"The Circle of the Digidestined," written by Freedom Fighter Disclaimer: None of the characters, human or Digimon, belong to me, the writer. Author's Warning: The following fanfic features gruesome character death, both of the human and Digimon kind, violence of varying levels, some profane language, and some suggestive situations. Please do not read this fanfic if you're underage or feel that you cannot handle any of said features. ====== The smoldering remains of a Digimon village lie before the team that had been sent to the West Quadrant. The inhabitants? All gone, either deleted or having fled in fear. As the team explores in hopes of finding any survivors at all, Catherine decides to make a blunt observation. "We're too late." "We probably would have gotten here earlier if Mimi hadn't taken so long to get here," Tai shouted, making an excuse up just to get on Mimi's nerves. "Don't pin this on me!" Mimi retorted. "If you should blame anyone, blame Izzy for not sending us here 'til now!" "Oh goody, blame the man for everything that's wrong in your life!" "I do not blame men for everything that's wrong with my life! Just you!" As Agumon and Palmon step in to separate the two feuding Digidestined, Catherine takes a stand. "Innocent Digimon are being slain, and all you two want to do is fight with each other! Don't you realize that you are not helping the situation in any way?" "She's right," Palmon interjected. "Yeah," Agumon agreed. "This has gone on far enough!" "You two need to apologize to each other," Catherine suggested, though she did want them to follow through on it. Unfortunately, neither Tai or Mimi were willing to bite. "I wouldn't apologize to that woman if she were the last woman on Earth!" Tai shouted. "I totally wouldn't honor you with an apology even if you were the last man in the universe!" Mimi shot back. "Ha! Even if you were the last person in the galaxy, I wouldn't forgive you!" "Galaxies are smaller than universes!" "And how do you know, Miss 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction?'" Catherine and the Digimon sighed as Tai and Mimi threw even more verbal jabs at each other. ***** Episode Seven - Mastering Time (02.17.03) ***** Green and Hagurumon were setting up a camp about half a mile outside of the village. Using some hut remains and his lighter, Green was instantly able to start a fire. "Shouldn't we be waiting for those Digidestined?" Hagurumon asked. "That's what I'm doing," Green replied nonchalantly. "They'll see our fire and come here to check if anyone saw what was going on. Once we get them in sight, you'll do the rest." "They won't know what hit 'em! Well, they will know, 'cause all I'll do is throw cogs at them all day, but you get the picture." "Yes! We'll frame them with your cogs. Get it? Pictures? Frames? It's a joke." "That's what you humans call a joke?" Hagurumon raised his eyebrow, unimpressed. "I've heard better quips from a Dark Master, and only because someone else writes their lines!" "When I want your opinion Hagurumon, I'll ask for it." ====== The group split up into Digidestined-Digimon pairings, each making an effort to search the debris for any trapped Digimon. "Someone really did a number on this place," Tai remarked as he and Agumon tried to move what was left of a Digimon hut that had collapsed during the attack. "I'll say," Agumon added. "Whatever wrecked this place must be pretty strong." "So? No problem! If this guy's some freaky ultimate-level baddie, then you can digivolve and kick his sorry ass from here to Primary Village!" "But I haven't digivolved in a long time! What if something goes wrong?" "Biyomon didn't have any problems in Paris. Everything'll be fine. Just leave it to ol' Tai." ====== "I bet this place used to be a magical wonderland," Mimi commented as she picked up a tattered pink window curtain from among a pile of rubble. "I don't know about magical, but I sure know this place was a wonderland!" Palmon stated. "How so?" "Well, the old rustic, classic look is in around these parts. Villages like these resemble those of the real world... only dated about 200 years." "200 years? I bet their fashion sense was just as outdated!" "Still, there aren't many places like this one left in the Digiworld. The nostalgia's worn off thanks to human technology, and old villages like these are becoming scarce." Mimi sniffled as she tried to hold back tears. "Reminds me of my freshman year in college. Everything I wore as a high school senior was out of style. I loved a lot of it, but I wanted to keep my sense of style too. It's hard when you have to let go of the past." Palmon sweatdropped. "Too bad you haven't." "What do you mean? I got a whole new wardrobe and moved on with my life!" "No! I'm talking about you and Tai!" Mimi crossed her arms over her chest as she turned away in disgust. "Tai never treated me right from day one of that relationship! I'll never forgive him for what he did to ruin my life!" "You can't be serious!" "I'm dead serious, Palmon! Tai can walk off a cliff, for all I care!" ====== "Mimi can burn herself in a frying pan, for all I care!" "Tai... you know that doesn't make any sense." "So what? I'm tired of Mimi's 'all that' attitude and I wish she were gone from my life for good!" "Why are you all bent up on Mimi again? A minute ago we were talking about what we were going to do when we found the guys who burnt this village down!" "That was a minute ago! Now I'm talking about Mimi." "Look, I know you never told me what drove you two apart in the first place..." "And it's none of your business!" "But after all these years, I have to get into it! Especially if it's been eating you up from inside since then!" "Mimi and I had one disagreement about one little thing, she blew it way out of proportion, and then we ended up splitting up!" ====== "Tai and I always disagreed, and he made sure he always got his way! He was never fair to me!" "I know friends disagree, but that doesn't mean you two have to hate each other for the rest of your lives for it." "It does in our case! He ordered me around as if I were a slave to him! Do you know how that feels? To be a slave to someone?" "Yes... but you can't really compare..." "It was always 'Mimi do this, Mimi do that!' I got sick of it, so I dumped him!" Palmon thought for a minute before continuing. "You're really happy that you did?" "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I'm really happy!" "Then why do you still talk about it as if you two were still together?" Mimi froze. She was very hesitant to answer, and Palmon could see that in her eyes. "No way! You mean you still..." Mimi started to walk away. "I don't know what you're talking about. There is no 'I still.'" ====== Tai unlocked the door to his apartment and then let Mimi go in ahead of him. She stuck her tongue out in disgust, as she always did, upon lying eyes on the pig sty Tai and his roommates called their living quarters. "Eewwww," Mimi complained, bending down and picking up a banana peel that was on the floor in front of her. "There is such a thing as a garbage can, you know." "When you're as busy as I am," Tai began, walking past Mimi, "it's hard to find time to clean." "How do you expect girls to come here with all of this garbage and junk all over the place?" "We don't," Tai replied, heading for the kitchen. "We know better to bring them here. We just go to their place." "What would your parents say if they saw this place like this?" Mimi saw a 'The Fast and the Furious' DVD acting as a coaster for one of Tai's roommate's coffee mugs. "That's why I have you," Tai smiled. "You always seem to do wonders for this place." "About that... Tai, we need to talk." "What? Don't tell me you just had your nails done." "This is serious, Tai!" "I am being serious!" "Tai, you can't depend on me to be all motherly and clean up after you guys." Mimi then cringed as she saw a dirty piece of men's underwear wrapped around a mini-bamboo tree. "I thought you loved this stuff! All women do, don't they?" Mimi began to get angry. "For your information, some women don't like cleaning up after others! Especially after people like your roommates!" But Tai didn't seem to really get it. "In that case, just clean my stuff and I'll take care of theirs. No biggie." "Yes biggie, Tai! I'm tired of being your maid!" "Maid? Mimi, if you were our maid, we would be paying you to clean our room." "So I am a maid to you, am I?" "No one's forcing you to clean up after us." "Good. That's what I thought." "By the way," Tai held up a pair of black shoes and a small jar of shoe polish. "do you mind polishing my shoes? I have to do a speech com presentation on Monday." Mimi, enraged beyond belief, snatches the jar out of Tai's hands, and untwists the lid. She then dips her left hand in and then runs it through Tai's hair. "Ack!" Tai yelped, grabbing Mimi's hand tightly and dropping his shoes on the floor in the process. "Let go of me!" Mimi yelled, using her free hand to smear the polish all over Tai's face. As Tai let go, Mimi turned and stomped out of the apartment. "It's over, Tai! I never want to see you again!" "Mimi, wait!" Tai tried to wipe the polish from his eyes, but Mimi had already slammed the door behind her. ====== "You could've blinded me for life, Mimi!" "That would've been a good thing, Tai!" Back in present time, Agumon and Palmon look each other weirdly as Tai and Mimi are facing each other once again, arguing like there's no tomorrow. "Do you know how much I had to pay for therapy?" "I bet it was a whole lot more than you spent on me!" "It's a small town after all," Palmon said to Agumon. "Yeah!" Agumon added. "It didn't take long for Tai and Mimi to find each other, did it?" "Why can't you just get out of my life?" Mimi asked. "Just get out of mine," Tai replied. "At least I'm satisfied that way." "That's all you ever want to be! Satisfied!" "Like you ever satisfied me any." Mimi slapped Tai across the face, leaving a red handprint where she had hit him. "That stings!" Tai yelled, rubbing where the handprint was. "What'd you do that for?" "You know I hate it when you lie to me!" "I never lied to you in my life!" Mimi slapped Tai again, this time using her left hand. But now Mimi were both cringing in pain, as her left hand was the weakest of the two, and thus, she had felt it more when she hit him. "Ow! See what you did now? I think I broke my wrist." Tai, ignoring the pain in his cheeks, reaches over and tries to check Mimi's injured wrist. But she immediately pulls away. "I can examine myself, thank you very much!" "You might want to put some ice on that," Tai suggested. "Don't tell me what to do!" "Fine! If you want that to get infected..." "Oh, alright already! Anything to get you to shut up!" Mimi extended her left arm out as Tai carefully lays out his hand for her wrist to rest on. "But Tai," Agumon began, "where are you going to find ice around here?" Before Tai could answer, Palmon used her vines to close Agumon's mouth shut. "Shhh!" she shushed, putting a finger up to her mouth. "Mimi... it's been 20 years since and... everyone's right, you know. We have to stop letting the past affect the present." "Maybe you're right. I'm tired of arguing about it anyway." "Yeah, me too." Mimi slowly pulled her arm away and let it drop to her side. She then gazed longingly into Tai's eyes. He did the same. Suddenly, their two faces began to get closer. Before they knew it, their lips were only a few inches apart. "Look out!" yelled a woman's voice from afar. Leave it to Catherine to spoil the romantic moment, but she had good reason to. Hagurumon was charging right for the quartet, and Catherine and Kiwimon weren't fast enough to stop him. "Agumon!" Tai yelled, raising his orange D-3 into the air as Mimi did the same with her pink one. "Agumon digivolve to... Greymon!" "Palmon digivolve to... Togemon!" The two rookies digivolved to champion. Along with Kiwimon, the champion-level form of Floramon, the three surrounded Hagurumon. "Let's get 'em, mes amis!" Catherine yelled. "Out of my way!" came the voice of Green, pushing Catherine aside as he passed. "Hagurumon, you know what to do!" "Cog Crusher!" Hagurumon shouted, materializing a cog out of nowhere and heaving it at Greymon. Luckily, the dinosaur Digimon caught it easily. "Is that the best you can do?" Greymon asked, tossing it aside. "Clean his clock!" Tai exclaimed. "Show him how rude it is to interrupt, Togemon!" Mimi told her Digimon. "Nova Blast!" "Have a taste of Needle Spray!" "Pummel Peck!" The three Digimon attacks were strong enough to knock Hagurumon out. If not for the Digimon's hard shell, it would have been deleted easily. "Enough!" Green shouted, pulling out a white D-3 from his pants pocket. "Sacre bleu!" Catherine gasped. "He has a Digivice!" A Digiport opened underneath Hagurumon, immediately dropping the Digimon in. The hole closed just as quickly as it had appeared, dematerializing before Greymon, Togemon, or Kiwimon could stop it. "Just who do you think you are?" Tai asked. "You'll pay for what you and your friends did to Joe!" Mimi yelled angrily, clenching her fists. "And for ruining the great city of Paris!" added Catherine. "This is only the beginning," said Green as a smile creeped onto his face. He then began pushing buttons on his D-3 to open a Digiport of his own. "'Til we meet again." Green jumps into the Digiport, which immediately closes behind him. "We have to go after him!" Catherine shouted as she ran up to the others. "How?" Tai asked. "We have no way of knowing where he went." The three champion-level Digimon de-digivolved back to their rookie forms. "That guy wasn't that strong," Agumon told the group. "Neither was his Digimon," added Palmon. "Sorry about letting them get to you," Catherine apologized. "Hagurumon got behind Floramon and I before we knew it." "Don't worry," Mimi said, "you weren't interrupting anything important." "We just decided to forgive each other for the past 20 years," Tai told her. "Oh," Catherine smirked. "And did you seal the deal with a kiss?" Tai and Mimi's face instantly went red. "What are you, crazy?" "Yeah! Do you know what Michael would do to me if he found out I kissed another man?" "The same thing for Misato! 'Fraternizing with the enemy' she calls it." "That may be the way you forgive each other in France... but not in America or Japan!" Catherine shrugged her shoulders. "At least you two aren't fighting anymore. Thank goodness." A Digiport materialized in front of the group, thanks to Catherine's D-3. "I'll inform Izzy of what's happened here." She then ran into the Digiport, with Floramon right behind her. "Let's go see if there are any survivors left," Palmon suggested. "But Palmon, didn't we already..." Palmon's vines wrapped around Agumon's jaws again as she pulled him back into the ruins of the destroyed Digimon village behind them. That left Tai and Mimi alone. The two didn't hesitate to pick up where they left off, as their lips met for the first time in 20 years. ====== Aboard Space Station Zum, halfway between Earth and the moon... Matt Ishida was in the middle of an experiment with his partner, a 13-year old aqua blue ponytailed-hair girl named Penelope Gomez. The two were hard at work trying to see if it was possible to build a toothpick model of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in zero gravity and while the structure was floating. No, it wasn't one of the station's scheduled experiments for the day. It was just a way for Matt and Penelope to take their minds off of their real work. "I didn't expect that being the first teenager ever in space would be so much fun," Penelope said happily. "Everyone's making such a big deal of it," Matt stated as he glued another toothpick onto the structure. "You're working on the experiments with the rest of us. I don't see any difference." "Child prodigies usually are the experiments. We're tested like lab rats, sent to college early, and put into high-tech positions like computer engineering and the like. No one's ever thought of actually sending one into space." "You'd think the guys at NASA would be worried about if your body could handle space travel. I guess they knew what they were doing." "That's true. I've been up here two months already and I haven't been ill once." "That's what's so weird about it. You mean you've felt normal, as if you were still on Earth?" Penelope nodded. "You sure you're not an android? Or an alien?" "If I was an android, I would have been capable of completing the calcium-neon-sodium transfusion days ago. As for being an alien, I would probably have already probed you. Or eaten you alive." Matt sweatdropped. "That's good to know." "Speaking of which, we really should get back to work. Figuring out which ions would be gained or lost in the atomic structure of the chemical compound is more important than building a one-hundredth scale model of the Golden Gate Bridge with teeth-cleaning tools." "Yeah... sure," Matt agreed, not really understanding it all. "I'll go retrieve the particle diffuser apparatus that will be needed to break apart the nucleus of the three atoms." As Penelope walked out, Matt breathed a sigh of relief. "I swear! She's a female version of Izzy when she was his age... only she's a whole lot smarter." ====== Elsewhere on the space station, Gabumon is staying out of trouble by remaining inside Matt's sleeping quarters. Gabumon was content to catch some Z's on Matt's bed. In fact, he was so deep asleep that he didn't notice the flashing D-3 floating around on the other side of the room. Additional Author's Notes: Finally! One coupling's problems solved. The Tai and Mimi fiasco is now done and over with, and now we can move on to resolve another. In the flashback scene, Tai is a college sophomore and Mimi's a college freshman. Although never mentioned specifically, both attended the State University of New York's Stony Brook campus. I used that college because I've been there before. But that's diving into my personal life, so moving on... Penelope Gomez may draw similarities to another anime character that some of you may very well know. I'm not letting it out of the bag, but this was intentional, and if you can figure out who Penelope is based off of, I'd be very pleased. With "The Detectives Kamiya" now back in session, there will unfortunately be a hiatus for this series. If worst comes to worst, you guys may be stuck without a new episode of this fanfic for another two months. That may seem hard to you guys after waiting nearly two months for the one you just finished reading above, but I have no other choice. So please bear with me... I still intend to see this through to the end, wherever and whenever that may be. ***** Next Episode - What's the Stitch? ***** It's off to the grassy knolls of the eastern quadrant of the Digital World! Sora, Izzy, Biyomon, and Tentomon try to stop Yellow and Mushroommon from terrorizing the forest populace! If this is no laughing matter, then why can't Biyomon and Tentomon control themselves? Plus, because you asked for it, two more of the Digidestined's families make their grand entrance!