Crests of Origin Chapter 1: The Cave in the Forest, a digimon fanfic

Author's Notes

The idea was just nagging to be written, but I've already learnt a lot more just from the preliminary research, so it should help my other fics too. But I couldn't write the next chapter of Mirror Distortions until I finished this. We'll just blame the muse.

A few notes on the technicality:

- Only the second generation digidestined (Davis, Yolei, Cody, TK, Kari and Ken) and Oikawa's children have D3s to my knowledge, so they are currently still the only ones that can open the gate to the digital world

- BlackWarGreymon sealed the gate in Heighten View Terrace, but the gates in Odaiba and Tamachi should still be functional. Therefore, for the purposes of this fic, the gates can still be opened from those locations

- The final term of school starts in early January. I'm not sure whether the events of Digimon 02 finished between Christmas and New Years or after New Years, but this way covers both. This fic starts just before that final term, very soon after the events of 02, save the epilogue.

- This may not appear to be compatible with the events of the epilogue. Whether it turns out to be or not…we'll all just have to wait and see. Same goes for the 2nd movie (fourth in the Japanese version. The one where Impaildramon Paladin mode is in, seeing as it takes place in the next break, aka. in March as Yolei's trying on a middle school uniform).

- The forest where Gatomon lost her tail ring is the same one where Davis got the Digi-egg of Courage. There's two gates though, seeing as the one they entered through the first time was somewhat outside forest boundaries.

- The events of Frontier took place before the events of 01. How far? You'll have to wait and see.

And lastly, but certainly not least, a big thank you to Shara Raizel for letting me talk her ear off, helping me smooth some of the main ideas, and giving me some pointers. Arigato Shara-san. :)

Well, that should be it for now. Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

Crests of Origin

02/04 x-over. Everything came from somewhere. They knew the crest power came from their hearts, but before that they came from the hearts of others. Now they're learning that story as they fight for the future…and the past.

Daisuke M/Davis & Takuya K

Chapter 1

The Cave in the Forest

'Ah,' Davis Motomiya sighed to himself, feeling the gentle wind of the digital world fan his face as he rested his head on his palms, lying with his back comfortably nested in the cool grass. 'This is the life.'

'That's easy for you to say,' Ex-Veemon yelled from somewhere to the left as another crash broke the whistling of the breeze before letting it play it's melody uninterrupted. 'You're not the one doing work on your vacation!'

Several different voices melded into laughter as Davis shot up into a sitting position. 'I am too doing work,' the young leader rebuked his partner. 'Who made you evolve?'

The laughter grew.

'Yeah, laugh it up you guys.'

That didn't seem to deter the rest of the Digidestined though.

It was still early January and school would be opening after the weekend for most of them, so they, the digidestined, had decided to take the opportunity to finish cleaning up the mess left from when Arukenimon resurrected the Control Spires. Oikawa's life force had proved sufficient in reawakening the beauty that MaloMyotismon's darkness had obliterated, but the result had been a Digital World in the state it had been minutes before the blanket of darkness had begun to spread. That meant that the gate in Heighten View Terrace was still closed by BlackWarGreymon's life energy. It meant that there were still numerous control spires pillaging the beautiful landscape, albeit they were no longer functional. That meant that the damage from all the fighting still persisted, and still needed to be repaired.

Only the Japanese digidestined it appeared had the D-3s capable of opening the gate. The six from the second generation, and the team dubbed, just in order to differentiate them from the others in the same general area, "Oikawa's children". They were attempting to rebuild a factory destroyed by BlackWarGreymon's rampage, seeing as all the digimon partners were at the baby level and thus incapable of taking down control spires…or indeed being any help further than company and heart-filled entertainment.

Hence, it fell to the six of them, and the original digidestined (when someone opened the gate for them), to knock down the remainder of the Control Spires and turn them into rubble. Not a particularly fun job, but having one's friends around always managed to lighten up the atmosphere, no matter how hard they were working.

Or weren't.

'Oh man.' TK stretched his arms over his head. 'That was a good laugh.' Then, ignoring Davis' indignant response, he added: 'It's a shame school's starting up on Monday though. Even if I can't wait to get back to basketball.'

'Stay like that,' Kari said, snapping a picture that took in TK's relaxed face in comparison to Davis' indignant expression.

Yolei, having caught a good glimpse of the photo over her shoulder before she turned her camera off, grinned. 'Good photo,' she commented.

'Thanks,' the brunette replied back. 'It seemed like a perfect opportunity.'

Because Kari was…well, Kari, she didn't get her head chewed off by the two boys.

'I can't wait for school to start up again,' she added, watching Nefertimon fire a pink beam at the last Control Spire in sight and disintegrating it.

'I can't believe you like school.' TK shook his head. 'Seriously.'

'Why not?' Kari shot back. 'What's not to like?'

'Homework!' Davis declared immediately, cutting his proclaimed rival off. 'And the teachers. Aargh.'

Both girls giggled.

'Maybe if you followed their instructions, you wouldn't find them so bad,' Cody commented as Antylamon clamoured up to him, devolving as he came. The five with wings touched down at the same moment, but far more gracefully than their friend confined to the earth.

'I wish I had wings,' Armadillamon lamented, as Cody patted him on the head.

'Don't worry,' the youngest of their six-membered team comforted. 'You're perfect the way you are.'

'I'll be better with a nap.' And with that, the shell-type Digimon covered a yawn with his right paw.

'It is getting late,' Wormmon commented, crawling up Ken's arm to settle in the crook of his neck, his partner having knelt down and offered a hand. 'We should start heading back, otherwise we'll mist the Teriyaki.

'You're right,' Ken agreed. 'I wouldn't want to miss that.' He looked at the other five and got a chorus of shrugs and groans, the latter being from Davis.

'And that's it,' he said with an air of theatrical tragedy. 'Another chapter of our lives draw to a close. Farewell Digital World.'

'Seriously Davis,' Yolei sighed, rolling her eyes. 'You act like school starting is the end of the world. It never stopped you before.'

'Sure it did,' the other rebuked. 'Detentions, soccer, homework…'

'Not that you ever did any,' TK interrupted, folding his arms behind his head and grinning up at his partner as Patamon sat on his hat.

'Well…there's detentions.'

'Which you wouldn't get if you listened to the teachers and followed the rules,' Cody rebuked.

A pause, and then Davis, a little louder than necessary, exploded good-naturedly: 'Is this the lecture club? Geeze, cut me some slack here.'

The other eleven laughed some more at his expense, including Veemon, whose stomach rumbled with hunger moments later, sealing the agreement to head home for some afternoon snacks…or dinner in Ken's case as that was what time it would be once he got to his apartment in Tamachi from Cody's house in Odaiba.

'Man, I hope your mother made more of those brownies,' the brash child of Courage and Friendship commented to the youngest of the group, clutching his own stomach in a manner that would have been comical if it hadn't been entirely overused.

'I did tell her I was having company over for tea,' Cody replied calmly. 'So I'm sure she made plenty.'

'I hope so,' the blonde commented. 'What with the way Davis and Yolei eat, not to mention all the Digimon.'

'Hey!' The two subjects exclaimed. The Digimon were used to being compared to bottomless pits.

TK just shrugged. 'You two do eat more than the rest of us put together.'

They were halfway back to the nearest TV when Gatomon's ears stood straight and she stopped walking.

'I hear something,' she said, tips twitching as she looked around.

The others followed suit, and Kari shivered a little.

'Is it just me?' the brunette asked with a fairly steady voice, all things considered. 'Or is this forest darker than it was five minutes ago?'

'It is,' TK mused, looking up to find the sun covered by clouds. 'That's weird. It was just sunny.'

'I hope it doesn't start to rain,' Cody said quietly. 'My mother won't be pleased if I catch a cold.'

'It doesn't look like it will,' Ken comforted, realising the clouds weren't dense with moisture but rather white wisps. 'The clouds aren't grey.'

'Well, that's a relief.' The cat shook herself for emphasis, before frowning. 'The sound's clearer now. Wings of some sort.'

'That's weird,' Yolei commented. 'Isn't this the forest where you lost your Tail ring? There was a – no wait, that was Arukenimon.'

'There are Monochromonsomewhere around here,' TK pointed out. 'We saw them when Davis got his digi-egg of courage, remember?'

'Oh right,' the burgundy-haired male remembered. 'Weren't there also those slimy…what are their names again?'

'They're Numemon.' Kari's tone took on a slight edge, although it went apparently unnoticed by the goggle-wearer.

'Err, right. Numemon.'

'There's also Unimon.' Gatomon continued. 'But these wings are too light for that. We'd be able to hear Unimon's wing-beats from the edge of the forest.'

'You mean you would,' Patamon corrected. 'The rest of us don't have quite good ears you know.'

'Indeed,' Wormmon agreed. 'I still can't hear anything at all.'

'Me neither,' the rest of them chorused, except Gatomon who's ears twitched again.

'There's a lot of them,' she mused aloud. 'Coming closer fast.'

Everyone tensed; they couldn't help it. It was still somewhat difficult for their bodies to get used to the fact that they wouldn't be attacked from every corner.

'Flymon?' Hawkmon asked, before frowning as he heard the sounds too. 'No, no buzzing.'

Then he jumped and let out a squawk when the trees apparently echoed his words back. 'No, no buzzing.'

'No, no buzzing.'

'This is weird,' Yolei said, her voice taking on a slightly higher pitch than usual as the crazy echoing continued.

'This is weird.'

The others just blinked at each other as the echo changed, some with bewildered expressions on their faces, some looking a tad creeped out, and some, namely Davis, starting to looked a little amused.

'Geeze Yolei,' Davis began with a bit of a smirk playing on his lips, before being cut off as the echo changed again, coming ever closer.

'Geeze Yolei.'

The subject opened her mouth to retaliate, but Cody caught her attention and shook his head.

'This is getting creepier by the minute,' Kari whispered, low enough to be barely heard. Apparently, whatever the echoing was, it hadn't picked up her words, as the "Geeze Yolei" continued, much to the mauve haired girl's disgruntlement.

Luckily, before she could lose her cool, the source of the noise came into view, and a few shrieks later (to which only Kari chose to own up to), they were blinking at a bunch of…

'Are they Digital bats?' TK asked, sounding bewildered. 'They certainly look more friendly than DemiDevimon.'

'They're Pipsimon,' Ken explained, taking a step closer before letting a small grin grace his features as the Pipsimon took his words to heart.

'They're Pipsimon.'

'Harmless,' Ken hurriedly added, sending the bats off on the new tangent.

'Harmless.'

'Can't they talk normally?' Yolei whispered. 'Because it's really weird how they keep repeating everything we say.'

'Everything we say,' the Pipsimon chorused, causing Davis to let out a snort of laughter and the digimon to mimic that, thus causing everyone else to glare at the goggle-head.

Ken shrugged, a little helplessly. 'All I know is that they're peaceful digimon that hang out in caves and dark places.' Then his brow furrowed as he looked around. 'It's gotten even darker.'

'I think it's about to rain,' Cody said quietly, looking up again. 'The sky has darkened.'

'That was fast.' TK adjusted his hat. 'But then again, nothing in this world is what I'd call normal.'

'Normal, normal, normal,' the Pipsimon chorused, leaving their stationary pose and flapping about as sprinkles of water began to pour.

TK adjusted his hat again as Patamon jumped off. 'Ack,' he said, shaking himself, accidently spraying Gatomon…whose fur was already starting to look frazzled. Hawkmon flapped his wings a little, thankful for the oily layer that kept him from getting wet, while Yolei was equally thankful for her hat and Wormmon his exoskeletal exterior. The rest of them were feeling rather soggy in minutes though as the rain steadily picked up power.

'Do you know where we can find shelter?' Cody asked the Pipsimon politely, hoping they did in fact speak normally as well as their echoes.

'Shelter?'

Yolei face-palmed her slick forehead, before blinking as they took off in a rather orderly fashion, still echoing the tail of Cody's question. 'Uhh…do they want us to follow?'

'Follow.'

'I presume so,' Hawkmon surmised as the Pipsimon continued their one-worded echo. 'And it would be wise to follow.'

No-one wasted any time after that, and the bats led then through the trees and into a cave.

'Oh, thank goodness.' And Gatomon proceeded to shake herself dry, almost reminiscent of a dog, spraying the other digimon too, except Patamon who was still in the air.

'Hey!' they all exclaimed, trying to get themselves reasonably dry without much success, until they all fished around in their pockets and withdrew three handkerchiefs between the six humans. Gatomon gratefully accepted the one from her human and proceeding to rub at her soaked fur, leaving Cody to mop up Armadillamon's shell and Hawkmon to wave off Yolei's and offer it to Ken and Wormmon while Patamon managed to get himself dry in the air. The oily glands on his skin were a big help with that, much like Hawkmon's own beneath the feathers.

Veemon looked like he was about to cry before Armadillamon, apparently only mopping his forehead, handed Cody's over.

'Hmm…'

Kari looked over at her friend. 'What is it TK?' she asked.

'You know…' He cocked his head slightly, causing Patamon to flounder slightly as he tried to sit atop the hat again. 'Oh, whoops. Sorry Patamon. I was just thinking that this cave doesn't seem familiar at all.'

'Well, we did go slightly out of our way to get out of the rain,' the brunette pointed out.

'True, but I thought we've been everywhere there is to go in this world.' Then he stretched again, stifling a yawn. 'Heh, the world must be bigger than I thought.'

'We didn't exactly have time for sightseeing when trying to climb Spiral Mountain,' the child of light pointed out. 'I don't remember passing a single cave then. And you're sure this isn't the cave with the Digi-egg of Courage?'

'Yep.' He pointed to the middle, where there was no sign of the man-made platform that had stood. 'There was a flat rock there with a hole the last time I saw it.'

'And yet we were heading for that same TV.' Kari frowned slightly. 'Does that mean we're lost?'

'I doubt it Kari,' the other comforted. 'We didn't get too far off course.' He pulled out his D-terminal just to be sure, as the Pipsimon had decided to depart, mimicking Davis' and Veemon's loud farewell so it echoed into the forest for minutes more. 'Yep, there's the TV. A bit extra walking, but we're closer to the other one. And there's the cave too, where Davis got his Digi-egg.'

He pointed at the small structure on the map, then at the blinking dots that showed their own position in a similar structure, simply in an area that was more…dense with forest.

'It's no wonder we never spotted it,' Yolei pointed out, peeking through the roof of the cave. 'The trees over there are completely smashed. I'm guessing BlackWarGreymon uncovered it during his rampage.'

'That might explain why the Pipsimon are no longer in this cave,' Wormmon, a tad unexpectedly, spoke up. 'It's no longer secluded enough for them. For the most part, they don't like to interact with other digimon, but they seem to like humans and those digimon with them.'

'You've met them before?' Gatomon asked curiously. 'I've travelled all over this world and never even laid eyes on kind like them.'

'Yes.' The worm-digimon nodded. 'We met them the first time Ken came to the Digital World.'

All eyes were suddenly on the blue-haired boy…except his own which were staring at a blank spot on the sloping walls. 'I don't remember that,' he muttered to himself, speaking slightly louder to add: 'That would explain why they were on the database.'

The sentence, although increasing in volume, was still barely audible amongst the pattering of the rain.

'I thought you wrote that thing,' Davis said suddenly, before looking down as Veemon elbowed his leg. 'What?'

The blue dragonling shook his head, but Ken answered anyway. 'It was Wormmon.' There was a funny tinge to his voice which everyone picked up, and the ones deemed more sensible scrambled for a distraction.

Funnily enough, it was Davis who steered the conversation off the track it was heading towards. 'So what else do you know about those guys?'

Now everyone's attention was on Wormmon, and he answered while averting his gaze ever so slightly to the floor. He wasn't a particular fan of giving speeches, and they, he and Ken that was, still didn't know the other Digidestined as well as they would like. The bridge was closing though.

'They mimic speech they hear and their powers are greater in the dark. Some sort of sonic I believe.'

'I wonder if they're like the Japanese house bats,' Cody mused, putting a thumb under his chin and adapting a thinking pose. 'They certainly seem to hold some resemblance.'

'Why do they call them house bats anyway?' Davis asked.

The humans all stared at him.

'What?'

Yolei was the first to roll her eyes and turn away…or she would have turned away if something hadn't caught her eye. 'Hey.' She pointed into the depths of the cave they had largely ignored. 'What's that?'

There was a slight glimmer coming from the darkness, reflecting from the light that cracked through the broken tree canopy as the clouds began to part and rays of light from an almost setting sun shone.

They all squinted, to various degrees of success. Eventually, it was Gatomon who had the best night vision out of all of them, who correctly identified it as a small screen of some sort.

'A screen?' Kari asked, watching the white cat slink into the shadows. 'Hey, wait Gatomon.'

She followed, and the hurried footsteps behind told her the others were following too…for which she was thankful. She wasn't afraid of the darkness per say (the usual sort of darkness that was) but it always unnerved her, not knowing what could be lurking around corners. And her two encounters with the Dark Ocean certainly hadn't helped matters any.

But the footsteps behind and ahead, no matter how haphazard, were comforting, so it wasn't long before they all stood in the gloom of the cave's corner, staring at the screen that had caught the light of the setting sun.

The rays were stronger now, but they somehow, almost eerily, converged into a single laser beam shining over the device that belonged to it…once they had all crowded around. It wasn't a perfect beam by all means; it had to deal with a semi-barrier of six humans and an equal number of digimon after all. But it was enough light to illuminate the screen and its immediate surrounds, and the said screen seemed to have a certain reflective capacity, as they, when they looked at each other, could make out their grey faces in the dim light. It almost looked like a black and white film.

It was Davis who moved first, picking up the device. 'Hey, Ken. How'd you drop your D-3 all the way out-' He stopped, when he realised it felt a little lighter in his hands, as well as a little bigger and flatter.

'It's a different model,' Gatomon pointed out, having no problem making out the black casing and the grey grips. 'And the colour scheme's reversed.'

It was true. Ken's digivice was grey with black grips.

Davis shrugged. 'Maybe it belongs to one of the other Digidestined. There's got to be more than two models floating around.' He turned the device over in his hand, but found nothing else in the dim lighting.

TK snatched it and took a closer look. 'I don't think I've seen anything like this before,' he commented. 'But it does look a little similar to our D-3s. '

Their D-3s had a four directional navigation button, much like their cell phones did, as well as two arrows beside the screen. The new one didn't…or rather, the old one as it looked rather worn. Or perhaps it was simply the light that made it look faded and dead. The screen was darker than their own as well; that was apparent even with the translucent plastic catching the light of the sun. There were two white buttons, the left a little higher than the right, and more buttons to the side. Those ones reminded him of the R and L functions of his remote control, as well as the joystick…only the thumb roll was neatly embedded. There was a button common on both models though. A yellow one, small and located at the bottom of the flat surface, while their own hosted it under the screen.

'Maybe Izzy will know.'

Kari peered at it. 'He'll probably take it apart first,' she pointed out, staring at the dead screen. 'I wonder if it's broken.' She reached out to thoughtfully touch it, before hearing a torrent of water suddenly falling, as if the canopy that held it gave way, before the sound eased back into the gentle pattering of rain.

'What is it?' Gatomon's blue eyes stared up at her.

'I thought I just heard some water splash,' the brunette replied. 'It was a little unexpected.' Unconsciously, she withdrew her fingers.

'I didn't,' TK, Yolei and Davis replied together, before staring at each other. Luckily, Ken interrupted before one of them spoke further and possibly ignited an argument.

'I did.'

'It was probably a leaf canopy collapsing against the weight,' Cody shrugged reasonably. 'We wouldn't have really registered it over this rain unless we were paying attention to it.'

'True,' TK agreed, ruffling the younger boy's hair. 'Always the voice of reason.' There was a moment of silence except for twelve breathing forms, and then he spoke again. 'Hey, the rain's stopped.'

They left the cave, standing for a moment in the puddle as Yolei worked out the direction of the nearest TV.

'It's through there,' she said, pointing with a wet glove through a grove of trees, before shivering. 'Ooh, I hadn't realised how warm it was in that cave.'

'We'd better run,' Ken said, looking at his watch. His clothes were mostly dry, having the fortune of having thinner layers than…say, Yolei or Davis. Kari's were dry too, and TK's were almost there. Cody's top sat somewhere in between, but Davis' jacket was still dripping droplets of water, as was Yolei's pants. 'We'll miss the bus back otherwise.'

'Well, see you later then!' Davis waved even when the pair vanished into a speck of grey amongst the trees, Wormmon hitching a ride on the other's shoulder. Then he blinked. 'Did I hear those Pipsimon again?'

Veemon looked wounded. 'I was just saying goodbye to Wormmon.'

'Oh, whoops. Sorry Veemon.'

There was some snickering.

'Yeah, laugh it up guys.'

That invited some full-blown laughter as TK slipped the strange worn (it hadn't been the light) digivice into his pants pocket. It made an odd bulge, but at least that would remind him to show it to Izzy the following morning.