Jade, Ice, and Talon

Lord Patamon: He isn\'t abandoned, I haven\'t shelved that part of the plot. I\'m doing this to extend the time draw before I get to him; you\'ll understand why, I\'ll be dedicating a whole chapter to the shadow realm you\'ll read more of in a second.





Chapter Eleven - "Fruitless"





Well it certainly seems as though those digi-twerps aren\'t around today. Perhaps they\'ve noticed Cody\'s dissappearance. Maybe I\'ll let them retrive him. It might prove interesting to discover how they manage to rescue him. Perhaps I\'ll go watch them, then call Jade...



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Three months, Eleven days, and 10 hours. That was exaclty how long Cody had been trapped in this empty, cold, dark realm. He knew because he\'d counted the days, counted the times he\'d awoken. He could have been off, way off, as even the sun was dark, and not anything like the sun he was used to. He\'d tried wandering around, and found no one alive, no way out of this place. He was trapped, alone, and it was eating him alive. Sure, there were times in his past where he wanted to be alone, but now, never again did he want to be alone. Something had changed within him; he could feel it. He felt - different. Older. Somehow - he couldn\'t figure out why. Something about everything around him made him feel isolated, older, and so very alone. Would someone ever come rescue him? Was Armadillomon alright?



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Kari gave a groan of aggrivation as TK rounded the tree they\'d passed an hour ago.

"TK, you\'re driving us in circles!" she spoke, crossing her arms over her chest.

"No I\'m not! That\'s a different tree!"

"How did you know that\'s what tipped me off, huh? YOU NOTICED IT TOO!" TK sighed.

"Guys? I don\'t think arguing helps right now..." muttered Gatomon, whom, with Patamon, was bringing up the rear.

"Why don\'t you digivolve us, and we can see if we can spot the castle from the air?" commented Patamon, whom was making eyes, secretly, at Gatomon\'s swaying rear, unbeknownst to the feline.

"If we do that, then we might catch the Kaiser\'s attention. THAT\'S not good." Kari replied, not even bothering to look back. "So we\'re stuck wandering around until we find what we\'re looking for."

"That could take WEEKS!" Gatomon exclaimed.

"Yeah well, if we had Yolei and Hawkmon, them we\'d send him. Even Veemon would be helpful at this point...He could probably find Cody and that damn castle." she responded, letting her crossed arms fall off her chest.

"It\'s not like I\'m lost, Kari. I just wander in circles..."

"THAT\'S IT. Follow me!" she spoke, and took the lead.



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"It\'s been four hours, Kari. You\'re just as lost as I was!" TK cut, eying the girl carefully.

"No I am not! I\'m going south!"

"South means the sun isn\'t behind us!"

"It does in the digital world!"

"Maybe in Kariland it does!" Gatomon rolled her eyes. They\'d been arguing for miles. Patamon giggled faintly; he found it funny that they had no clue where they were going.

"Gatomon, you think we should mention that Davis is about 45 seconds behind us?"

"No. Let them argue, it\'s good for them."

"TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY." shouted an all-to familliar lispy voice from a distance. TK stopped, and perked a brow. Shortly after, Veemon came leaping through the bush, and slid to a stop afront Gatmon. "Hello pretty!" Again, Gatomon rolled her eyes.

"Hey Veemon, you found us!" TK smiled, while Kari stood there, crossing her arms once again.

"Yesh! It wash eashy, I followed the shcreaming!"

"Hi guys! Sorry I\'m so late! I missed the message!" Davis spoke, popping out from the bush as well. TK looked up, almost expecting him to fawn over Kari any second now.

"I knew you were at soccer, but I thought you took the messager with you?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah, uh, I was kind of, uh, preoccupied..."

"DAVISH HASH A GIRLFRIEND!" exclaimed a very excited Veemon, while jumping.

"I told you to not say anything, Veemon!" he chastized, frowning.

"A girlfriend?" questioned Kari, raising a brow. What desperate chick had HE scored?

"Uh, yeah. Hey, have you guys found the castle yet? Veemon says it\'s like 6 hours the other way, but we saw your footprints, so we tailed you." Kari glared at TK,

"I TOLD YOU we needed to go the other way!"

"YOU were the one who took us this way the last four hours!"

"SHUT UP!" shouted Gatomon, who\'d downright lost her patience. "I think VEEMON needs to lead us the right way!"



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It was a very odd transition into the moniter, thought Jade, as she picked herself up off the grass. She\'d gained a new, ugly set of clothing. She\'d been given a black longsleeve shirt that ended in fishnets on her hands, and flared black jeans with a studded belt. She looked goth, and what was worse, her hair was black. Yuck, she looked so dark. On her shirt was a frozen skull, too.

"Eww, Izzy is there any way to ger new clothes here?"

"I don\'t believe so..." he replied, brushing himself off. Jade frowned, and looked around herself. Her frown vanished fairly quickly, as she took in a full eye of the wild world around her.

"It\'s pretty here, it\'s natural."

"Yes, everything in the digital world is at it\'s most natural. The clothing we\'re given is a direct representation of our true nature." Izzy commented, then as he finished, looked at her. He bit his lip softly as he wished he hadn\'t said that.

"You mean Ichijouji was right?..."

"Ichijouji? What do you mean?"

"Oh, I had an interview with him, and he said I had a dark core."

"Maybe you do. But that doesn\'t dictate who you are, Jade. It simply means you have a darker spirit than most people. I wouldn\'t take it too seriously, you haven\'t done anything horrendous."

"Not yet...Look, I don\'t really want to talk about that. The pop up I got asked me if I wanted to synthesize the digimon I drew. Where do they go? I want to see if it means what I think it does."

"In all honesty, I\'d like to find out as well. Tentomon should be here soon, he knows we\'re here. I\'ll digivolve him, and we can take Ikakkumon to the nursery."

"O...Kay..." she replied, pretending to understand completely. Izzy laughed faintly.

"You\'ll catch on quickly. It\'s fairly easy to get old hat."

"I\'ll take your word for it. It seems pretty complex to me."

"IZZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" shouted a bizarre voice from not too far away. Jade flicked her eyes in it\'s direction, and to her dismay, spotted a rather large bug hurting itself towards them. She stepped back a few feet, not that she was scared of bugs, but moreover it\'s size made her worry. The little critter clung to Izzy. It must be that Tentomon that Izzy was talking about.

"Tentomon! Hey, this is my friend Jade. She\'s a digidestined too."

"Oh, with Davis? Hi Jade!"

"Uh...Hi..." she muttered back, trying not to stare.

"Where\'s YOUR digimon?"

"Good question Tentomon. It\'s a good thing you came, because we actually need to go get her digimon. It\'s still an egg, theoretically." Izzy replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we actually don\'t know if it\'s there. Jade synthesized one by accident, and we think it might have shown up there."

"So, you need me to talke you there, right?"

"You got it, Tentomon!" Izzy replied, reaching for his digivice.



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AN: Long time coming, I KNOW. Work\'s been nuts. But, yeah. The next one will take a while, too, sorry. ^^;