A Night in ShogunGekomon Castle Pt.3

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.

Roughly 150 Digidestined were seated at the long tables of the dining hall in the castle. Steaming bowls of ramen had been set in front of them.

Though the meal was simple, it was well received by everyone. The hot meal was just what everyone needed after a hard days work. The Odaiba Digidestined sat at one end of the table, talking about Yolie's pre-dinner adventure.

"I can't believe you digivolved into an ultimate!" Tai said, looking at the now dedigivolved Poromon. Poromon was happily slurping down his third bowl of ramen. Yolie had recounted how she found a hole in the storage area, and how the weakened structure had given out. She told them about the strange underground area, and how Dinobeemon had tricked her into setting him free. The Digidestined were stunned to hear Shurimon's defeat, and even more so when they heard how Yolie had actually tried fighting the ultimate herself. The Digimon cheered when they heard about Hawkmon's digivolution, and how he lured Dinobeemon into a trap before deleting him.

Yolie smiled as the Digidestined cheered and congratulated her. She pat Poromon on the head. Looking across the table, she smiled at Ken, who was looking at her with a mixture of pride and concern.

When the meal was done, Davis and Tai gathered volunteers to clean up the bowls and pots that had been used to make the meal. With the Digimon helping, the work was done quickly, giving plenty of time to assign people to rooms before night fell.

"Awww man, I've gotta share a room with Ken?" Davis whined while looking at the printout Izzy had made.

Ken looked surprised, and even a trifle hurt. "What's wrong with sharing a room with me?" He asked.

"Oh nothing. I was just hoping to get to share a room with Kari." He said loud enough for the girl in question to hear. Kari giggled, and stuck her tongue out at him.

"What was that Motomiya?" A menacing voice said from behind. Davis turned to see Tai glaring at him, cracking his knuckles threateningly.

"Ummm… Boy, it's getting late isn't it Ken? Better go hit the hay!" Davis said, backing away from his mentor. He turned, and sped down the hall, leaving the others behind laughing.

"Same old Davis." Sora said.

Tai rolled his eyes. He placed his arm around Sora's shoulders. "You think he'd have learned by now." He said, chuckling as his protégé disappeared from sight.

"You should stop teasing him so much Tai." His girlfriend said reproachfully. "Kari's a big girl, she can take care of herself."

"Who said anything about teasing? And have you seen the way those two look at each other? It's like all thought just dribbles out their ears. Even Kari might do something stupid."

Tai finished his statement only to be hit from behind. Sora pulled away just in time as Augumon landed on his partner, crashing them both to the floor. Sora turned, and saw an angry Kari looking down at her dazed brother.

"Tai, you might want to rethink what you say around your sister." Sora said sweetly.

Each of the rooms in the castle had been outfitted like dorm rooms. There was a small living area, a small bedroom which had a bunk bed, and a bathroom which only had a toilet and a sink. The Floramon who had led them here said that there was an open air bath, so that took care of all the amenities. Davis went straight to his and Ken's room and sighed as he fell onto his bed. It had been a lot of hard work, but he felt that they had finally got everyone to a safe place. As safe as could be expected anyways. Izzy and Tai had talked to him during dinner, saying they should meet tomorrow to discuss exactly what they were going to do next. He wasn't sure what he should do next. Sleep sounded like a good option though.

A knock came from Davis' door. "Can you go see who that is Veemon?" Davis asked.

"Sure thing Davish!" Veemon said, walking towards the door.

Davis listened as Veemon opened the door. His friend gave a muffled yelp and the door shut. Davis jumped to his feet in alarm. "Veemon?" He called.

"I'm afraid not. Now it's just you and me Davis Motomiya." The intruder said.

Veemon struggled against his abductor, but the champion Digimon was too strong for him.

"Gatomon, where are you taking me?" He asked.

"Kari said she wanted to spend some time alone with Davis." Gatomon replied as though the answer were obvious.

"Well do you think you can put me down? This is kinda embarrassing." Gatomon had pulled Veemon into the hall, and slung him over her shoulder, allowing Kari into the room. Then she ran off, carrying Veemon away from their partners.

Gatomon looked at Veemon, before setting him down. Veemon smiled, and extended his claw. Gatomon smiled, placing her's in his, and the two walked down the hall together.

"Wanna go raid the ice cream from the freezer?" Veemon asked.

Gatomon smiled.

Davis gave a wide grin as he pulled away from Kari. As silly as it sounded, every time they kissed felt like the first time for Davis. Kari smiled back and snuggled against him.

"We haven't been able to spend time alone together in a while." Kari said with a content sigh. Davis nodded. Since they had come to the Digiworld, it had been one thing after another. This had been the first alone time they'd had. It was great to finally be able to just sit together like this.

"Yeah, it's been hectic. Who would've thought that a simple trip to a Digital World to stop an evil dinosaur dictator with an army of children and digital creatures would've turned out to be so complicated?" Davis said. Kari giggled, snuggling a bit closer to him.

"Well it could be worse." Kari said.

"How so?"

"You could be here without me." Davis looked at her, and shook his head.

"Never Hikari, where you go, I go. We'll always be together." He said.

Kari smiled, and kissed him on the cheek.

They sat that way for awhile. That feeling of comfort, of being with one you truly love between them. It was so serene, so perfect, that Davis began drifting off to sleep.

As Davis' breathing evened out, Kari let her arms slip out from around him and stood up. She smiled at him, leaning down to hiss him on the cheek. She left regretfully. She would've liked to be able to just fall asleep with him, but if her brother found out, he'd never shut up about it, and they'd never have a moment of peace. And Davis… well, Black Wargreymon would be the least of Davis' worries. She sighed, and headed back to the room her and Yolie were sharing.

Meanwhile, miles away as the Digidestined finally began to rest in their impromptu home, Black Wargreymon smiled. He had finally found it. The first of the legendary Destiny Stones. Rumors had surfaced from time to time about these mysterious objects, and they all agreed that they held some incredible power. Power that if wielded correctly, could help Black Wargreymon defeat his enemies.

The Digidestined had turned out to be more capable than he'd thought. While they were currently trapped here, in a domain where he controlled almost every living creature with a thought, they still had been able to best him time and time again. Even when his army of Digimon had been there, the Digidestined were able to foil him, even freeing some of his slaves from his dark rings. The loss was nothing, but still it set his mind aflame.

So it was, accessing his slave's thoughts as easily as someone would search through files on a computer, until he came across the scarce information regarding the Destiny Stones.

He stared at the diamond shaped rock with the golden ring floating around it. It actually exuded a power of it's own! A power that he planned to claim for himself. He charged his Terra Void, looking intently at the stone. After a few moments, the stone started to break apart, chunks of it floating closer to the void and becoming streams of data.

Black Wargreymon's eyes widened as he felt the sudden influx in power. Whatever had been locked inside the stone was obviously incredibly strong. And now, it's power was becoming his.

He sent a mental command to a group of Black Gatomons. They were to double the search for the remaining stones. Supposedly, there were six of them in all. If that was true, and each one held as much power as this one, than he would become truly unstoppable. He might even surpass the Mega state. That thought brought a cruel smile to his face.

Gennai's eyes snapped open. He had been sleeping, but the dreams had not been peaceful. Something had just happened. Something that shook the Digiworld to its core. His dream had been filled with a shadowy darkness, converging on him from all sides. He stood on what looked to be a rock with a gold ring around it, but the shadows enveloped the rock, seeping up its sides to get to him. It was a sign.

"The Destiny Stones…" Someone had just destroyed one.

'I must contact the Digidestined at once!' He thought, rushing to the room where he kept his computer system. He keyed in a command, and a screen similar to the D3's popped up. He typed a short message, and sent it to all the new Digidestined.

As the messages were sent, Gennai noticed something strange. All the new and original Digidestined's Digivices were signaling from somewhere in the Digiworld. Not only that, but there seemed to be over a hundred other Digivice signals coming from the same area.

Gennai frowned. This was almost as concerning as the destruction of the Destiny Stone. "I'll have to go see what's going on myself."

Back at the new base of operations for the Digidestined, Davis slowly rose from the land of sleep. Someone was shaking him and calling his name. He hoped that whoever it was had lived a long and happy life, because he was pretty sure that he was going to have XVmon eat them.

"Davis wake up!" Ken said for perhaps the fortieth time. Davis opened his eyes, and looked around.

"Ken, you're my best friend and all, but if this isn't important than you're gonna be paying Veemon's food bill for a month." Davis threatened.

"Sorry Davis," Ken smiled, "But we got a message from Gennai, apparently Black Wargreymon is up to something big."

"WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP EARLIER?!" Davis exclaimed. He was up faster than he intended to be. His head was swimming, but he fought past it and grabbed his D-Terminal, ignoring Ken's protests. He quickly scanned the message Gennai had sent.

Digidestined,

I'm sorry to not have contacted you before now. I have been attempting to "lay low" to avoid the attention of Black Wargreymon. I am equally sorry that I have to be the bearer of such dire news. Black Wargreymon has found and destroyed one of the Destiny stones. If he finds the others, the Digiworld will be in grave danger. You must protect them. I will be contacting you again with any information I can obtain.

Gennai

Davis reread the message. He wasn't sure what a "Destiny Stone" was, but it struck a chord deep within his mind. It was like the ghost of a memory, just out of reach.

"Have you ever heard of these Destiny Stones Ken?"

Ken shook his head. "It sounds familiar, but I'm not sure. I don't think so."

"Alright, is everyone else already up?"

"Yeah, they're waiting in one of the smaller common rooms." Ken stood up, and led Davis out of their room.

"What time is it?" Davis asked. The windows showed nothing but darkness.

"A couple hours before sunrise I think." Ken replied.

Davis nodded. His head still felt foggy, and the thing about the Destiny Stones was nagging at him, as whatever it was he tried to remember eluded him.

The other Digidestined were waiting in the common room as Ken had said. They looked as tired as Davis felt, and Tai looked annoyed.

"What took you so long?" He asked, obviously grumpy from lack of sleep.

"I couldn't wake Davis up." Ken said simply, before sitting down in one of the chairs. Davis laughed, a bit nervous at the dark look Tai was giving him.

"Did you read Gennai's message?" Joe asked. Davis nodded.

"So what are these Destiny Stone things?" Mimi asked. Davis looked at her confused.

"How should I know? This is the first I've heard of them."

Now it was the other Digidestined's turn to look confused. "Cody, I thought you said Davis knew something about them?" Tai said.

Cody nodded. "It was back on the day Black Wargreymon was created. We ran into Gennai and he made some comment about how the Digidestined couldn't split up because it was 'destiny', and Davis went off about how he didn't believe in destiny. And he said something about how we had to 'protect the Destiny Stones'."

Davis thought back. He had said something about Destiny Stones that day, but it had been out of annoyance at Gennai's insistence that he rejoin the others. The memory came back in a flash, but something else seemed to be behind it, shadowing the memory.

"Yeah, I remember that now. I don't know where it came from though. I feel like there's something I'm forgetting, but that can't be, because I don't know anything about it!"

"Actually, I've been feeling the same way." Ken said, "I hadn't really noticed until we got Gennai's message, but it feels like I've forgotten something to, something really important."

Yolie, Cody, Kari, and T.K. also agreed that there was something they seemed to be forgetting. The older Digidestined looked troubled.

"Davis forgetting something isn't that unusual, but everyone else? This is strange." Izzy said.

"HEY!" Davis looked slightly hurt by that.

"It's not exactly that we forgot something Izzy." Ken said before Davis could start off on another tangent. "Except for the time Davis was talking to Gennai, I'm positive I'd never heard of the Destiny Stone's before. It's more like I should know something, and for some reason I don't. The information just isn't there."

T.K. nodded. "It's like someone put together a puzzle, but finished it with a piece from another puzzle. It fits, but it feels wrong."

Tai nodded absently. "All right, I guess the only thing we can do then is find one of these stones and see if it helps you guys figure this out. If nothing else, it sounds like we have to keep these things away from Black Wargreymon."

"We have more to do than that Tai. We also have to destroy the control Spires Black Wargreymon is putting up and find a way to reopen the Digiports so we can go home." Kari said.

Ken turned to Izzy. "How about you and I work out a list of people and tasks. We'll need people here to take care of the day to day things as well. If we rotate people, it should help keep everyone relatively rested in case of emergencies."

Izzy nodded. "Let's go get my laptop, I still have the list for everybody's room assignment on it, we can use that." Ken and Izzy turned, and left the room.

"Alright then. Mimi, Joe, and I will start taking care of breakfast." Sora said.

"Ok, the rest of us should see if we can find one of the Destiny Stones." Tai said. "Davis, you take T.K., Cody, and Joe. Yolie and Kari will come with me and Matt."

"Then it might help if you knew more about what it was you're looking for."

The Digidestined turned to see who had spoken. Gennai stood in the doorway. "Hello Digidestined, I believe we have some things to discuss."

A/N: So concludes yet another chapter of whatever this thing is I'm writing. I plan on finishing this story before the year is over, but we'll see if that actually happens or not.

On a completely different note, I've been thinking of rewriting my Digisenshi story, the prequel to this one. Mainly, because some of the characters act way out of character, and my dialogue back then included just a smidge too much swearing. Also, I really don't like the first person narrative, even though it is able to add insights into the character's mind. I just don't care for it much personally. So what do you think, should I give it a go?

As always, please read and review, let me know what you think :)