It's cold.
Why was it cold?
Wait a minute... It's warm again.
That's good. I don't really like the cold.
But then... why does it feel sticky? And where's the smell of iron coming from?
Why can't I feel anything?
It's all numb. My body's all numb.
"Raya!" Someone's calling for me. But who is it?
"Raya, speak to me! Wake up." This voice... Matt, is that you?
"Raya, you'll be okay! Just stay with us! Please, stay with us!"
Why would I need to stay? I'm never gonna leave, so why beg?
"Digi-mage..." Who was that? It wasn't Matt.
"You're upcoming adventure shall be tough, but have faith and seek the light."
An adventure? That should be fun. I love adventures. I can't wait.
Matt carried me on his back, I was exhausted from the previous change due to my strange abilities. He covered me with my cloak to keep me cool and Luna stayed as close to me as possible.
And by that, I mean sitting on my shoulder 24/7.
The darkness that took over Greymon's digivolution affected me too, since I was connected to Greymon at the time he evolved.
But all I and Koromon needed was a little rest. That shouldn't be too hard, right?
"Man, this desert is so hot, even a lizard would need sunscreen." Matt groaned.
"Sora, can you carry me?" Biyomon asked. Sora looked doen at her partner with an unsure expression.
"Not even." Was the orange varied girl's answer.
"The crew cut would look good on you and it's cooler." Tentomon commented.
"Do I look fat?" Gabumom asked Matt.
"No, you look hot. Especially with that fur coat, that thing really needs a zipper." Matt replied.
"Or maybe just removable shirtsleeves."
"Hey, how bout resting our feet?" Gomamon said.
"Theres nowhere to sit, except on a cactus." Joe replied.
"Great view up here." Tokomon cheerfully said from atop Tk's head.
"Next time I ride." Tk huffed.
Koromon looked up at his partner with a tired and weak expression on his face.
"You look terrible, Koromon." Tai said, "If only I hadn't acted like a bonehead and listened to Raya, then neither of you would be like this."
"Don't be too hard on yourself, although come to think of it you really did make a super icky mess of things." Mimi said, failing to sound reassuring and just making Tai feel worse.
"Oh, thanks Mimi." Tai thanked sarcastically.
"Oh, no problem, Tai. Always come to me for the pep talk now and then." Mimi replied.
Tai smiled weakly, then leaned over to see Matt carrying my sleeping form.
"Hey Matt, how's Raya doing?" The goggled boy asked.
Matt turned his head towards Luna, who was sitting on my shoulder. My partner felt my head and sighed in relief.
"She doesn't feel too hot anymore. Her cloak is keeping her cool for the time being, but after all that, she'll definitely need more rest." Luna said with a smile.
Matt smiled too and repositioned me on his back, pushing me further up.
"Luna says she's fine. We just need to let her sleep for a little longer." Matt replied, making everyone feel relieved.
We walked for a little longer before stopping due to heat and exhaustion.
Matt knelt on the hot ground gently slid me off his back, twisting me around so he could hold me in his arms.
"I haven't seeated this much since cheerleader tryouts." Mimi said as she wiped the sweat from her brow.
"Koromon's not looking so good." Tai said.
"And I don't like the fact that Raya's still a little pale." Matt said.
"You knoe what we need is a whole lot of shade. Like a big umbrella or a really big tree." Palmon said dreamily, "Or maybe I could turn into a giant cactus and smile down on everybody as I provide cool, refreshing shade."
"It's official. The sun has turned Palmon's brain into a french fry." Matt said.
All of a sudden, as everyone tried to snap Palmon out of her dreamy trance, something appeared in front of us.
A large cactus the size of a skyscraper appeared before us, shocking everyone.
"Palmon, look!" Mimi shouted while pointing towards the cactus.
"Wow! I did that?" Palmon gasped, "Gee, I'm pretty amazing."
"Yeah, you better believe it Palmon! Come on everybody, let's head for some shade." Tai said happily as they began to run.
I groaned at the suddenly rocky feeling of hasty footsteps. I opened my eyes but closed them quickly as the piercing light of the desert sun.
When I opened them again, I couldn't feel the rocky footsteps anymore. And I couldn't hear my friends' elated and excited shouts of joy.
No. All I could hear were the disappointed sighs and groans as everyone collapsed to their knees.
"It was just a mirage, we've been tricked." Matt groaned.
"Well, well. It's about time you got here." A soft voice said through the air.
I strained look over Matt's shoulder and saw a hazy image of Gennai appear in front of us.
"I was just about to give up on you."
"It's Gennai!" Maat shouted.
Two leaned forward holding Koromon close while Matt repositioned me to be seen.
"Gennai, we found the tags and a couple of crests like you wanted, but when we got into trouble our digimon couldn't digivolve. They ended up worse than when they started!" Tai said, holding Koromon out towards Gennai, "Take a look at poor Agumon, he's just not himself and in supposed to be helping him. And Raya's been asleep for a long time, she just collapsed after that digivolution and hasn't made a move since."
"I think those things are more trouble than they're worth." Mimi said annoyed.
Gennai waved his hands, "Calm down, kids, let me explain. The tags and crest are extremely important so please make sure that no one else gets ahold of them. In the end you shall see how they work together to create total harmony."
Everyone looked up at the old man confused by what he was trying to explain.
"In English?" Mimi asked.
"Just trust me, after all in the floating glowing guy. As for Koromon, he wouldn't be so helpless if you had known how to care for him in the proper way."
"But I did the best I could." Tai defended.
"Patience is what you need to learn my friend, and you will learn it in time."
"But I wanna have Agumon back now." Tai said.
"And what about Raya? Why is she like this?" Matt asked.
"Raya is the Digi-mage. In short her powrr connects to a deeper level. As long as she is connected to a digimon, she will change along side it. Learn how to care for your digimon and she won't be like this ever again."
"But how do we do that?" Tai asked.
"I'm starting to lose my connection." Gennai's form began to faze in and out, "That is something you'll have to figure out for yourselves. Good luck."
"Hey, wait a minute!"
"Sorry, I'm on a tight schedule."
Gennai vanished, leaving us behind to wonder about our digimon.
"It never fails, everytime I need to know something, he leaves me out to dry." Tai complained.
"Are we being cared for properly?" Biyomon asked Gabumon.
"If we were, Agumon wouldn't have digivolved backwards." Gabumon replied.
"Come on, don't freak me out." Matt shouted worryingly.
"Matt is right, Gabumon. You shouldn't say things like that." I said, surprising everyone as I slowly sat up in Matt's lap.
"Raya!" Everyone shouted happily. Luna jumped from my shoulder and into my arms, hugging me as right as she could.
"I'm so glad you're awake, Raya! You had us worried again!" Luna cried into my shirt.
I smiled brightly and gently patted her head.
"It's okay, Luna. I'm fine now, but from the sound of it, you guys are doubting yourselves about our digimon." I said. Then everyone got depressed again.
"I'm better with computers." Izzy said.
"That's nonsense, as far as I'm concerned you're the best." Tentomon said trying to lift Izzy's spirits.
Gomamon looked up at his partner, who had a glum expression, "You look bummed."
"How am I supposed to take care of you? Is there a handbook somewhere? I feel very inadequate." Joe said.
"Me too."
I chuckled at their depressive thoughts said aloud, which confused them further.
"You guys are overthinking this." I said as I held Luna in my arms, "Take a look at me and Luna. I've had her since she was an egg and she turned out just fine. I think that as long as we keep each other close, then they'll be fine."
My words calmed them a little, but I could tell they were still worried.
All of a sudden, we could hear a loud honk coming from the distance. We looked forward and saw a large cruise ship head straight for us.
We ran away from the ship just before it could flatten us like a pancake.
When it stopped, we heard someone shout, "Ahoy!" We looked up onto the deck and saw a Numemon standing on the deck dressed in sailor attire.
"Numemon!" Mimi gasped, remembering her past meetings with Numemon.
I heard Koromon cry with disappointment and saw Tai look down at his partner with sad eyes.
"Hey, fella, can all of us come aboard and freshen up?" Tai asked the Numemon, but the Numemon just turmed away in disgust.
Mimi smirked and walked in front of us, "Excuse me this needs a woman's touch."
I smiled at her calm attitude as she walked last Tai.
"Well hey there, big boy." Mimi said in a flirty tone, "Your ship looks so so inviting. How about letting us on board so we can check it out? Oh please?"
It's amazing what a few words, batting eyelashes and puckered up lips could do. The Numemon was so entranced by Mimi, that he immediately agreed to let us on board and let down the steps to the inside.
"Man, she's gonna be once heck of a heartbreaker." I whispered, causing Luna to chuckle.
"You are too, ya know." She teased, "Forget about Matt already?" My face turned red as I ran into the ship behind the others.
We ran down the halls and down the stairs arriving in a large dining area with lots of tables.
"Oh, what? No linen tablecloths? Well, I guess we can rough it." Mimi complained and sighed.
"Come on, you guys lets check this place out." Tai said as of course we all agreed.
I followed Mimi and Sora with iur digimon to the rooms while the boys checked out the dining hall and the upper deck.
We excitedly ran into a single room and saw gasped when we saw a nice large bathroom.
"Look, now we can take a shower!" Mimi said happily as we undressed.
"I'm in heaven!" Sora said delightfully.
"Oh man I needed a nice bath." I said as I turned on the water.
"We can spend hours just pampering ourselves. Totally yes." Mimi said.
"Yeah, we were getting pretty smelly." Sora agreed, "Oh wow, they even got little tiny soap bars."
I turned around and was about to close the door when Luna came in and sat down in the bathtub. She sighed in relief and comfort at the touch of the wamr water.
"Enjoying it Luna?" I asked. My reply was a soft sigh.
I grabbed a washcloth and squeezed some body wash on it, then proceeded to scrub myself clean with the girls.
After scrubbing my body, I moved onto my hair, but I didn't notice Mimi and Sora staring at the scars on my back and my prosthetic leg.
"Say, Raya." Sora said hesitantly, "Does your leg ever hurt?"
I stopped scrubbing my hair and turned around with a confused expression on my face.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"Like, I've heard that sometimes a person without a limb can feel pain when the weather changes. Is that true?" Sora asked.
I hummed in thought and continued to wash my hair.
"Well, I guess when the weather is about to be really bad, then yeah it does hurt a little." I answered, "But it mostly hurts when my leg is pulled too hard. The nerves in my leg are connected to the prosthetic, so if you pull on it enough then it really hurts."
"Wow, that's gotta be rough. How could you handle all of that at such a young age?" Mimi asked.
I shrugged, sitting under the showerhead and rinsing out the shampoo from my hair.
"I don't remember much of the prosthetic connective process, since they put me to sleep for the operation, but I do remember that all I could think about was to get better quickly so I could play with Matt and Tk again."
Luna laughed from the tub, "She's been selfless for a long time. All she could talk about was how everyone was doing and never about herself."
I chuckled, "I guess so."
Mimi and Sora smiled at me as we continued to wash ourselves.
After a little while, Biyomon rushed into the bathroom.
"Guys, we've got trouble!" She shouted.
"Yeah, the Numemon are on their way to capture us! We need to go!" Palmon shouted.
As we stood up, I suddenly felt a strange cold feeling in my chest.
I placed my hand over my chest and gasped at the sudden feeling.
"What's wrong, Raya?" Sora asked.
"Something's wrong with the others." I said, "We need to go, now!"
"But what about our clothes?" Mimi asked.
"Would you rather be clothed and captured, or naked and free?" I asked. I grabbed a towel and Luna then jumped out of the window in the bathroom.
I waited for a minute before Sora and Mimi rushed out as well. We ran from our escape window and down the deck walkways, panting and holding our towels close.
All of a sudden, a large chicken digimon jumped in front of us, blocking our way of escape.
"It's Cockatrimon!" Our digimon shouted surprised.
"Is that the easter chicken?" Sora asked.
"He's bad news!" Biyomon said.
I saw something glint in Cockatrimon's feathered hands and saw two tags with their crests.
I gasped and glared at the digimon.
"Why do you those tags and crests?" I asked threateningly.
Cockatrimon laughed and flaunted the tags and crests he had.
"I ran into your little friends by the pool. But, don't get your little heads a spin, they're just drying off. Nothing like little sun baked faces, fried to a crisp with curly crunch bits and lots of coleslaw."
"Where are the digimon?" Biyomon asked as we took a step back.
"Don't worry about those guys. Confidentially I found that they're on the stiff side. That just happens to be my personal opinion."
"You're opinion stinks!" Palmom shouted.
"Now you're going to have the same fate." Cockatrimon laughed and cackled .
Biyomom jumped into the air, "You've cackled oncr too often! Spiral Twister!" A green twister of fire launched at Cockatrimon, but he dodged by jumping out of the way.
"Poison Ivy!" Palmon yelled
"Lop-ear Ripple!" Lune shouted, twisting her ears and shooting out a vortex of bubbles.
However, Cockatrimon swiped away the vines and bubbles and stood tall with eyes wide open.
"Petrafire!" A green ray of light shot out towards us, but we ran before the ray could hit us.
"Come back you chickens!" He yelled after us.
"Who's he callimg a chicken?!" Sora sais back.
We ran and ran until we were on the main deck, cornered and out in the open.
"What do we do now, we're trapped." Sora asked. A terrifying cackle made us turn around and see Cockatrimon standing behind us ready to attack.
"Time to walk the plank!" He shouted.
I looked down at Luna and smiled with determined eyes. She smiled and laughed knowing exactly what I was thinking.
"Not on your data!" I shouted, throwing Luna into the air and holding my crystal tag tightly in my hand.
"Luna, share your power with me!" I called.
"Always!" Luna shouted back. In an instant, our bodies were covered with a lavender light and I began to change.
My towel disappeared and was replaced with a dress and ribbons that matched Luna's to the last stitch. My hair was tied with a small white ribbons into twin puffy ponytails and had lavender highlights.
When I opened my eyes, my eyes had turned crimson and the light faded.
(Just the dress.)
Sora, Mimi, Biyomon and Palmon stared wide eyed at my new transformation. And to be honest, it felt amazing.
Luna jumped up and landed on my head, ready to attack at any time.
I turned my head around and faced my friends with a playful smile.
"Care to help me this chicken?" I asked. They smiled and held out their digivices.
"You got it! Biyomon, do your stuff!" Sora shouted. Biyomon nodded and digivolved into Birdramon.
She flew high into the air and shot her meteor wing attack.
"That's not fair!" Cockatrimon shouted as he dodged the attack.
"Palmon, it's your turn!" Mimi said. Palmom wasted no time in digivolving into Togemon.
"Meteor Wing!" Birdramon shouted shooting her fireballs at Cockatrimon, who jumped back and dodged but dropped the tags he was holding.
I quickly ran over to the tags and picked them up.
"Thank you for the lovely gift, Cockatrimon." I said sickeningly sweet, "But you have to suffer the consequences of theft."
"That's right! Needle Spray!" Togemon shouted her attack launching needles at Cockatrimon before landing a right hook to his face.
I stared straight at Cockatrimon's staggering form, "You ready, Luna?" I asked.
"Of course I am!"
We held our hands up, which glowed and our nails grew to form sharp claws that terrified Cockatrimon.
We ran straight for him and called out attack.
"Luna Claws!" We shouted, clawing Cockatrimon left, right, and up, throwing him into one of the engine pipes.
The engine had a reaction and fried that chicken into a rare meal.
"Fried chicken, yes!" Mimi shouted delightfully.
"Yeah, and take a look at you, Raya. What a form!" Sora agreed as i turned around.
"Thanks, Sora, but let's get back into our normal clothes." I said as I transformed back, "Even though that form is comfortable, I would really like my normal clothes back."
We laughed and quickly went back to the room, changing and then ran to find our other friends and digimon.
We quickly found then on the main deck staring out at the Numemon who abandoned ship.
"Guys, are you okay!?" I shouted gainging their attention.
Tk and Matt smiled and ran up to me, to wrapping his arms around my waist in a tight hold while Matt smoled and laughed.
"Yeah, we're fine, just a little baked." Matt joked, his face a little red.
I aighed in relief and gently patted Tk's head, thankful that it wasn't too hot.
"Guys, I say we follow their lead and abandon ship." Tai said.
"I think this is a little late to be called a mutiny." Izzy said.
"Don't worry, Raya helped cook that chicken of a captain!" Sora said, confusing everyone.
"What do you mean?" Joe asked.
"She transformed again into such a beautiful version of Lunamon. Oh, I wish I could pull off a dress like that." Mimi said as she imagined herself in Luna's dress.
We quickly ran off the ship and back into the desert. We ran until the ship was out of sight.
And then we walked again in the blistering heat of the desert.
"Well, the weather hasn't gotten any better." Joe complained.
Tk groaned in discomfort, so I took off my cloak and threw it over his head to shield him from the heat.
"Do you hear something?" Mimi asked. We all got quiet and heard the soft sounds of a loud horn.
We turned around and screamed at the sight of the ship we just escaped from heading right for us.
We ran as fast as we could, which wasn't very fast.
"That's one mad digimon with his feathers outta joint!" Matt shouted as we ran.
I looked forward saw something in the distance.
"Guys look over there!" I shouted amd pointed.
Everyone looked up and saw a large cactus just like the mirage from before.
"It's the giant cactus again!" Palmon said. Suddenly, I felt my chest grow warmer and warmer the closer we got to the cactus.
This cactus had a crest!
"Oh no, not another mirage!" Mimi shouted.
"What were you expecting, an outlet mall?" Tai said sarcastically.
We ran around the giant cactus and crouched down as the ship toppled ovee it, crashing into the giant cactus and breaking on impact.
It was flung into the air and exploded in the sky. The debris fell to the ground from the smoke the explosion left behind.
"Wow, it's even bigger than a skyscraper, Palmon!" Mimi exclaimed as we stared in awe at the huge cactus.
"You're right, what's a skyscraper, Mimi?" Palmon asked.
"And it holds something we need." I said, confusing everyone they turned and saw my body covered in a pale green glow.
"Wait, there's a crest here?" Izzy asked.
I nodded and walked over to Mimi's side, holding my arm up and calling for the crest.
"Crest of Sincerity, come forth." I said. The top of the cactus began to glow. A large pink flower appeared fork the kught and bloomed before our eyes. And from that flower came a large stone tablet with the crest for sincerity on it.
Mimi gasped as her tag slid out of her clothes and hovered in front of her face.
The tablet flew closer to me and shrunk as it hovered. It silently hovered in my cupped hands and pulsed in a calm rhythm like a heartbeat.
I smiled, turned towards Mimi and held out her crest.
"Mimi Tachikawa, child of sincerity. This is your crest. Use it wisely." I said. The crest hovered from my hand and slid into Mimi's tag.
"It's just like Gennai said. The tags and crests are connected, Mimi. And Raya can sense where they are." Sora exclaimed.
Mimi gently held her tag and stared at her crest with an unsure look.
"I don't deserve it, but if it'll help me take care of Palmon, I'll keep it." Mimi said.
"Aw, thanks Mimi." Palmon said.
"But I think I'm gonna have to teach you some manners, did you know that you slurp when you eat soup? But don't worry a pretty little leaf on your head, Mimi's gonna teach you every thing I know about it."
I laughed at Mimi's rant about manners as the sun set behind us. It was a good call with her crest.
She may be a little light headed and kind of a clutz, but she's sincere enough to express her feelings and cares about others feelings.
The crest of sincerity was a good choice. I don't think she deserved any other crest than this one.
But that got me thinking... what will my crest be?
What kind of trait of mine will turn into a crest?