Atop a bridge overlooking the water, a strange green box appeared, spinning in mid air. It flared with blue light as four figures resolved when the glare had disappeared. The box clattered to the ground as all four rubbed their eyes to clear away the spots that hovered in his sight. "What was that?" Eric looked up, squinting. "Well, we haven't moved anywhere. There's the TV station." "Ken-chan, what do you think happened?" Wormmon said, letting himself be picked up. "I don't feel any different." "What do you think happened?" Lopmon asked, ascending Eric's shoulder and sitting on his head. "I mean, that weird box must have done something besides blind us." Eric picked up the box which was now closed and inert. "I'm... not sure." "We should bring this to Koushiro or your friend, Carter," Ken suggested. "Those two are more of the scientific types so maybe they can figure out what this thing is." "Or Gennai, if he's not too busy DJing." Eric agreed, grasping the box firmly in his hands. "Lets go." ---------------------- D^3 : Digital Diaries Dimensions Variations 1.2 : Beyond the Mirror Written by Shaun Garin Toei owns Digimon, Lord Archive wrote RDD and I'm just along for the ride. To continuity sticklers of the following fifteen or so episodes, take note. You're going to have fits until next year about these episodes. ^_^;; Suggested listening material for this episode is Otherworld, from FFX, the New Japan Philharmonic version of Hikari from Kingdom Hearts and FIRE!! for the opening theme song. ---------------------- Eric flopped down onto a chair. Ken following his motion. Eric yawned. "God, I'm tired." "Didn't you sleep when you came over last night?" Ken asked curiously, stifling a yawn. It had been a long day. Eric nodded, rubbing his eyes. "Yeah, but Carter's snoring kept on jarring me awake. I swear, that guy sounds like a chain saw with problems. Check that. Chain saw, using a chains to cut through tungsten steel while the second chain saw is rusty." Wormmon looked up at his partner while Lopmon howled in laughter and Ken smiled mirthfully. "Ken-chan, I'm going to get something to eat, okay?" Ken nodded as he rubbed his eyes. "Sure thing, Wormmon. Go on ahead." "I'm going too," Lopmon said, hopping off the table. "I'm starved." Eric nodded as he slumped into the chair, the clamor of people speaking everywhere wafting over him and Ken. Ken rapped his fingers onto the table in a small beat as Eric took the pitcher of water on the table, filling up two glasses. "Have a drink." Ken took the water and the pair clinked glasses. "Cheers," Ken said, downing his water. Eric looked over the rim of the cup at Ken who drank quietly. "Cheer up, Ken, there's more girls out there besides Hikari." Ken's face screwed up in a memory of Takeru's bachelor party and shuddered. "God, I hope not." "What's up?" Eric questioned. "You didn't drunkenly screw a girl one time, did you?" Ken sighed as he drained the glass and reached for the water again. "I might have." Eric whistled. "Damn man. Talk about one way to screw up things. Might I ask? Stop me if I'm being rude." Ken shook his head as he nursed his cup, wishing there was something else besides punch. Mr. Ishida was hogging the alcohol as far as he knew and wouldn't be able to get anything under Takeru's mothers' gaze. "I think I did Daisuke's sister." Eric nearly fell over in shock. "Jun? But she's like, what, several years older than BOTH of us!" Ken blinked. "How do you know Jun's name?" "Daisuke emails me sometimes since the Ice Devimon incident and rants about his conquests or his sister being an ass... I'm his sounding block." At that, Eric chuckled as he sipped at his water. "I know more about Daisuke's private life than anyone should conceivably know." "I think he's considered you a junior goggle-head," Ken said, gesturing towards the goggles Eric sported. "Why DO you guys wear those?" "I think it's a sign of power. I mean, look at it this way; most goggle wearing Chosen and Digi-destined, namely Daisuke and Taichi... not sure if there's anyone else, achieve insane levels of evolution." Eric shrugged. "I've just worn these since I was a kid." "But you haven't even achieved perfection while your teammates have perfect and even ultimate stages," Ken said. "You obviously haven't walked through hell and back to achieve it, right?" At this, Ken's face darkened a bit in memory of his suicidal days. Eric nodded. "If I can avoid perfection, I will. Let's see... Sean and Patamon almost got killed by Pharoahmon when Patamon evolved to perfection, Carter achieved perfect together against a Cherrymon, and that's not even considering what they did to get to ultimate. And Hikaru achieved perfect against Skull Satamon." "Makes you wonder how we even survive getting past adult," Ken remarked, draining his water and reaching for the pitcher of punch that they had laid out recently on the table. "There you are!" Eric looked up at Jullie who was standing over him, folded arms. "I was looking for you!" "Oh, sorry. I stepped out to get some air," Eric said. "You'd better have," Labramon remarked at her feet. "Where's Lopmon?" "He's at the buffet table," Eric said as something caught his eye. "Hey, Jullie? What're you doing with Raine's Talisman?" "What are you talking about? It's always been mine," Jullie said, looking down at the talisman that hung at stomach level, the golden Egyptian eye glinting in the light, signifying a presence many didn't know about. "C'mon, lets get a few dances in." Hauling him to his feet, Jullie dragged Eric to the dance floor. ----------------------- "Okay people, gather around! All you single females, it is time to catch the bouquet!" Eric stole a glance at Ken, asking, "Do we really want to hang around for this?" "Sure, why not?" Ken remarked, standing up. The pair plus digimon pushed their way to the front of the group to watch the girls grab for the bouquet. Hikari turned around and called out, "Don't catch this if you want to stay single!" As she threw, Ken noticed something. One, Takeru was in the gaggle of single guys standing off to the side. Two... FLOP. The pair threw themselves to the side in a vain attempt to escape the stampede as the girls accidentally tackled them to the floor in an attempt to grasp the loose bouquet, being that the throw had gone wild. "My back," Eric groaned as the girls extracted themselves from the pile up that occurred, a few girls recovering a few roses and babies breaths from the partially crushed pile of flowers. "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up," Lopmon moaned from the floor as Wormmon curled up into a ball, moaning in pain. Luckily, Tailmon's throw hadn't gone wild as the female digimon had made a dash for the bouquet, some of them taking flight. The bouquet landed into the hands of a Psychemon, who had blinded all the girls around her to ensure that she caught it. As Eric and Ken straightened out their clothing, Gennai turned on the microphone once again. "Now all the single human males! Gather around everyone!" "I guess that's us," Eric remarked as the pair made for the dance floor. Eric then felt a pain on his ear as Jullie grasped it, Lopmon hopping to the side. "OW! OW! OW!" "You are taken," Jullie growled angrily as she hauled him to the sidelines, Ken only shrugging helplessly as some people laughed. "Something's wrong," Ken remarked to himself as Takeru joined the single guys. "Something is seriously wrong here..." "Daisuke Motomiya! You are wanted at the dance floor!" Gennai called out as Daisuke ran out into the middle of the dance floor, adjusting his shirt, almost stepping on the prone Lopmon and Wormmon on the floor. Eric quickly extracted himself to pull the Digimon out of the line of fire as Daisuke caught his breath. "Sorry," he said, shrugging helplessly, adjusting his belt. "Got stuck in the bathroom." At this, everyone laughed as the four travelers stared in shock. "No way," Lopmon said. "Sorry, Hon," Daisuke said, flipping up Hikari's skirt to remove the garter. Ken and Eric were too stunned from this event to notice the Garter bounce off Ken's head, into his hands. --------------------------- "What the hell has happened?!" Eric exclaimed. "This is NOT right!" "What's not right?" Jullie asked curiously, hanging on his arm. "This! I thought it was Takeru and Hikari, not Daisuke and Hikari! Ken! Tell me I'm not going nuts! I mean, this is high on the Weird Shit O'Meter! There's WORDS for this situation that simply reads What the FUCK!" Ken looked at him, shaking his head. "You're not going nuts. We're BOTH going nuts." "We ALL need a reality check," Lopmon said. "Look at that." "Takeru," Wormmon said. "Hey Ken," Takeru breathed into Ken's ear. Ken stiffened. "Care to take off early?" "!!!" Eric started to beat his head on the table lightly to keep from hurting himself as Ken swallowed. "Um.... maybe later," he said lamely as Takeru looked a bit put off. "I'll be here." Giving Ken's backside a pat, he left. "Tell me when this nightmare is over," Eric moaned. "Look. Frederick and Susan. Susan's dead... well, supposed to be anyway," Ken pointed out, trying to keep calm after the way Takeru had acted towards him. "It seems you two need a small reality check," Gennai said from behind them. "I'm assuming by your strange energy readings that you two are not from here, correct?" The pair nodded dumbly as Gennai sighed, rubbing his temples as if having a headache. "Come with me." As the four weave into the room where a group of people were lining up to go home, Gennai went over to Koushiro and spoke to him in a low voice. "Devimon's temple?!" Koushiro questioned in surprise. Gennai slapped lightly on the head him. "Not so loud. Just open a portal there." "But why there?" Koushiro pressed. "Because someone will be there to see them," Gennai replied. Koushiro shrugged and did as he had been told. Gennai motioned Ken and Eric over. "The portal is being prepared. There is a person of some importance on top of Infinity Mountain. She has asked to speak to you." "Who's she, exactly?" Ken inquired. "Her name is Grey. That's all I can give you. Now go." -------------------------- "Well, this place sure is... quiet," Eric remarked as he stood inside what looked like an old Roman temple, with pillars running along the length of the enormous room supporting the massive roof over head. "Wow! Wish you had that TV at home," Lopmon called out. Ken, Eric and Wormmon turned around and were surprised to see that the television portal they had come from was not a small television, but a three meter big screen monster set. "I wonder," Eric said as he looked around the darken room. "Do you think that weird box sent us here?" "That is precisely what happened," a disembodied voice of a young woman echoed in the vast room. The foursome looked across the room, which was now eerily illuminated from no visible source. At the far end of the room was a marble throne that was much to big for the small woman sitting in it who was completely covered in gray robes, her face hidden by a hood. "Are you Grey?" Ken questioned as he approached the girl with the others. "That name works as well as any other," intoned Grey. "Can you explain how we got here?" Wormmon asked. "That 'weird box' Eric mentioned is the Gate of Atlantis. It has sent you two, and a few other Ken and Eric’s to other timelines. In each there will be a task you must perform before you'll be able to leave and get another chance to go home," Grey informed them. "What are these 'tasks?'" Ken questioned. "That will be for you to figure out, as they may be different in each world you visit," Grey replied. "You will need some help as most places you visit speak only Japanese, which would prove difficult for Eric's limited vocabulary in that language. Not to mention there some places that you go to might not use Japanese or English." She waved her hand and two beams of light struck the boys' digivices. "You've now got an experimental translator. Simply use the buttons on the digivice to scroll to the language option and select the language you need to translate. So far, this only works with spoken languages. It won't help you read foreign languages." Eric looked over his digivice. "It doesn't look any different." "It's more of a program than a hardware change," Grey replied. "Be sure to let your world's Chosen look it over." Eric shrugged. "Okay. So, we're in an alternate timeline where Hikari chose Daisuke over Takeru?" "Not quite. Hikari's decision to be with Daisuke was an effect from an earlier change. In each timeline you visit, there is a crux point. A single event in the past that caused all things after it to change. The more different the world, the earlier the crux point occurs." Grey waved her hand which displayed two timelines. She pointed at the top one. "This one is your world, the other is the world we are in now. The crux point occurred when the Takaishi Natsuko got a divorce from Ishida Hiroaki, she took Yamato with her and Ishida got custody of Takeru. The environmental conditions that had contributed to make Yamato be more of a homosexual now applied to Takeru instead. "That meant that Yamato's odd closeness to Taichi didn't push him towards Sora. The result being Taichi and Sora never had sex during their first adventure." Ken stared. "They've been lovers that long?! They're weren't even twelve years old." Grey shrugged. "Age has no basis in love. Anyway, without advancing their relationship in the Digital World, Taichi failed to notice that Sora was interested in him. By the time he was ready for a relationship, Sora had already started to date this world's Takaishi Yamato." "What about Daisuke and Hikari getting together?" Eric questioned. Grey sighed for some reason. "Well, your world's Hikari was awakened to concepts of sex by having accidentally watched Sora take her brother's virginity, and Takeru also began to think about sex after learning that his brother was a homosexual. As for this world, Hikari began to think about sex after her best friend since kindergarten, Ishida Takeru, came out of the closet and announced he was gay and the lover of this world's Ken. So, when Hikari went on a pseudo-date with Daisuke shortly afterwards, her curiosity got to her and asked him 'do you want to?'" "Bet he fell on his face trying to get his pants off," Eric commented with a wry smile. Grey seemed to freeze for a moment. "Actually, he didn't wait that long to get into her. If he wasn't multi-orgasmic, I doubt he would've gotten a second chance," she told them with all the feeling of reading the weather report out load. The four stared at Grey. Eric shook his head. He had never heard a girl speak so frankly about sex before. He found it rather weird. "Um, why did this world's Ken become Takeru's lover." "The same reason why this Ken would become Takeru's lover, Daisuke was unavailable and Takeru offered him love," Grey replied. "He's not gay," Eric retorted. "He's bi-sexual. Isn't that right, Ichijouji?" Grey said with cruel mirth. Eric looked at Ken in shock as the older boy fidgeted and blushed. The Canadian began to edge away from him. "Why does Jullie have Raine's pyramid?" Lopmon question, trying to change topics. "Simple. There is need of a powerful child to be born to the Chosen late next year. In your world, it will be to the Odaiba Chosen, probably Miyako or Sora, but in this world the child will be born to the Edmonton group, most likely to this world's Eric and Jullie. To ensure the child would be powerful enough, Jullie was activated instead of Raine," Grey explained. "Does that mean Yami is in Jullie?" Eric asked. Grey nodded. "Yes." "Ack! I have to stay away from her!" Eric cried out. "Why?" Lopmon questioned. "If I see her, she's going to screw my brains out!" Eric yelled. "And that's a bad thing, why?" Lopmon questioned with a smirk. Grey let out a short hollow laugh. "If you have no more important questions, then I shall leave you. I have fifteen more Ken and Erics to talk to." "Ah, I don't think so," Ken replied uncertainly. Grey faded from existence and the room went dark. "She was WEIRD," Eric commented. "There was something familiar about her," Wormmon mentioned. Ken shook his head. "Come on. Let's go back." -------------------------- "So.... where to from here?" Eric asked. "I could go back to the hotel but Jullie's there and well...." "You have Hikaru's cell number, right? Or those communicators right?" Eric nodded as he punched a button on it. "Guys, you there?" "We're here." At the sound of Jullie's voice, Eric smiled. "What's up? Are you coming back to the hotel?" "Well, first, I need a few spare communicators, if we have some," Eric said, casting a glance at Ken who caught on. "And then I'll be staying with Ken for a while." "All right," Carter said, having activated his communicator on the other end. "Porting them now." In a flash of light, a small box with four rainbow bands appeared in his hands. "We'll see you tomorrow then," Carter replied. Eric nodded, even though they couldn't see him. "All right. G'night people." "Porting?" Ken asked, surprised. "I'm as surprised as you are, Ken," Lopmon replied. "Maybe Carter finally got that teleporter up and running." "We'll ask him later," Eric said with a yawn. "Let's get back to your place." "Sure." Hailing a taxi, Ken and Eric clambered inside and rode off into the night. ---------------------------- "Alpha five ten niner do you copy?" "Huh?" Ken looked at the communicator he wore on his wrist and jabbed the talk button. "What are you talking about?" "Just making fun of the communicator, Ken, that's all." Lopmon's chuckle was heard as he and Eric walked around the corner, catching up to Ichijoji and Wormmon. Ichijoji on the other hand, sighed. "Here we are, standing at the threshold of something obsenely wierd and you decide to wierd out on us," Ken grumbled as Lopmon and Wormmon chuckled. Eric was toying with his D-3, tossing it from hand to hand. "So.... we have a problem here," Wormmon added as he took in the room. "One bed. Ken-chan, do we have any extra futons?" Ken shook his head. "No, mom and dad never really expected company, so Eric may have to take the couch." "It's okay," Eric replied as Wormmon directed him towards the Linen closet, taking a handful of blankets. "I'll just take the floor. Besides, there's some wierd stains on the couch." Ken, realizing what the stains must be, blushed heavily. "Um... yeah, I think we can scrounge up some pillows too. Give me a bit, okay?" "Kay." Eric sighed as he yawned and removed his turtleneck. Ken returned, and almost dropped his bundle. He knew Eric was one of the more physically adept Chosen but he had a back that almost ripped with hidden muscles. 'He must weight lift.' A faint heat came to his face as he shook it to clear thoughts about the situation at hand. Setting out the spare cushions and blankets, Eric yawned as Lopmon took his place on a spare pillow. "Well, I'm gonna crash. It's been a long day." "All right," Ken said, changing into his pajamas. "Good night." With that, he vaulted to the top of his bed and laid down. Eric set aside his goggles, put down his D-3 and within seconds, the sound of light breathing was heard in the night as the pair fell into well deserved sleep. ------------------------------ "Morning," Ken greeted as he walked out into the room. "Where's my parents?" "Off at work," Eric replied, flipping some bread within the pan. "French toast. About the only breakfast thing I can cook." Ken's stomach growled in answer as Eric set down two plates and a small stack of toast before him. "I should really thank your parents for letting me stay here, but they were gone when I got up." "Papa works long hours," Ken answered, taking the syrup and dribbling it over the seasoned bread. Lopmon was already on his third piece while Wormmon moved a little bit slower, but not by much, being on his second. "And I'm not sure where mama is at the moment." His eyes fell. "I think she may be avoiding me." "Gee, you think?" Lopmon quipped, only to get bonked on the head by Eric. "Put it any less callously?" Eric reprimanded. "Sorry." "It's okay," Ken said, cutting up his food. Spearing a piece of bread, Eric ate slowly as he kept an eye on his cooking. "You know, I just had a thought." "And what's that?" Ken asked curiously. "What happens if we're stuck doing this for years? I mean, sure, time may be different in each world, but who knows?" "A sobering thought," Ken replied, taking a swig of his juice. "It's a possibility that we could be at this for quite some time." "Days, months, years," Lopmon added. "It's all possible that we wouldn't even get home." "That Grey girl said we needed to do a task," Wormmon added. "What in the world could be our task? I doubt it'll jump right out at us." Eric's D-3 started to beep in unison with his Digi-locator. Pulling out both to synchronize the software, he scowled. "Field. A Digital Field has materialized in the park." "Aw great," Lopmon groaned. "From the frying pan into the fire." Eric turned off the stove as he grabbed some toast in one hand, goggles in the other. "Lets get moving. A Field usually means digimon attack." Ken nodded as he rushed into his room to change quickly. Soon, the pair hurried out and with two evolution calls, a strange ape like creature and a winged insect flew out towards the growing field. --------------------------- "Confirmed, it's a digital field," Koushiro said, looking up at the thick white cloud that sat over the bay area. Daisuke nodded as XV-mon stretched out in preperation. "Well then, there's no time like the present, now is there?" "Daisuke!" The pair turned to see Hikari run up, out of breath. Daisuke's expression turned to one of extreme concern. "Hikari-chan, you should be at home!" Daisuke exclaimed, rushing up to his spouse. "What in the world are you doing here?" "Um... moral support?" she replied lamely with a soft giggle. "But I couldn't stay still. There was something about this place that felt... like it was calling to me." "That's usually a bad thing," Miyako remarked as she got down from Aquilamon. "Hikari, just stay out of trouble, okay?" "Don't worry," Takeru added with a grin. "Iori and I have the perfection digimon all lined up." "I guess you're right," Hikari said. Suddenly, a growling sound alerted them to the presence of the digimon within the field. "It's coming out!" "Get ready people," Koushiro said, evolving Tentomon to Kabuterimon as others did likewise. With a tremendous bellow that echoed across the city, the field dissapated, revealing a familiar dark blue skinned dragon with a red metal mask. Daisuke paled. "Oh man..." "We have to fight an Imperial Dramon?!" Miyako shrieked. "No easy picnic," Eric said, he and Ken leaping off of their digimon. "Lets keep him busy, shall we?" "Right!" Wendigomon leapt at him, revealing his weapons pods. "Destroyed Voice!" "Ruling Spirit!" Shakkoumon's eyes narrowed and fired twin beams of energy that simply bounced off of his thick hide. "X-Laser!" The laser impacted in a dust cloud as Kabuterimon came swooping in and fired off his Mega Blaster, both attacks doing very little damage to Imperial Dramon. Imperial Dramon simply chuckled and pointed his laser at them. "My turn. Positron Laser!" The blast knocked Shakkoumon backwards a few meters as he vainly tried to absorb all of the energy from the blast. Daisuke grit his teeth as he turned towards Ken. "Ken, we have to Jogress!" Ken nodded as he raised his D-3. "XV-mon!" "Stingmon!" "Jogress evolve!" The pair flared but when the light receeded, nothing had occoured. XV-mon scratched his head. "Um.... lets try this again." They did so, but with no results. "Something's wrong," Daisuke exclaimed. "Ken, is there anything you can do?" 'I can't do anything,' Ken realized as the remaining digimon got the stuffing beat out of them. 'I'm not the same Ken, so I can't evolve with Daisuke.' "Ken!" Daisuke exclaimed. "We can't evolve, I know, I know!" Ken replied. "While you two are figuring these things out, look who's arrived," Miyako pointed out at Taichi and War Greymon. Ken's expression lit up. "War Greymon has Dramon Destroyers! He can take him out no sweat." Imperial Dramon seemed to cringe at that revelation as War Greymon proceeded to launch his attack with a cry of "Gaia Force!" In a blast of energy, the copy Imperial Dramon exploded into a whirling mess of brilliant data. Eric's D-3 suddenly started beeping. "Huh?" Eric said, hand going to his digivice. Suddenly it flared, as Imperial Dramon's data began to flow into his wailing and beeping D-3. Then, when it was over, a pink flash of light flew into his pocket. "What was that?" Taichi asked, in awe as nothing really surprised him these days. "Not sure..." Eric pulled out his Digi-locator and retrieved the item from storage. With a flash, it resolved into a pink mask. "The Mask of Kindness!" "Didn't you say you guys lost this mask a few months ago?" Koushiro asked. Eric nodded. "It must have been stored within that Imperial Dramon we just vaped. Awesome." With a flash of light, it returned to the storage bin. Suddenly, a familiar blue box appeared and began to side around like a puzzle. Ken looked up as Chikomon hopped into his arms, Lopmon accending Eric's shoulder. "Oh grea..." was all Ken had to say as the pair were engulphed within a flare of brilliant blue light. ----------------------------- "...t," Ken finished as the pair materialized. "We leaped again," Lopmon said, feeling his jaw gingerly. "Boy, do I hurt everywhere." "Not only that," Eric added, looking up, "But we're in the digital world." Ken nodded. "The continent of Server. I wonder what we're doing here?" A low rumbling was then heard as the pair looked up. Exchanging glances, they darted behind a pair of convinent rocks as a large silver trailer was pulled along by a couple of Monochromon. And driving it, was a orange monkey wearing sunglasses. "Ya ya!" He shouted. "Git along there! We need to get to that damn pyramid before Datamon wreaks everything! Get moving!" As they trundled off, Wormmon could only say one thing. "Oh boy." --------------------------- Authors notes : After several months of putting it off, D^3 is finally out! Whee! I must thank Lord Archive for writing the scene with Grey. Wonderfully done, ten star chips worth and two thumbs up. I guess what Bakura said was true, "The game is ever shifting." And I guess it's true. I'm having fun writing this so I guess when the next episode comes out, we'll get some new things done. Thanks to all my readers who actually REVIEW this thing. It's nice to see someone reviewing for a change.