Future: Digital World
"How could Veric be her digimon?"
Davis raised his arms up in confusion. "He's just a program on that
little computer she walks around with!"
"Save that story for later," TK stepped forward. He looked to the Internet Guardian who seemed to have all the answers. "Get back to Suri disappearing," the blonde man told her. "I want to know what is happening to my daughter and why."
"Tsuriai," the Future Guardian began, "is an entity of the future. The only way she can change is if something in her past changes." Suddenly, the shimmering sphere hovered up to TK, her light reflecting off his face. "Or if something in YOUR past changes."
TK stopped breathing for a moment, his eyes wide as he tried to take in the Guardian's meaning.
"What?" Matt questioned her. "How does TK's past have anything to do with Suri's?" He grasped the idea that alterations in the past made changes in the future. But he couldn't tie his brother's life to that of his niece's.
"How does that explain why she's disappearing all over again," Tai added. He remembered how Tsuriai's body would fade in and out when she was having her nightmares. At least now he knew that it was this Future Guardian who was causing all her bad dreams. She was the one who made Tsuriai disappear earlier that afternoon. But why was Tsuriai still experiencing the same thing while she was in the Digital World in the past?
The Internet Guardian remained calm and patient, listening to all their questions before answering. "The reason Tsuriai is disappearing is the same reason Ryoichi and Hikari are no longer in TK's family portrait," she responded with an unwavering tone.
"They're no longer in TK's family," Izzy interjected before the Future Guardian could go any further.
"What?!"
"What do you mean they're no longer in my
family?" TK swung around, looking up at the sky where Izzy's and Joe's
images hung. "Of course they are!"
"Not according to this photo," the red-headed man countered. He pointed at the object Joe held in his hands. Now he looked down at TK. "That's how YOUR past affects Tsuriai."
"Come on, Izzy!" Tai placed his hands on his hips. "Stop with the genius talk and make it simple for us!"
"Okay," Izzy nodded his head. "Think about it. Let's assume that Tsuriai's disappearing means that she will no longer exist," he started. "If she doesn't exist, then that means she was never born, right?"
All the men and digimon nodded their heads. They were following along so far.
"Well," he continued. "There are only three ways that Tsuriai would never be born, and they are all associated with TK because he is her father. The first one is that he and Kari have different children. They don't have Suri and Ryo."
Davis' eyes lit up. "Or maybe they don't have children at all!" He was starting to understand where Izzy was coming from.
"That's the second possibility,"
Izzy agreed. "And there's one more."
All of a sudden, it hit TK. He felt like he had just been kicked in the stomach. "Or Kari and I never got married." Suddenly, a wave of new memories washed over him. Things happened between them that he swore never occurred, but in his heart, he knew they did. He remembered how awful he felt when he discovered Kari and Davis together. He remembered almost giving up on her because he thought she loved someone else. He also remembered the pain he felt in his heart all those years ago.
"No way..." Matt sighed in awe, not wanting to believe what he was hearing. "How is that possible? TK and Kari loved each other!"
"I know," Izzy conceded.
"But it's the only logical explanation to the portrait and to what's
happening to Suri."
Tai swung around so that he was face to face with the Future Guardian. "Is it true?" he asked her hurriedly. "Did my sister and TK never get married?"
The Internet Guardian hovered in the air, her light turning dim. She recalled all the different points in Time she visited when she was trying to find Tsuriai's family. She had traveled through Time in search of the same day she had pulled Tsuriai to the past, but it took her several tries to finally get it. And all those other points in Time she saw revealed to the Future Guardian what was going on in the past. "Yes," she finally answered. "I have seen it. Takeru and Hikari never admit their love to each other. They never marry and they never have children together."
"No..." Matt's voice trailed off. It was unthinkable what Izzy and the Future Guardian were saying.
"There's something else you should know," the glowing ball of light spoke tentatively. She didn't want to say what she was about to tell them, but it was something she had to do. "According to original history, Takeru and Hikari were never supposed to get married. And each had a child with someone else."
Now all the men and digimon gasped, their wide eyes focused on the Internet Guardian that floated in the middle of their circle.
"Original history?"
"What do you mean they weren't supposed to get married?"
"They had other children?"
The Future Guardian fielded one question at a time. "You see," she started. "My struggles against Negabyte began during what I know as the original timeline..."
The men and their digimon partners all listened intently to the mystic being's words as she recounted her adventures and her battles. They learned about what kind of digital creature she was and what she was capable of. They heard about a place greater than the Digital World called the Digital Universe and how several digital worlds were connected by the Internet. They found out that, in this timeline the Future Guardian referred to as original history, the Real World and Digital Worlds were open to one another and humans and digimon were free to move about from one place to the next. They also found out that the Digi-Destined had all grown up to fulfill their dreams.
"Then he opened a portal using the
deleted data from a fellow Internet Guardian," the Future Guardian went on.
"He traveled back in time and I followed." She talked about how
the menacing creature purposely altered events in the past just so he could
prepare the future for his takeover. He had even found a younger version
of himself and started to train him in his evil ways. "But while he
was making all those changes for himself, he was inadvertently creating a new
future that would resist him once again." The Future Guardian told
her captive audience all about how some of the Digi-Destined married each other
and had children. None of the kids were the same as those from the
original timeline, but they were powerful nonetheless. As a matter
of fact, they became the new generation of Digi-Destined with new powers, new
digivices, and new digimon. "Of this new group of children," the
Future Guardian explained, "two of them proved to be the most vital in our
quest to stop Negabyte once and for all. Their names were Ryoichi and
Tsuriai."
TK remained quiet as he took in all the information this Internet Guardian was giving him. He listened as the battle-weary creature talked about his children. They were siblings. They were twins. They were special because they were born from the Digi-Destined of Light and Hope. And they had special crests of their own. Ryoichi held the Crest of Perseverance and Tsuriai held the Crest of Harmony. Together with their angel digimon and their fellow Digi-Destined and their partners, Ryoichi and Tsuriai destroyed one of the Negabytes and healed the war-trodden Digital World. They also brought an Age of Peace. But the original Negabyte had snuck away.
"Negabyte went even further back in time," the Future Guardian said. "There he trained yet an even younger version of himself. They worked together to build an army of Pirates and to capture and infect all the digimon with his virus so that Viral Agents could be created. But, this time, Negabyte got smart. He decided to go to the future to see how it turned out. He planned to destroy whatever opposition he might find. I followed him there, and that's when I found out that only Ryoichi and Tsuriai remained of the new generation of Digi-Destined. I approached Ryoichi," she continued. She talked about how Ryoichi didn't want to involve his twin sister, so he just left their camp in the middle of the night to fight in the Digital World.
"That's exactly what happened!" Greymon interrupted the Future Guardian's story. "I remember you bringing him here and him telling us about a sister he left behind."
"You're right," the Internet Guardian agreed. "Now I've come to the timeline all of you are familiar with."
"Oh, man," Tai sighed. He
shook his head back and forth. It was so much information to soak up, and
he didn't think he understood even half of what the Internet Guardian had said.
But he did grasp one thing. Everything that he knew was all wrong.
"It's hard to imagine," he admitted. "None of our friends
were supposed to die," he ticked his fingers. "Sora, Mimi, Yolei,
Cody, Kari. They'd all still be here!"
"So our history," Joe spoke sadly. "Our lives as we know it. It's all just a big mistake? Something that happened just because one guy decided to mess with Time?"
The Future Guardian didn't reply.
But someone else did. "Does it really matter?" TK spoke up. His voice was calm yet confident. He wasn't feeling at all depressed about what the Future Guardian had just told him. "So what if our history isn't the original one," he said. "That doesn't mean it isn't the right one."
Matt looked to his brother. "TK?"
"Look,"
the younger blonde man said. "Time has changed. This is where
we are right now, standing in the middle of this forsaken world looking for my
daughter. I don't care if she was never supposed to exist. Suri is
back there some time in the past fighting the same guy who killed my son and I'm
not going to stand here and feel sorry for myself when she needs me!
Whether she was supposed to be born or not doesn't change the fact that she is
my child and that I love her!" TK came closer to the Future Guardian,
stepping out of the circle of his friends and their digimon. "Forget
all about what was supposed to happen," he told them. "The
future is now. It's what we make it." He turned to face the
sphere of light. "And right now I want to make it so that Suri is
back in my arms again." He pointed to the sky. "Take me to
her."
