The Skies Have Changed [Adrian]

Skye noted that Adrian seemed puzzled at how she seemed interested in those things. She blinked for a moment, then chuckled. "My apologies. That must be the part of myself that I inherited from my mother, she was a scientist in the old DWR, and I suppose I've got a little bit of her curiosity when it comes to these things." the Gatomon explained.

Skye had to agree on the sentiment about the dark rings. "Yes, those things seem as scary as heck." she remarked. "Having one latch on to you, removing your control over your own body... just what were they thinking looking into things like that?!"

She then realized that this information might seem conflicting. "Oh, by the way, my mother would never do research into anything as evil as that, don't you worry. She was a biologist so to say, simply wanted to learn about the natural state of the digital world, she never would have participated in programs that would produce those despicable things."

Skye, Hickory and Jorge were somewhat surprised to hear that "Japan" had places like the Dark Area as well. "Oh dear... I hope they didn't hurt you." Hickory said to Shoutmon.

The trio listened carefully to Shoutmon's explanation - that he was the reincarnation of a vengeful digimon named Omni. It seemed he had gone through a major battle of his own to be rid of that terrible digimon.

"Well..." Skye began. "I understand how reconfiguration can go wrong sometimes. I'm sorry to hear that you were taken over like that..." she noted that this was probably a reason why he disliked the idea of dark rings so much. Still, she thought a change of subject would be nice. "Enough of the past though. What's your plans for the future?" she asked, curiously.

What Adrian said piqued Skye's interest fairly quickly. "Oh? You have a mother too?" she asked, her face changing in an uncharacteristically eager way. She realized this a moment too late, then blushed. Heh, well, even if she tried to be stoic and cautious with her information here, she supposed that she liked them enough to feel at ease with them. Welp, here they were, talking about their parents to each other.

"Ah, I see, I'm glad that your parents fell in love with each other regardless of how different they were then." Skye said, still smiling. "My parents had a similar difference, although..." her smile faltered a little as she recalled the full truth. "My mother was a scientist and my father was a soldier. Of course, they loved each other enough to maintain strict boundaries in their family life to prevent any overlap in that, but, since I was both scientifically curious and the daughter of a highly decorated hero soldier of the DWR, my future was predetermined from there."

Both Hickory and Jorge had heard this story before, so they remained silent for the moment.

Then Shoutmon mentioned the dark rings must have been invented for the purpose of slave labor. The Gatomon sighed for a moment, shaking her head in disbelief, but in the end, she found nothing to dispute that. "I agree, they were most likely invented for that purpose." she said, sounding quiet and sad.

Following that, Skye was glad that Shoutmon answered honestly about his plans for the future. Her expression changed to a smile when he said that he just wanted to live life.

"Heh, that pretty much lines up with what I want too." she admitted. "Of course, I'll always be there for my friends, like Owen and the rest of my comrades in the 7/71st, but, Owen's pretty much retired as a teacher in Rosewood. And the rest of our old unit's pretty much just getting by wherever they can in the digital world. I guess that'd be a pretty nice life, just... settling down and not have to worry about things."

While Skye forced chuckles about Adrian and Shoutmon's conversation, she still thought for a little bit about what her philosophy meant for the future. Yeah, she could make base somewhere and pivot her life around that, but... that just didn't feel right for the 1st Lieutenant of 7/71st Recon. Not while there were clear and present threats to the digital world.

Yet, Skye felt little connection to what was happening in this world. Owen was pretty much retired, and seemed to have relegated active duty to his many children, but, Skye didn't know any of them. At least she had been invited to his wedding so she could initially meet them, but, how could she talk about such things on the day where Owen and Hikaru got married?

It was then that Skye realized her best link to the zeitgeist of the digital world was Shoutmon. And it was clear that they both liked each other. So, her logical conclusion was to bond with him as best she could. Not only for duty, but, well, he was pretty cute, and she felt no reason that it was a bad idea, so, sure, maybe she was ready for a relationship with him? At least to the point that she'd give him a chance.

"Well, other than food, what else might you be interested in?" Skye asked him, curiously, hoping for an answer that would align with their common interests.

Skye listened as Adrian explained about his mother, and how important they were among humans in general. She had a few questions in mind, but decided now wasn't the time to ask them. Namely that human mothers suffered extreme pain to bring their children into the world. Yes, Skye knew that much about humans, they didn't lay eggs, they gave birth to living children, and went through extreme pain to do so. That was something she could respect them for.

Shoutmon then said that he didn't have a mother, and accurately stated that most digimon didn't have them in the first place. Alas, that was a cold fact for the digital world, not all digimon had the benefits of parenthood. Most of them were hurled into the cauldron and expected to do their best. It seemed Shoutmon was one such digimon, as was the case with Jorge and Hickory as well.

After Skye explained her background, she was somewhat glad for Shoutmon's reaction. Not shock, or praise, just an acknowledgement that he couldn't be put in a place that he understood what she went through. That she liked.

"I hope you never experience true war, Shoutmon." Skye answered him. "It... consumes people. It takes things from us that some can never recover. And in the end it's just so... pointless."

Rather eager to move on from that subject, Skye noted that Shoutmon had rather an interest in music. This was something she liked. "Music, eh?" she asked, smiling. "I enjoy it too, although I prefer to keep my talents to playing instruments." She didn't mind singing either, but the loud, sharp voice she had developed as an officer usually pierced attention than truly entertained.

"Sure, let's hear something." Skye said, failing to hide her eagerness.

Adrian said that he was happy to share more knowledge of what it was like to be a human with her. Skye was grateful for this. Because there was one question on the back of her mind that perplexed her so much about these people. She struggled to put it into words before she eventually spoke.

"Eighteen years." the Gatomon eventually said, making Jorge and Hickory stare at her. "That's how long it takes for a human to grow into an adult, right? How... in the world does that work? I'm sorry if I sound ignorant, but... 18 whole years... that sounds like an incredibly long time for so many things to go wrong..." she realized she was probably close to rambling here, then cleared her throat and calmed herself down with some deep breaths. But she would continue with her questioning. "How do you last that length of time?" she asked. "We digimon... we usually manage to evolve to Rookie within 1 or 2 years and then we're normally ready to face most trials of the digital world... but... you humans, that length of time, it's so difficult to comprehend, you know?"

Hearing this as Skye's specific questioning, Jorge and Hickory relaxed, supposing that was a pretty natural question to ask. In fact the both of them were curious to know the answer themselves.

Skye relaxed a little at Shoutmon's further words about conflict. "Of course. Sparring is a natural thing with us digimon. In fact, Shoutmon, I wouldn't mind a friendly battle with you sometime, not to attempt to dominate you obviously, but to test the both of us, to make sure our combat skills are kept as sharp as they can be."

Skye, Jorge and Hickory listened to Adrian as he told them of the facts of human wars. Ones that had been held recently in fact, around 70 years prior in their world. Skye had heard only rumours about that conflict, but hearing them to be true - tens of millions of humans dying; all of it ending in explosions of atomic fire. She was momentarily speechless because of this.

"Well... it's not going to happen again, right?" Hickory asked, a little nervously. Skye found her bearings again, hoping to hear from Adrian that there was little chance of an apocalypse like that in store for the future.

Once that was dealt with though, Skye leaned forward and hoped to listen to some pleasant music from Shoutmon. She wasn't disappointed. Jorge folded his arms in a grudging approval, while Hickory enjoyed it nonetheless.

When the song was over, Skye was pleased enough to give a brief round of applause. "Excellent! I had a feeling you had some talent with this, Shoutmon." she said, complimenting him. "If you like, I'd like to respond with my own song... but alas, it's from an old world that doesn't exist anymore, but, the melody still lives on in me. Jorge, Hickory, you know the one, right?"

"Yep, we do~" Jorge answered, procuring an acoustic guitar. Hickory did the same, with a soft precussion drum. And when all was given clear, the trio played a song in response.



At the end of it, Skye looked up at Shoutmon and Adrian, wondering how they took this melody.

Skye listened to Adrian's response. In the end, it made her smile a little, as something seemed to click within her mind. "Maybe that's why us digimon and you humans are destined to bring prosperity to the digital world perhaps?" she asked, metaphorically. "A digimon alone might not know much by themselves, but a human alone might not have much power by themselves. However, a human with 18 years of knowledge, combined with a digimon prepared to bond themselves to them and provide that much power to them, that's a powerful force, would you agree?"

Yet... there was hesitations in that as well. "And... if a bad human somehow got lucky enough to get caught up in that mechanism..." she murmured, but quickly realized that was not relevant to this conversation here. That was simply an older mission, one she had to abandon, but, she had been told at the start that the reason it had come into being in the first place was because an evil human had obtained enough power to do damage to the digital world.

"...please forgive me, what you said just now put a lot on my mind from what I know." Skye would say to the others.

"Eh, no worries, the fact that they ain't hurling me off the edge of Luminas is probably a big change right there." Hickory said as a joke. Skye smiled, glad he could make that cover.

At the talk of a spar between her and Shoutmon, Skye was up for it. "Sure. I'll try not to hurt you too much. But yes, you'd best evolve to Champion for that case." she told him. As a fighting digimon of the 7/71st, Skye often found that the best way to truly know a digimon was to fight them. Such was the traditions of the unit after all.

After Shoutmon had sung his song, next it was up to them to make a song in return. And they did so. Skye, Hickory and Jorge were very appreciative of the reception that they received from the bar.

"Oh, Skye... thanks so much for singing that song." the Lobomon from earlier said. "A lot of us remember it too... before all those horrible things happened in Luminas. And we're grateful for that."

Skye gave a smile in response, glad to have provided such a service. With that, she turned back to Adrian and Shoutmon. "So then, anything else you want to check out about this city?" she asked.

Skye cocked her head with a smile when Adrian said he hadn't thought of it that way before. "Learning things from different perspectives is pretty useful, neh?" she asked. "Another thing I've been through... travelling from Luminas to the Dark Area, and there I met one of the best digimon I've encountered." she gave a meaningful look at Hickory, who blushed and pulled his hat over his eyes.

Skye then paid attention to Shoutmon's next words, how there were more good humans than bad. While she acknowledged this, there were still fears in the back of her mind. Namely fears of bad humans that also had the gift of convincing others to follow their example. In her eyes, there was very little defense against such a combination. But, at least Shoutmon seemed determined to not let such a threat flourish in the digital world.

The Gatomon had to admit, she rather looked forward to the spar between herself and Shoutmon. While she didn't intend to kill or maim him, she wanted to learn just how well he could defend himself; what his methods were in attack. So far, the digimon she had bonded with most closely in the digital world; Hickory, Jorge and Owen, she had sparred with them and learned more about them than words could have ever done. She looked forward to the day when she could do so with Shoutmon as well.

After the singing was finished, Nate's words seemed to make Adrian decide to ask what just happened here in the first place. Skye acknowledged this request with a nod. "Alright, I'll tell you." she said.

Then Adrian asked to take them to the place where they could get the best view of Luminas. "That would be the Tower of Babylon." Skye answered, then turned to her friends - Hickory, Jorge and Nate. "Feel like climbing that place too, guys?" she asked them. They all nodded, and Skye concluded that would be their next destination. She finished her drink, paid what was owed, then walked onto the streets of New Luminas toward the tower that was the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower of Paris to this city of Luminas. On the way, she would tell its story to Adrian and Shoutmon.

"Luminas was founded as the mirror image of a city in the dark area." Skye began. Hickory rode her shoulder, the Chuumon paying attention as well. Jorge strode by her side as well, paying attention. "At least that was what I was told. The Dark Area city was the font of evil, while Luminas was the font of good. Eventually, one day, the Dark Area city was wiped out from the forces of good of Luminas in a grand crusade, proving to all that Luminas was destined to reign supreme with its ideals of justice and goodness... in the end, that only corrupted them."

That Skye could talk this easily in the streets of Luminas now had proven her point that it had changed. If it had not, she would have quickly been accosted by law enforcement by now.

"Corrupted good is far more difficult to eradicate than corrupted evil." Skye continued. "After all, who wouldn't want to fight lawbreakers that wanted to disturb the order of things? But in old Luminas... it got to the point where they decided to pre-emptively stamp out evil. Where if anyone had so much of an impure thought that they voiced out loud, they were punished. Where if a Virus attribute digimon dared to tread here, they were treated as outlaws from the start. The ruling digimon of Luminas wanted nothing short of a Utopia, and anything that disrupted their notion of "cleanliness" was beaten down. I lived here during this time, and I couldn't tolerate it, so I left."

"Honestly, I wish you hadn't, Skye." Nate said to her, the Lobomon speaking in a somewhat hurt voice. Skye sighed, stopping to pat his arm. Nate had been one of her true friends here in that time. And she felt nothing but guilt that she had left him to suffer here. She was only glad he was still alive though.

"I'm sorry, Nate. But you staying and doing your part makes you a way better digimon than I could ever be. I'm sure that from your actions, a lot more innocent digimon are alive because of them." the Gatomon responded. Lobomon appreciated that.

Skye continued with the talk of old Luminas. Eventually they reached the base of the Tower of Babylon. Skye led them up the stairs and continued talking.

"Old Luminas was devoted to pure goodness... to the degree that the goodness was cancelled out by the evils they turned to." the Gatomon explained. "Nobody appreciates a thief for example, but if a person is starved to the point where they have no choice between Thievery or Death? And... a lot of digimon in old Luminas were faced with that decision. That's how bad it got here, Adrian."

As they climbed the stairs though, Skye could see more and more of this beautiful city. And if what Nate said was true, the corrupted justice of the town she had left was gone. Seeing it from this high up, she thought it was beautiful. A city that had learned its lessons, to be a truly "good" place to live. Seeing it with her own eyes, Skye felt that she could believe in this.

As she reached the top of the Tower of Babylon, she'd gently reach out her paw and clasp Shoutmon's. So far he seemed to be a truly nice digimon, one she would like to be with.

"Shoutmon..." she began, speaking hesitantly. "If... if you want this, do you think we could have a future together?" she asked, hoping to hear the emotions in her mind given a ground of logic to base themselves upon. Yeah she liked Shoutmon, but, could they truly work out together? Was there anything that she should pay attention to that might be an impediment to this? She remembered Shoutmon talking about his past, and that gave her pause, but, if he truly meant to move on from that, she should surely give him a chance?