//------------------------------// // Tensions Arise // Story: Digital Harmony // by Zennistrad //------------------------------// The town of Port Digital was completely silent, save for the sound of footsteps on cobblestone. Ken walked down the path at a brisk pace, navigating through the myriad streets, his partner following close behind. He paid no further mind to the empty settlement, nor towards the fact that the others had not yet caught up to him and Wormmon. As far as he was concerned, there was no point wasting any further time in this part of the Digital World. “Ken, can’t you slow down just a little bit?” said Wormmon. “We don’t want to leave our friends behind.” “Don’t worry about them,” replied Ken, “they’ll catch up.” Wormmon went quiet. The two of them continued to travel down the road in silence, unwilling to discuss the matter further. Suddenly, they both heard voices calling out to them. “Ken, you jerk!” “Yolei, wait!” Ken turned towards the voice to see Yolei barreling towards him, Hawkmon desperately trying to keep up. Behind them both, the others followed, still a good distance away. Yolei ran up towards Ken, her face contorted into a grimace. As soon as she was within arm’s distance, she swung at him with an open hand. SMACK! “Ow!” Ken rubbed his hand on the red mark that had appeared on the side of his cheek. “Yolei, what the hell!?” “How could you!?” Yolei shouted. “What were you even thinking!?” “Alright, what’s going on over there?” Twilight called out, approaching them with Davis and the others at her side. “Don’t ask me,” said Ken. “I was just minding my own business and Yolei hit me!” “Don’t act like you don’t know what you did!” “I don’t!” Ken yelled. “Why are you being so difficult? Just tell me what the problem is!” Yolei froze, her jaw hanging loose as she stared agape at Ken. She grimaced, and her fists clenched tightly, her arms shaking as she held them by her sides. “Y-you... you... You’re seriously telling me you killed someone and you don’t even know what you did wrong!?” Ken blinked. “Killed someone? Wait a second, you’re not talking about Tinkermon, are you?” “No, I was talking about the tooth fairy!” Yolei retorted. “Of course it was Tinkermon, you idiot!” Ken sighed, pressing a palm to his forehead. “Yolei... she was evil. She wasn’t under the control of a dark spiral. What did you expect us to do?” “I... I don’t know!” said Yolei. “Something else!” “Now hold on a minute,” said Applejack. “I’m going to have to agree with Ken here on this one,” said Davis. “She didn’t seem like she’d be very friendly if we kept her around.” “I’ll say,” Rainbow Dash added. “Did you see the look on her face when she attacked us? Even the worst monsters in the Everfree aren’t that bloodthirsty!” “Guys? Can we stop fighting, please?” said Pinkie, her mane beginning to sag. “She was begging for mercy, you idiots!” Yolei screamed, tears now streaming down her face. “How can you possibly defend this? Nobody else we'd ever fought was pleading for their own life when we killed them!” “Tinkermon’s words were nothing more than an empty promise,” Ken replied, remaining stoic in the face of his friend’s whirling emotion. “An evil being like her would have killed us the moment she had the chance.” “You don’t know that!” said Yolei. “Don’t pretend you know more about the nature of evil than I do,” Ken retorted coldly. “Kindness doesn’t mean refusing to stand up to evil. It means doing whatever’s necessary to protect those threatened by it.” “Now wait just an apple-bucking minute here...” “Yolei, don’t listen to him,” said Cody. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Ken’s eye twitched. “Excuse me?” “Standing up to evil doesn’t mean throwing your honor away!” Cody continued. “Even if Tinkermon was lying, you can’t just strike an opponent while they’re already down!” “Cody, I certainly don’t mean to offend,” said Rarity, “but I’m certain a creature of darkness such as Tinkermon would never show the same courtesy towards us. What’s the point of being fair if we only leave ourselves more vulnerable?” “Huh?” said Cody. “Rarity, that’s... you can’t say that!” “No, she’s right.” T.K. folded his arms across his chest. “And Ken’s right, too. I don’t know about Rarity, but I know Ken and I have both seen the darkness firsthand. And we both know from experience that it can’t be negotiated or reasoned with. We’ve killed many dark beings, and none of them have suddenly decided to have a change of heart.” “Oh, really?” said Kari, glaring disapprovingly. “Aren’t you forgetting someone? Someone who gave his life to protect the Digital World?” “Wha?” T.K.’s eyes widened in shock. “Kari, no, he was... that was different!” Kari raised a single eyebrow, her frown deepening. “Different how?” “Consarn it! Will y’all just shut your traps for one second and listen to me?!” The group went silent, turning towards the the source of the voice. Applejack inhaled and exhaled sharply, catching her breath after the sudden outburst. “Now that I have your attention,” she said. “There’s a question Ah’d like to ask. Patamon.” “Me?” said Patamon. “What is it?” “You told me the other day that you’d died before, is that right?” “Yeah,” Patamon replied. “Why do you ask?” “Wait, what?” Twilight interjected. “Now hold on a minute here! There are a lot of strange things that I can believe would happen in the Digital World, but you seriously expect me to believe you could come back from the dead?” “Well, why not?” said Patamon. “It’s nothing special, really. The same thing happens to other digimon, too.” “I... Buh... Wha... How?” Twilight sputtered, eyes as wide as dinner plates. “Oh, didn’t Izzy tell you?” said Yolei. She sniffed, removing her glasses to wipe away the tears in her eyes. “Whenever a Digimon dies, their data gets recycled, and they’re eventually reborn in the Primary... Village?” her words trailed off as comprehension dawned suddenly dawned on her, leaving her staring blankly into space. Applejack snorted. “See what Ah mean? Y’all got worked up without even considering the big picture. Ah reckon being stabbed through the stomach smarted a bit, but if what you’re saying is true, she’ll be back no harm done.” “Oh my goodness, I-I didn’t think of that!” said Yolei. “Oh no, you don’t think Tinkermon will be mad at us, do you?” “I would imagine so,” Ken replied. “and if Tinkermon’s going to come back, Petermon’s likely going to come back too. We’ll probably have to deal with both of them trying to kill us in the future.” “Well, maybe they wouldn’t hold a grudge if you’d given Tinkermon a second chance!” said Yolei. “Actually Yolei, I’m not sure if that’s quite true either,” said Hawkmon. “You’ve heard the story, haven’t you?” “Story?” said Yolei. “Ah reckon he means the story of Anubismon,” said Armadillomon. “Anubismon?” said Davis. “You mean like that ancient Egyptian god that rules over the dead and stuff?” “Well, Ah don’t quite know what an ‘Egyptian’ is, but Anubismon’s been ruling over the dead since the dawn of the Digital World,” said Armadillomon. “Whenever a digimon dies, their data goes into the Dark Area, where Anubismon judges you for your past life. He weighs your soul against one of them golden feathers on his wings, representing pure truth. If your soul’s clean, you’re sent back to the Primary Village to start a new life. If it’s weighed down by sin, you’re sent deeper into the darkness, never to return. ‘Least that’s how the story goes. Ah never reckoned it to be more than a folk tale.” Rainbow Dash snorted dismissively. “A folk tale? Come on! You don’t actually expect us to believe an old story like that, do you? Next thing you know you’ll be telling me Daring Do is real.” “In my experience, most of the Digital World’s legends turn out to be real,” said Gatomon. “I always thought Veemon was just a legend until we met him.” “That’s me! The living legend!” Veemon boasted. “I certainly have the good looks befitting one, right Gatomon?” Gatomon coughed loudly. “Sorry, I thought I felt a hairball coming up for a second there...” “Point is, if the legend’s true, we might not be seeing Tinkermon again regardless,” said Armadillomon. “Ah reckon if it ain’t true, she’ll be coming back, and she ain’t going to be happy with us. But if it is, it all depends on whether she really meant what she said about changing her ways.” “Oh,” said Yolei. “I guess that's better than knowing for certain we killed her forever, but...” Her sentence died in her throat before she could finish it. “Regardless, we should be heading back,” said Ken. “Whatever that energy signature Izzy talked about was, we haven’t seen a trace of it yet. And a town this large would take more than a day to search even if we knew what it was we were looking for. Best-case scenario, we’d be here so long that our families would start worrying about us.” “Not to mention that we’re all completely exhausted,” Twilight added. “Let’s head back to the digiport and get some rest. Tomorrow we can continue our search.” The others nodded in affirmation, and the group continued their journey down the street, towards the awaiting gateway back to Earth. ——————— Vespimon stared at the monitor, browsing the databases that Gennai had left behind. The amount of information that they contained was staggering, so much so that she could easily spend years of her life learning from it. While she had never been as much of a bookworm as Twilight, the amount of knowledge she could access at her fingertips was undeniably exciting to her. It was as they said: knowledge is power. And right now Vespimon had all the power she could ever want. But... something else was off. The more information she’d committed to memory, the more things didn’t add up. How did the Digital World become connected to planet Earth? Why did the Earth seem much more deeply a part of the Digital World than Ungula, the world where ENEIGHAC was built? Why were humans considered so important? Vespimon didn’t care to think about the questions any further. The Digi-Destined were going to be a thorn in her side. All that mattered now was finding a means to stop them.