reprimand him for enjoying this, but the surge of power and energy that came from the experience consumed him. Between eleven other Chosen Children and five that could order him around, he'd never felt this important.

"Here's your choices, Chosen," he sneered. TK sat up straighter afraid he'd have to prove his loyalty again, "You can either become a leader at the front of this war where everyone will know about you and fear how their Chosen Children have crumbled, or I can kill you."

"Gee they're both so tempting," TK said sarcastically.

Beelzemon smirked. "Don't underestimate me. If you join me you may just learn there are fates worse than death."

The blonde tightened his grip on the arms of the chair. "Are you trying to scare me?"

"I'm preparing you. I just want to know you won't drown under all the pressure and sacrifices you may have to make."

Despite himself, TK allowed a genuine smile, albeit small, to grace his face. "Beelzemon, I'm already in way over my head."

000

"Why don't we stop, I'll roast us a fire, you guys get some sticks, Gabumon's got the marshmallows, and we call it a day?"

Tai laughed, "Agumon, we've only been walking for twenty minutes! You're sure out of shape."

"Am not," he protested, "I'm just in the mood for some marshmallows."

"Well you're always in the mood for something," Gabumon chimed causing Matt to chuckle from his spot in the front trudging through the thick of the snow.

"The clearing's up ahead," he announced and was met with a couple whoops from the group (and a "finally" from Agumon). "Guys, we still don't know if he'll even be here."

"Stop being so negative," the brunette reprimanded, "Where else does a talking snowman have to go?"

"I've been thinking," Gabumon began, "You all are going to gather a lot of digimon if you're going to get all the friends you made over the past few years."

"Ha, Mimi should have fun finding all the friends she made!" Tai laughed. As he did a low, long growl came from his stomach.

"Tai-" Matt started.

"What? It's not my fault we skipped breakfast," he defended.

"Actually it is because you made us leave so soon," the blonde corrected.

"Whatever," Tai muttered while adjusting his blue headband, "let's find Frigimon!" He ran forward, and Agumon quickly followed, but the other pair lagged behind. As Tai ran, he heard a pair of beeps and slowed down once he got to the edge of the clearing to check his d-terminal.

Everyone,

Beelzemon's plan of attack is to be quick and direct. I'll send another message if we find out anything else.

-Izzy

"Quick might be a problem," Tai commented.

"Direct doesn't sound that great either," Matt added as he walked into the clearing thankful he had less snow to plow through now that Tai had taken the lead.

The brunette frowned. "How quick is quick?"

The other shrugged and took a few more steps towards the center of the clearing. "He's building up an army just like us, so it can't be that soon."

"I guess you're right," he conceded, "Now for the matter at hand…" Tai placed his hands around his mouth and shouted, "HEY, FRIGIMON!"

"Like that's gonna work," Matt said sarcastically, but as he spoke thumping footsteps could be heard not twenty feet away.

Frigimon poked out from behind a tree. He warned, "You're on a mountain so don't scream unless you want an avalanche."

"Frigimon!" they exclaimed in unison, Matt out of surprise and Tai in greeting.

"Do you have any food?" asked Agumon innocently.

The snowman digimon laughed. "I'm sure I have something for you if you come back to the cave."

They followed Frigimon back to his home which Matt and Gabumon recognized as the cave they had stayed in so many years ago. They all sat down and most importantly got some food into Tai and Agumon.

"I don't think I've ever loved fish so much," Agumon said to which Tai only nodded as he continued chewing.

Frigimon said, "It's been awhile since I've seen any of you around here, but I've sure heard of you. It's good to know someone's going to stand up to that Demon of a Lord."

The blonde shrugged and eyed his fish. "We're only doing what he have to, and speaking of that we were hoping you wouldn't mind helping us out. We've set up a base not too far from here, and you'd just hang out there and be some extra muscle if we ever needed it."

Frigimon sighed and leaned back against the cave wall. "Hmm, well I suppose I can't say no to a chance to pay them back for everything they've done. Why, just last week I caught a skirmish right outside my cave between Mojyamon and some Betsumon! It's unbelievable; how much do you want to bet that Betsumon doesn't even know why he's fighting?"

Gabumon blinked. "Why wouldn't he?"

"Because digimon never know why they're fighting when some more powerful digimon is telling them to they just do it. Makes me sick… Oh by the way, Matt, I heard about your brother."

Tai practically choked on his fish, but Matt put on his best frustrated face and sighed, "What can you do? If he wants to be an idiot, I say let him."

'It must run in the family,' Tai thought, 'I don't know how they lie that easily.' The brunette laughed nervously and added, "Yeah, it's a shame he's gone bad…"

Luckily Frigimon didn't notice his bad acting and continued, "So it's true then? Wow, he was less than yay high the last time I saw him. I couldn't imagine meeting up with him in battle."

Tai gulped down the last of his fish. "Yeah…"

Matt coughed to clear his throat but couldn't bring himself to say anything. He'd been avoiding the thought of having to face his brother in a battle.

000

"Davis!"

"Mojyamon, for the last time I am not messaging your feet!"

"No, look!" He pointed in the sky to what appeared to be a falling star. Davis squinted up at it. It appeared to be growing bigger.

"It's coming this way! Everyone, move!" Davis yelped as he shoved Veemon and himself out of the way.

The flaming rock slammed into the ground causing the snow to go flying as all of the digimon there who had been hanging out outside the base to go scrambling in fear. He caught sight of a bunch of Meramon coming their way through the trees. With a quick prayer that they didn't light those trees on fire, he cried, "Stop running! This is what we were going to train you for! Ugh, STAY HERE IF YOU'RE TIRED OF GETTING PUSHED AROUND BY THESE GUYS!"

A handful of digimon stopped at that. A select few had already been standing and ready to fight. A few more filed out of the base, and Davis looked around at his rag-tag army with a strange sense of pride.

He ducked back behind a tree stump while whipping out his digivice. His eyes met Veemon's who nodded determinedly.

'They're already attacking? We've barely even started training! We'll just have to give them everything we've got!'


Thanks so much for reading :)