Digimon 1. intro

**PLEASE AT LEAST READ TO CHAPTER ONE!**

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters, the locations, and perhaps the design of the digivice and the cover 'art'.**

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In the time before time, two worlds were in existence.

One occupied by sentient beings known as humans, the other with digital beings called digimon. There was a time when the two worlds were separated without the knowledge of one another's existence. But that time didn't stay long. The world of the digimon, the digital world, sensed the existence of the human world, and picked certain humans, known as digi-destined, when their world was in danger, to act as its guardians. That was the time when humans first heard of digimon. Their very existence, however, was kept secret.

Time flies and soon digimon was no longer a secret as the interaction of the two worlds led to the fusion of them. Humans must live with digimon. A world, however, was never enough for just one kind of sentient beings to rule already, not to mention two. As their lives went on conflicts were the most frequent guest to them.

Throughout the course of history only one thing cam be certain, that war for power is inevitable. Bations of the humans exist no more as they unite to fight against the digimon. But the digimon had the upper hand in battle, up until the human's invention of a virus that was strong enough to instantly destroy a digimon. Even with that the population of both sides had decreased so greatly that a truce was needed. Both humans and digimon agreed to coexist and the formula of the virus was destroyed.

A new era began as both species lived together, where humans were having higher power. Upon the land of the damaged there stood only one great nation, if it can be called that way. Ventrium, now home to both kinds, was divided into six cities, namely He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe and Rn. And a central called Vertiro, a tower like city in the heart of the nation. Each city was ruled by an officer and together they were under the voted president by humans. Human and digimon lived in peace and harmony while the extremely uncontrollable, the ones who kill, were exiled to the wilderness left by the war. A new age of peace and happiness began, until now.

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**In case it's confusing, the bold parts will be some casual talk from me, since I've never done this before.**

**I decided to went back to the traditional way and ****maintain**** as much original details as much as possible while creating a new background for the story. And seeing how ****I**** am extremely poor at naming here is a list of the inspirations of the names.**

**Ventrium ****–**** ventricle + atrium**

**Vertiro ****–**** vertebra + bone marrow **

**Names of cities are taken directly from the chemical symbols of group 0 elements. (****And**** yes ****I'****m very uncreative.) So they should sound stupid to those who know science****…**

**Also, I haven't done any disclaimer in my previous stories because those are 'fan' fictions, meaning that the setting and characters must not belong to me, but now that I use my own characters, do I need to do it in every chapter?**

**And since ****I**** wanted to make an ****episode ****structured story this will serve as a common ****opening**** for each ****chapter****.**

**Please read (which you should have done by now) and review.**

****A bit extra: I'm having a poll on my profile to investigate the factor that affects reader's decision in choosing what fanfic to read, please help with the research if possible! Thanks a lot!****


	2. 1 Return

1 ~Returned~

Yuzuki walked upon the streets of the city of Rn.

The last time she had done so was at least eight years ago, when her family had to move to He for work. Hardly could she remember the view of her birthplace, but from what she knew, the streets hadn't changed much. Most people here still work at offices and other less muscular occupations. The buildings here were still as tall as she could recall.

'How I wish I could have stayed here.' She mumbled, turning her head around again and again to have a greater concept of her old home.

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_Despite being native, it took Yuzuki a while for her to reach her new flat. It was a normal flat in a residential building, pretty large relative to the others. The walls were plainly white and the floor was of white tile, too._

'_How do you like __your__ new home, sweetie?__'_ _said her dad, coming out from a room alongside with her mother, both seemed satisfied_

'_I don__'__t know. It__'__s nice__…__ it__'__s definitely nice, don__'__t get me wrong. But somehow it seems a bit...familiar.__'__ the girl with long raven black hair answered._

'_Oh she remembers!__'__ whispered her mother excitedly._

'_Of course.__'__ Said her dad. __'__We have a surprise for you, __daughter__. This is actually the same flat we used to live in years ago, though you seem to remember.__'_

'_That__'__s, that__'__s just__…'__ Yuzuki was speechless, with tears almost having escaped her eyelids. Her parents didn__'__t need words to know that their girl was happy._

'_Why don__'__t you take a look at your room?__'__ her mom suggested._

_The girl__'__s room was a rather simple one, with just a bed on one side and a computer on a desk on the other side. Still, it was never too little for the girl._

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After setting her belongings she was asked to go out for a walk. The girl in the brown jacket initially refused, feared that she should get lost. Only a little more persuasion of her parents could get her out to the streets.

'Maybe I should first go to a mall first, most people do that when they have nowhere to go.' She mumbled. Her eyes, however, could not locate any buildings that could quite resemble the shape of a shopping mall. Things had been so different back in He, where clear directions were always there to guide pedestrians. That was a tourist's spot, after all.

Using her most basic concept of logic she decided to first eliminate all buildings that looked like residential buildings, then the school. Yet the remaining was still too many that she had to admit that her fear had come true.

_Couldn__'__t even call Eiji for help._ She thought. When she was in He she could always use the older boy's help. But now she was trapped in the maze of Rn, what's the point of calling someone who wasn't living there?

She decided then that she should probably ask someone for help. At least that way she could be able to walk out of the maze made of buildings. The very unfortunate fact was that the streets of Rn were almost empty at 3:00 p.m. on weekdays.

_Just where am __I__ supposed to go?_ She thought, every time she walked into a building she would immediately find out that they were working offices and the workers weren't quite friendly for visitors, at least they don't have the time to give them guides.

Wandering between buildings had left her but one choice, to go back home and do the research she should have done before ever stepping out to the streets again.

_Oh great, now __I__ can__'__t even remember the way home._ Thought Yuzuki, _there must be some buildings that aren__'__t used for work._ It was only lucky that she eventually, after approximately a dozen of trails, walked into what appeared to be a shopping mall, at least there were shop inside the building that was almost trice the size of the school she used to study in.

The first shop she got into was a bookshop, for her immediate need for a map. She also took a look at some books of histories. She had always found history enjoyable unlike other kids of her age. Especially since what had happened for the last few centuries were so eventful.

Time passed, and tired was the girl that she started to walk her way home. A few enjoyable moments at a bookstore could always speed time up. And only a little while later would the night fall.

With the help of a map Yuzuki was able to pass the street through a more efficient rate. Yet her lack of the sense of direction could never be healed by just a map. _I should have downloaded the GPS!_

A sudden noise of explosion stopped complaints from flooding the girl's mind. She looked around, and discovered shat she feared the most.

Three digimon were in front of her. All three resembled the image of a birdramon from her lessons. All were apparently outrageous and wild. Yuzuki noticed the noticed the symbol on their legs. They were supposed to be exiled to the wild land, which means they're all murderously dangerous.

She hid, or at least tried to. But the sounds of her footsteps no doubt caught the attention of the birdramon, and now they had her as target.

Yuzuki ran, hoping the police could find out about the incident and have her rescued quickly. She even took out her phone to call, only to find out that she didn't even know where she was.

'Oh please don't hurt me.' She mumbled as she ran, by the moment Yuzuki found herself fallen on the ground, all was too late. She knew it. Every digimon that were condemned to the wild land had a reason, that even the law couldn't keep them in behavior.

To her surprise, a salvation appeared before her. A golden flash of light crashed right in front of her and the next moment there stood a golden armored figure.

'Run!' he said, and she did. The golden figure fired beams of bright yellow light from its palms, holding the birdramon back.

Yuzuki looked at the scene at amazement. The figure appeared to be Magnamon, a digimon that was thought to only be living in legends before the Great War had ever started. Only the one before her was a little bit spikier, and a bit shinier than the images on the books. A bit bulkier as well with some blue light pipes all over his armor. He was carrying some kind of backpack as well.

'What are you waiting for? Run!' Magnamon shouted again. a target to protect sometimes means a distraction. And that's exactly the case that was happening. One of the flaming birds struck Magnamon X's back, causing him to fall while dropping something off his back.

Yuzuki looked back, and saw a digi-egg, along with a stone carving, were lying next to the goldeb dragon digimon. She reached up and picked the things up.

'Are you ok?' she asked, but sudden;y felt a warm temperature at her palm. She was never ready to see that the stone carving held in her hand was glowing a dim red light, and that the egg nearby was cracking.

'You're the one!' uttered Magnamon X as he got up, rapidly ending the fight with a light beam shot from its armor, instantly degenerating the three birdramon into streams of data which later reformed into three digi-eggs.

Yuzuki watched in shock, didn't know how to respond. The stone carving in her hand had broken into pieces to reveal what's hidden inside. A strange device that resembled the shape of a stopwatch. Some parts of it immediately turned from plain gray into copper brown upon contact with the dark haired girl's skin. And the three claw-like decorations on the side of the device turned into a transparent light blue color as if they were made of crystal. Beside it was a strange rectangular black metallic container. On the other hand, the digi-egg was not as oval as it used to be. The surface of the crust was filled with cracks that were giving out a bright white light.

'What's happening?' the girl in brown jacket asked despite not actually expecting any answers.

'Take care of him, can you?' said Magnamon X as he leaned forward to look into the girl's bright hazed eyes.

'What do you mean?'

'You are special. The chosen one, no matter you like it or not.' The golden armored digimon explained, 'sorry, but I have to go now.'

'Wait!' Yuzuki yelled, but Magnamon had already gone, nowhere to be seen.

'What am I supposed to do now?' the muttered nervously. At the same time the egg near her hatched. A digimon with white skin and a red cape was seen emerging from it.

_I__'__ve never seen a digimon like this before._

'Huckmon, rookie, data type.' Information started to show on the screen on the device.

'He directly skipped fresh and in-training?' uttered the girl in surprise.

'Where am I?' Huckmon rolled his eyes and looked around as if he had been a newborn baby. Well, he was actually one.

'Um…hello?' Yuzuki muttered. It seemed that both of them were in the middle of nowhere.

'Oh, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself properly.' The white skinned digimon apologized as he turned to face the girl. 'I name is Huckmon. What can I do for you, mistress?'

'Just call me Yuzuki.' The black-haired girl said, 'I'm Yuzuki Satonaka. And maybe we should first get out of here before the cops get here. Things might get troublesome.'

'Yes, mistress.' Replied Huckmon, following the girl's steps.

'Stop calling me mistress, that's weird.' Yuzuki uttered as she followed the map._ Things are gonna be so problematic now__…_

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**Italics basically means some kind of thoughts, and flashbacks(since they're thoughts, too)**

**Does the chapter reminds you of any other stuffs?(six districts, you know what that means.)**

**And please tell me if the horizontal line works.**


	3. 2 Friend reunion

**Disclaimer : I own only the plot and the human characters and the setting. (I'm gonna annoy you guys every chapter with this dull line.)**

2 ~friend reunion~

It was only the first day that Yuzuki returned to Rn, and already she had found herself a lot of issues, not the friendly ones, unfortunately.

It took the girl almost the rest of the day to explain what had happened previously, and how she ended up coming home with a newly born digimon. Not like the other dwellers in Rn, her parents were quite fond of digimon. Still, a well-elaborated explanation was needed to convince them for the digimon to stay. Partly thanks to the fact that it was her first day home, they approved of it.

'Finally!' exclaimed the black haired girl as she lay on her bed. She didn't even change her clothes, which was a brown jacket over a dark green T- shirt with a pair of light blue jeans and simplistic sneakers. She was too tired to think of anything else.

'What can I do for you, mistress?' asked Huckmon as he walked into the room with his 'mistress'

'Can't you be a little more causal?' asked Yuzuki, 'you're really getting on my nerves doing this all day. It says that you're supposed to be "adventurous and restrain-hating".' She gently turned her face to see the dragon digimon while using reference from the strange machine that she kept in possession.

'It's probably mistaken, mistress.' Huckmon replied in a formal tone.

'Stop that!' uttered Yuzuki in annoyance, but then suddenly she came up with an idea. 'Ok. I command you, as your mistress, to treat me as if I'm just your friend, the same level as you.'

'Yes, mis…' Huckmon started to speak, only to be stopped by a glance from the girl. 'Yuzuki.'

The girl giggled. She couldn't help but to do that. The silly change in tone of the white dragon digimon was certainly a cure for stuffed mind at the moment.

Saturday came next, and Yuzuki had learnt not to go out without a detailed study of the district. Instead she decided to have a quick chat with her new companion.

'So, do you have any idea of what this is?' she held her copper brown machine that she had gotten the day before. She somehow recognized it as some kind of digivice that the prehistoric digi-destined used, yet it didn't match any descriptions from the books.

'I'm sorry, but I have completely no knowledge of this device.' Answered the digimon in a red cape. 'all that I know is who I am, and how a digimon works.'

'So you digimon just know everything when you were born?' asked Yuzuki, surprised by the fact that she was actually talking to a newborn baby.

'I guess so, but I still do know anything other than that.'

'Then do you know why digimon always yell the name of the moves before they attack?'

'It's like some kind of spell, only the experts can attack without having them said.'

'And you don't know anything about these, either?' said the black haired girl with the rectangular box in her hand. Inside she found ten cards, each with an identical frame to one another, but only one had strange prints in the middle while all others were blank.

'I have no idea.' Huckmon shook his head, 'but I guess they might have something to do with your machine.'

Yuzuki didn't know what to ask next, she didn't get the chance, either.

'Yuzuki, you can't just lock yourself in your room like that, you have to go out for a walk.'the soft voice that passed through the door belonged to her mother.

'But I may get lost again!'

'That's exactly why you should go, to get more used to it.' said her mother. 'You've got yourself a visitor as well.'

'But I don't know anyone here.' The girl was quite confused, but still she walked to the door.

'Don't get him waiting!' Yuzuki's mom uttered.

Yuzuki pull opened the door. A boy around her age was standing there with a gentle smile on his face. He spiky short brown hair and an incredibly round face and was in a simple light blue shirt and wearing a pair of dark blue, almost black trousers, not quite a suitable choice of clothing in a place of averagely low temperature. 'Hi, haven't seen you for a while.'

Yuzuki was confused. While standing her mind was quickly searching for anyone who resembled the face in front of her.

'You look familiar, but I can't tell exactly.' The black haired girl muttered.

'Maybe I should give you a hint.' The boy said, pausing for a while for consideration, 'maybe not. Do you remember the name Katashi?'

_That sounds familiar as well._ She thought. _Wait, how can __I__ forget it?_

'You are Katashi Tadokoro?' she asked doubtfully.

'Remember me?' the boy with dark brown hair smiled. 'I didn't have time to pay you a visit yesterday, so would you like to hang out today instead?'

'Of course!' Yuzuki answered immediately, only to be annoyed by Huckmon, who followed her out.

'People seldom interact with digimon these days,' Katashi commented. 'Not to me. I mean, digimon are quite welcome here.'

'You don't have to come with us.' Yuzuki whispered, but not getting any response.

'So, would you like to re-visit the city again?' the boy said.

'I don't quite remember the routes here. I've been always for too long.'

'Well then, I can be your tour guide as well.'

Yuzuki remembered the boy named Katashi. She used to be a very close friend to him back when her family lived in Rn. It's almost like they had known each other ever since they were born, spending almost all the time together as children. That was the one thing she could be sure. She remembered very little other than that.

They walked along the city streets, chatting nonstop of how each of them had been doing after they departed. By noon, when they were getting hungry, they settled down in a restaurant.

'What would you like to eat?' asked Katashi.

'My taste hasn't changed much.' Yuzuki replied softly.

'I know.' Katashi said, giving the girl a sneaky smile. 'I was asking this little guy here. What's your name anyway?'

'Oh sorry! I completely forgot that!' said Yuzuki. 'Katashi, Huckmon. Huckmonm, Katashi.'

'Seeing that you are mistress's male companion, shall I call you master?' the white dragon digimon asked, causing the girl to flush.

'We are just…friends, who have been separated for quite some time.' Katashi tried to explain, 'and we don't actually know each other very well.'

'And how many times do I have to tell you not to call me mistress?' Yuzuki uttered, causing the rookie digimon to apologize and the boy to giggle.

'Well, let's talk about something else,' Katashi said. 'I've always wondered, how do digimon eat actually?'

'We put the food in our mouth, chew it, swallow it and digest it, like most humans do.' Huckmon explained calmly.

The luncheon was a rather fast one. As the three of them finished they continued traveling in the city.

'I haven't seen you at school yesterday?' said Katashi.

'I just settled down yesterday, not quite in fact.' The girl paused, referring to her accidental encounter with the caped digimon. 'So my parents took a day off for me.' She finished. There really wasn't much to say anymore. The two had shared their lives in different cities, recalled their childhood memories and even had a nice day together doing nothing but to talk with each other. Still she felt like it was the most ideal day in her life, for whatever reasons. She felt no stress and no burdens at all, she didn't need to worry for some mysterious digimon and she even had a friend to talk with. What more could she ask for for just the second day of her return?

'Thanks for the guide, anyway.' She said, before deciding to go back.

The way back, nevertheless, wasn't quite as smooth as she had anticipated it to be. Near the restaurant where they had dined before there were people reported being attacked by digimon.

'Might be a clue to what happened yesterday.' Katashi suggested.

'I think we should just go away.' Replied Yuzuki. Although not remembering well, she knew that her childhood friend had always been too adventurous, easily attracted by dangers without much precautions being done. Yet what he was saying was true. She had been attacked by digimon for once, and the two attacks might actually have some sort of connection.

'Alright, I'll go.' She finally agreed. 'Come, Huckmon.'

They arrived to see a strong humanoid digimon with a lion head and a red cape, several people running around screaming. Yuzuki spotted the same sign the birdramon had on the digimon's thigh.

Katashi, who apparent;y noticed the same thing, asked. 'Do you remember what kind of digimon gets expelled?'

'The ones that kill!' Yuzuki answered, 'the question is, why aren't they outside of the city?'

'Leomon X, champion, vaccine type.'

'Huckmon, can you get him without harming the citizens?' she asked.

'You can trust on me.' He replied, already charging into battle. 'Fif slash!'

Leomon X, sensing the incoming attack, blocked the claws of the dragon digimon with his blade, which was almost the same size as that of the rookie.

'How about this? Baby flame!' Huckmon attacked, but the attack was blocked as well.

'Is that all you've got?' Leomon X taunted. 'Fist of the Beast King!'

The attack hit Huckmon right on, sending him to hit a wall.

'The people are out, you can fight hard now!' Yuzuki shouted. Despite that, Leomon X was still the more skilled fighter and could easily deflect Huckmon's attacks.

'Teen ram!' Huckmon charged, cut could only due a small amount of damage to the muscular digimon before being tossed away.

'He's losing,' uttered Katashi impatiently, 'is there anything we can do?'

'I don't know!' Yuzuki uttered as she took out her digivice. She had the feeling that the machine could somehow help her out other than simply providing biographies.

'Maybe it's about the cards.' The girl noticed a small rift on the side of the digivice, and took out the only card he expected to be usable, sliding it along the rift.

'Activate strength Lv. 1?' writings started to show on the screen.

'It is manual?' Yuzuki complained as she pressed the 'yes' button.

'Huckmon, do you feel anything?'

'I don't know, but I have some kind of strange feeling.' The white digimon replied.

'Try and attack!' Yuzuki shouted impatiently seeing that Leomon X was about to strike again.

'Teen ram!' Huckmon charged again. Leomon X, expecting the strike to be a weak one, didn't even bother evading. And his was wrong. The attack of Huckmon sent him directly crushing into a wall. 'Fif slash!' the white dragon digimon continued to attack until the lion digimon was turned back into a digi-egg.

'Done.' Said Huckmon, satisfied.

'Wait!' shouted Katashi, 'what's gonna happen to the egg?'

'I don't know.' Yuzuki replied, 'maybe the police will take it.'

'It's not gonna remember anything, right?' Katashi uttered, 'that's kind of poor…can I take it?'

'What?'

'I can take care of him.' The brown haired boy said, 'besides, I always wanted a digimon partner.'

'I guess you can. Just don't cause any troubles, ok?'

'You don't think I will!'

the group then returned, with the extra item they got.

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**One review in three days, that's a record (for me)**

**So far, not the best chapter I've written, but it should be acceptable seeing that it is a necessary chapter to introduce a new character. It's probably gonna be a bit short, most of my '1st wave chapters' have around 17xx~22xx words. They will keep increasing (actually they have increased since I've already got like ten chapters in stock and I did a little statistics about them)**

**In case any of you find it difficult to pronounce the term Rn, it is pronounced as 'radon', the same name as the chemical the symbol refers to.**

**You are welcome to leave your commments, even just short questions, as reviews**

**A bit extra: I'm having a poll on my profile to investigate the factor that affects reader's decision in choosing what fanfic to read, please help with the research if possible! Thanks a lot!**


	4. 3 Digivolution in progress

**I`m getting tired of this...**

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the setting.**

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3 ~Digivolution in progress~

Yuzuki sat on her seat next to Katashi during luncheon. She had been in Rn for quite some time and had resumed normal life. Right now, after a bunch of lessons from the morning, she finally got the chance to rest for a while.

'They've really learnt how to behave lately, especially Elsa.' Commented Katashi upon witnessing the friendly interaction of Huckmon and some students.

'Yeah…' Yuzuki replied.

* * *

' _What do you think you__'__re doing here?__'__ Elsa, a female classmate of Yuzuki as well as the leader of a gang of girls, demanded upon the presence of the white dragon digimon._

'_I__'__m miss Yuzuki__'__s guardian.__'__ Huckmon replied politely._

'_If __I__ remember correctly digimon are allowed to school.__'__ Yuzuki added __hesitantly__._

'_I don__'__t care! __I'__m the lead here and __I__ want that pathetic thing out of my sight!__'__ the double pony tailed girl said rudely pointing at Huckmon._

'_Is there any problem?__'__ Mr. __Franklin__, teacher of the class, said walking into the classroom._

'_No__…'__ the blond girl replied._

'_Then get back to your seats. Class__'__s about to begin.__'__ The nicely suited teacher said. __'__Bu the way, Yuzuki, how do you feel about your first day school?__'_

'_It__'__s quite nice,__'__ the black-haired girl replied softly, __'__everything is much like how __I__ used to in He, and the classmate are nice to me, mostly.__'_

* * *

'And I see they've accepted your bracelet as well.' The spiky haired boy teased.

* * *

'_Miss Satonaka, a word please?__'__ Miss Jones, the head __counselor__, said upon noticing the __appearance__ of Yuzuki_

_What can __I__ do for you, ma__'__am?__'_

'_Your uniform!__"__ the counselor said._

'_What__'__s wrong with it?__'__ Yuzuki replied, confused while checking on herself._

'_What__'__s with that thing on your wrist?__'__ Miss Jones demanded._

'_That__'__s a bracelet.__'__ The black-haired girl answered, showing her shiny silver bracelet which has a small piece of emerald embedded on the middle of it. __'__I was given this by my grandparents as a charm when __I__ was born, it__'__s kind of like a signature of me.__'_

'_Do you think that is __appropriate__ for a student to wear?__'_

'_But the rules never said __I__ can__'__t!__'_

'_It might be your first day here but sometimes rules might be unclear. __I__ hope you know what a student should be like.__'__Said__ the head counselor before leaving._

* * *

'Well, time settles things.' Said Yuzuki, 'it's working out quite fast actually. Just a week and everybody's used to us.' She gave a yawn after having that said. 'Surely the lessons are tiring.'

' Oh you won't want to sleep very soon.' Katashi reminded her, 'because the next session's the head teacher's talk.'

'What?' Yuzuki was surprised, almost getting choked. 'We didn't have that the week!'

'That's actually a monthly talk.' A female voice spoke. 'But of course you don't know anything about it.' the black-haired girl turned around to see Elsa standing behind her. Smiling in a mocking manner.

'I thought we were friends after that incident!' uttered Yuzuki.

* * *

_Elsa was involved in a quarrel with some other girl. Both side shouting at each other._

'_It__'__s not a surprise that she gets into things like that.__'__ Mumbled Yuzuki as she walked by. Unfortunately for the girl and fortunately for the blond girl, that Yuzuki was walking too slow allowed Huckmon to witness that Elsa was beaten by the other girl._

'_Hey you there, stop it immediately.__'__ Before the black-haired girl could react, the white dragon digimon had already rushed to the double pony tailed girl._

'_Out of the way! It__'__s none of your business!__'__ the other girl said._

'_It__'__s my business protecting a girl.__'__ Huckmon replied in a gentle yet firm tone, revealing his claws. __'__No matter what she said, you shouldn't__ hurt her. Now just get away and have this settled peacefully.__'_

_The __other girl, apparently frightened by the digimon, left mumbling._

* * *

'It's him who was being nice, not you.' Elsa said.

'What? If I hadn't been there you would have lost your pretty face!' Yuzuki yelled.

'Oh just stop it will you?' Katashi interrupted, only to be given the glances from the two girls.

At the hall, students gathered in a rather quiet manner and sat down. Well, no one wanted to be naughty in front of the head teacher. No one would dare to do so, too.

'How's the egg doing lately?' Yuzuki whispered to Katashi during the wait.

'Hasn't hatched yet.' The brown-haired boy replied simply. 'I wonder how Huckmon's egg managed to hatch that fast.'

'Have you forgotten? We're exceptions. For whatever reasons.' Yuzuki was sometimes annoyed by the fact that even her didn't know what was happening exactly.

'Right…' Katashi muttered. 'Oh, here comes the head teacher.'

A lean figure walked into the hall with a couple of files holding in his hands. He wore a proper suit with a red tie and black coat while his shoes were shinning a bright light with its black color. The man's red eyes were kind of contrast to his black hair.

'That's our head teacher?' Yuzuki uttered in amazement. 'He looks young.'

'He's in his forties,' the spiky headed boy explained, 'that's considerably young for a leader of a school. And incase you've forgotten his name he's called Mr. Smith.'

'That sounds kind of normal.' The black-haired girl mumbled.

The head teacher began to speak. His voice was deep as that of an old man despite his look. The tone was friendly yet retained the firmness of a leader.

'Good afternoon, my lovely students. As you all know our school holds a talk each month to let us share our opinions on recent issues. Today I would like to talk with you about the security of our city. As the mass media has reported there's been various occasions where digimon were able to break through the great barriers and bring menace to our beloved homes. This once again proved that the current protection provided by the government is not enough for…'

'Why does he sound like he's against the government?' Yuzuki asked quietly.

'You really don't know that?' Katashi answered in surprise, though still in a whisper. 'Our head teacher here is also the mayor of Rn.'

_That makes sense now._ Though Yuzuki. Citizens were granted the right to vote for the president, but not the mayors. All the mayors were chosen from the losing party that took part in the election so as to balance the power of the president. So it would make sense that Mr. Smith here was questioning about the president's policies, especially when the current president almost gained every single votes the last election.

'He's not the most stubborn of them,' Katashi continued, 'there're a few times when he actually praised the Vertiro.'

'That's not too bad of him.' Said Yuzuki. Already distracted by the conversation, the black-haired girl was further distracted by a quick shadow of red that passed by the window.

'Was that a digimon?' she asked Huckmon, who had been sitting next to her all the time.

'It is, I can sense it.' the red caped digimon replied.

The two decided to leave as stealthily as possible to chase the shadow, but by their first move they were spotted by their worst nightmare.

'Where are you going, Satonaka?' Elsa asked, with a mockingly high-pitched and loud voice.

'I… I've got a bad stomachache and I really have to go to the bathroom now. May I be excused?' Yuzuki wasn't a good actor, buy at least that painful look on a young girl had given her the advantage that she was able to get out of there. Huckmon simply followed stating that he needed to have her guarded.

'Sir, we've discovered a digimon breaking into our school, do we mobilize the guards?' a black suited man whispered to Mr. Smith.

The head teacher, seeing through the glass windows that the girl and the white digimon were heading toward the exact opposite direction of the bathroom, shook his head slightly and whispered in his deep voice. 'Not now. I want to see how they perform.'

The pair chased the red shadow to a dark corridor,

'Don't let him get into the lab!' Yuzuki said, knowing how much damage would be done if the chemicals there were involved in the fight. Huckmon fired a baby flame as response, blocking the figure's way. It revealed itself to be a wolf like digimon.

'Fangmon, champion, data type.'

'Let's get him quickly,' said Yuzuki as she took out a card.

'Activate strength enhancement.' She said. By the moment she finished saying she found out that her card had already gone, and so had been Fangmon.

'What?' she uttered in surprise, turning around to see the wolf digimon with her card. 'That's easy.' Fangmon said.

'You thief!' Yuzuki muttered. 'Luckily I still got this.' She took out another piece of card. Immediately after the last battle, streams of data had flowed into the card and formed an image of Leomon X on one of the blank cards.

'Activate Juga-maru.' She sliced the card across her digivice, creating Leomon X's sword for the dragon digimon.

Without hands, Huckmon held the sword between his jaws and charged, only to be knocked over by the hyper speed of the red wolf.

'You're really annoying, you know?' the champion taunted, 'Blast coffin.'

The strike was fast. Huckmon didn't had any chance to escape and was thrown to the other end of the corridor, badly injured.

'You see? I've got work to do, too.' Fangmon said as he approached Huckmon.

'Huckmon, get up!' Yuzuki cried running to the fallen digimon.

'Let's finish you with this, then I can resume my job here.' Fangmon said, 'blast coffin!'

'Huckmon!' Yuzuki yelled.

Fangmon attacked, but was pushed away by an unknown force, at the same time, the body of Huckmon started to glow with an orange light.

'What's happening?' mumbled the black-haired girl as she noticed the beeping noise emitted by her digivice.

'Digivolution in progress.'

* * *

**This chapter is a bit short, sorry for that (but I can't change that. I wrote it almost a month ago)**

**I'm sorry that I broke my promise and uploaded the chapter a bit late. according to the traffic graph, my story is mostly viewed on Sunday, so I decided to change the update time from New York time ~9:00 pm Sat to New York time ~9:00am Sun. I want my story to be viewed for its plot but I have to get people to notice it, I want to see if it works.**

**So, please read and leave whatever you like in the reviews to help me improve, well, mostly my writing skills and choose of words. I'm not native to english so some expressions might sound weird.**

**My poll is stilling carrying on despite not getting much participant, please check that out, too.**

**See you next week!**


	5. 4 An error has occured

**Disclaimer:...(You should know what I'll say by now)**

* * *

4 ~An error has occurred~

Yuzuki was frozen. Watching the scene in front of her in both shock and amazement.

Sensing the danger, Fangmon sneaked away in the chaos before anyone could notice.

Huckmon was glowing brighter and brighter until he eventually unleashed a blast of energy and blinding light. By the next moment Yuzuki could see again, the staircase nearby had already been devastated along with the road near it. The white dragon digimon was in the central of the devastation, though still maintaining consciousness, he could barely stand.

'Huckmon, are you alright?' the black-haired girl rushed to the dragon digimon immediately.

'What's happened?' asked Huckmon as he slowly regained his strength.

Yuzuki looked at the bright screen of her digivice. Only a sentence could be seen showing. 'An error has occurred during the last digivolution. The digivolution has been cancelled.'

'What does it mean an error?' mumbled the black-haired girl. 'I've never heard of anything like this before.'

* * *

'Sir, the girl has failed and the digimon is currently heading to your office.'

'Call the guards.' Mr. Smith whispered. 'So it's after that thing? How disappointing should I be?'

* * *

The talk was finished very soon enough. Katashi met up with Yuzuki at once and discussed the business with her.

'So it's gotten away, hasn't it?' the brown-haired boy uttered.

'Yes it did.' Yuzuki answered. 'But it didn't seem mad as the previous ones, it's quite calm in fact. By the way, there's no symbol of exile on any part on him.' 'And there's one strange thing, too.' She continued on telling what had happened back then.

'What do you mean error? Like the ones in the computer programs?' Katashi asked.

'Don't ask me, I'm the one who should be asking.' Yuzuki muttered. 'By the way, are you feeling any better now?' she turned to ask Huckmon.

'I'm fine, just having this strange feeling that I'm about to vomit at any time.' The white dragon digimon answered. Though he didn't mean to worry his partner, his direct reply obviously upset the girl.

'That's not fine!' she said. 'Might as well be the side effects of the "error".'

'I know what's the error.' The white dragon digimon said. 'I need to be fully conscious during digivolution, or it might go unstable again.'

'How do you know that?' Katashi asked.

'I just experienced that.' Huckmon replied. 'It's definitely that way.'

'What if you're wrong?' Yuzuki questioned, but didn't get any answers, as she had expected.

'Anyway, let's just track down that big bad wolf shall we?' The brown-haired boy suggested.

'No,' Yuzuki said. 'We still have lessons to come.'

'Miss president, I believe that the one you've been anticipating has made an appearance in my district.' Mr. Smith said to a computer screen, though nothing could be seen.

'Keep watching.' A female voice said.

'And I'm afraid that there's someone going after your precious item.' The mayor continued to report.

'Then don't let it.' said the president, though her voice was a bit distorted by the computer sounds. 'Send it back to me.'

'I know what to do.' Said the head teacher, before signing off.

The red wolf hid in a shadowed corner near the head teacher's office. The two guarding Andromon would certainly outmatched him in battle. He needed a plan, he wasn't there to fight, after all. Nevertheless the head teacher's office was nearly unreachable, with no windows and only one way in.

'That certainly worth a lot.' Fangmon mumbled as he stealthily scouted around. Then he suddenly came up with an idea. The simplest and yet the most efficient one he could think of. _If there__'__s no other way in __I'__ll just have to walk straight through the front door._

Lessons have been resumed. Yuzuki couldn't help but keep thinking of Fangmon on the lose. Voices were sent into her ears but never to her mind.

'What's it he's up to?' the black-haired girl mumbled quietly, toying with a pen in her hand.

'Miss Satonaka, would you like to demonstrate the solution to this equation?' The voice of Mr. Franklin brought the girl back to reality. She looked at the blackboard immediately, trying to locate the equation her Math teacher was talking about as soon as possible, but couldn't get the slightest bit of concept.

'Are you still not feeling well?' the Math teacher asked, seemingly believing in what the girl had said earlier.

Yeah… In fact, I'm feeling really bad right now. Yuzuki lied. All she wanted at the moment was to get out of the classroom and track s down the wolf before any loss is done. 'May I be excused?' she didn't forget to ask politely.

Mr. Franklin agreed to let her go. The girl and the digimonwalked along the corridors of the school on the second floor. Looking around clueless for red wolf digimon. A sudden noise of an object being crushed caught her attention.

'What's that?' Yuzuki looked through the corridor to see a statue on the ground falling apart. But what actually caught her attention was that her classmates were coming out of the classroom, probably to see what had happened. She couldn't just stand there and let the others know that she was lying, and therefore she ran down the stairs, getting one step closer to the crime scene as well.

Once she had gotten down to the ground she found herself near the garden. A good place to hide temporally. What she saw was both good and bad news to her as she saw a familiar figure approaching the office near the exit of the garden.

'Fangmon!' she uttered, rushing to stop the skinny wolf from entering wherever he was planning to enter, knowing that the digimon must be up to no good.

'Baby flame!' Huckon fired a sphere of burning brick-red flame at the red wolf digimon. Taking by surprise, the attack hit right on, apparently damaging the digimon pretty bad.

'The Andromon distracted, and now this.' Fangmon muttered in anger. 'Snipe steal!'

'Teen ram!' Huckmon used the physical attack to counter the high volecity of his opponent, by didn't prove to be useful.

'You just have to get in my way, don't you?' Fangmon said. The word 'impatient' could easily be read from its expression.

'Huckmon,' Yuzuki tried to advise her partner. 'Be passive.'

'What's she doing down there?' Katashi mumbled nervously as he looked down to see the girl battling the wolf digimon.

'Look who's down there?' Elsa, noticing the same thing as the brown-haired boy did, said sarcastically as if her usual voice wasn't loud enough. The statement she gave instantly attracted students to lean against the windows of the corridor. Words of criticism started to suspend in the stuffed air as more and more student witnessed the fight. The blond girl smirked, satisfied.

'You don't have to do this!' Katashi yelled fiercely at Elsa, who simply winked in return.

'They're gonna know that sooner or later,' she said playfully. 'Why are you mad at me anyway, being over protective for your girl friend?'

Katashi didn't even have the time to let the embarrassment shown, all he knew was that he needed to do something to defend his innocent friend. Right here at the moment.

'Everybody listen to me!' he almost screamed. But his effort wasn't wasted. 'I know you're all wondering, and I'm sure most of you have been talking, about what's going on down there. The girl down there, my friend, is sacrificing her own time and even putting her life at risk to protect the safety of us. So please stop bad mouthing her can you?' he wasn't sure if it was his words or his sudden and reckless movement that stunned the class. They just stopped chatting at once.

'Nice talk.' Elsa whispered.

So far Huckmon was only able to dodge attacks from the champion digimon, never had the chance to strike even though he was able to tell the direction of his incoming foe. Fangmon just kept attacking, not even giving the white digimon a millisecond to rest.

'Fif slash!' Huckmon could only scratch the air with his claws.

'Just finish it already!' Fangmon, obviously enraged by the prolonged battle, said. 'Blast coffin!'

The attack finally struck Huckmon, causing him to fall.

'Hang on!' Yuzuki yelled as she noticed the orange light glowing on the white digimon. 'Stay awake!'

'Not again.' Fangmon mumbled, knowing that his failure was near if he didn't do anything.

This time, however, wasn't quite the same as the last time. Instead of going wild and destroying everything it touches, the glowing orange light transformed into a network of crimson light rays that formed the frame of a larger digimon. Then a light of blinding white like a piece of burning magnesium presented itself. A figure stood there, resembling a larger version of Huckmon. He was still white, but had a lot more sharp edges going on his armor and had better-proportioned limbs as well, accompanied by a more menacing head.

'Baohuckmon, champion, data type.'

'Cool.' The black-haired girl let the words slipped out of her mouth.

'What the hell is wrong with my fortune?' the red wolf uttered, though not intending to make that his last words, a strike from Baohuckmon made that happen.

'Fif cross!' the digimon in glistering white armor charged, and sliced with the claws on both of his hands, finishing the battle in one swift motion. Streams of data started to flow into the card deck of Yuzuki, while the remaining formed a digi-egg.

'It's fine now.' Baohuckmon said. 'I'm stable.'

'I know.' Yuziki replied with a smile. 'And you look really handsome now.'

* * *

'Oh, you did it well, my dear.' A mysterious woman said, sitting in her dark office watching the videotape of Huckmon digivolving, which seemed to be the only light source of the room. A tall, lean shadowed figure walked out of nowhere.

'She surely handled that well, didn't she?' he said in a chilly cold voice.

'Let's test her with something else.' The woman said uncaringly. 'By the way, have you received the hard drive?'

'It's here.' The shadowed figure reassured her.

'And we still haven't found our golden little friend yet?'

'That bounty hunter isn't doing well as he guaranteed.'

* * *

In a room sat two people. One looked to be in his twenties while the other appeared to be much younger, around the age of thirteen.

'Well, you'll have to sign these papers if everything's made clear to you.' The older man said.

'Does that make any differences?' the boy uttered in an almost inaudible voice, yet somehow the older man was able to hear what he said and said. 'You still have to sign theme, it's just a procedure.'

Wordlessly, the boy took out a pen, and began to write a few curves on the signature corner.

'Well then, welcome to Rn.'

* * *

**The last scene is just for coherence with the next chapter, nothing major is gonna happen eith that.**

**Another reminder: English name= recurring characters. Most oof them won't have much 'screen time'**

**Now for the nerdy part.**

**I resumed uploading on Sat, which means...(Guess for yourself)**

**I'm still not having much actual views. Statistical research showed that most people just read the intro. Is it because it was too terrible and scared people away?**

** And I haven't gotten much reviews as well. Will it help if I do some interactive things...like some q&amp;a sections? (But I can't give away spoilers!)**


	6. 5 The second

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the setting and of course the story.**

* * *

5 ~ The second~

Yuzuki walked to school with Katashi as usual. It's been a week since Huckmon had digivolved.

'We've got plenty of time left for a quick breakfast at the cafeteria.' The broen haired boy said. 'You've eaten enough already!' the black haired girl teased. 'Looks like Miss Jones's got into another battle of words.' Yuzuki said, shifting the primary subject of the conversation.

Standing in front of the head counselor was a boy of moderate height. He has long blond hair relative to other male students, which shines nicely under the daylight. The one thing that made him special was that he wasn't in the school uniform, but instead in a causal wear of black. He wore a hoodie jacket, like most people in Rn did, and a long scarf, with artificially made stone washed jeans and simplistic sneakers.

'What do you think you're wearing?' the head counselor demanded.

'I'm not going anywhere, no need for a prisoners suit.' The boy said softly.

'He's telling the truth,' Katashi commented, watching from far away. 'Each district's only got one school, so a uniform is actually kind of redundant.'

'No,' Yuzuki whispered, 'there're several in Ar, though I've never really confirmed that.'

'Are there?' Katashi whispered, a bit disappointed that his theory had just been disproved.

'A uniform is about the sense of belonging.' Miss Jones said. 'It indicates that you belong here to the school.'

'Is not like I belong to anywhere.' This time his voice was so inaudible that even the counselor who was standing right next to him could hardly receive the message.

* * *

Class began, and the students, as always, were chatting nonstop, even when the class teacher, Franklin had entered the room.

'All right class, lower your volume a little bit. We've something special today.' The math teacher said in his usual gentle voice. The class, in return, turned their faces to the teacher's post despite not having any observable intention to stop the chatter.

'A new student will be studying with you. May I introduce to you, Mr. Kaoru Ishiguro.' He said as the new student stepped into the classroom.

'He's the one from the morning.' Yuzuki recognized the outfit of the new students, it's actually harder for her to not have done that.

'He might look strange, but I can assure you that he is a good students.' Mr. Franklin said to the class, who are now fully concentrated. 'He even gets a score of 87 in the pre-enrolling assessment.'

'What?' the black haired girl, as well as the rest of the class, were not ready to hear that. 'The highest record was only 60!' the girl uttered.

'That's what's happening in He,' the brown haired boy corrected her. 'Here, the highest record was only 53.'

'Should I leave the time for you to introduce yourself?' the math teacher said, but the boy didn't said anything, and didn't look like he intended to say anything, simply walking to a seat at the back corner.

'Oh, I also forget to mention that he will be living in the school dormitory, so you'll know where to find him if you want. And this also means that the building is no longer of free public use.'

'What?' the whole class were stunned again. 'There hasn't been anyone in the dorms for almost half a century!' Katashi muttered.

'So are the other districts.' Said Yuzuki. 'I can't believe there's still someone who's interested in this. Even if they do their parents won't let them, especially after that mass disappearance in Xe five years ago.'

'I've heard that living in dorms used to be a trendy stuff, thousands of years ago.' The brown haired boy said. 'Which means that the entire block is his now.'

* * *

The rest of the day passed by relatively fast. Students tried to talk to the new boy, some wanted to know how he did that well in the test, some simply wanted to befriend him, but the results were always failing. Yuzuki, too, tried and failed as well. Nevertheless the presence of BaoHuckmon was able to catch the slightest bit of attention of Kaoru.

'You like digimon?' Yuzuki, upon seeing the phenomenon, asked.

'I hate digimon.' The blond boy finally spoke, but more like in a whisper. 'Get him away from me.' He said, not giving any eye contact.

"I think it's best to leave him alone.' BaoHuckmon said to the black haired girl. 'It's the best way to treat people like that.'

* * *

Night had fallen, students, with the exception of Kaoru, had all left the 'school' most of the people referred to. Near it was a building five floors in height. The exterior surface was severely weathered due to the lack of maintenance. It used to be a site were students pass time back when it was totally unoccupied.

The anti-social boy sat in his room. The light was dim, leaving most of the room blackened. Schoolwork were all done in the neck of time, and by 11:00 p.m., Kaoru had already gotten on the bed. The room blacked out.

* * *

_He hid in the dark alley between the buildings, curling into a ball._

_Eight-year-old Kaoru saw two colors, namely red and gold._

_The crimson color was lying all over in front of him. On top of the bodies lying on the ground, around them on the ground, in the shadows, on the wall of buildings. He knew the smell of the liquid that gave the red color, it was too familiar and horrible, stinky as well. It was the smell of blood._

_The red was the motionless color, while the gold was the on in motion._

_The __young boy stayed hidden, dare not to make any noise that would reveal his presence. Not dare to cry, or even to weep._

_He saw a being, a tall, lean figure with one hand resembling a canon and the other a sickle._

_He held his breathe as the golden armored being walked by. The sound of the figure__'__s footsteps almost caused his heart to go overdrive. The golden armored figure moved closer and closer, but never noticed his existence._

'_Pathetic humans.__'__ The golden figure said. __'__This is way far from enough.__'__ He then turned to one of the humanoid digimon know as Devimon by his side. __'__Take them anyway, __I__ don__'__t want to return empty handed.__'__ The black devil digimon walked forward, waving its arms in a smooth motion, then the bodies on the ground started to __decolorize__._

_Kaoru watched as the shape of his parents started to blur, fading into existence eventually._

* * *

'What was that?' the blond woke up in shock. The sky was still dark.

The boy felt moisture, his sweat. Though he was covered in a blanket it was way too impossible to be explained by just the temperature, given that the average temperature in Rn was around 15 degree Celsius in day, not to mention at night.

He knew the cause of it. He was having nightmares again, as he had been for the last five years.

Kaoru turned on the light until his rate of heartbeat resumed to normal. In his hand was a silver locket linked to his necklace. Flipping it open the blond boy reassured himself with the photo embedded inside.

'I'll avenge you one day.' He mumbled at the locket as he turned the light back off and returned to sleep, never noticing the pair of glowing blue eyes that has been watching over him in the dark corner.

* * *

'He's still like that?' Yuzuki was in the middle of a chat with her partner, who was currently asking her if he was still being hated by the new student.

'There're many that dislike digimon,' the voice of Elsa came to the respond, 'he might just be one of them.'

'And he's the anti-social type, incase you haven't noticed.' Katashi joined the chat. 'Have you even heard his voice yesterday?'

The pleasant chat was disrupted once the blond girl noticed something going on. Tiny wires of black tissue were running in one direction to the garden. 'What's that?' she murmured, watching as the tiny black wires starting to fade from her vision. Her sudden change in expression gained her the attention of her two friends. Yuzuki leaned down and touched the wires, feeling the coldness of the tiled ground reaching her fingertip as her finger went straight through the wire.

The black haired girl's expression darkened. 'They're hollow.' She turned to the others, with her face obviously giving out hints of the next sentence she was to say.

'They're data?' the brown haired boy finished the sentence for her.

'Digimon?' she asked BaoHuckmon, not sure if her instinct of this weekly attack was true.

'Digimon can be broken down into pieces of data and then reform in theory, like the television.' The white dragon digimon said.

'I really hate these weekly gifts!' the black haired girl muttered as she rushed out of the cafeteria with her partner. There she saw what was perhaps a million of little wires joining together to form the shape of a digimon. A blue dinosaurian digimon was there, with one hand being a head of some kind of leather skinned reptilian. The other hand being a skull, fortunately not a human one.

'Deltamon, champion, virus type.'

Students were running around screaming. Deltamon made a heavy move by raising his arms, ready to fire.

'Teen blade!' BaoHuckmon struck with his claws, hindering the triple headed digimon from commencing his attack. The Deltamon, despite being hit, didn't have mush motion of recoil while his heads were still maintaining the charged energy blasts.

The two of Yuzuki's friends helped evacuate the students, fight before the skull on Deltamon's left arm fired the blast of energy. There shouldn't be anyone to be hit, yet there he was, the blond boy, Kaoru, was a bit too slow to run. The blast should have hit him dead on. Nonetheless a sudden flash jetted out of a bush nearby as the boy raised his arms in a reflex movement, taking the strike for him.

A glowing digimon that looked like a white sphere with two sky-blue leafs on each side of him was the one to protect Kaoru. The light on the digimon glowed brighter and brighter each moment.

Yuzuki recognized that. She had just experienced that a week aog, and she knew what would happen next. The digimon, apparently not even an in-training, was digivolving. Rays of blue lights construted the frame of a bee-like digimon, and a bright flash filled the remaining parts. A digimon that looked like a bee with two legs and arms were there, despite having two smaller limbs. It has shinny golden yellow skin and lighter yellow fur as well as two blue antennae.

'Did he just skipped in-training?' Yuzuki uttered in pure surprise. 'And how did he managed to survive that?' she looked at her digivice as it identified the digimon. 'FanBeemon, rookie, virus type.'

'Sorry Kaoru, but I have to follow you.' The newly digivolved FanBeemon said.

* * *

**Check out my deviantart for character images. (Not professional grade, but I'm still satisfied with them and I hope you'll be too.)**

**Link:**** : / / yo11110. deviantart gallery /**

**A bit reminder: W****hen I say 'relative', I'm actually meaning 'not really'. It's a trick on perspective I always use at school. Kind of a bad habbit.**


	7. 6 They're everywhere

**Disclaimer: I own only the human charaters.**

* * *

6 ~They're everywhere~

'I'm sorry, but I have to ensure your safety.' FanBeemon, the newly digivolved digion who had just taken a direct hit from Deltamon as a fresh and appeared to be perfectly fine, said humbly.

_Can someone tell me what__'__s going on?_ Yuzuki wanted to say that, but right now she had to focus on the battle, resulting in her directing BaoHuckmon to attack the triple headed digimon before he could do any damage to the school. That was the only school in the district after all. Destroy it, and there'll be nowhere to hold the students._ But they might actually want it to happen._

'Fif cross!' the white dragon digimon leaped forward, slicing two deep scratches on the blue digimon's body. Deltamon yelled in pain. There might be no blood in a digimon, but there surely was data that was leaking out of the wounds.

'What are you doing here?' Kaoru starred fiercely at the bee digimon, demanding for an answer. 'Why are you here?'

'I'll explain it later.' FanBeemon said, his wings vibrated, levitating him to the air. 'You there, help me out!' he shouted at the white dragon digimon, which he regarded as friendly seeing how they had common enemies.

'Be polite!' BaoHuckmon jumped to the air, preparing to make an aerial strike, but was struck down by the two strong tails of Deltamon before he could have anything done.

'Activate strength enhancement!' Yuzuki used the card she's most familiar with. She hadn't had the chance to try out Fangmon's card lately, but she wanted to go the safe way. BaoHuckmon, with the now increased strength, was ready to strike again.

'Gear stinger!' FanBeemon fired multiple energy stings in midair, all aiming at the three-headed dinosaur's wounds, immobilizing him with the pain induced continuously. Deltamon flinched, not having a chance to strike back.

'What are you doing here? He's your partner, right?' Katashi, frustrated by the blond boy's indifference in spite of how fierce the battle was going on. Kaoru didn't respond as usual, simply standing there watching the battle.

Deltamon was struggling to counter the attack from the two digimon, but was so distracted by the continuous fire by FanBeemon. 'Fif cross!' Not being able to fly, BaoHuckmon jumped as high as he could and slashed the throat of the three-headed dinosaur. Deltamon, after bearing so much pain, endured the attack and first struck the flying bee digimon with one of his tails and grabbed the white dragon digimon with his serpent headed arm, throwing him aside before starting to charge for his triple blast.

BaoHuckmon, despite having enhanced his physical strength, was not fast enough to react. The triple headed digimon had all three of his mouth cavities filled with spheres of glowing orange light of energy. Although hoping to at least success for one time, the data-leaking wounds of him caused the charged energy to also leak out of them and the energy spheres in the mouth cavities to backflow. FanBeemon, seeing the chance to finish the digimon once and for all, didn't hesitate to give one final bow to the three- headed digimon in the wound, causing his energy to go overload, imploding for the massive amount of energy backflow.

Deltamon was defeated, turning into strands of data that flowed toward the dormitory building.

'Alright. Can someone tell me what's going on exactly?' Yuzuki had wanted to say this from the beginning of the battle, and though it seemed a bit out of her character as seen in her friends' eyes, she really needed to know the answer to that question.

'I owe you all an explanation.' The insect digimon said, turning to face his supposed partner, who seemed to not care, or even reject the digimon. 'I secretly sneaked into his luggage the day he left Xe. I was really worried about Kaoru.'

'That's why my luggage was that heavy,' mumbled the blond boy. 'I thought I had made it clear when we first met, obviously I was wrong. Get Away From ME!'

'But, Kaoru…'

'Don't call me like you're a friend of mine.' Kaoru uttered. 'You're nothing to me, and you'll gain nothing from me.'

'But I…' FanBeemon spoke, but was rudely interrupted by a shout from the blond boy. 'Shut up!'

'Stop it!' the black haired girl couldn't stand watching that anymore, so she stepped forward and tried to out an end to the meaningless conflict between the two. 'Can't you see he's just trying to help you? He even saved your life! At least you should be thankful for that!'

'Is he?' Kaoru said, louder than anyone's ever heard of. 'Then do this for me, get out of my sight, right here and right now. Disappear and never try to reach me again. Surely you can do that!'

'Oh just how stubborn are you?' Yuzuki uttered. The bee digimon was obviously depressed by the words from the one he tried so hard to protect, turning around ready to leave, only to be retained by BaoHuckmon, who then asked the boy to apologize in proper manner for causing the bee digimon to be heartbroken.

'It's no use.' The playful voice of Elsa came.

'What do you mean?' the white dragon digimon asked, wasn't quite in the state of taking every move properly.

'Look what I've got here.' The blond girl said, waving the stack of paper hand. 'I've got his file!'

'Wait, are you sure you're gonna do that?' Katashi asked as Elsa flip opened the file, reading information written on it aloud. It was obvious that the girl stole the papers from the office during the chaos.

'Well, first of all, incase you don't know, he is male,' she said jokingly. 'And he was sent here by the Xe social welfare department. Oh! You're gonna love this.' The double pony tailed girl said dramatically. 'He lost his parents. Or, to be accurate, his parents gone missing along with many other people in Xe five years ago, but he insisted that they were killed by a digimon.'

'I wasn't lying,' Kaoru said starring at Elsa, 'I saw that with my own eyes.'

'Be patient, I haven't finished yet!' Elsa said. 'And I can't quite believe in you, for you are described as mentally unstable and…violent? Oh! You assaulted almost every single one of your foster parents, nearly killed them the last time, no wonder why they put you in the prison.'

'They deserved that.' The blond boy said, starring more fiercely at the girl, 'for insulting my parents. I mean my real parents.'

'Is that true?' Yuzuki asked.

'Is what true?' Kaoru asked back, still not leaving his eyes on the blond girl.

'That your parents were killed by digimon? Is that why you hated digimon that much?' the black haired girl asked. Kaoru didn't want to answer at first, but he could sense something in the girl's voice that indicated her honesty and that she was taking it seriously.

'Are you trying to say that I made the hole thing up due to some mental damage for losing my parents and try to find a way to rationalize the whole thing so as to comfort myself, like all the others said?'

'So that's true.' Yuzuki said. 'I don't think you're making it up. Nobody could ever lie about the ones they love.'

'You…believe me?' the boy's voice started to soften.

'And so is he.' Yuzuki turned to FanBeemon, who seemed to be relieved now that he knew that reason of his partner's unexplained hatred towards him.

'He's still gonna leave.' Kaoru said coldly.

'But…'

'Listen to me first.' Yuzuki wanted to speak, but was cut off by the yellow digimon. 'You need me, what could you do without me?'

The first reaction of Kaoru was to argue back, yet he paused for a moment, knowing that FanBeemon's words were true. There's nothing he could do without the help of him. But partnering with a digimon? Someone he hated so much? It took him a long while before the boy unwillingly moved his lips, said. 'You can come.'

* * *

'There're a lot of surprises here.' The mysterious woman uttered, watching the video of Deltamon being deleted provided by unknown source.

'Good surprises.' The shadowed figure beside her said. 'What's your next move?'

The woman paused the video right at the moment FanBeemon finished his digivolution. 'Isn't that interesting?' she said, pointing at the newspaper from Ar and another from He. 'There're more of them, and I guess I should have a chat with them. A personal chat.'

'And recruit them?' the shadowed figure said.

'Oh don't spoil my secrets every time, Piedmon.' The woman giggled. 'But it'll be your job if they don't fall for our little plan. Take good care of them by then, ok?'

* * *

Kaoru was back to his 'home', with FanBeemon no longer needing to hide. He found two pieces of odd equipment from his luggage. A digivice with silver color and three claws of translucent ruby color, much like Yuzuki's, along with a card deck, where he found eight blank cards and two with images on them.

'Kaoru.' FanBeemon called for his partner's attention. And the blond boy, as he's always been, didn't respond but simply turned to look at the insect digimon. 'Just, if anything happens, remember that I'll always be at your side.'

The blond boy paused for a moment, confised by the strange words of FanBeemon. _Of course._ He thought. _He must have seen me panic before the nightmares._

'And…take good care of yourself. The weather's a bit cold.' FanBeemon said out of concern, seeing that the boy was currently only wearing his gray t-shirt as upper wear under the cold weather of the night.

The boy got onto the bed, and murmured a few words before switching off the light. 'Thanks...' He didn't know why he did that, maybe because that was the first time someone had said that to him since his parents were gone.

* * *

Yuzuki was surfing the Internet. Most of the time she's too busy with schoolwork or occupied by her friends. Once she's gotten online, however, the news headline gave the black haired girl a welcome gift, a surprising one.

'What's bothering you, Yuzuki?' BaoHuckmon, noticing the change in facial expression of the black haired girl, said.

'We're not the only two.' Yuzuki replied. 'They're everywhere, all over Ventrium. And…' she paused. There had been reports that all over the country there had been kids partnering with digimon fighting the uncontrollable, but what shocked the black-haired girl was the only one with an image on it.

_It couldn__'__t be wrong._

Despite how blurred the face of the boy in the picture seemed, she immediately recognized his hairstyle and his suit, which are all symbols of him.

'Eiji's one of them.'

'Who's Eiji?'

'I used to live in He, remember? Eiji is the one that helped me not only to adapt to the local environment, but also almost everything I couldn't handle on my own. And now he's one of us!'

* * *

**So that's the first chapter in 2015, with nothing special but a late happy new year from me.**

**The title of the last chapter might be a bit misleading, seeing that it's written in the viewers' point of view. Kaoru was, in fact, very probably the last one to show up in chronological order. (Not a spoiler at all: all the digi-destined will show up in the next chapter.)**

**I updated the cover as well, I like it being more simple. May change that at anytime if I have a better idea of attractive cover art.**

**Hope I'll get more reviews (or just views) in 2015. See you next week!**


	8. 7 Getting along

**Disclaimer: I own only the human charaters.**

* * *

7 ~Getting along ~

Yuzuki and Kaoru were heading to the Square of Unity in Vertiro, the very capital of Ventrium, with their respective digimon partners.

* * *

_Saturday__, four days after the incident of Deltamon had taken place. Yuzuki went to the school dorm with BaoHuckmon alone for the second digi-distined. Just right in the day__'__s morning the blacked haired girl __received__ a message in her digivice, so she decided that the boy must have __received__ the same message and therefore she should discuss the issue with him._

'_Hi Kaoru, __I__ need to talk to you.__'__ She knocked the door gently. Being 8:00 a.m. in the morning, she __wouldn't__ let the noise of the knocking __disturb__ the others, though there was none to be disturbed, and it didn__'__t seem like that the boy would be disturbed by the knocking._

_FanBeemon was the one to open the door. The room was dark inside with only a few lines of sunlight shinning through the covered window. __'__Be quiet.__'__ The insect digimon whispered, __opening__ the door so lightly that not even the slightest bit of __audible__ sound was produced._

_Yuzuki and the white dragon digimon walked in lightly as told. __'__He__'__s still sleeping?__'__ the girl in brown jacket __couldn't__ resist letting the words jet out of her mouth. __'__Hush!__'__ FanBeemon whispered, hinting the girl to keep quiet._

'_It__'__s eight in the morning!__'__ Yuzuki whispered. She almost couldn__'__t believe that the cold and distant boy she knew would have such a lazy act. Kaoru was lying on the bed copied by a thin piece of blanket, his eyes were shut tightly as if it was still midnight to him._

'_We should wait for a while.__'__ BaoHuckmon said, before the boy__'__s eyes started to stir, possibly due to the increased amount of light entering via the opened front door or the sound of the girl and the digimon. Either way, Kaoru woke up slowly __rubbing__ his eyes. _

'_You don__'__t look so good.__'__ There__'__re two things that the black haired girl hadn__'__t been able to notice, the first one was that the blond boy__'__s eyes were surrounded by deep shades, the second was that the t-shirt Kaoru was wearing, as well as his forehead, were toped with decent drop s of sweat._

'_Guests,__'__ Kaoru mumbled, __'__what time is it?__'__ he checked the cloak to see the time. __'__The alarm should be working.__'_

'_You didn__'__t sleep well last night, so __I__ turned the alarm function off to let you sleep for a longer while. __I__ thought it would be fine on Saturday__…'__ the yellow digimon __explained__._

'_Why you__…'__ the blond boy was ready to blame FanBeemon, but remembered the presence of Yuzuki and BaoHuckmon. __'__What do you want here?__'_

'_Do you need to refresh yourself first, like, take a shower or at least wash your face?__'__ the black haired girl asked, she really couldn__'__t just force Kaoru, who had just awaken, __messily__ dressed, and apparently hadn__'__t had standard __quality sleeping to work._

'_Just tell me what you want here.__'__ Kaoru replied rudely in a low volume while still struggling to keep his sleepy eyes opened._

'_Alright then, check your digivice, there should be a message inside,__'__ Yuzuki said, __'__a set of coordinates and a time are given.__'_

'_Just that?__'__ Kaoru asked, checking his digivice to confirm the message the black haired girl was talking about._

'_I__'__m here to __discuss__ the issue with you. Those might be vital information.__'__ The black haired girl was frustrated by the reply from Kaoru._

'_It__'__s simple,__'__ the boy said, __'we__ go there at the time given.__' with that said, the boy went straight into the bathroom unsteadily and slammed the door shut, leaving Yuzuki nothing to do._

_'Well, I don't think you'll have any particular thoughts.' she mumbled as she and her partner left the room._

* * *

Once they had arrived the first thing Yuzuki noticed was that a boy that was seemingly older than her was already there, passing time playing games on the phone. The boy was in a blue suit and a white shirt with a red tie. His front dark blue hair was arranged tidily at an angle, covering part of his forehead. Beside him was a mammalian looking digimon that had giant ears that looked like bat wings. The upper torso of the digimon was purple while the bottom of it was cream white.

'Eiji!' Yuzuki yelled, catching the boy's attention. She seriously hoped that she wasn't recognizing the wrong person at the moment._ How __embarrassing__ would it be!_

'Yuzuki? What are you doing here?' the boy seemed to be surprised by the presence of the girl until the black haired girl took out her bronze colored digivice.

'I saw you on the Internet, you got pictured.' Yuzuki said smiling. Though she hadn't planned to reunite with Eiji in so shortly after she moved to Rn, she was still pleased to see him. 'Did I? I never saw you on the papers.' The navy blue haired boy joked in return.

'How have you been doing lately?' Yuzuki asked.

'You know, the same old life. I've got plenty of siblings to take care of, and an additional member as well.' He said. 'Meet Tsukaimon. He's a bit rude, but a lot cuter back when he was a Cupimon.' He took out his blue digivice and showed the bio of the digimon. 'Tsukaimon, rookie, virus type.'

'I don't do greetings.' Said the purple and white digimon right before Yuzuki was about to say hi. Yuzuki's partner, in the other hand, stepped forward and introduced himself. 'I'm BaoHuckmon, guardian of miss Yuzuki.'

'Nice to meet you.' Eiji greeted the white dragon digimon, then walked to the blond boy who had been silent for all the time. 'Nice to meet you too, my name is Eiji Yanagisawa.' He said, offering a hand for Kaoru while only getting two words in response. 'Kaoru Ishiguro.' The blond boy introduced himself, and left the rest for his partner to say.

Another person, a boy, who was wearing a long sleeved polo shirt consisting of red and gray strips as design and a pair of long pale brown trousers, walked into the square with a digimon that was just three gears being stuck together in others' eyes.

'There's already someone here?' he mumbled, 'I thought I would at least be the second one to get here.' 'At least we're not the last.' The orange gear-like digimon said.

The group saw the boy and approached him, reading the bio of the digimon partner of the ginger red haired boy. 'Solarmon, rookie, vaccine type.'

The boy was greeted by the other three, and introduced himself to be Takumi Saikachi, from Ar.

'I don't know if I should even be here,' he said to the others. 'I am no one, but then that golden digimon just appeared out of nowhere and entrusted me with these.' He said, revealing his black digivice after attaining the knowledge that all the others had the same equipment.

'We're all here to find out why.' Yuzuki said, reassuring the red haired boy who seemed to be lacking confident. 'We're all just normal people.'

'But I'm not even among the top of the class, not to mention how stupid I look.' Takumi said. 'You look perfectly fine!' Solarmon told his partner. It seemed to the others that this had happened a couple of times between the two.

'What do you mean "not the last" by the way?' Eiji asked. 'You know how many are coming?'

'You don't know?' the red haired boy said, a bit surprised. He then clicked a few buttons on his digivice, which seemed to be a lot of complex executions in Yuzuki and Eiji's perspective, and showed them radar like diagram. 'There're six dots here, so I supposed there would be six, though I can't tell where are they, the dots are placed too closely. I thought everyone knew that!'

'I don't even know how you get to the page,' Yuzuki said. 'You're really impressive at this.'

'Then where's the remaining two now?' Tsukaimon asked. 'Can't you just wait until the two has finished their conversation?' BaoHuckmon said. 'And Takumi just said that the exact location can't be told by the radar.'

'There they are.' said Kaoru softly pointing at the southern entrance. Two figures appeared and entered the square via the entrance.

A boy and a girl were seen. The boy appeared to be a lot younger than the rest of the digi-distined. He had short pointy black hair and wore a purple vest which has a small image of an eagle printed in white color on the upper left corner of the vest. He also wore artificially and non-professionally cut short jeans. A plant like digimon was following him.

The girl was in a black midriff t-shirt and skin-tight jeans with a white sleeveless coat.. Her short hair was blond in color with a bit of black highlights going on. The digimon partnered with her seemed to be nothing more than a ball of fire. The two of them were in the middle of a conversation while entering the square.

'Looks like we're not the only two here.' The boy said.

'Let's hope we're not the last to come.' The girl replied, not realizing the brutal fact that they were indeed the slowest to respond to the message.

'That makes all six of us here.' FanBeemon said. Eiji, as always, was the first one to greet the newcomers, only this time he wasn't treated friendly. Not the way like he had with Kaoru, but a lot worse.

'Why's your hair blue?' the boy said, scanning the rest of the digi-destined with his amber eyes. "And why are you in a suit?'

'Can't I?' the blue haired boy reply, feeling offence. 'I look good like this, don't I?'

'No' Taukaimon, Eiji's very own partner, was the first to answer the question.

'Anyway, should you first introduce yourself before judging the others?' Yuzuki said.

'The name is Ryosuke Takahashi.' The black haired boy said with a boastful tone. 'And her, my partner, is…'

'Floramon, rookie, data type.' The data of the vegetation digimon was first spoken by Kaoru.

'You don't interrupt people just like that!' Ryosuke yelled, almost like that's the most vital issue of his current concern. 'I'm sorry, he's always a bit too over-reactive.' Floramon said.

'He's from Kr, I guess.' Takumi said. 'They've got the biggest rural area. You can see how few is he wearing. His skin is also a bit tinned.'

'No one asks for your nerdy deductions!' Ryosuke yelled again, causing the red haired boy's expression to go darkened, taking a step backward as well, followed by Floramon's apology.

The girl, who's been silent ever since the introduction of Ryosuke, smirked and said. 'We've got a lovely crew here.' She ten showed the information of her partner digimon through her crimson digivice. 'DemiMeramon, in-training, no attribute.'

'I hope she's a normal one.' Yuzuki whispered to her partner, who in return, gave her a slight nod and said. 'They're just…having personalities.'

"Hi, I'm Yuzuki Satonaka, nice to meet you.' The black haired girl stepped forward. 'Your presence here makes the team complete.'

'Oh, I seriously hoped that I'm not the last one here.' The girl with dyed hair said. 'Call me Amy. Amy Mortimer.' 'So can anyone here explain what's going on?'

'Let's get things organized first shall we?' Eiji suggested.

'Why are you taking the lead?' the youngest boy complained.

'We do need someone in charge.' Solarmon said. 'Or else we will be like gears falling all over a machine unorganized, you'll get stuck.'

'Nice words.' Amy uttered. 'But we all know what happened, don't we?'

'Basically, I assume we're all here because of this.' Takumi said hesitantly, showing the others the digivice in his hand. 'We all got it from someone.'

'Good.' Eiji said. 'From what I've heard from Yuzuki and Kaoru, and my own experience as well, we all met a golden digimon named Magnamon.'

'So we're like superheroes?' the boy in purple vest said. 'Getting summoned by some mysterious guy and ready to kick some a**, Where're the enemies anyway?'

'We're digi-destined, can't you tell?' Yuzuki said. 'Like ancient times, whenever there's a danger raising in the digital world, people get chosen to settle the crisis.'

'How come I don't know that?' BaoHuckmon asked, feeling ashamed. Digimon were born with almost all kind of essential knowledge according to him. If digi-destined played such a vital role in the digital world then he should have known it. 'Neither do we.' Floramon reassured him.

'Well, digi-destined are always chosen from kids. They can occur in any means possible. Gone missing in a summer camp; getting on board on the wrong train; got some faulty toys or getting arrested by some kind of secret police. But never have I heard of a delivery man.' Takumi, being the second most knowledgeable digi-destined in history, said.

'And in case you've all forgotten.' The voice of Amy ran across the square. 'There's no digital world, not anymore at least.'

'Who cares? I can really be cool now.' Ryosuke laughed, seeming over-joy by the fact that he was some kind of a chosen one. 'Should you just calm down for a moment?' Floramon said, obviously embarrassed by her partner's childish act.

'But what do we have on common?' Eiji proposed. 'There must be something that makes us here, or did Magnamon just pick us randomly?'

'I prefer the later.' Takumi said. 'The only thing we have in common is that we're all from different districts.'

'What do you think?' Yuzuki asked BaoHuckmon. The dragon digimon thought for a couple of seconds, then said. 'I think not, you're the one who made my egg hatch.'

The discussion, or argument, carried on for a few more minutes, no constructive points was made throughout the process. A few more minutes passed, and the discussion was still not ending, not until a man walked into the square, catching everyone's attention.

'Who's that one?' Tsukaimon asked. 'You said there're only six of us.'

'It's so good to see you all here.' The man said as if he had been anticipating the very presence if the digi-destined there. 'The president is waiting for you, would you mind following me to her?'

'The president?' Yuzuki uttered in surprise and so did most of the others. 'But, how did she know we're here?'

* * *

The group was surprised to hear that the president was aware of their existence, and was hoping to meet them. Questions emerged in the digi-destineds'minds, mostly the variations of: how did she know it? Why does she want to see us?

'Maybe she's a digi-destined too?' Ryosuke joked on the way while following the strange man that gave them the information in the first place. Their journey was mainly going up, owing to that Vertiro was a towered building.

'No digi-destined were ever chosen at the age above twenty already.' Yuzuki, having the most abundant knowledge of history, said. 'Not to mention that she's at her forties.'

'Why does she want to meet us anyway?' Eiji suggested.

'Cause we're cool?' Amy said. Being around the same age as Eiji, which was the eldest of the group, she wasn't quite behaving the same way he did.

'She's a famous historian besides being a politician,' Yuzuki corrected the older girl, 'and there hasn't been any digi-destined for centuries, of course she'll want to see the living ones.'

'That doesn't explain how she tracked us.' Takumi said, then presented a passage consisting mainly of technical terms that all the others could hardly grasp the slightest bit of concept of.

'He's saying that it's nearly impossible to track down a digivice when you don't even know its structure and how it works.' Solarmon translated the passage of his partner into one brief sentence that was understandable.

'What does that have to do with us anyway?' Tsukaimon said. 'We're only here because we're dropped down by Magnamon while couldn't even protest.'

'We're their partners, of course we're needed.' Floramon said.

'We're here.' Kaoru said. In front of the group was a gate made of wood, the handles of the doors were bronze in color. The guide gently knocked the door.

'Come in.' a voice that seemed to belong to a male said from the inside.

The man walked into the room. The doors were closed for a few minutes, then opened again. 'you can go in.' the man said, walking out of the room.

Right at the back of the room sat a woman by a relatively simple working desk were documents were put on it organized, stacking up like towers. The woman appeared to be in her forties, with her hacial skin preserved well such that no a single wrinkle was present. She wore a proper ladies' suit wit ha straight long dress.

'What an honor to have finally met you in person.' She said, leaving all her works behind and walked all the way to the children before they could even took a step into the office.

'The honor is ours, president Mizuki.' Eiji, being the eldest and observably the politest and the most formal in the group, said.

'Dare I ask,' Kaoru's voice broke the atmosphere, 'how did you manage to find out when and where we will be, when we only found that out yesterday?'

'You don't speak to the president like that!' Yuzuki whispered, but not having any effects on the blond boy's attitude.

'I'm sure that it's been bothering you for a long time.' The president smiled, said. 'I'll let you know. I totally rely on him.'

A figure appeared at the side of the office as if he had just popped out of nowhere. It had a humanoid shape, which dressed like a clown, wearing a red clown wear and pointed yellow boots. The being was wearing a mask as well, if that wasn't his actual face. Two light blue ribbons were seen hanging on his back.

The dark blue haired boy read the information of the being, which was confirmed as a digimon by the digivice. 'Piedmon, mega, virus type.'

'He's my assistant, Piedmon.' The president introduced the wizard digimon.

'This is one of my attacks, called Masks Square,' the clown looking digimon said, 'it allows me to read all kinds of communications within a certain range.'

'Most of the time, this is how we trace the terrorist.' The president said, 'but he accidentally discovered your channel yesterday midnight.'

'But, please forgive my foolishness. We can we do here?' BaoHuckmon asked.

The president smiled, asked Piedmon to operate the computer at her desk, showing the history of the digi-destined throughout the centuries via a projector to a lain wall. 'You see, I'm so obsessed with the history between the human world and the digital world. It is not a necessity to meet the latest wave of digi-destined at first opportunity?' the president said. 'Besides, since you'll be fidhting in the streets, I think it's best for the guards to know you.'

'So we're here to…talk?' Ryosuke asked.

'No, we're here to get licensed.' Amy joked. 'But how can you be sure that the guards approve of us? We're not professionals.'

'That's another reason why the president wanted you here.' Piedmon said. 'Down the stairs to your right is the training center, there you can prove yourselves worthy of defending the city.'

A few more lines were spoken before the group decided to go. Down the stairs was a room of all kinds of advanced equipment and computer systems. The decoration of the training center was futuristic with metallic black walls and a lot of well-polished glasses.

A troop of Centarumon was waiting down there as the six of the digi-destineds entered the center. 'Centarumon, champion, data type.' Yuzuki read.

Piedmon, who had been leading the group, walked to one of the Centarumon and whispered a few words to him. The clown digimon then walked to the kids, and said. 'You're free to use the facility. And I have told the leader of the troop to demonstrate the use for you.'

'Initiating battle simulation, situation 3.' A computer voice said as six Centarumon walked into the field surrounded by the glasses. Everything in the arena darkened as a giant monitor on the top of the wall behind the digi-destineds illuminated the room. Inside the screen were the six Centarumon, standing at a city street with a horde of about twenty digimon that looked like a pig on fire.

'I've never seen that kind of digion.' Amy said. 'It looks too similar to ordinary animals. I thought digimon should look more…exotic.'

'Boarmon, armor level, vaccine type.'

The Boarmon didn't hesitate to attack. 'Nose blaster!' most of them yelled. Despite being unorganized, attacks from more than a dozen of the armor leveled digimon had prived themselves to be unpredictable, as a result of the disorganization and hence, menacing.

'Defence formation 3.' One of the centaur digimon, apparently the leader, shouted the command. The six of them rapidly formed a triangular pattern. 'Solar ray!' the single Centarumon fired his arm canon, getting some of the Boarmon out of the way as the squad moved forward.

'Slamming attack!' the Boarmon were simply mad and hungry for fight. The majority of them charged blindly at the Centarumon troops, who separated in return and fired at both sides of the wildly running Boarmon, defeating a dozen more in the process.

The remaining Boarmon couldn't do so much but to run into battle without cover, which ended up in their defeat. One particular Boarmon was smart enough to strike from behind the Centarumon, but still got gunned down by on of the cautious digimon before it could get any of the troops.

The fight ended quickly, the rest of the Boarmon were beaten in less than two minutes where the Centarumon didn't get so much damage to even a scratch. The digi-destined watched in amazement. Surely that's the standard they would have to achieve to gain the respect from not only the city guards, but from the citizens as well.

'We need a plan.' Eiji said. 'You saw how well they cooperated with each other.'

'That's because they're only normal stuffs.' Ryosuke said. 'I'm way better than them.'

'I agree with the loudsy kid for once.' Tsukaimon said.

'Maybe we should just get going and it'll work out eventually.' Yuzuki whispered.

'I hope so.' The blue haired boy sighed as the group walked into the mock battlefield. The setting was the exact same as the Centarumon's. A swarm of Boarmon rampaging on the sity streers with virtual people running and screaming nonstop.

'This is so real,' Amy said, amazed by the quality of the facility. 'they should really turn it into a cinema.'

'Then it'll be expensive.' Ryosuke joked with her. 'And you'll need a lot of seats.'

'Shut up and focus.' FanBeemon said. 'They're coming for us.'

The horde of Boarmon started to charge, striking in all directions with their flaming body and their curved fangs.

'Any strategies?' Yuzuki asked, but already one of them had been in action. Ryosuke, along with Floramon, drifted to the left and was about to crash with the Boarmon head to head.

'Stamen rope!' Floramon attacked, but plant based attack wasn't quite useful to the firey Boarmon. Infact, they served as fuel for the rampaging digimon unwilling as well.

Amy, on the contrary, was dodging attacks from the armor-leveled digimon swiftly while her partner, DemiMeramon, was nowhere to be seen.

'Ryosuke, Amy, get back here! We need to work together!' Eiji shouted while Solarmon and FanBeemon were busy demolishing the digimon with their partner.

'Why do I have to listen to you?' the youngest argued as one of the Boarmonran straight into the plant digimon's position. Unable to react at ince and distracted by the conversation, Floramon was knocked away.

'Solar flare!' Solarmon shot multiple gears at red hot state at the Boarmon, but were all deflected easily by the strong forward force of the charging Boarmon.

'What should we do now?' Yuzuki mumbled nervously as the teamed started to crumble.

'We do whatever we can to get things under control.' Eiji said, 'Tsukaimon, help me, please.'

Tsukaimon, despite not having much respect toward his partner, nodded and flew to the top of the field. 'Friendly fire!' The purple digionm fired a couple of blasts midair, taking out a couple of the boar digimon.

'BaoHuckmon, do you best to help them.' Yuzuki uttered. 'Activate strength enhancement.'

The involvement of the champion certainly helped reverse the circumstance as the white armored dragon digimon swiped his way through the Boarmon.

'Eiji, Kaoru, focus on aerial attack!' Yuzuki yelled as loud as she could to make sure that the two boys could hear her. 'Takumi, have Ryosuke covered. And Amy, well, just don't get hurt, ok?'

'Gear stinger!' 'Purple haze!' the only two digimon capable of flight rained the attacks to the battlefield below them, striking a large amount of Boarmon at a time.

'Stay behind. Ok?' Takumi ran to Ryosuke as Solarmon generated several steel gears to block the attacks from the two airborne digimon. 'And don't give them plants to burn.' Ryosuke, despite being eager to fight, stayed behind for his injured partner.

'Teen blade!' BaoHuckmon's attack caused a number of Boarmon to fall back as the two flying digimon stopped the attack. Most of the Boarmon were down by the time. 'Fif cross!' the champion digimon finished the fight with the lethal final blow. The last Boarmon standing collapsed as the virtual surroundings began to fade.

'Disaster.' Yuzuki muttered, 'it's purely disastrous.'

'You've done a great job.' Eiji comforted the girl, 'without you, we wouldn't even be able to finish the simulation.'

'No wonder why he keeps calling you miss.' Ryosuke said, 'you're really bossy at times.'

'Stop that. It was because of you that we have to get back on track. She's just doing the job no one was doing.' Takumi, not approving of the black haired boy's criticism, said.

'If I remember correctly you're doing nothing with Mr. not-responding there while I and Floramon were battling to death. So why do you think you have to right to judge me?' Ryosuke argued.

'Can everyone just calm down?' Eiji shouted desperately.

'Good show here.' Amy mumbled, with DemiMeramon back to her side in a time no one could tell.

'I fought at the front line and you blame me for this?' Ryosuke continued, 'I can just do the job on my own if you don't like me.' He said, then turned around and left.

'Wait, none of us here is blaming anyone!' Yuzuki said, but it was already too late. Floramon, having recovered from the battle, bowed politely and apologized. 'I'm sorry, he didn't mean what he said.' She then left to chase her partner.

Kaoru was the next to turn his back on the team.

'Not even you,' Yuzuki said. 'You don't have any reason to leave.'

'The team is over.' He said, then walked away slowly. 'FanBeemon, are following me or not?' the bee digimon followed straight after the blond boy.

So the gang's done for?' Amy said, whispering a few words at DemiMeramon, which caused the both of them to giggle.

'How can you even say that when you actually did nothing but running away?' Eiji yelled at her. No matter how nice he could be he was still just an ordinary sixteen-year-old boy that could be frustrated under extrene circumstances, and the fifteen-year-old girl had just set up the bomb in his mind.

'Guess I'm not staying here.' Amy said, not showing the slightest bit of guiltiness on her face as she and her partner walked away naturally.

'Anyone else want to leave?' Tsukaimon joked, but was responded by a glance from his blue haired partner that he'd never seen before, shutting his mouth automatically.

'So that's all we have now? Just the three of us?' Takumi said while the other two simply kept silent. 'Don't worry, I'm not leaving.'

* * *

Watching the videotape of the virtual training of the digi-destined the president had to admit that she was a bit disappointed as she sighed lightly. 'They're just…kids, after all. I didn't know you're that good at lying, also.'

'I was telling the truth, in fact, just not the correct one.' Piedmon said with a cunning tone. 'Even if they turn against us, they'll be nothing to worry for.'

'That's true.' The president said. 'But there's one particular member that I want to recruit.'

'The girl.' The clown digimon immediately came to the knowledge of what the president was saying.

'She's shown great decision making abilities in the unexpected.' She said. 'Without her, the team crumbles. With her, we have a great commander.' The president let out a little smirk, and said. 'How about the gate?'

'The power is not enough.' Piedmon replied. 'We still need them.'

'Well, that's no so tough now.' The president said pleasantly. 'The children can lure Magnamon here.'

'I never doubted that,' Piedmon said, 'let's just hope that Reapermon won't fail us again.'

the president smirked, taking one final look at the digi-destined before switching off the computer and walked back to her usual office. 'Soon, everything can be settled.'

* * *

**Incase nobody is aware, this chapter is actually about 4000 words (this chpater is around 4800). I actually merged the original 7th and 8th chapter together. the orighnal 7th had no action scenes, I feared that it might disappoint someone, especially the followers. And though it is a bit longer than the previous chapters, all chapters after 10 will be this long, don't worry. (or I'll have to write for at least 50 chapters, which will certainly drive me mad.)=two more short chapters to go:]**

**I know Amy is not a Japanese name, which makes her a bit special among the Toa (hope you get the joke). That'll be explained later.**

**Another announcment: The offical Part 1 ends with chapter 15, Part2, I hope not exceeding 40. No Part 3.**


	9. 8 Separated

**Disclaimer: I own nothing other than the human characters.**

* * *

8 ~Separated~

Yuzuki, along with Eiji and Takumi and their respective partners, stayed in the hospitality facility provided by the president. The black haired girl had already expected to not be able to return to Rn in a day. The only thing she hadn't foreseen was that she, along with all other digi-destined, would not only be traced by the president, but was also treated so nicely.

'Is anything bothering you, Yuzuki?' BaoHuckmon asked.

'Can't you tell?' Yuzuki replied. 'There're a lot of things that's bothering me.' She turned on the computer in her temporal room and logged online to a face-to-face chatting software. _Please be online, Katashi._

* * *

'_Are you sure you__'__re not coming?__'__ Yuzuki asked her childhood friend. __'__I may be gone for days.__'_

'_I__'__d love to, but__…'__ the brown-haired boy said, hesitated for a while before he led Yuzuki into his room. __'__I__'__ve got someone to take care of.__'_

_On __the top of Katashi__'__s bed was a tiny digimon of a __cylindrical__ shape, with some green things surrounding the curved surface and a face on one side of the base and a leaf-shaped object on the other base. __'__Popomon, fresh.__'_

'_That__'__s Leomon__'__s fresh?__'__ the black-haired girl uttered. __'__It__'__s more like a plant digimon.__'_

'_You see, my parents aren__'__t always here and he__'__s to small to go for a long travel, so __I__ have to stay here.__'__ Katashi said. __'__Besides, Ishiguro is going with you.__'_

'_But you__'__re more reliable.__'__ Yuzuki said._

'_Sorry.__'__ Katashi said, but then smiled to cheer up his friend, __'__maybe the only thing you can rely on me now is that cup of tea you__'__re drinking.__'_

* * *

'Hi, haven't seem you for a while.' The voice of Katashi started to pop out of the computer's microphones. His face could be seen soon. 'Miss me already?'

'Better prepare for yourself.' Yuzuki said. 'I'm gonna throw a bunch of stressful stuffs at you.' She then began to explain everything that had happened in the day, including how they met with the other digi-destined, how they were spied on by the president's creepy assistant, how they ended up fighting in a mock test and how everything fell apart.

'Well, things like that happen all the time, even back home at school.' Katashi commented. 'I'm sure you'll get along soon enough.'

'How come you're always so…optimistic?' Yuzuki said. 'It seems you're taking everything readily, like Popomon. How's he doing now?'

'Speaking of him, he's digivolved, while I was sleeping last night.' Katashi said. 'Now he's like a tadpole with a cat's head, and he's now called Fimon.'

'No wonder why I didn't see you this morning,' Yuzuki laughed. Clearly it's the happiest, or the most relaxed moment of the day to her. 'That's why I want you to come with me,' she said, 'you're always so…reassuring.'

'You're the one to decide when to see me.' The brown-haired boy said. 'Hope you'll be back before Christmas.'

'Christmas,' the black-haired girl muttered, 'it's still weeks to go, and…'

'Don't,' Katashi stopped the girl before she could proceed, 'I knew what you're about to say, don't say it.'

'How good it is that myths always live.' Yuzuki ignore her friend's objection and said, 'throughout all these years, they just…survive.'

'Well, you do realize that over one-third of the population's names are derived from an ancient language called Japanese, ours as well.'

'Never mind that, just get home early, ok?' Katashi said, before signing off. 'Got to go now.'

Yuzuki shut the computer down and tried to clear her mind off her different thoughts. She lied on the bed while doing so. One thing good about BaoHuckmon's loyalty was that he would never disturb her at the wrong time. And this is one of those times when she could just let her brain melt and leave her hand blank. Nevertheless, a knock broke the silence.

Eiji walked in with Tsukaimon. 'He wouldn't leave you for even a minute.' The purple flying digion teased. 'That's why I wanted to leave hin behind.'

'Does this happen a lot?' Yuzuki mumbled, 'with all your brothers and sisters?'

'Does what happen a lot?' the black-blue-haired boy asked, trying to lower the tension.

'Whenever you try to get along, they just start to hate you for no good reason?' Yuzuki ecplained.

'Yes,' Eiji said, sitting next to Yuzuki. 'It happens all the time.'

'How do you deal with it?' the black-haired girl asked.

'Wait.' The older boy replied, 'and the problems just resolve themselves.'

'You're saying that they'll just come back after some time?'

'I'm hoping they will.' Eiji said. 'And I'm thinking that you're wrong.' Tsukaimon interrupted. 'They're a lot worse than your siblings, a lot older as well.'

Eiji was use do his annoying partner, still he would have things to argue with the rookie in a friendly manner, an instance was the 'Shut up!' he had just delivered to Tsukaimon.

'It's no use just waiting here.' The suited boy said, 'let's go to Takumi and see what he's doing. He's really good at using the digivice.'

* * *

Takumi sat in his room, recalling all the things that had taken place. All this happened too fast, to him at least. He looked at the beeping points in his digivice. The three of them, Ryosuke, Kaoru and Amy, were still out there.

'What do you think about this, Solarmon?' the boy with red, or someone would refer to as orange, hair said. 'About this whole 'digi-destined' thing?'

'I have to comprehend the question for a while.' The gear digimon said. 'It's rare of you to ask me free-answered questions.'

'I'm not doing the job well.' Takumi continued. 'We didn't even take out at least one Boarmon today.'

'Fighting is not your thing.' Solarmon said. 'You're more of a strategic person.'

Takumi wanted to say something, but couldn't push the right words out of his lips. Furthermore, it was about the time when the door was knocked by someone. The result was that the fourteen-year-old boy had to put the idea of talking nonsense aside and open the door.

'Eiji, Yuzuki, what can I do for you?' the red-haired boy asked.

Eiji was the first to speak, yet got disturbed by Tsukaimon before the could even get a single letter out of his mouth. 'Your mechanical knowledge.'

'Sorry, he's a bit rude.' The blue-haired boy apologized. 'Remember this morning when we first met, you showed us how to locate the other digivices? Can you do that again?'

'Sure, it's rught here.' Takumi showed his black digivice to the others. 'Two of them are together, I guess that would be Ryosuke and Amy.'

'Wait,' Yuzuki uttered once she saw the radar. 'Are they moving in the same direction?'

'It can just be coincidence.' Solarmon said.

'No, it's not.' BaoHuckmon, after keeping quiet for a long time, said. 'The two were speeding up, they might be after something.'

'Shall we go and find out what's actually happening?'

* * *

Kaoru walked randomly in Vertiro. Despite being a tower, one could only tell that from the outside. Inside, it seemed that it was just some kind of a normal city, despite having a layered structure.

'Are you sure it's fine? She's been following you.' FanBeemon asked his partner.

'Let her. She'll lose interest soon enough.' Kaoru said.

Amy, who had been patient enough to stalk behind the blond boy without talking much, finally walked up and said. 'Aren't you puzzled that I'm following you?'

The boy didn't answer, simply kept walking. 'Say something, it's like I'm talking to air.'

'What do you want me to say?' Kaoru, seemingly annoyed by the girl, asked.

'Ask me why am I following you.' The dyed haired girl said.

'Why are you following me?' He said immediately as required after the girl finished talking.

Amy walked closer, wrapped an arm around Kaoru's shoulder and whispered. 'Cause you're interesting.' Kaoru shook her arm off immediately. 'Get off me.'

'It's hard to imagine why someone like you would come here in the first place.'

'You don't know me.'

'Oh sure I do.' Amy said. 'And your voice's a bit disappointing as well, I expected it to be a bit deeper.' She continued in her fast tone, 'wait, where am I now? I remember talking about you coming here. It's actually not quite hard to guess. Because of this?' she raised her arm to reveal the silver locket of Kaoru in her hand.

'Give me back!' Kaoru shouted immediately. His partner, in response, rushed to the older girl, only to be knocked aside by DemiMeramon by surprise.

'A hint for you: next time you have something shinny, hide them.' The girl said. Kaoru, however, wasn't going to give up as he pulled a card out of his card deck, remembering how Yuzuki used them in battle, he slid the card along the side of his silver digivice.

'Activating speed plug in.' the speed of FanBeemon increased, closing in to the girl's side rapidly in no more than a millisecond. Amy, nonetheless, had a firm grip on the locket.

'Fire ball!' DemiMeramon fired multiple blasts of fire randomly, knowing that aiming was futileat the moment. As long as he didn't hurt his partner, the best way to stop an accelerating target was to set the entire battlefield on fire. And it worked. The accelerated FanBeemon, possibly due to not having much practice, failed to evade the fire that was crossing in front of him.

'You're a good fighter,' Kaoru uttered, 'Why didn't you fight when we're at the simulation?'

'Cause he's got some other things to take care of.' Amy said, 'like telling me how your miserable life was.'

'What do you mean?' the blond boy asked. Amy took out a card that had a strange circular printed on it in response. 'Telepathy.' She said. 'It's been activated all the time, that's why I called the group lovely: the girl was kind of disappointed that her lover didn't come with her; the suited guy was worried for his four brothers and sisters and his single mother; Takumi, not wanting to look stupid, was wearing contact lenses; and Ryosuke the simplest being. And you, I don't have to say, do I?'

Kaoru didn't repond, instead he used another card. 'Triple force!'

FanBeemon used the attack of Deltamon. Seeing that he didn't come with three head like Deltamon did, he created three blasts of energy and fired them at once instead. Kaoru didn't hesitate to take the chance as he ran straight for Amy, only to be knocked over by a simple turn of her elbow.

'You've got to be cautious when messing with Ne-ians.' She said, waving the locket, taunting the boy.

'Give It Back to me!' Kaoru shouted more fiercely. 'Why do people just keep shouting when they know nothing good could be done by it?' Amy uttered uncaringly. This time, however, she was wrong. FanBeemon, having been locked in the burning battlefield, started to glow a strange yellow light for whatever reason, most likely owing to his partner's determination.

'Uh oh!' Amy whispered, something she hadn't expected was happening in front of her. Kaoru would have had the chance to retrieve his locket had he not been distracted by his partner's digivolution. A digimon that resembled a better-proportioned wasp was in the middle of the field, with FanBeemon's yellow details all replaced by gold ones. 'Waspmon, champion, virus type.'

'Turbo stinger!' the chapion attacked, firing energy stings from its sting which was actually a cannon. The in-training digimon, however cunning, wasn't able to take the attack and fell to the ground.

'No way!' the blond girl said. 'You can't just lose like this.'

'Give it back to me, and the fight's over.' Kaoru demanded.

Amy hesitated for a moment. _The fire seems a bit strange._ She then understood what's happening after a second of thought. 'I'd recommend you to take off your scarf.'

The blond boy just repeated his demand, ignoring the girl's random words. 'Give it back to me.'

'I really would take that scarf off if I were you.' Amy continued with her apparent nonsense, 'cause it looks really beautiful, and I don't want it to catch fire.'

DemiMeramon glowed a red light as well as surrounded by flames, and then digivolved into a candle-shaped digimon. The flame, however, was so great that it engulfed the whole candle once the digivolution was completed, leaving the digimon to be entirely of flame until the giant ball of fire formed a humanoid shape.

'Meramon, champion, data type.'

'Now we're even.' Amy said, launching her arm rapidly and grabbed the blond boy by his scarf, pulling him close to her. 'I told you to take that off.'

'Ne, famous for crime rate,' Kaoru uttered, 'you're a thief.'

'Don't call me that, I'm way more than that.' Amy said. 'And I've got plenty of this already. Now do I have your attention?' she continued, then whispered some words at the boy. 'Deal?'

Kaoru's got to admit that he's confused now. 'Just that? You went through all this just for that?'

'I can help you avenge your family.' The girl said. 'I know you well like how l know everyone.'

'One condition,' the blond boy uttered, 'I don't think I have to say it out.'

'You want it back?' Amy said, handing the locket back to Kaoru. 'the card seems to have been deactivated since Meramon digivolved.'

'Why me?' Kaori reattached the locket to his necklace and asked.

'I read your minds, or I was told by Meramon.' The girl uttered. 'And you seemed like you'll do anything to achieve your goal, which makes you easily convincible.'

Kaoru was ready to leave, but before that he saw a quick shadow passing by in front of him._ That__'__s him._ He recognized the shape: golden armor, an arm cannon and arm sickle, and a skull face.

He immediately rushed to run after the figure. 'Waspmon!' the newly digivolved Waspmon carried the boy and flew after the golden armored digimon.

'Wait for me!' Amy shouted. 'Meramon, follow me. Things are gonna happen, and from what I've observed, bad things.'

* * *

**I have the idea of giving my story some proper soundtracks. I've seen at least two (or just the two) authors done this. And though I initially considered it cheating, I have to admit that soundtracks do help giving readers the right feeling, and that I, too, listen to soudtracks while writing. I don't compose, however. I have absolutely no musical gift, so I'll just find some tracks from various stuffs. I'll probably finish the list by chapter 9/10.**

**Also, I might use the sign ****[play: track name (performer/origin)] to surprise you guys. Well, some music do spoil plots.**

**And of course you are very welcome to give suggestions (if you actually leave reviews, I'll be glad anyway)**

**1 more short chapter to go~**


	10. 9 Crash of the Goldens

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters.**

* * *

9 ~Crash of the Goldens~

Ryosuke walked along the streets of Vertiro, with his partner, Floramon, following loosely behind. Was he mad? No. Angry? A bit. Frustrated? Certainly. As an act of defying his own personality he hadn't spoken a word since he'd left the group, and Floramon wouldn't dare to say anything.

The internal anger of the black-haired boy caused him to walk far away from the group for at least half the length of the city in no more than then minutes. 'It's getting a bit too far now.' The plant digimon mumbled lightly, for fear that her words should further anger the sensitive boy. Ryosuke, initially refusing to answer, figured out that he had no reason to be mad at his partner. She's always been supportive to him, even when his bad temper was taking over his brain, and that's why he replied. 'Just a few more minutes.'

Floramon, instantly relieved by the reply, said. 'Better be a quick few minutes, the others might get worried.' She walked closer to the eleven-year-old boy. 'Why are you even mad at them?'

Ryosuke didn't need to think before he answer, though he had done that a lot. 'I fought for them, and you even got yourself injured, at least they owe you a thank!'

'That's all you're caring about?' the plant digimon giggled. 'You've already used the recovery card. I'm perfectly fine now. Besides, plant digimon feels less pain then most of the others.'

'But they didn't even appreciate your effort.' The black-haired boy uttered madly.

'They're depressed at the time, of course they're gonna go the negative way.' Floramon said. 'The same way why you're mad at them.'

Ryosuke laughed. 'Why's my partner so…kind? It's like we're the perfectly opposite pair.'

'A few minutes has passed.'

Deciding to return, the pair turned around, trying to walk the same way reversed. That having lived in the extensively natural land of Kr granted Ryosuke a great ability of remembering routes. Very soon enough the two would have returned to the others if they hadn't been confronted by a menacing digimon in the way.

The digimon had the face of a skull, armor of gold, and the shape of a strong-built human being. 'Reapermon, mega, virus type.'

'I have a bad feeling about this, Floramon.' Ryosuke whispered to his partner. Having the same feeling, Floramon could only give a slight nod in return.

'Where is Magnamon?' Reapermon demanded. His voice wasn't as loud as the black-haired boy had expected. In fact it was at a quite pleasant volume, but that each word was pronounced so clearly and the delay between the three words simply made the sentence sound menacing along with the deep voice and the look of the digimon.

'When I say run, run.' Ryosuke whispered in a voice lighter than any sound he'd ever made. Reapermon approached the boy, saying. 'I'm not gonna ask again. Tell me where is Magnamon.'

'How am I supposed to know?' Ryosuke said, trying hard not to let his voice shake, obviously he failed, though. 'He only appeared before me and gave me Floramon's digi-egg and…'

'And?' Reapermon took a step closer to the boy.

'And he told me to…' the black-haired boy took a deep breathe, turned his head to give a signal to his partner, and then continued. 'Run!'

Reapermon allowed the pair to run. They weren't his targets. In fact, letting the boy go made the process of luring Magnamon out easier, unless he didn't care about the kids that had been put in danger by him. He chased the boy, though, ensuring that he's running fast and desperate enough to get his target's attention. Too focus was the golden armored mega that he never noticed that his shape was spotted by two other beings.

* * *

Ryosuke was running as fast as possible. However boastful he was, he wasn't stupid enough to believe that Floramon, a rookie digimon that had only been recovered from a battle, was able to take down the mega digimon on her own. _Actually, I don__'__t think that even the whole team was able to beat him._ It seemed to him that Reapermon wasn't chasing him at full speed. _No time to think of that._ He thought while still pushing his legs' function to their maximum. _Better get away alive than to die for silly questions._

A sudden voice surprised both the digimon and the human. 'Turbo gear!'

The attack hit Reapermon, but could hardly do any damage to the mega. Reapermon, getting distracted, turned to see his attacker: A wasp-like digimon with a human kid riding on his back.

'Kaoru? And Amy?' Ryosuke uttered in both rejoice and confusion.

'Meramon, do whatever you like with it.' Amy instructed her partner. 'Roaring fire!' the digimon made entirely out of fire shot multiple towers of brick red flames from his palms, holding Reapermon for no longer than five seconds before the girl shouted. 'Kaoru, watch out!'

The sound waves weren't transmitted as fast as the pulse of pale purple energy that was fired from the cannon on Reapermon's left arm, resulting in Waspmon's being hit directly and was forced to crash landing. 'Don't just stand there and do nothing!' Amy shouted as she ran to Ryosuke.

'Floramon, can you distract him for a moment,' the black-haired boy asked nervously, 'like throw some plants for Meramon to burn or anything like that?'

'Ok.' The plant digimon replied. 'Rain of pollen!' she spread the allergy-inducing spores from her arms, but the biological attack was not working out quite well against an armored opponent, which made Reapermon immure to the attack. Both Floramon and Meramon were swiped to the ground by a kick of Reapermon. 'Weak. Is that the quality of the ones he's chosen?' the golden armored digimon charged his cannon, ready to fire once more.

'Defense plug-in, connect!' a tiny digimon charged into the battle, attempting to protect the digi-destined with the force field surrounging him, only to be blasted away for a few tens of meters.

'Solarmon!' Takumi rushed to his partner.

'It's really a mess here.' Tsukaimon, along with Yuzuki and BaoHuckmon and of course his very own partner Eiji, who had just arrived, said.

'All six of you here,' Reapermon started to speak, 'and still he hasn't shown up. he must be either too stupid to trust on you or too cruel to leave you to die.'

'Teen blade!' BaoHuckmon leaped forward to strike, but was easily tossed aside by the sickle arm of Reapermon before he could even leave the ground for more then two meters. Tsukaimon didn't attack, knowing well that his attacks would just be single-handedly neutralized by Reapermon like the white dragon digimon's.

'Maybe I should just kill you off one by one and let your screams summon him.' Reapermon said, aiming his cannon at the nameless humans (to him). None of the digi-destined was capable of fighting back, or even dare to cry for help. Just when it seemed that all hope was gone, another ray of light shot through the giant shadow of Reapermon. 'Plasma shot!'

'There you are.' Reapermon, despite finally getting damaged by a digimon attack, let out a laugh of satisfactory and starred at the other golden armored digimon.

'You want me,' Magnamon X said as he approached the mega digimon. 'Here I am.' He then turned to the digi-destined before engaging full combat with Reapermon. 'I've seen your performances, you didn't let me down.'

With that finished he immediately fired another blast of plasma from his palms at Reapermon. Reapermon responded the attack with a slash of his scythe, which Magnamon evaded by swiftly leaping over the mega and landed behind him, and then he fire numerous missiles from his armor. Reapermon wasn't stopped by that. He aimed precisely each and every of the missiles and took out every single one of them with one shot of his cannon. As a consequent, a thick layer of smoke was generated, suspending midair. The mega digimon chased into the smoke without hesitation, not willing to let his target escape.

Sounds of metal colliding were sent out from the center of the smoke, and soon the two golden digimon were seen fighting their way out of the smoke and all the way to the other end of the city, away from the children.

The digi-destined were speechless, either too frightened by the might of Reapermon or too shocked to see Magnamon's appearance to save them.

'We're saved.' Ryosuke mumbled as the tension was lowered.

'So what are we gonna do now?' Amy asked, walking to her battered partner. 'Feeling fine?'

'Use this.' The black-haired boy said, taking out a card. 'It's used for healing purpose.'

The group quickly recovered their digimon. Only when the battle was over could they realize how severely the surroundings were damaged. Most of the floor panels were roasted black while the rubbles were nowhere to be seen, most likely destroyed in battle.

'Who's that one?' Yuzuki uttered. 'The one Magnamon was fighting.'

'He is my enemy.' Kaoru said while Waspmon helped him to get up from the crash site they were shot down to. 'He's the only one that worth me killing for.'

'What are you talking about?' Eiji, confused by the circumstance, said.

'Actually he is called Reapermon.' Ryosuke said, 'and he said that he wanted to find Magnamon, probably for some sinister reasons.'

'So he's our first target?' Tsukaimon said. 'Do we chase him down?'

'Of course.' Kaoru answered immediately, then turned around to Amy, who seemed to be looking for a way to stay out of this. 'Remember our deal.'

'What deal?' the others were a bit surprised to hear that. Kaoru has always been a loner while Amy was a total mystery. It's a bit beyond imagination that those two were actually working together. 'You don't have to know the details, just know that I'll be on your side, for the time being.'

Takumi, having been silent for most of the time, mumbled. 'Sorry, I wasn't helping, again.'

'It's not your fault, you're the one that led us here.' Yuzuki said.

'And without Solarmon's force field we'll be boiled by now.' Ryosuke said. 'Though more likely that Floramon would catch on fire.' Despite not being pleased by the hidden insult in the joke, Floramon still giggled for his partner's humor which helped lower the tension a whole lot more. 'It seems that you're not angry at each other anymore.'

'They're never really mad at each other,' BaoHuckmon said, 'just not gotten used to each other yet.'

'And what do you suggest us to do to get used to each other?' Amy, being one of the more outgoing kinds in the team, asked.

'It's getting dark now, what do you suggest we can do?' Eiji pointed out immediately. One drawback of living in Vertiro was that the city was surrounded by walls. Even with the glasses that allowed sunlight to pass through and the light-amount regulation, it's still hard to tell time.

'Just get some good sleep, we're going to have a lot to deal with for the next few days.' Yuzuki said. 'I've the feeling that I'm not getting home for some time.'

* * *

The president was satisfied with the information told to her by Piedmon.

'So he's here.' She muttered. 'And he'd let him slip away, again.'

'He's always done that.' Piedmon said. 'Maybe it's time for us to take action as well.'

'Not yet.' The president said. Her mind was working so fast and restlessly that wrinkles seemed to have reappeared upon her pale face. 'What do we have left?'

Piedmon focused his mind for a minute. He never needed a computer to gain access to any kind of information, all he ever needed to do was to focus and filter the strands of information flying past his mind, and it's getting a bit frustrating for him that he had to keep doing this so many times a day. 'Two murderers, both ultimate, scheduled to be banished tomorrow.'

'Then we can use them.' The president said. 'But how do we use to ultimates to lure that Magnamon out?'

'He doesn't need to be,' Piedmon explained, 'he'll keep an eye on the kids, and he'll eventually trace back to us, and he'll knock our door to present himself to us.'

The president smiled, once again satisfied.

* * *

**(I feel like talking to myself, or my only reviewer, setting up this corner.)**

**Waiting is surely a good means of torturing. (I've to wait to upload the chapters weekly while I'm already writing chapter 20 at this point of time.)**

**Anyway, here's the first wave of the soundtrack list, packed from... wherever I feel like packing soundtracks from. (A bit embarrassing actually. This is the moment when I'm glad not too many people view my work)**

**Intro (The first chapter with the same name): Story introduction (Bionicle: Piraka animation)**

**Common battle theme: fight (Bionicle: Voya Nui online game)**

**Character themes**

**Magnamon X: The ninth Doctor's theme (Doctor Who series 1)**

**Reapermon: The Winter soldier (Captain America: The Winter Solider)**

**Digi-destined: I have still got 3 of theme undecided...**

**Some of them you might not find on Youtube, go visit BioMedia Project.**

**That's all for the 'cheat-a-bit list' for now. Hope you enjoy.**


	11. 10 First team

**This is where the real deal begins. I've been waiting for this day for sooooo long!**

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the plot.**

* * *

10 ~First team~

'Alright, let's start with the basics, shall we?' Eiji suggested.

The team consisting of the six of the digi-destined and their partners were currently gathered at a venue, a place like a meeting room which was in fact, an isolated room of a restaurant.

'First, we all received a digi-egg, which is our partners.' Said Yuzuki.

'You don't use the word "received",' Tsukaimon complained, 'we're not some kind of products of cargo, we're alive!'

'Sorry,' the black-haired girl apologized. 'We…were introduced to you, and Magnamon gave each of us a digivice and ten cards.' She said, putting all the objects that she had mentioned on the desk.

'That gives us sixty cards in total,' Takumi quickly pointed out, 'I wonder if they're inter-compatible.'

'What's that "inter-compatible"?' FanBeemon asked.

'He means that the cards might be able to be used by all of us.' Solarmon explained for his partner as always. 'And just as a reminder, the correct cry when activating a card is "the card's name, connect."'

'What about this?' said Ryosuke as he took out his pale green digivice. 'What does it do aside from letting us use the cards? And we need to give it a name, don't we?'

'I analyzed it a bit.' Takumi continued with his technical terms that confused almost everyone present for about five minutes until Ryosuke finally protested. 'Just say something that can be understood by human, ok?'

Takumi paused for a moment as if it was a tough challenge choosing the combinations of words to present his idea in a simpler way. The outcome, nonetheless, didn't quite match the time and effort the red-haired boy had out into the sentence. 'The signals that summoned us wasn't originated from this digivice.'

'So someone wanted us together,' speculated Amy, 'who?'

'I can't trace that, sorry.' Takumi once again used his apologetic tone to speak.

'Let's not care about that for now.' Ryosuke said. 'What about the name of the divice? I really wanted a cool name for it instead of just calling it a "digivice" all the time.'

'Really? That's all you're caring right now?' Floramon interrupted, followed by her partner's not quite gentle hint for her to stay quiet at certain moments.

'Most digivices are named in the "d-something" pattern.' Suggested Yuzuki, 'should we follow the tradition as well?' All the others who had been talking stopped for a few seconds, mostly to think of a name that was suitable for the digivice while some were just not keen on the topic.

'Eiji was the first to speak. 'How about d-magna? Magnamon's the one who gave them to us.'

'Lame!' the immediate response as well as criticism was from Tsukaimon.

'Why not? You know, they used to have something called d-power, that sounds pretty stupid as well.' Solarmon, the one who was usually just clarifying his partner's words, actually voiced his own opinion, whick was quite a striking act to Takumi.

'Considering that the digivice actually identified Magnamon as Magnamon X,' suggested Amy, 'shouldn't we put the X in the name as well?'

'So you're saying that we actually call it like "d-mgana-X"?' Ryosuke objected at his first opportunity. Nevertheless, he was also the first one to agree to the though of the 'X' sound at some degree after a second though and proposed. 'What about d-magnus? You know, like putting the x sound in the end of the name.'

'Alright, let's just end this here.' Said Eiji, 'we had already spent like ten minutes just to name the digivice. Besides, we have something else to settle.' The black-blue haired continued, 'Now that we're a team we need a leader.'

'You suggest us to vote?' asked BaoHuckmon. 'I would recommend the three with champion partners, namely Yuzuki, Kaoru and Amy.'

'Just Yuzuki and Amy,' Takumi corrected the white dragon digimon. 'Waspmon has degenerated back into FanBeemon, in case you didn't see him over there.'

'And we can't just choose depending on the partner's level.' Yuzuki pointed out, 'we need someone with leadership, someone that can make the best decisions. Therefore I nominate Eiji to take the post.'

'What?' uttered the blue haired boy, 'I can't take the job! None of you here seems to like me anyway, how an I gonna lead the team?'

'This might work,' said Kaoru, 'judging by the current situation, none of us here is suitable. So you are the only one left unless you have other recommendations.'

'But…' Eiji was still determined to decline for the job, 'I've not quite contributed to the team.'

'But you have the experence.' Said Yuzuki, which was no doubt a confusing argument to the others owing to that Yuzuki actually knew Eiji before he was a digi-destined while the others had only met each other for no longer than a day's time.

'You run your family pretty well.' Yuzuki further explained, 'you have the experience of running an organization. Besides, you're the eldest here, making you the most reliable.'

'They're not like my brothers and sisters, they're different people!' objected the blue haired boy. 'I have to agree with you. You won't be able to get a hold on them.' Tsukaimon said, giggling.

'Then we settled another problem, what's next?' said Ryosuke in a rush so that the older boy wouldn't even have the chance to complain.

'We've pretty much get everything settled.' Said Yuzuki.

'No, the biggest problem hasn't been solve yet.' Takumi said in his specific tone that appeared every time he was being in his professional state. 'Digi-destined's emergence basically indicates an upcoming crisis, so what's the crisis?'

'We all know that,' said Tsukaimon, 'we don't have any idea of what that might be, that's why we can only take care of whatever's happening right now, maybe sooner or later we will be able to figure out something.'

'Maybe we can start with looking into this.' Said Amy as she showed the news headline in the screen of her phone to the others. 'Two GigaDramon that assaulted a factory and caused five deaths actually escaped the imprisonment today, tight before they were sent to the wasteland, sound suspicious?'

'It happens all the time.' BaoHuckmon said, 'like the first two times I battled, both digimon I fought were meant to be outside.'

'What?' uttered Eiji in surprise. Naturally he would have expected his old friend to be honest to him. 'Why didn't you tell me earlier?'

'I thought it was just coincidence,' the black-haired girl replied, 'the later waves that we fought were all normal digimon.'

'Maybe,' Takumi started to talk, his tone was like a teacher's at this point despite how he seemed to be always lacking confidence for most of the time, 'maybe we can get something from them, like how they managed to escape or did they even do that on their own.'

'Easy for you to say,' said Ryosuke, 'they're ultimates, and they set the entire factory on fire out of nothing. Do you really think that they will tell you everything they know just by asking them nicely? And we didn't even know where they are!'

'If they don't talk, we fight.' Said Eiji, 'as for where they are, the news has reported very precisely that they broke through the prison in the basement of Vertiro.'

'They're here?' Floramon was not quite ready to hear that. 'Then why didn't we know about it until now?'

'They went free from the basement.' Explained Amy, 'this is almost the mid section of the tower, you really think they're gonna affect us?'

'So it's decided.' Eiji said, getting up from his seat as he gave each member of the team a slight glance. 'Let's go, team. We've got work to do.'

'I thought you're not gonna be the leader.' Yuzuki whispered to the boy teasingly.

The blue haired boy simply shrugged his shoulders. 'You made me.'

* * *

'Remember, GigaDramon are ultimates, be careful.' The leader of the team alerted the others as they finished their one-hour trip down the basement. Being a prison it was a delicate one, actually nicely decorated as oppose to how people expected it to be. The walls and the floor were all shinny white while the illumination system was efficient enough that there were literally no shadows in the room.

'No guards?' Amy immediately spotted the odds. Usually, even the minor governmental facilities were guarded by Centarumon, so even if the GigaDramon did break out from there, there should be defeated guards, not to mention the supplementary troops that should have been sent here. It was too clean and quiet that it seemed almost as if the digi-destined had gone to the wrong floor, which wasn't happening seeing that they were already underground at the lowest point of the capital of Ventrium. The alternative hypothesis would be that they were lured here, for some reasons that mustn't be good.

'Do we enter the cells?' suggested BaoHuckmon.

'I don't think so, wait…' Yuzuki mumbled before realizing something of importance. 'If it was a prison break then shouldn't there be others on the lose as well?'

'Keep quiet.' Eiji whispered upon hearing some hiss sounds to his left. Looking around he also noticed that the impossibly clean ground had some traces of dirt on it. 'Everyone stay alert, I think they're here.'

Very soon after he finished the statement an unknown flying object that looked almost like it's alive jetted through the brightly illuminated room. 'Get down!' the deep blue haired boy shouted as soon as possible. The missile-resembling object that looked as if it was composed of living tissues solely struck the wall behind were the kids were standing, instantly turning the white tile into black dusts as the missile decomposed itself upon contacting the wall.

'They want to save their cost by sending kids here?' said a voice in an unseen corner.

'Guilt claw!' the shape of a purple cyborg dragon rushed out of a corner, the mechanical talons of the dragon widened to reveal a glowing circular object that resembled a barrel of a cannon.

'Teen blade!' BaoHuckmon struck first, hindering the GigaDramon from aiming at the digi-destined before it swiped the white dragon digimon with a quick swing of its tail, sending BaoHuckmon into the already cracked wall.

'Digivolution, connect!' 'Turbo stinger!' Waspmon was the next to attack once he finished digivolving. Nearby Kaoru spotted Amy's attempt to use one of her cards, instantly he shouted at her. 'Use your mind tricks later, focus on the fight!'

'Fine.' The girl replied. 'Meramon, change in tactics. Burn him!' 'Fire ball!'

The fire digimon immediately generated spheres of flame and threw them at the outrageous GigaDramon as BaoHuckmon got back to the state to fight. Floramon used her signature attack 'rain of pollen' to slower the ultimate. Yet. Being half mechanical means that the effect of the spores the plant digimon had to be halved.

'We have a problem here.' Said Tsukaimon as he dodged another missile from GigaDramon. Being in a confined space was basically another meaning of not being able to emit his poisonous smoke to attack. 'We've only got one here, where's the other?'

'Can we take care of this one first?' asked Solarmon as he shot a dozen of gears at the dragon digimon, cracking his armor.

'Spray some more spores on him.' Suggested Takumi.

'I really hate it when I have to fight machines!' uttered Ryosuke. Normally he would have been the first one to rush to the front line to fight. But that Floramon's attack weren't as versatile and practical as the others' and the frequent failures that he'd got recently really made him feel like that he's one of the weakest of the team, resulting in his hesitation in giving the appropriate order to his partner, and failed to see an incoming pulse of energy from GigaDramon.

'Move, idiot!' Tsukaimon, having nothing to do but evading attacks, noticed that and pushed the black-haired boy aside while shouting for him to run. The GigaDramon was delayed by the three champions while Ryosuke regained focus and approached the injured Tsukaimon along with Eiji.

'I'm sorry.' Apologized the black-haired boy sincerely as opposed to how he would normally behave. 'Quick, use this.' He said, handing the healing card to the team leader.

'Wait a minute.' Uttered Yuzuki as she realized what's happening to the violet digimon. She had seen it twice and she was confident that she wasn't mistaking the situation. The aura of lilac light shinning and surrounding Tsukaimon was the sign of digivolution. A moment later, a gunmetal colored, metallic jet-looking digimon replaced the shape of Tsukaimon.

'Pteramon X, champion, data type.' Read the blue digivice of Eiji.

'Something's happening here as well.' Said Amy. As the group looked at the direction the girl was pointing at, a glowing green light surrounding Floramon could be seen expending its territory of illumination until a shape of a larger digimon appeared.

'Togemon X, champion, data type.'

It was a surprise that two of the digimon managed to digivolve at such a critical moment. Yet there wasn't the time for the digi-destined to celebrate silently, nor did they have the time to sign out of amazement. The GigaDramon wasn't letting the children to rest, instead he fired two more of his organic missiles, barely missing their targets as Pteramon X fired his inorganic missiles to counter.

'Needle spray!' Togemon X fired countless of her spiky leafs at the ultimate. Surely the digivolution had given her greater strength. Nevertheless the armor of GigaDramon was still too sturdy for her spikes to penetrate.

'Little help here!' said Amy as Meramon fired a continuous wave of brick red flame at the needles of Togemon, granting them the ability to do more damage to the metallic armor of GigaDramon.

GigaDramon was damaged. His mechanical parts started to give off black smoke as well as clicking sounds of short circuits. 'You kids are really impressive, but it ends here. I'm not gonna let some kids get in my way!' he yelled frustratingly as he raised his half-broken arms and knocked aside Solarmon who was at the moment shooting gears to distract him. 'Guilty wind!' the dragon yelled, ready for a full force attack. His wings and tail positioned at a certain position, indicating that the recoil of the strike was going to be strong while the gun barrel in his pawn glowed brighter than ever.

'Bear buster!' Waspmon attacked from above with a glowing blue blast of highly concentrated energy which looked almost dead solid. As he did so Meramon also fired two tides of golden yellow flames from both of his palms while Pteramon launched another missile. The combination of the three expolsive strikes caused an explosion so fierce as if it was triggered by throwing a chunk of cesium into a pond.

GigaDramon survived that, though. He was immobilized, not even able to move his tail to a more comfortable position. 'I don't think you can talk, but you still need to answer some questions.' Said Pteramon as he flew closer to the fallen GigaDramon. The cyborg digimon didn't respond as demanded, either because he was too severely damaged that he could hardly speak or because he simply refused to do so. Most of the group prefered the later, as proved by the dyed haired girl's action. 'I have a faster way.' Said Amy, giving a wink at Kaoru, seemingly symbolizing how she was doing this lawfully. 'Telepathy, connect!'

Meramon stood still for a good few minutes, glancing at his target before turning around to his partner. Amy stared at the air for a while before saying. 'Meramon said there were, in fact, two GigaDramon. One of them got free way earlier before we discovered that while the other, this one, stayed here. The interesting bit is that.' She paused for a while, creating an atmoshpere of curiosty that annoyed most of the team, 'they were never put in the cells. The guards just left them here.'

'What?' that's the most common expression any of them could think of instantly.

'And there's something wrong with that guy's mind as well.' said the dyed-haired girl.

'What do you mean?' BaoHuckmon asked.

'Well, he thought the other GigaDramon just disappeared in front of him, having gone through some kind of weird vortex-like thing.'

'Not only that. Guards weren't present at the trail they fled.' Added Amy.

'Wait, if one of them has never left here, then why are there reported as having two GigaDramon breakin out?' suspected Ryosuke.

'That's something we have to find out.' Said Yuzuki. 'What do you suggest us to do, Eiji?'

The team leader thought for a while, then said. 'I think it will be best if we split up, return to our own district until further discovery.'

'Yes captain.' Replied Ryosuke. A bit to his surprise was that the blue-haired boy didn't get mad for that tittle, the others were the ones to giggle, though.

* * *

'How are things going?' asked the president. She hadn't been quite patient lately ever since the reappearence of Magnamon.

'They've fallen for it.' Said Piedmon. He was the one to retain his calmness in contrary to the president despite how loyal he'd been. 'It's only a matter of time.' He said, 'also, there's an update from him.'

'You connected the other side without my permission?' uttered the president. The tone didn't sound blameful. In fact it was more like a random statement thatshe had to make most of the time. 'Get him.'

'It's been quite a while since you last called us.' She said.

'It won't be something minor that I have to report.' Said a cold, calculative voice. 'the fact is, we're running out of time, he's running out of time. And I need the gate to complete the job.'

'We're working on it.' Said Piedmon. 'Besides, you're the chief scientist, can't you think of some other ways to do so?'

'I'm the only scientist here and I have more to do.' Said the voice. 'the recources here is not enough to open even just a gate to transport a bean.'

'Then work hard.' Said Piedmon, 'and what about the test subjects?'

'Only if I can get them to the proper test field.' Said the voice from the other side, 'nothing here is worth testing. And I have to remind you not to talk to me like a superior. Collecting data for the gate is your job, and you're not doing it well. The consequences should have crossed your mind. You know what will happen. And if you don't do you job, I can't do mine.'

'It will be done soon.' Repiled Piedmon, not as aggressive this time.

'I hope so.' Said the voice before signing off.

* * *

**About the digivolution...you know what I'd say. I am the author now and I will do whatever I like (if not too offensive)**

**By the way, I've calculated that this book will end in 18/7, with chapter 34 being the finale. (Got a long while to wait...)**

**Also, I've given up on giving each digi-destined a personal theme. I looked back to my half-finished list and found itunsatisfying. That leaves only the 'less important characters' to have their own themes.**

**And to those who've been waiting since chapter 2, I'll do a little spoiler. Next time, Katashi is back, and of course along wiht him...**


	12. 11 The dragon in Rn

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the locations.**

* * *

11 ~The dragon in Rn~

Four days has passed since the event in Vertiro, and most of the digi-destined had resumed their normal lives back at their districts while keeping a keen eye on the other GigaDramon on the lose. Nothing happened despite how things had seemed so strange lately, not even a single sentence of news report.

'I told you it's gonna work out.' Said Katashi. Ever since Yuzuki had returned to Rn she had been hanging out with him for almost everyday as if she'd been gone for years. The event in Vertiro was still bothering her despite how the team had come to agreement that they would cooperate. Katashi, on the other hand, seemed optimistic on this.

'We're lost in a total mystery, like we are being tracked by someone every time we take a step.' Yuzuki replied, referring to the news report that disappeared mysteriously soon after it led the team to the last out-of-control digimon and let the group defeated it. She could almost tell that someone was directing their steps, playing them in the maze that 'someone' had set up.

'We can only take it step by step.' Said BaoHuckmon.

'Sometimes it's good to be able to stay out of these things.' Said Katashi with a sneaky smile, 'though I'd like to be part of it more.' The saying caused the black-haired girl to darken her face. It has already given her a good amount of stress dealing with that. 'You'll want to stay out of it once you're part of it.' she sighed.

'Sorry, just joking.' Apologized the brown haired boy. 'You know I'm keen on things like this. By the way, why didn't you find Ishiguro to discuss with? He's part of your team.'

'He's left Rn yesterday…you were there too! And I've seen someone way worse than you.' Replied Yuzuki, 'why didn't you bring out Frimon? It's just a park.'

'He is digivolving quite fast ever since he's born.' Said Katashi. There're some strange feelings in using the word 'born' since the last time they saw Leomon X, the previous incarnation of Frimon, he was trying to kill the two. 'He likes my home, and I don't want him to disturb us.'

Listening to the words of Katashi caused BaoHuckmon to be a bit guilty. 'Should I not be following you, Yuzuki?' he asked. Most of the time he had considered himself to be a guardian of some sot of the black-haired girl, as shown by how he had always been around the girl. Yet lately his view had changed a bit. Yuzuki had been treating him like a friend, and he felt the same way to the girl as well. All these caused him to value the feelings of Yuzuki more than he had ever done.

'Of course not.' Yuzuki said. 'You're not disturbing us. I'm sure Katashi said that simply because I'm not used to Frimon yet.'

'Besides, you're quiet most of the time.' Said Katashi, reassuring the importance of the champion digimon. 'Maybe I can show you Liollmon, that's how he's called right now. Nut he's not quite friendly to strangers. So, don't expect too much of him.'

* * *

The three spent a few ten minutes to reach Katashi's house. His parents, again, were out for work and so the only resident in the flat was Liollmon. Amazingly the interior of the house was cleaner than the black-haired girl had expected. She had thought that keeping a newborn digimon would be like keeping a baby, which would cause a giant amount of mess. BaoHuckmon, reminding Yuzuki that digimon were born with sufficient knowledge to live alone, immediately corrected the incorrect thought.

'Where's he?' wondered the white dragon digimon. Almost all lights in the house were turned off. No sign of any moving object could be seen or heard.

'He's probably in my room.' Said Katashi. 'He loves my room.' The brown-haired boy first entered his room, having advised the two to stay behind so as to get Liollmon used to the situation. 'I think you can come in.' he said from the inside of the room after a few minutes of silence.

Walking into her friend's room the first thing she noticed was that the entire bed of Katashi was occupied by a medium sized digimon with golden yellow skin. He looked large in terms of a cat with a little orange fur on top of his head while wearing a necklace of some sort with a giant aqua-colored gem on it. 'Liollmon, they're Yuzuki and BaoHuckmon, friends of mine. You don't have to be afraid of them.' Said Katashi as the black-haired girl and the white dragon digimon walked in. Liollmon stayed on the bed, half-covered by a heavy white blanket.

'Hi, I'm Yuzuki. I'm sure Katashi had introduced me to you.' Yuzuki said as gentle as she could while hanging a warm smile on her face. 'My name is BaoHuckmon,nice to meet you.' The white dragon digimon said. Having been around Yuzuki for a long period of time had really granted him a more casual tone and choice of words.

Liollmon hid under the blanket immediately after seeing the two strangers, leaving only a small opened space that allowed his glow-in-the-dark emerald eyes to see what's on the outside with a very limited angle.

'It's alright, Liollmon, they're friends.' Said Katashi softly to the lion cub digimon as he slowly pulled the blanket over to let Liollmon to the outside.

'Hello.' Liollmon started to talk. His voice was soft and shaky as if he's been in shock and has to stay under certain psychological supervision. 'I'm Liollmon.'

'I can't believe he was the one trying to get us killed.' Whispered Yuzuki. BaoHuckmon gave a slight nod in agreement while Katashi wasn't quite happy with that, protesting lightly. 'Let's not say this sort of things in front of him.' He sounded serious, instantly causing the girl to regret having said that.

'Did I?' uttered Liollmon. Surely he had heard the sentence of the black-haired girl and, according to his knowledge that digimon die and resurrect, he realized that he must have wanted to hurt the girl in front of him. That wasn't his biggest concern, though, as the real reason that caused his uneasiness was that he actually tried to kill Katashi, the one who had taken care of him so well that he was the only one Liollmon trusted.

'The past stay passed.' Said BaoHuckmon. 'No memories of the previous life could be retained, which makes you a new digimon. You are different from the murderer that you used to be. At least I can't see any similarities in you two.'

'You should listen to him,' said Katashi, 'he's quite objective when it comes to things like this.' He than sat beside the digimon who was almost of his size and gently placed the lion digimon on the floor. 'Let's go out for a walk, and see how people think of you.'

* * *

The four of them set off for the main street, walking randomly for approximately an hour. Same as always, digimon weren't common on the streets, and people weren't paying much attention to them. 'See? People won't hate you for what you used to be unwillingly.' Said Katashi, comforting Liollmon as they settled by the ground floor of a mall.

'They won't be afraid of you.' Added Yuzuki. 'They're not even afraid of BaoHuckmon, who's almost twice your size as twice as terrible.'

'I'm not terrible.' Objected BaoHuckmon. The unusual act of self-defense caused his partner to giggle.

A few more lines were exchanged, and the group proceeded in the peaceful walk for a few minutes until as unusual beeping noise broke the atmosphere of harmony.

'It's never made any sound like this before.' Uttered Yuzuki as she took out her d-magnus from her pocket. Following her instinct she opened the radar as taught by Takumi. Five red dots were on the screen as usual. In addition to that, a certain yellow spot was beeping very close to the center of the radar, which meant that something, or someone, was very close to the group.

Yuzuki asked Katashi to keep an eye on everything around them while she and BaoHuckmon headed upstairs. The one downside of a radar was that it only tells four directions, and up and down aren't among them.

'What's happening?' asked Liollmon. Being new to the situation he probably found it confusing at what the black-haired girl was doing and why Katashi looked worried.

'Don't worry.' The brown-haired boy replaced his anxious face with a smiling one. 'Yuzuki thinks that something bad's gonna happen, but she might just be wrong about it.'

Unfortunately she wasn't. Something strange appeared next to Next to Katashi and Liollmon. At first there was a dim light that curved the view of a nearby sight. A few second later the light extended into the shape of a spinning whirlwind placed 90 degree rotated, having the center of the vortex facing horizontally outward.

'What's that?' Yuzuki didn't need to be on the same floor as Katashi did to notice what was happening down there. The vortex was a sheet as a sheet when viewed vertically from above. Within a second a winged shape, followed by a blast of blue flame chasing it, flew out of the vortex seconds before it disappeared.

'That's a GigaDramon.' BaoHuckmon immediately recognized the outline of the purplish cyborg dragon. Though it looked battered, with its wings' armor partially penetrated by some unknown wounds. One of its mechanical arms was also damaged, with one of the three claws missing. The GigaDramon flew across the interior of the mall with an unsteady pace, clashing into the walls occasionally.

'What should I do?' asked BaoHuckmon, awaiting his partner's instructions. Initially Yuzuki wanted to attack, but then realized that fighting in a crowded mall would easily cause casualties, not to mention that people were so disorganized that any single move from BaoHuckmon could mean the death an innocent person. She then thought of Katashi. He hadn't been in any digimon ballet before, so he would be another factor to take care of.

'Delay him. I'll get down to Katashi.' Said Yuzuki as she rushed to the elevator. 'Remember, be careful.'

The white dragon digimon nodded in response as he leaped down to the outraging ultimate. 'Fif cross!' he yelled, using his long unused claws to wound the GigaDramon as he landed on the back of the levitating dragon. GigaDramon, already wounded, couldn't stand the pain induced by the slicing and yelled in pain, shaking his body so that BaoHuckmon was left unattached to anything midair before slamming him with his tail, sending the white champion plugging straight into some opened floor.

'BaoHuckmon!' shouted Yuzuki reflexively as she saw her partner being tossed aside. But there was no time for useless concern. She ran straight toward where Katashi and Liollmon were, both glad and a bit annoyed that they were still on the same spot.

'Maybe you should evacuate with the others.' Suggested Yuzuki.

Katashi first made the attempt, asking Liollmon to go with him for the sake of their safety, only to be rejected by the lion digimon. 'No.' he said sincerely, looking at the direction where the two digimon was battling against each other.

BaoHuckmon made several attempts to strike, but all ended up being futile as the airborne digimon countered almost every attack readily. 'Fangmon's Snipe steal, connect!' Yuzuki gave BaoHuckmon increased speed. The white dragon digimon struck fast, and succeeded in making contact with GigaDramon despite losing control of the super speed seconds later and gave his opponent the chance to strike back.

'I want to help him.' Muttered Liollmon. His eyes still fixed on the sight of the battle while ignoring Katashi's protests and went upstairs.

'No, it's too dangerous!' yelled the brown-haired boy as he rushed up to ran after Liollmon. There were similarities between them, and he knew it. He always was not fear of danger, but rather enjoy them as they present themselves while the lion digimon was doing the same with a different intension. BaoHuckmon, despite having only said a single sentence to him, basically taught Liollmon the value of his resurrection and somehow given approval of his importance. It was no surprise that Liollmon would want to return something to the champion, but it was too hazardous to do so at the moment.

'Yuzuki told me, last time it took all six of them to defeat just one GigaDramon. You won't be able to help!' shouted Katashi during his chase. It's probably gonna be wasted. The words he had just said must be of no use. He knew it. He would have ignored other's advices too had someone told him to stay out of something you really wanted to help. _A__nd __I__ hate this side of me sometimes!_ 'Just let them handle it!'

But Liollmon wasn't stopping. Running faster and faster he leaped out of the open floor and approached GigaDramon. 'Lio claw!' he attacked, only to be slammed back to his original position be the mechanical arm of GigaDramon.

Katashi quickly leaned forward at the severely wounded rookie, holding him in his arms. 'Stop it, it'll kill you!' he muttered with tears leaking their way out of his eyelids. He never liked it when he had the smallest amount of tears on his face. Yet the reflexive act of care and worry couldn't be stopped by his personal preference, he didn't have much tine to care about it either. All he wanted at the moment was to keep his friend alive.

GigaDramon probably noticed that Liollmon was the easiest to get rid of, as shown by his taking aim at the brown-haired boy and the lion digimon with an organic missile loaded in his relatively well preserved right arm.

'Don't even think about it!' BaoHuckmon, obviously noticing that, rapidlly jumped and crounched on the right arm of Giagdramon. 'Teen blade!' he attacked, hindering the ultimate from firing his missile as well as disabling his right arm's function. 'Digital enhancement: strength, connect!' the enhanced strength allowed BaoHuckmon to hold himself on GigaDramon's arm securely while the cyborg was struggling to shake him off.

'I have to help him.' Uttered Liollmon weakly as she slowly got up to his feet. 'He can't do this on his own.' He said, walking unsteadily to the battlefield.

'You can't!' yelled Katashi. He didn't care if the tears around his eyes splashed around his face. All he knew was that he couldn't let his friend to walk into his own death. He yelled for a couple of more times, but still didn't succeed in getting Liollmon back. Things weren't all against his will, though, as the lion digion began to glow in a bright white light.

Two seconds was all that it took for the shape of the four-legged Liollmon to evolve into the shape of a humanoid digimon at the height of about 1.5 times that of Katashi.

'Leomon, champion, vaccine type.' The digimon was immediately identified.

'Not an X ?' uttered Yuzuki as she watched the digivolution took place.

No much time was wasted as Leomon's right fist glowed with an orange light immediately after the digivolution. 'Fist of king beast!' he roared in a much deeper voice than he had been as Liollmon. A pulse of energy that looked like a lion's head with fire burning around it was launched as Leomon made the movement of punching. The high velocity of the strike ensured that it hit GigaDramon, causing the cyborg dragon to lose balance in addition to how he was already not having a good state in midair.

GigaDramon swung his battered wings hard without a specific pattern owing to his high speed fall. Lucky to him, he was capable of retaining his state as an airborne. BaoHuckmon, on the other hand, jumped off GigaDramon once the attack form Leomon struck the poor dragon and re-bounced himself with a nearby wall to get on GigaDramon again, using him as an air platform to return to the side of his partner.

'How can we stop him?' asked Leomon. The balance of the game hadn't changed much, and would hardly be affected by the mere presence of an additional champion. GigaDramon, despite having been severely injured, was still standing, or in this case, levitating as he increased his speed painfully and aimed his partially broken left arm's cannon at the children as he charged at a very constantly low speed.

'I don't know.' Muttered Yuzuki. The last time it took five champions to just wound, though very badly, one GigaDramon. And it almost worned out their entire team in doing so. 'BaoHuckmon, how much longer can you fight?'

'Not for long.' The white dragon digimon answered. 'But so is he.'

'So what do we do now?' asked Katashi. 'I don't have that genius device like you do.'

'We strike together.' Answered the black-haired girl before swiping a card by the side of her digivice. 'This should be yours.' She said as the giant blade of Leomon X appeared next to Leomon, giving him two blades to use instead of his own dagger-sized one.

When all was ready, the two digimon struck again.

As the two leaped forward, the GigaDramon struck as well, firing a couple of shots that stopped BaoHuckmon from succeeding his attempt, causing him to fall from approximately two floor's height while Leomon successfully stabbed GigaDramon with one of his blades before being shaken of too.

'BaoHuckmon!' Yuzuki shouted as she ran down the stairs. Her partner seemed motionless while he was falling, which worried the black-haired girl. She found her partner lying on the bed made of rubbles, also motionless, as he had been during the fall. She swiftly ran to his side while couldn't do anything but to mutter numerous lines of concern and worry.

BaoHuckmon rose up slowly and gave a gaze of assurance to his partner exhaustingly before starting to glow a dim orange light. Katashi, who had been following Yuzuki down, holded the girl back away from the glowing BaoHuckmon. 'You know what's gonna happen.' He said as he called Leomon to hold GigaDramon for at least a few more second s to but time for the white dragon digimon.

As always, the light intensity increased vigorously before a new shape was formed. Now an ultimate, the white dragon digimon looked a lot leaner and was standing with two legs instead of four. His crimson cape enlarged, and was cut tidier than its previous incarnation.

'SaviorHuckmon, ultimate, data type.'

Stunned by the sudden appearance of an ultimate, GigaDramon shot a few more blasts at SaviorHuckmon, who swiftly covered himself with his cape that which deflected almost every single shot from GigaDramon. Leomon stepped aside as GigaDramon launched an organic missile at SaviorHuckmon.

SaviorHuckmon jumped up, skillfully slicing the missile in half with the shinning medieval styled blades attached to his arms. 'Trident Savior!' he made the final attack. Data streams kept flowing out of GigaDramon as he decomposed, leaving another digi-egg unattended.

Leomon degenerated back into the form of Liollmon after the battle. SaviorHuckmon, on the other hand, retained his ultimate form, stating that he enjoyed having two hands despite being a bit not accustomed to the balancing required to walk with two legs instead of four. Yuzuki received a phone call as the group prepared to leave the innocently and unwillingly damaged mall. The call was from Amy.

'Amy? You don't call me very often.' Said Yuzuki. According to her knowledge of the older and more random girl, she had to be either joking or having something really vital.

'Should I do the greeting first or should I just skip directly to the point?' said the voice from the other side of the phone. Both the tone and the voice matched the older girl's.

'To the point.' Yuzuki said. She could hardly take any irrelevant information anymore by now.

'You should be the last one to receive the call, but I still have to ask you something.' Said Amy, her voice suddenly becoming serious. 'Have you seen a GigaDramon, coming out from…something, out of nowhere?'

'We've seen it, and we've taken care of him. Now tell me what's going on?'

'You what?' Uttered Amy in shock. 'Tell me you didn't delete him.' Unfortunately, the answer to that question was a positive one.

'Alright, I'll tell you everything we know for now. I've already contacted Eiji and Takumi, none of them are related to this, and I could get to Ryosuke.' Said Amy, sounding urgent. 'Just a few moments ago, Kaoru and I met the GigaDramon that escaped the prison, also got here by some unknown means. We managed to damage him but he still escaped, and I didn't have the chance to let Meramon read his mind.'

'Then I suppose the blue flame is from you?'

'It passed through? Anyway I think we should meet up for the issue.' She concluded. Yuzuki agreed, and then briefly explained everything to the others.

'So, you have to leave again?' asked Katashi, obviously upset by that.

'No we don't have to.' Answered Yuzuki. 'We can discuss it on Internet. I'm really tired of going all the way around.'

'Yep, I want to spend more time here, too.' Said SaviorHuckmon. 'Even face to face communications cannot ensure secrecy anymore.'

'Besides,' said Yuzuki, 'I think we have to be responsible for causing this.' She said, looking at the crippled mall that was left behind by the battle.

'I think we should just go away.' Said Katashi. 'It's really not the time to be responsible.'

He was correct about it. Despite how Yuzuki initially hoped to cause as less damage as possible, the fight had almost destroyed half of the building. Reconstructing it would most likely spent no less than a week even if the best construction team was involved in the repairing work. Besides, it's not their fault that the mall was demolished. Had they left at the earliest opportunity the entire mall would've been vanished, probably a year and a half would have been needed be then. So in theory they actually helped to minimize the damage done by GigaDramon. Only explaining all this to the black-haired girl could Katashi get her to leave the mess behind.

The only question left for Yuzuki to figure out was how the GigaDramon was able to get from Ne to Rn in such a short period of time. Amy called soon after the battle was over, and the battle was finished in less than ten minutes, meaning that Amy faced the GigaDramon quite near the time when the two in Rn faced him. Yuzuki thought for digital gates for a moment, but she instantly dispute her own theory, remembering that digital gates were on computer screens, and were nothing close to a straighten-up vortex, and that the digital world had gone basically implied that no more digital gates would appear.

_And why is GigaDramon, a fugitive with no resources at all, able to achieve such an advanced technology?_

Many other questions rose in her mind, but she didn't want to think about them at the moment. _We__'__ll find the answers out eventually, after all._

* * *

**The digivolution of Tsukaimon on the last chapter might be really an astonishing one, so I'll explain my theory behind it.**

**First, I'd wanted to use Pteramon X all along, so I changed it into a chanpion (Armor~champion). Then, according to Wikimon, Pteramon can be digivolved from Patamon, but Patamon seemed too bright in colour, so I chose its purple counterpart, which is Tsukaimon. (I mostly do things according to Wikimon+my "little" imagination)**

**I hope that can solve your puzzles. (You have to accept, though, like it or not.)**

**And about this chapter, obviously it is confusing on its own, for this is a multi-chapter incident, which means, you'll see GigaDramon again in the next week. **


	13. 12 The dragon in Ne

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the map.**

* * *

12 ~The dragon in Ne~

Kaoru sat with FanBeemon in a berth of the high speed metro to Ne. Owing to the fact that a great distance was there between Rn and Ne, he had to spend a night on the train and skip half a day of school to answer the call from Amy. _It__'__d better be something of __importance__._ He thought as he gazed at the night view of the natural view outside the railway.

'You're not sleeping again.' Said FanBeemon sleepily as he slowly woke up from his dreams. 'Are the nightmares bothering you again?' he asked out of concern.

'I just can't sleep.' The blond answered him much to his surprise. The bee digimon had spent quite an amount of time with the reserved boy and he knew that most of the time his concern for his partner was blind-ended. Perhaps the prolonged interaction of the two had stealthily opened part of the chains that locked the door to his heart. Still, FanBeemon was relieved to hear an answer from his partner. 'You should get some sleep, we'll be there by morning.'

'You too.' Said FanBeemon. The whole conversation had been carried out in a low volume, partially due to the nature of Kaoru, another major factor being that FanBeemon didn't want to disturb the other passangers. The carriage became silent again once the soft conversation was finished, excluding the sound created by the spinning wheels and the engines.

* * *

'You're here. I expected you to be a bit late.' Said Amy with her trademark sneaky smirk on her face as she walked to the boy at the train station.

'You called us a day before, it'd better be something serious.' Said FanBeemon, representing his silent partner as usual.

'Well, first I would like to take you to my home for a more detailed explanation.' Said the girl with black hair shade. 'Nut I have some advices for you before getting to the streets of Ne: keep your shinny necklace under your shirt, and keep looking forward as you walk as if you're the only one on the road. I'm sure you can do that.'

'I'm good at that.' Replied Kaoru immediately after Amy said the word 'road'

'Not with these eyes.' Uttered Amy. Her instinct, no matter how strange, must be correct in this case. The blond boy's greenish blue eyes were barely opening with a deep shade around them. 'They make you almost ten years older than me.'

Despite that they still headed out for the streets. Amy was doing exactly as she said, ignoring al the suspicious human shapes that were lurking in the gap between the old, weathered and abandoned buildings and the unusual (not to her) emptiness of the streets while Kaoru could hardly maintain a straightforward sight. It was not easy to ignore your surroundings when you're in an unfamiliar environment, after all.

* * *

A few more minutes of walk took the three of them to a small house at the far end of a road. Meramon was inside the house as the two of them walked in. The word 'mess' could hardly express the real situation of the inside of the house. FanBeemon had to lift himself up from the ground slightly to travel across the room while Kaoru had to take every of his steps with caution and precision as if he was walking over a minefield.

'How do you manage to live like this?' Kaoru couldn't help but to ask the question upon seeing the older girl's accurate footsteps, passing the room as if nothing was there in her way. Within five seconds Amy had already walked her way to the couch in her living room while Kaoru was still trapped at the doorway.

'I want to show you something, 'said Amy, 'but before that, can you help me clean up the house?'

'You called us all the way here to help you tidy up your house?' asked FanBeemon, both surprised and a bit frustrated as he flew across the rooms to examine the degree of mess of the entire house. He concluded that at least an hour and a half would be needed.

'Well, I can't just let Meramon do that, he'll burn everything.' Uttered the dyed haired girl uncaringly. 'Besides, is that how you treat a lady?'

'You're older than me.' Said Kaoru, finally managing to get across the room.

'Still a lady.' Replied Amy. 'Just help me with this, please?'

Kaoru decided that it would be in vain to decline the request, neither did he have the interest in giving a four-thousand-word dialog just to delay the inevitable. 'Help, not doing all the work on my own.' He said coldly. 'FanBeemon, help me out.'

The two of them began to work immediately. Despite what the blond boy had declared, Amy was still very skillful at minimizing her workload. Working continuously for an hour could only tide up the living room, not to mention that thanks to that Amy was living alone in the house, all three rooms were clearly used by her one by one until she could no longer replace them with one another. Meramon, on the other hand, was doing nothing at all. As opposed to how his partner had claimed earlier, nothing was burnt even if they're in contact with the flamming digimon. It seemed that he could somehow control what to burn with him.

Two more hours passed relatively quickly and, about three over four of the work had been done. Amy, seeing how Kaoru and FanBeemon had blamelessly done most of the work for her, might actually be experiencing the feeling known as guiltiness, announcing that she would take care of the rest before the exhausted blond collapsed on the couch.

'Fallen asleep already?' muttered Amy as she leaned closer to the boy. His long hair covered his face so she had to swipe some of them out of the way to ensure that.

'Thanks to you.' Said FanBeemon. Though in a soft voice, the blond girl could easily read the anger hidden in the words. 'I don't think I need this to understand what's going on.' She said as she showed off her telepathy card. 'Eyes can really betray anyone.' She said as she gently carried the boy into one of the rooms that he had helped (or rather, one that she hadn't helped) tidy up and placed him on the bed. He actually weighted a lot less that she expected and was a lot thinner without his jacket and scarf while working. 'Happy now?' she asked FanBeemon, who seemed to have been further angered by that.

'Just how do you manage to do that?' Asked FanBeemon, obviously doing a very good job hiding his internal anger. 'To manipulate people like that?'

'I didn't.' Amy defended herself. 'I simply asked for help. Besides, I am doing the work by myself now, why are you angry with me?' she said. Despite how the words were spoken out she in fact knew why FanBeemon was angry with her. She could easily understand how ordinary people think even when not letting Meramon to read other's minds for her. She was just handling things in her own way, for her own security.

* * *

Kaoru woke up with a few screams. 'Can't you be quiet at the right time?' said Amy as she walked into the room. 'It's still morning, you haven't been asleep for too long, not longer than half an hour.'

Kaoru paused for a moment, starting to recall things that had happened before. 'Get yourself ready. We're gonna have a long way to walk.' Amy continued, throwing Kaoru's jacket and scarf, as well as a clean shirt to him, hinting for the boy to change his shirt that was soaked by his sweat during his 'voluntary' labor.

'What did you mean?' uttered Kaoru, successfully catching the attention of Amy no matter the intention. 'Back then, when you asked me to help you "live a better life"?'

'You'll find that out very soon enough.' Answered Amy as she left the room. 'Take a shower or do something like that, I don't want you to be stinky when we are together later.'

* * *

The two of them, along with their partners, headed for the edge of the city. It took them a good few minutes to reached their destination and it was already afternoon once the old scratched ruin, seemingly the objective of the walk, reached their sight.

'What is that?' asked Kaoru as Amy told him that they had arrived. He could easily see the woods of Kr at his right by a simple glance. All the buildings were left behind as this point. In front of him was a ruin of some sort. He could tell that it used to be some kind of building, as shown by the remains of the rusted iron frames that were seemingly a base for a building. It wouldn't be a tall one had it been an actual building, for the iron bars were no thicker than an ordinary water pipe, and the concrete around were all dulled out in addition to the irregularly shaped edges of the remaining walls that were at the height of no more than five meters.

'This is my masterpiece of work.' Answered Amy. 'Want to walk inside?'

'If there's an "inside", sure.' Said FanBeemon. He had scouted around aerially before and noticed that the entire ruin was exposed under the great sunlight of the afternoon. It almost looked like that a war, or a terrorist assault had taken place here and blew the entire structure into dusts until only the very base of it survived. Wild grasses were present all over as well as various smaller sized digimon like Budmon and Dokunemon, making the place almost as haunted as the dreaded wild land outside the country.

The two humans walked to the center of the ruins while Meramon and FanBeemon were guarding at the outer areas. Even though FanBeemon wanted to go with his partner to ensure his safety, a single sentence from the blond boy with a small glare were all that was required to sent the insect digimon to the demanded position.

'This is not your creation,' commented Kaoru as the two walked. He examined the damage of the remaining materials and deduced that a scaled explosion, or anything that could have made that amount of energy release must cause it. 'Why do you take me to this place?'

'This is my past,' said the girl, almost sounding sad while retaining her usual smile on her face. Kaoru really had no idea how she managed to do that, or just to understand her sentence with a rational explanation. 'It died along with my past.' She continued to say, looking at nowhere but the sky at the distant. 'This is your required explanation.'

'Part of the pact?' suspected Kaoru. It was only nature for him to do that seeing that Amy was so changeable at times and her sentimental performance at the moment might hardly indicate anything, he could only talk about their common subjects.

'The origin of it.' uttered Amy as she turned around and looked into the eyes of the boy behind her, giving a brief smile that didn't match her tone on her face. 'You're the only one that can use "just that" to describe my request.' She said as she started to see the confusion in Kaoru's eyes. Apparently she was doing things in a way too abstract and disorganized that nobody but her could understand. 'Want to hear some back stories of me?'

Kaoru showed no interest, but Amy concluded that no suggestions means no objections, and therefore she started her tale. She thought for a moment to let Meramon project the entire picture into the boy's mind, but decided that saying it out with words would be more poetic and express more of her own ideas than just showing the non-digital record in her mind.

'It started when I was young; I mean when I was really small, at the age of about three, when I first had memory. There're a few characters involved in the story: Me, and my parents. Back then I was just another ordinary little girl living in Ne, a place where you could hardly expect any act of morality, I was barely a by-product produced by my parents. Nobody in here could afford a life even just for their own. You can imagine that, right?'

'I don't think you need to proceed.' Said Kaoru. He could tell that it was just going to be another story of the unwanted getting over the trauma. But the one thing that didn't make sense was the connection between the ruins here and the girl's past.

'Oh. Things are gonna be unexpected and I'm sure you're either gonna love it or be freaked out by it.' said Amy, returning to her normal playful tone as she started again. 'The little girl, who was me, started to grow in this district where you can only adapt to survive, but she couldn't get rid of the unexplained mental and physical torture brought to her by her parents, so she became independent. Things wouldn't have been like this if that was all she had done. No, she didn't just do that. She sought for revenge, and so she learnt a few tricks, with fire. It's kind of funny that my partner is now a master of fire.'

Kaoru giggled upon hearing that. She swore that she wanted to say the sentence 'I should really take a picture of it.' but that wasn't the mean course of her talk, she could only shrug her shoulders in response and so she continued. 'And than one night, I found the chance. I was only a few years younger than your current age by than. That night I stalked my biological parents to here, a factory. I didn't know what they were doing here, nor did I need to know. I got a lighter out of my pocket, took them by surprise by suddenly appearing behind them with a scream. They didn't look scared, but rather pissed. So I did the trick that I learnt, in hopes of threatening them.' She said, with a sigh before carrying on the dialog. 'There was a gas leak.'

_It all makes sense now._ The facts provided by the dyed haired girl, if not just some deceptions, could certainly explain the damaged that was suffered by the poor land. 'I kind of get what you're talking about now.' Uttered Kaoru as he gazed around and examined the surroundings again, with the only question remaining being: _Why show me this?_

'I survived that, very obviously.' Amy continued with a giggle. 'The rescue team found me first, and helped me out of there. They could never figure out the one behind the explosion, having placed me out of the list. My mom and dad, however, weren't that lucky. But it didn't end with their deaths. They've got friends, friends that easily discovered the truth the police omitted.'

'That's why you dress in such a weird style,' commented Kaoru, 'to avoid detection. I guess even Amy is not your real name.' He sighed and asked 'Do you regret?'

'Never for a moment.' Replied Amy. 'Regrets can't change what's happened. Besides, I don't have time to even if I want. So that's the end of the story of little Amy, what do you think?'

'Back then, you said I was interesting,' uttered Kaoru, 'it wasn't just because of my presence at the meeting and my voice, was it? Why do you show me all this?'

'Smart kid.' Commented the older girl as she prepared to leave. 'Don't you think we're a complete difference? I don't know why I want to tell you about me, it's always me who look into the others' lives. But I just want to tell you about mine. Maybe it's because we're completely different that some kind of force attracts us together, like magnetic force or some other sort.'

Kaoru didn't say anything as he left with the girl. Knowing a bit back information helped him nothing at all. His part of the pact was to help Amy live a new life while the girl's part was to help him defeat, or kill, to be precise, Reapermon. The blond boy, despite not interested in the back story of Amy, had experienced some changes in his emotions for some unnamed reasons, most likely because the feeling known as compassion, despite not surfacing on the boy's mind very often, was touched by the girl.

'So, what've you been doing?' asked FanBeemon once the two returned to the boundary of the ruins.

'All sort of things you can't imagine.' Said Amy, knowing that FanBeemon wouldn't believe in her, she had to say things in a way that led to nowhere to trick the insect digimon, just for fun.

FanBeemon asked for a couple of more times, hoping that his partner would at least let him had the slightest amount of knowledge as of what had he experienced in the middle of the ruins. His partner didn't respond, instead the beeping sound of the digivices of both of the digi-destined was the only sound that appeared.

'What's that? It's not like the I've heard of it before.' Mumbled Amy as she checked out her d-magnus. She didn't know much about digivices or any other kinds of electronics, but one thing she knew was that a beeping sound usually means something troublesome.

'Neither have I' replied Kaoru as he checked his own digivice as well. Their questions were soon answered, as a horizontal vortex appeared right next to them. The center of it was completely black without much degree of different shades as if not a single bit of light ray from the surroundings could enter. Since it shaped like a vortex the two humans expected it to have some kind of force that would pull them straight into the heart of it, but instead it was pulling them away from it as the two approached it. They viewed from the side of it, but it seemed like nothing was there at all, and the expected exit on the other side of the vortex wasn't present.

'Maybe we can try this.' Said Amy as she picked up a small stone from the ground and throw it straight at the heart of the vortex. It entered successfully, but only for a few seconds before it was thrown back as if a force field was there guarding the entrance of the vortex. The force of the throwback was a lot greater than that of the force Amy had applied on the throw, sending the stone jetting straight to the digi-destined that Meramon had to shoot a beam of fire to disintegrate it before it hit his partner.

'What is that? Some kind of digimon attack?' mumbled FanBeemon as he flew closer to take a look at it. Immediately he sensed something wrong. It felt unnatural, almost to the point that it made the insect digimon feel sick once he got close enough to it.

'What do we do with it?' asked Kaoru. Usually he would have wanted to stay away from things like this but this time he felt like that something out of control was gonna happen. His instinct was confirmed once the group saw a shape coming out of it. It was a GigaDramon, looking frustrated and, to a certain degree, unsatisfied. The scratches on his mechanical parts indicated that he had been in combat with some others, very likely a digimon. In the middle of his chest piece was the symbol of exile. He was the GigaDramon that escaped the digi-destined last time.

'Magma blast!' Meramon instantly attacked while FanBeemon had to wait for Kaoru to use the extra card to get him digivolved. The melting rocks hit GigaDramon, causing him to yell in pain while firing an organic missile that nearly hit the flaming champion had he not reacted quickly. The ground, nevertheless, had no ability to flee and was caught in the explosion of the missile.

'Turbo stinger!' Waspmon attacked as well, firing numerous laser beams at the GigaDramon who swiftly evaded them all and jetted upward to the wasp digimon. 'Guilty claw!' he struck fast. Waspmon evaded the talons of the cyborg dragon as much as possible, but was still caught in the contact with the sharp edges of them and was unbalanced by them, hovering unsteadily in the air.

'What do we do now? ' Asked Amy. Normally she would have used the telepathy card before engaging in a battle, but she didn't have the chance to do so right now. The two champions on their side were completely outmatched by GigaDramon and were struggling only to stay in the shape to fight.

'Triple force, connect!' even though Waspmon acquired the firepower of Deltamon, the strike had to hit its target for it to work. The ultimate was way stronger than the two champions for sure, but the gap between their speeds was horribly wide as well. It didn't take the ultimate a second for him to approach Waspmon and struck him down with another hit of his artificial claws.

'Don't you have anything else to use?' Kaoru asked Amy desperately. The answer to that question was an unfortunate negative. Meramon kept emitting flames but the heat intensity decreased as he grew more and more exhausted, and wasn't able to hold back GigaDramon with efficiency.

Waspmon, on the other hand, managed to regain his position in midair and fired a couple more laser beams at GigaDramon. He didn't intend for the beams to all hit their target, but at least hoped that they would succeed in their job of distracting the ultimate for Meramon to deal more damage to him.

'Roaring fire!'

'Bear buster!'

At last, the attacks were able to reach the ultimate. Causing an explosion that backfired at the digi-destined as the unprepared strike from GigaDramon in the smoke got them by surprise. Meramon, being the closest to GigaDramon, was the unfortunate target of him and got dragged up by the cyborg digimon before being tossed aside by him. The flame digimon didn't intend to give up, thanks to being made of entirely of flame, he wasn't able to feel much pain, but he was still able to feel the disgrace brought to him by his defeat. Disapproving of that, he increased his body temperature as much as possible until all his flames turned from red to blue.

'BlueMeramon, ultimate, virus type.' Aamy immediately realized what had happened once her digivice had given the speech.

GigaDramon was enjoying his victory over the two digimon. After his apparent defeat of Meramon he spent less than ten seconds to drag Waspmon down to the ground while crushing him at the same time, not noticing that Meramon had digivolved in that short period of time.

'Cold flame!' BlueMeramon fired a tower of blue flame at the unattended GigaDramon. Instead of burning him the blue flame froze the wings of the ultimate once they made contact with them. Seeing the chance, Waspmon charged forward and shot another laser beam. The beam penetrated the frozen wings of the ultimate, leaving a hole on them while BlueMeramon fired another blast of his cold flame. 'Ice phantom!' the flame hit the organic of GigaDramon while the mechanical left arm of him started to freeze before one claw fell of when GigaDramon tired to move his hand.

With the advantages all gone GigaDramon had to flee. He, via some unknown means, created another of the horizontal vortex like the one he used to enter Ne and flew straight toward it.

'Don't let him escape!' Amy shouted as BlueMeramon fired the cold blue flame at him again. the flame chased him into the vortex seconds before it disappeared. The GigaDramon was gone.

'What was that?' mumbled Waspmon as he got back to his partner.

'Something not good.' Answered Amy. 'We have to contact the others.'

* * *

**Special announcemt: I am uploading two chapters at once the next week, for I want to end Part 1 as soon as possible. (Actually that is not my idea) I am really excited to upload Part 2, owing to nothing but that the plot is a lot "funnier". **

**Getting back to this chapter, as you can see, the protagonist is actually the six of them, so some characters might not have any appearances in a chapter. This is considered an important chapter because it serves the base of later plot and the sequel. (and yes, I will be working on a sequel, regardlss of the popularity of this story.)**


	14. 13 The dragon in Ke

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the map.**

* * *

13 ~The dragon in Kr~

Kr, the largest district in Ventrium, was basically divided into two parts: the hustle-and-bustle city that was easily forgotten due to the similarities between it and the other districts'; the forest that was always as green as emerald and the symbol of Kr. A sizable amount of digimon and natural organisms lived there. Despite being the most well known area of Kr, it was rarely visited by humans due to the expected danger. Ryosuke, however, was an exception who enjoyed sneaking always from his home in the city into the woods.

* * *

'It's getting a bit late, you should go back now.' Deep inside the western part of the forest, near a small lake that seemingly hadn't been discovered by anyone else, Togemon X, waiting in annoyance and worry, suggested.

'It's only morning, and today's Saturday!' a muffed voice was sent out from the clear water of the lake as the sound wave caused the calm surface to vibrate and distorted the reflection of the trees nearby. Ryosuke's head surfaced out of the lake. His black hair glistered as the water deposited on it reflected the light from the sun above. 'I always wanted to this part of the forest.'

'But there's nothing down there!' said the cactus-like digimon before her partner took a deep breathe and dove into the water again, causing the water to splash onto the plant digimon as the shape of the eleven-year-old boy disappeared.

Togemon X waited for a period of time so long that she'd lost count. She simply sat by the lake, keeping her partner's belongings, which were his light purple vast, his pair of short jeans and his white and green sneakers as well as a backpack mounted on Togemon's back, in sight while observing quietly to see if the boy'd made any attempt to return. Sometimes she's really impressed and puzzled by her partner's incredible ability to adapt to almost any environment. Take this case as an example, Ryosuke had been under water for more than half an hour and still nothing, not even his corps (she hoped that would never happen, though) had floated onto the surface of the beautifully remote lake.

'Sorry to keep you waiting.' The voice of Ryosuke finally reached Togemon's audio receptors (if she had any) and caught her attention. A moment later the black-haired boy was already standing on the land with water ponds around his feet as he walked and shook some of the liquid of him. 'See what found down there?' he said as he raised his right arm to reveal the living object that was struggling to grasp dissolved oxygen into its gills.

'A fish? What's so new about a fish?' asked Togemon. Even though Ventrium was isolated from the ocean for fear that marine digion might break in through the depths of the water, fishes weren't unfamiliar within the nation, not to mention that they were in a rural area, organisms were supposed to be there, which made Ryosuke's act a lot stranger.

'What's new? It's almost trice the size of it's species!' said Ryosuke in a doubtful and loud voice as she starred at his partner digimon with his narrowed orange eyes. In fact, having found an extra-sized creature really meant very little to nothing to ordinary people, nevertheless Ryosuke's specific childishness was against almost every general opinions and thus, a bit annoying.

'So what are you gonna do you with it?' Asked Togemon, having no other possible comments to make.

'This.' Ryosuke replied as he turned back and leaned against the lake. A few sounds of water splashing could be heard before he turned around to the plant digimon again with both of his hands emptied. 'Let it return to its place. What else did you expect me to do with it?' he asked as he walked to his partner as if nothing had ever happened, which was, true.

'Keep on moving or not, you'll need these.' Said Togemon as she handed Ryosuke his clothing. Despite being in a very rarely visited and remote area, it's still not very appropriate for the black-haired boy to walk around in the woods when he was only wearing his boxers.

'Wrong sequence.' Uttered Ryosuke as he took the backpack from Togemon. He swiftly grabbed a towel to dry his body. 'Nobody's ever here. It's like my private backyard here. I can even walk around here naked without being noticed at all!' he said jokingly as he put the towel back into the backpack.

'Don't you dare.' Said Togemon X, taking her partner's joke seriously. Unfortunately her lack of the sense of humor caused her partner to take his seriously as well and spoke the line the plant digimon expected the least, causing her to shook her head frantically in response. 'Wanna bet?' the black-haired boy said, almost ten times more serious than when he was in battle.

Togemon immediately declined the offer, both frustrated and anxious, almost feeling guilty for unwillingly and mistakenly leading her partner into doing something so reckless. Ryosuke, nonetheless, had already taken a pair of extra boxers from his backpack and replaced his wet ones. Fortunately no one, not even Togemon X who had already slimmed her eyes shut and covered them with her hat, saw that. In no more than ten seconds Ryosuke had already gotten back into his usual outfit and said. 'You can open your eyes now, I won.'

* * *

The two of them spent some more time heading to the west of the green, with Togemon being the unwilling traveler and Ryosuke enjoying almost everything around him. For a moment Togemon X had thought about leaving the black-haired boy behind, as a lesson to teach him that he should sometimes listen to the others. Yet being overly concerned to her partner the plant digimon simply couldn't bring in the actions. She had been acting like his caretaker, spending most of their time together as a means of replacing the lack of concern the Roysuke's parents had given to the boy.

'How can you not like it? You yourself is a plant, too!' uttered Ryosuke as the two wandered between the bushes and the trees. Having no map or anything to navigate their way he simply followed his instinct, which was very reliable from time to time, to find his way in the maze of green.

'I'm not hating it, it's just not a good idea to walk into the forest by yourself. It's dangerous!' replied Togemon X. In fact, she also enjoyed staying in the land full of plant lives. Nevertheless she always put the safety of his partner before her own desires, and therefore kept on persuading Ryosuke to leave as soon as possible to keep him from the unpredictable.

'I'm not walking in here alone. You're with me!' Ryosuke argued back in a friendly manner with a mischievous smile hanging on his face as he asked Togemon to lift him up so that he could have a clearer sight of the forest. Around them were a dozen of sky-high trees that seemed pretty normal if not considering the appealing berries hanging on them. 'Never think about the berries.' Warned Togemon as she did as Ryosuke asked and helped the relatively short boy in getting to the leafs of the trees. For some odd reasons she always felt like that her partner would someday do something so childish that it would get him killed. To prevent that from happening, she had to warn him frequently, even if she was considered as annoying. Fortunately Ryosuke had a close relation with her and never blamed her for that.

'Everyone knows that.' The boy answered as he took a couple of the bright red spheres casually, doing exactly the opposite of his words. He seemed to know that too, immediately letting out another quick mutter to get rid of the anxiousness that bothered his partner. 'Don't worry. I'm not gonna eat them. I'm just…examining their appearances.' He said as he threw the berries to the ground looking at them with his keen eyes for a few more seconds, knowing that it's the only way to soothe Togemon.

'What are they doing?' the boy uttered as he looked up to the sky and saw a number of birds flying over them at the same direction but disorganized that they collide with one another frequently. 'They don't do this usually.' He said as he turned about ninety degrees to his right and traced the source of the freaked out birds.

'I think we should get out of this.' Suggested Togemon, only to be responded by a hand sign from Ryosule, hinting her to keep quiet and, if possible, unnoticeable as the eleven-year-old took a few light steps swiftly and walked to the direction opposite to where the birds were flying to.

'Keep quiet.' He whispered as he noticed voices other than his own were present. He could really stay a low profile if he wishes to be. Togemon, on the other hand, seemed a lot more disoriented and had to be frequently advised by her usually quirky partner to stay stealthy.

A few meters in front of the boy were two powerful figures having a conversation. Ryosuke couldn't tell their species, the distance between them was too great, and he couldn't risk using his d-magnus to identify the digimon for fear that the voice of the machine would be too loud to expose their hidden position.

One of the two shadowy figures spoke. His voice was deep and muffed, but still clear enough to be heard even from the distant hiding place of Ryosuke. From the voice the black-haired boy could almost be certain that the owner of it was at least an ultimate leveled.

'Just keep quiet and let me stay here for a longer while!' said the first one to speak.

'We have been living here peacefully and unnoticed for years, you should just go away and leave us alone. This is not where you belong.' Said the other digimon. His voice was a lot softer but firmer than the mechanical voice of the first one. 'Humans have left us alone and so should you. The old voice continued, seemingly unaware of the four eyes stalking on them.

The first one was angered, proved apparently by launching one of his arm at the other digimon, also revealing that he had two metal wings and a sneak-like body in the process as his vigorous move caused the leafs around him to flow in all direction randomly. Ryosuke couldn't get a clear vision, but he could tell that the digimon was starring at each other simply judging from his menacing voice.

'I just got here as I took a step back in Vertiro. I don't even know how that happened. Just leave me here and maybe I'll be gone by the next moment.'

'You'll only draw violence here.'

'That was a confusing one.' Mumbled Ryosuke in a whisper. He watched with Togemon as the other digimon repeatedly declined the offer from the winged digimon. The winged digimon whispered a few lines that the black-haired boy could only guess the content of the conversation as the other digimon, who was revealed to be a tree-shaped digimon, whispered a few more words. The winged digimon seemed to have gotten impatient. One of his giant arms glowed in a bright orange light that betrayed his identity.

_GigaDramon?_ If there's one thing Ryosuke could be sure that would be that GigaDramon wasn't a very common species in Ventrium. This, with the additional fact that one GigaDramon had just escaped the prison in Vertiro just a few days ago, could only lead the black-haired boy to one conclusion.

Togemon wasn't very pleasant, nor was Ryosuke. The black-haired boy managed to hide that from his face, though, while his partner needed to be frequently reminded to keep silent. He wanted to confront GigaDramon, yet couldn't help but to remember how his entire team was nearly demolished the last time they encountered a GigaDramon. With that in mind he decided to first observe the situation and contact the others, only to be frustrated by the fact that he couldn't even tell his exact location, not to mention that he could hardly make use of his d-magnus's basic functions.

'You're nothing but a Cherrymon, why do you think I'll listen to you?' the GigaDramon said as he approached Cherrymon with his cannon at ready. He might not be good at nagotiation, by the was definitely not bad at threatening, especially when he had the metal helmet that covered over eighty percent of his facial expressions, leaving the only twenty percent to be the anger from his lower jaws and the narrowed yellow eyes that could only be seen partially via the eyepiece of the helmet. Despite that, Cherrymon was doing a good job standing his ground, not because of his roots, for obvious reasons.

GigaDramon didn't want to have any time wasted. If words and threats wouldn't work, then violence could surely be his best friend at the moment. 'Guilty wind!' he fired the charged cannon at the tree digimon, intending to burn his enemy with a single hit. Cherrymon, despite being a plant, however, endured the hit easily by using some of his leafs as a barrier, completely avoiding himself from getting charred into pieces of coal. 'Cherry blast!' he then attacked as well, knowing that it was the only way to keep the cyborg dragon from ruining the forest.

The woods made it challenging for the airborne digimon to evade attacks. His large body size had already given him a decent disadvantage in moving his limbs properly, not to mention that he was initially trying to hide. That alone made it dumb to shoot without precise aim and burn the entire forest just to convince an old stubborn digimon in an explosive way. 'Guilty claw!' he responded the plant-based attack with his metallic claws. His armor was nearly impossible to penetrate by wood, after all. Cherrymon wasn't fast enough to dodge the attack, deep scratches of perfectly patterned claws were left on the rough surface of him as he backed off. GigaDramon didn't waste the chance and bond Cherrymon with his tail as he positioned his arm cannon at the tree digimon's head through his leafs. Cherrymon, knowing what's to happen to him, didn't make any attempt to escape.

'The forest will be gone because of you.' He said, in a tone mixed with both anger and sadness. 'It will not aid you, it will expose you. Run while you can.'

GigaDramon let out a low volume roar out of sheer rage and launched an organic missile at Cherrymon. The tree digimon didn't explode upon contact with the missile, instead the missile, with arms, leached itself on Cherrymon as the tree digimon started to decompose into streams of data that eventually spread everywhere with the wind current.

Ryosuke saw that all.

He could hardly keep his anger inside him anymore. Of course he knew Togemon would never be capable of defeating an ultimate alone, yet he just wanted to confront the brutal digimon killer in front of his sight for reasons even he himself couldn't name. For once, Togemon X wasn't disagreeing with the black-haired boy. Seeing one of her kind getting killed was different from imagining. She knew she had to face it some day, but it hurt.

Relieved for a moment, GigaDramon found himself unable to rest as rains of pointed objects jetted straight to him. Reflexively he raised both of his arms and, instead of using them to cover his torso, fired nultiple energy blasts that disintegrated most of the pins and simply took the rest with his armor. He turned around to see his attacker, and felt a lot easier once he acknowledged that he was only dealing with a champion.

'This might be hard, but I hope you're ready.' Uttered Ryosuke. Togemon X replied through her action. Immediately she rushed to the distracted GigaDramon and attacked. 'Light speed jabbing!' before the ultimate could react, she had already reached the dragon and placed her fists several times on the armor of GigaDramon with violence. The attacks, however, weren't quite useful as GigaDramon simply waved his wings and blew Togemon away for meters.

'Needle spray!' she struck again, having the same result as the last time. GigaDramon, frustrated by the champion, aimed his arm cannon at the cactus digimon, missile already loaded. 'Genocide gear!' he said as the missile took off, flying at a speed faster than that of a car on a wet highway. Togemon dodged the attack, though barely, by adjusting her body position and let the missile flew by just a few millimeters near her.

'Needle spray!' she wasn't relieved by that. Despite knowing that her attacks were most likely going to end up futile, she still struck as hard as she could, hoping to at least damage the GigaDramon a little as a means to revenge Cherrymon, who she hadn't even talked to before. It was true that Togemon didn't need to be part of the fight. She could have just left and, keep it a secret. Yet she could really be sentimental sometimes, especially when seeing someone die in front of her.

Ryosuke, having only the healing card, continuously made use of it and healed Togemon X every time she got injured. That's the best he could help in a battle. GigaDramon, on the other hand, didn't seem tired at all; having struck down an ultimate should have at least consumed part of his energy. But he was in a rather good shape at the moment, frequently countering Togemon X's attacks with ease. _Is that the power of a convict?_

'Is that all you've got?' taunted GigaDramon as he approached Togemon, who was currently standing unsteadily. It was almost ironic owing to that GigaDramon actually had the right to make the statement seeing that Togemon X and Ryosuke were the ones that attacked him for no reasons, at least to him. He hated troubles, especially when he wasn't sure about the circumstances, yet he had to admit that he was having fun in the one-sided battle with the plant digimon. It took him almost twice the time to kill Cherrymon just to wound the champion, which was, rather unexpected. _Everything needs to end someday. _He thought as he charged his arm cannon, ready for one final blow.

Ryosuke rushed to the side of Togemon and whispered a few quick words by her ear. His face had never been more serious than now before, and probably wouldn't be like that again. The plant digimon nodded in agreement, struggling to stand up. It took her almost half a minute to finish the move. GigaDramon, however, wasn't paying much attention to that. They're doomed anyway.

'Guilty wind!' he said as a light purple blast of energy slipped out of the barrel of his armed arm. Togemon X didn't evade the strike until moments before she could get hit. It was rather risky but she managed to dodge the attack just in time for it to hit the giant tree behind her the moment her torso disappeared in front of the tree. The blast was intended to be a final strike so it was particularly strong in terms of destructive force, and the consequent of that determined the entire outcome of the fight. In theory the blast should have burnt the tree the moment it touched the wood, nevertheless the speed of the blast was a bit too fast that it sliced through the tree just the moment it caught fire and flew straight away from it as it started to fall with spark igniting on its bark.

GigaDramon was stunned, but wasn't stupid. He attempted to evade the burning tree by flying to the side, but was blocked at one end by Togemon X's Needle spray, so he could only went to the other side. Nothing was clear to him after that. He flew back to the fallen wood, or intended to, only to find his next stop in some kind of unknown ruins with two strange looking humans.

Togemon and Ryosuke ran as the tree fell. It wasn't the first time he had gotten himself into troubles due to his ruthlessness. Nonetheless he hadn't quite brought himself into things like this before. The force of the tree collapsing generated a strong wind current that unbalanced the black-haired boy and caused him to be knocked over by a hardly visible vein on the ground, falling immediately.

'Ryosuke!' Togemon shouted as she ran to her fallen partner. She found him conscious, though just slightly. He might have inhaled excess amount of carbon dioxide produced by the burning. The plant digimon instantly held the boy in her arms and ran as far away to the fire as possible. She was glad that her partner was still breathing by the time they reached the lake they had been. Ryosuke was unconscious by then, and none of them heard the ring tone of his phone buried deep inside his backpack.

* * *

Magnamon X watched as Yuzuki and Katashi left the severely damaged, almost destroyed mall.

'This is not good.' He mumbled as he witnessed the way the GigaDramon entered the mall. _It all makes sense now._ He though. It seemed that things had gone in a direction beyond his expectation. For the first time, the golden armored royal knight actually understood the emotion nervous.

_They can__'__t do this on their own._ He though as he agilely left the mall unnoticed. _Not now._

* * *

Ryosuke woke up after a few ten minutes of coma.

'Are we dead yet?' the first sentence he could think of at the moment was that. Although he immediately deduced that he was still alive judging simply by the fact that he didn't know what's it's like to be dead. Togemon also assured him that he was rescued by her, though he couldn't quite trust the overly anxious digimon.

He took his backpack and checked if anything was broken during the run, and found out that Amy had called him for several times while he wasn't awake. The girl had probably given up calling him and left a message to him. 'The GigaDramon reappeared and Yuzuki had taken care of him. Need to meet up soon.'

'Yuzuki's here?' he mumbled in confusion, which was natural for him seeing that he had completely no knowledge of the means of travel of the GigaDramon. He could only hope that the girl wasn't playing some kind of tricks on him.

'No one's here.' Answered Togemon. 'It had been some time after you had fallen unconscious, that GigaDramon might have gotten away to somewhere else and was finished.'

'That's good.' The black-haired boy mumbled, 'but why did Amy want us to meet up if things are that simple? There must be some good things we've missed.'

And in fact they did.


	15. 14 The last season

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the map.**

* * *

14 ~The last season~

Yuzuki had to admit she was surprised, if not amazed, by the scene in front of her.

Takumi, one of the shyest and most unconfident member of the team, was getting along extremely well with Katashi as soon as he answered his, or he and Yuzuki's, invitation to Rn and entered the brown-haired boy's room. Although initially depressed by that Katashi, who wasn't even a digi-destined, had already gotten his partner into digivolving into a champion while Solarmon was still staying at rookie level, they switched the primary topic of the chat to all matters regarding that Christmas in a rather short period of time.

_Yes, Christmas_. It has always been amazement to her as of how the prehistoric myth was able to live through the wars. Perhaps because it was just a myth? The black-haired girl had never believed in Christmas, owing simply to the fact that the prophecy had never mentioned anything about digimon, and yet there they are, living alive day after day.

'Maybe you don't have any idea of this, but Yuzuki did told me something about your partner.' Said the red-haired boy as he took out something from his black-and-blue messager bag, 'so I made this for you. I think it might be the best present I can make.'

'What is that?' asked Liollmon as he looked at the device that was about the size of Takumi's palm. It looked very similar, almost identical, to the digivice owned by Yuzuki except for the three missing claws around the side of it. The device was gray in color and had some sharper edges compared to the smooth outline of the d-magnus.

'I kind of copied the design of my own digivice, but it's not perfectly functional. The digimon recognition function is incomplete but you can still use the card functions and the tracker.' Said Takumi. He was, very rarely, wearing his black wide frame glasses instead of his contact lenses. Perhaps that had something to do with his having to stay in Rn overnight for his holiday and he decided that it would be too much of a pain to handle those thin, almost invisible sheets of glasses while staying at someone else's home, especially when it's already evening. No need to add trouble to yourself by putting the lenses on and remove them with much effort just after less than twelfth hours of wearing.

'That's brilliant!' uttered Katashi. 'I've heard from Yuzuki that you're very smart, but how did you build that? I can hardly cut a piece of wood properly.'

'Not with my help.' Said Solarmon in a rather boastful tine which was very similar to the common tone of Ryosuke, who was currently still on his way to the frosty city.

Yuzuki watched as the two males exchanged a few more opinions on one another's specialized category. She had completely no idea how the two oppositely natured boys were having such a good and devoted conversation that they could hardly notice her.

'Don't worry, he won't steal your boyfriend.' The soft and rhythmic voice of Amy echoed in the ear of the black-haired girl. 'When did you arrive?' she muttered as she turned around lightly. She was, without a doubt, surprised by the sudden appearance of the older girl, but only for a moment. She had gotten used to the playful girl for some time and had been since finding her less annoying despite still not having any intention of having a conversation with her.

'Does it bother you that your big brother isn't here?' Amy continued to ask. Yuzuki knew it would only be in vain to declare that she had no biological relation with Eiji, the oldest boy in the team. Yet she had been too close to him and he had known and cared so much about her. The only alternative theory that could seemingly explain that in a logical way was that they were in a romantic relation of some sort, which was the worst case for Yuzuki.

'He's here, just not with me.' She replied as gently and calm as she could. Sometimes she really found it redundant to speak with the older yet more unreachable girl. She wouldn't listen to any other but her own words, after all. 'Why are you here so early anyway?'

It had been a week since Gigadramon attacked, and it was near 25th December. Yuzuki and Katashi had decided to invite the other digi-destined to Rn to provide them a chance to meet up. Knowing that everyone had their own plans on the big day, they invited them days before the real Christmas. Furthermore, it was the chance to discuss the unfinished business left by the Gigadramon incident.

In most cases, Amy wouldn't be the first one to show up, and she wasn't for this time. But it was, to a certain degree, new of the girl to make her appearance before the last moment.

* * *

'I think we should leave the boys alone for a while and go for a walk.' Whispered Amy as she dragged Yuzuki out of the apartment, against her will or not. They left for the shopping mall that was being reconstructing at the moment. Yuzuki really wouldn't dare to visit the site again, feeling guilty for turning it into the look of it right now despite not being blamed by anyone simply because no one knew that. She kept silent on most of the way, knowing that nothing good's going to happen by having a conversation with Amy.

'What do you think I should give you as presents?' uttered the older girl uncaringly as if she was just walking in the mall by herself and was just mumbling.

'I never expected for you to care about such things.' Replied Yuzuki. All she wanted at the moment was to switch the concentration of her thoughts on something else other than the mall. She could still recall how she failed to defeat Gigadramon without causing minimum damage to the surroundings, and it was just painful for her to watch the reconstruction as she walked in the building. 'You wanted us to meet up for that Gigadramon thing, now you've got your chance.'

'Not now. Some of us still hadn't arrived yet.' Said Amy. Anyone paying attention could easily tell that she wasn't having the idea to talk about serious business at the moment. She walked through various shops without actually getting inside.

SaviorHuckmon and BlueMeramon were left behind, or voluntarily stayed behind at Katashi's apartment, leaving the two girls alone at the mall.

'I don't really know what you're thinking. Why do you think Christmas would be the time to talk about that?' asked Amy without leaving her eyes off the windows of the stores.

'This is the only time we can actually meet face to face.' Replied Yuzuki. 'By the way, why didn't you convince Kaoru to come in the first place?' she asked, knowing that the two had gotten pretty close lately.

'He agreed to come anyway.' Uttered Amy.

'With me having spent almost three hours to convince him.' Yuzuki sighed.

* * *

'Where did Yuzuki go?' mumbled Katashi as he left his room after having noticed that there were some flaws with the light decorations and been recommended by Takumi to head out for replacements.

'She's gone out with Amy.' Said SaviorHuckmon, sounding as calm as usual.

'Amy's here?' Takumi was the next one to get surprised. 'Well, she'll be fine with Yuzuki. She can keep Amy on track…I hope.'

'Can you watch over here while we're gone?' Katashi asked SaviorHuckmon, seeing that he didn't seem to have the least bit of attempt to leave the house.

'You can rely on me.' The ultimate replied.

'I know.' Said Takumi. 'But I'm not quite confident with him.' He said, starring at BlueMeramon at the front door. He didn't know much of the silent digimon but he did know his partner, which led to his worry that the flame digimon might somehow behave like her, or at least affected by her. 'Keep everything the way it is, ok?'

SaviorHuckmon gave the red-head a nod as a sign of assurance before the two boys left the flat to his supervision.

* * *

Eiji walked into the school dormitory of the school of Rn. Under normal circumstances visitors were forbidden from entering into the building on holidays. Yet the situation here was a bit different this year. They've got a student inhabited in the facility, after all.

'Stay here, and don't cause any troubles.' He said to Pteramon X in a tone that was almost like he was giving commands. _H__e wouldn__'__t listen to me anyway even if __I__were__ giving orders._

'It's not like I can cause any major problems here. This place is almost as dull as your home.' Pteramon replied as he drifted to the roof of the building.

'Mid your missiles!' the blue-haired teenager reminded his partner despite knowing that Pteramon was already too up high and too far away to hear that.

'Everything packed?' Eiji asked as he gently pull opened the door. He was here mainly to pick up Kaoru, who had to find a place to stay during the holiday owing to the school policy that no one but the staffs, not even the students themselves, were allowed to enter the facility during that time. Kaoru was put in his 'prison' by the government, but the school couldn't just have their staffs on extra work for one student, right? Fortunately Katashi, despite not having too much of a friendship with the blond, had agreed to keep him as soon as Yuzuki asked for his help.

The sixteen-year-old couldn't see any sign of Kaoru. He'd considered the possibility that he had changed his room simply because the others were unoccupied, but dispute his theory judging by the boy's personality.

The entire house consists of no more than two rooms: the living room that was merged with the bedroom and a bathroom. So it should be easy to locate anyone in there. He went further into the room but could only see FamBeemon taking a nap by the side of the bed.

'Have you seen Kaoru?' he asked. Eiji really didn't want to wake the insect digimon up but he had no other choices. FamBeemon opened his eyes slowly and answered in a sleepy voice immediately as if he was conscious while his eyes were shut. 'Behind you.'

Eiji turned around to see the blond holding an empty can at the door. He walked in as he threw the can randomly, which surprisingly landed in the center of the garbage bin.

'Why weren't you here?' asked the blue-haired boy.

'I went out for a drink.' Kaoru replied as he walked to his bed. 'It is me who should ask; why are you here?'

'To pick you up.' Eiji answered. He didn't get any responses from the blond as he had expected. He was sent here only because Yuzuki worried that Kaoru wouldn't recognize the route because he had never left the school unless absolutely necessary. It was reasonable that Kaoru hadn't been informed that the older boy would come.

The blond quickly grabbed a gray handheld bag with no effort under his bed. Not much items were inside seeing that he had nearly no belongings and no attachments to anything around him. The only thing he needed was extra clothes.

Within no more than five minutes the three of them, including FamBeemon, had arrived at the front gate of the school and was ready to leave before someone called Kaoru's name.

It was Elsa calling for his attention.

Nobody ever knew why exactly she kept doing that, but somehow she just seemed to enjoy teasing the quiet boy by calling his name every time he walked by. Katashi had commented that it was her career and profession to annoy people while Kaoru simply considered her as some other idiots. She walked to the two males and uttered a sentence, apparently giving her an excuse for her appearance. 'Need to get something back before they officially close the gates.'

Kaoru didn't respond while Eiji was just confused. 'Never seen him before. A friend of yours?' asked the blond girl as she rested one of her hands on Kaoru's shoulders, immediately getting swiped aside by the scarf-wearing-boy.

'Maybe I should leave you two alone for sometime?' the blue-haired boy uttered as he took the bag from Kaoru and called Pteramon X to carry it for him while walking aside.

* * *

Devimon was one of the many minions that worked for Reapermon, the bounty hunter. He didn't get much work lately. His boss was hired to go after some shiny digimon for some time after he was first asked to collect a vast amount of data, leaving the champion nothing to do.

The lean devil digimon's last job was the data-collecting one, which had failed drastically after having noticed that human world had a very limited amount of data five years ago. Now he got another work to do, assigned to him by no other than the same person who had had his boss going crazily after that golden digimon all day long.

The task was simple: get one of the digi-destined and steal their technology.

Devimon scanned through the many faces on the streets of Rn. He never hated a minor job like that, but it was getting a bit bored that he had failed to locate any of the digi-destined for almost half a day. Having been given the facial features of the kids, he had anticipated it to be easy. His career was to look for things, alive or dead, after all.

Circling at the sky he finally caught a glance at one of them. Though the redhead down there with a brown-haired boy looked a bit different from the image in the profile he had been given, he was still certain that the red-haired boy would match the description once he had his glasses removed, supported by the fact that a Solarmon was with him, it wasn't impossible that Devimon wasn't mistaking his target because of his own impatience and eagerness.

He then approached his target.

* * *

Yuzuki and Amy had returned to Katashi's apartment and, by some unknown causes, chatting in a considerably friendly manner as they found out that the door wasn't locked and saw Ryosuke and Togemon X inside the house once they had walked through the front door.

'Where're they?' none of them seemed to be surprised by the younger boy's appearance, or even the fact that he was still only wearing his thin clothes in a district that was about to snow sooner or later.

'SaviorHuckmon let me in,' the black-haired boy replied as he got up from the couch, 'he said they went out for some light things.'

'So you just left the door unlocked?' asked Yuzuki. She hadn't expected much from the young boy, but at least she couldn't believe that her friend would leave his house to just two digimon despite how she trusted SaviorHuckmon. Accidents could always happen.

'We only just arrived.' Said Togemon X.

It was almost unbelievable that all the digivolved digimon could actually retain a sizeable body to fit in human housings. Katashi's parents were gone oversea to work again and so the entire apartment, which was a rather spaced one, could be of their use. It was also the reason why Takumi and Kaoru could stay here over night for a day and the entire holiday respectively.

The population in the house further increased, or was restored as two other members went into the house. Pteramon X was complaining all the way for having to carry the belongings for Kaoru while his partner, Eiji, could walk all the way empty-handed. Both Eiji and FamBeemon had made frequent attempt to stop the champion from lodging all that complaints, but it could only end when Kaoru couldn't take it anymore eventually and took the bag on his own. He never asked for help anyway.

'We're all here?' asked the nicely suited teen as he walked into the apartment. Pteramon stayed outside, preferring to stay outdoor than inside a box where he could hardly make use of his wings and flusters.

'No, Takumi is not here.' Said Yuzuki, 'and so is Katashi, the owner of this place.'

'I wonder what's taking them so long?' uttered SaviorHuckmon. 'They've left for quite a long time.'

'Well, it's still early. At least it's not even dusk yet.' Said Togemon X.

'So, as we're waiting for them, can I ask you a question?' Eiji starred at Kaoru for a moment after having said that. Receiving no response, he decided to just continue his words. 'What's between you and that girl at school?'

* * *

_Eiji was far away enough to provide privacy for the two apparent thirteen-year-old. He had to admit that he was curious about them, but it was just not his nature to get involved in others__'__ business when he should be staying at a distant place. Actually, just standing there watching had already made him a bit guilty. At least he couldn__'__t listen to the conversation between the two, if there was any._

'_So you__'__re leaving school today?__'__ asked Elsa with a maximum amount of sarcasm at the volume of a whisper. __'__I don__'__t think you have anywhere to stay at.__'_

'_Tadokoro__'__s__'__ said the blond boy. He wouldn__'__t even bother answering her usually, but he just wanted to get rid of this trouble as fast as possible. __'__Don__'__t look for me.__'_

'_You want me to?__'__ the blond girl smirked lightly. __'But__I__ don__'__t think __I__ do.__'_

_Kaoru listened to the answer,__ satisfied and left instantly, only to be retained by the girl as she clutched the sleeve of his hoodie. __'__You sure you don__'__t want to even say something to me?__'_

_He turned his head to give the girl a glance, then turned around __again__ as he shook her hand of his shirt. Elsa approached the boy and blocked his way. It certainly annoyed Kaoru as he started to speak in a louder voice. __'__What do you want actually?__'_

'_Well, it__'__s Christmas. So__…'__ said the blond girl as she leaned closer and, unexpectedly, placed her lips on the blond boy__'__s cheek. The unpredicted move could even cause the reserved boy to get a bit flushed before pushing the girl away from him. __'__Consider that a present.__'__ Said Elsa before whispering the sentence. __'__Got you.__'_

* * *

Katashi and Takumi should have been at the street market in search for some replacements for the broken light. Takumi had suggested that they should go to the more professional shops while Katashi took him to the street market, claiming that they sold the items at a cheaper price, and that Takumi, who had a wide knowledge of machine, could help him choose the better items.

None of them, however, had expected that they would end up battling a mysterious black digimon at an alley before they could even set their feet on the street market.

'Defense plug-in, connect!' Solarmon, who had just barely evaded Devimon's claws, generated a force field around himself before engaging in battle. 'Solar flare!' the rookie threw several heated gears at the champion. Devimon, nevertheless, didn't even bother dodging the attacks, simply knocking them aside with his disproportionably long arm.

'Cant you get yourself to digivolve or do anything like that?' mumbled Katashi nervously as he watched his partner's struggling fight with the black winged digimon.

'Lio claw!'

'Solar flare!'

Both rookies struck again, and, very reasonably, failed to harm the champion again. Devimon approached the two boys, completely ignoring the two digimon. 'You have something I want.' Said Devimon in his demonic deep voice with his red eyes glowing in the relatively dim alley and his right hand moving forward slowly as if making an offer. 'Give me your device, and you may have the chance to live for a few more days.'

'I'd rather live for a few more decades.' Uttered Katashi as he moved back, only to find him and Takumi in the end of a blind-ended alley.

'I'm not asking you.' Muttered Devimon, raising his right arm. Liollmon, noticing the immediate danger his partner was in, leaped forward and sliced the thin arm of Devimon. Though just slightly, his strike had successfully injured the champion and switched his attention away from the brown-haired boy.

'Puny little rookie!' mumbled Devimon as he waved his wings, creating a strong current that blew the lion digimon away and sent him hurling into a solid concrete wall.

'Why do you want the digivice anyway, you can't make much use of that?' Asked Takumi before swiping a card. 'Gigadramon's genocide gear, connect!' he was one of the few that hadn't been in much combat before, therefore the group decided to aid him with an ultimate's card, and that move was proved to be correct as the gear digimon shot multiple of his gears along with Gigadramon's organic missile, blasting the champion to the degree that he was forced to slid back for a few meters before flying up into the air to regain balance.

'Why would I tell you anything?' said Devimon. 'I offered you the chance to survive, and you've destroyed it along with the brick wall over there. Now you will pay for what you've done and I will claim my prize.' As soon as he finished saying that, the champion immediately unleashed an unholy blast of energy from his palm. The blast reached the rookie within a second, forcing him to be crushed against a brick wall.

'Only if I could digivolve…' mumbled Solarmon as he watched Devimon approaching his partner. Having completely no way to stop the champion, he found himself not worthy of being a digi-destined's partner. While it's true that he had always believed that not being good at combat doesn't mean not good at other criteria, he couldn't help but realize that he should at least be able to protect his partner as a digimon, which made him feel useless at the moment.

Liollmon attacked for several more times, but was easily immobilized by Devimon. He didn't know how he managed to digivolve the last time, he just couldn't do it this time, and his inability in digivolving might mean that the end of the two boys would have been his fault. Finding that unacceptable, he forced himself up from the ground and, very weakly, managed to distract Devimon, with the cost being his temporal unconsciousness.

The two boys couldn't do anything but to keep moving back despite having no more room to move. Even after that they never considered surrendering the digivice to Devimon, knowing that there were still unsolved mysteries and unknown powers in the digivice. Solarmon, being the only digimon capable of fighting back at the moment, suddenly glowed with a dim light. Devimon, as if enjoying his supposed victory too much, never noticed that until his body felt a painful burning feel on the back and heard the sound. "Time buster!'

He turned around immediately to find hid attacker. There he saw a digimon that resembled a clock with limbs, only with a hooded figure, without legs, on the top of the clock.

'Clockmon, champion, data type.'

Takumi and Katashi noticed that as well. As first they worried if he was another enemy, but then Takumi remembered that clockmon was the digivolved form of Solarmon. Relieved for finally reaching champion level, Clockmon didn't let the feeling of pride rule his head and immediately struck. 'Chrono breaker!'

Devimon didn't have time, and usable means, to evade the attack. In no more than a minute, the unfortunate champion was reduced into a digi-egg.

'That was a close one.' Uttered Takumi as he walked to his newly digivolved partner. 'You finally reached champion.'

'Will he be alright?' mumbled Katashi as he carried the severely injured Liollmon in his arms.

'We should get back first. If Ryosuke has reached there, then we can have Liollmon healed quickly.'

* * *

'Where the hell have you been?' uttered Pteramon X before Takumi and Katashi could even return to their house.

'There's been some…troubles, and…' Takumi tried to explain before Katashi opened the door and rushed into his house with Liollmon. A bit uncomfortable, Takumi quickly followed inside to see if they need any help.

'What happened to you?' asked Yuzuki as soon as she saw Liollmon in Katashi's arms.

'He said someone called Ryosuke can help him.' Said Katashi in a rush as he quickly scanned through the faces in his living room and identified the familiars, hoping to find the one he needed as fast as possible.

'You're lucky he's here.' An unfamiliar face, at least to Katashi. The female continued to say as she introduced a young boy in a purple vest to the brown-haired boy.

* * *

Things went smoothly afterwards and the digi-destined celebrated their festival relatively well. Before they disassemble, however, they discussed a bit about the Gigadramon thing, and Takumi came up with a theory that the vortex they saw was actually some kind of dimensional gate. Worse, those were single-way gates.

'Both of you used "vortex" to describe that, right?' said the redhead, 'you can enter a vortex from the above, if you're not afraid of the consequences, but you can't escape from its bottom.'

'But I don't remember hearing a digimon having the ability to control dimension.' Suggested Ryosuke, 'otherwise they would have discovered the human world way earlier before humans even existed.'

'There's one,' said Katashi hesitantly, 'Yuzuki told me that, in the myths, there was a digimon that was said to be able to manipulate time and space.'

'That is just a legend.' Said Yuzuki. 'Nobody's ever confirmed that. And even if it does exists, it would have entered the human world way earlier, like Ryosuke has said.'

'So, maybe that's some kind of artificial transport?' suggested SaviorHuckmon.

'So far, the only known distant transportation was coming from human world to digital world, and now there's not even a digital world left.' Said Takumi.

'Anyway, keep an eye out. I don't know why but I always think that Piedmon near the president is suspicious. He's creepy.' Said Amy.

'Maybe we'll leave that behind for a while and have a nice holiday?' suggested Eiji. Normally he would have been the one that suggest the others to focus on proper business first, which surprised the others now that he was actually saying that they should leave the problem unattended.

'Right,' said Amy, 'it's Christmas now, and I hardly see any presents.'

'Its not about presents.' Uttered Eiji, frustrated.

'Oh yes it is.' Replied the girl. 'That's why it has such a long life, after all.'

* * *

A female shape stepped upon the alley where Devimon was defeated.

'How stupid to die just for this?' she said as she picked up a sheet of paper from the ground. The paper was a bit scratched, but the drawings and writings on it could still be read clearly.

That was the design of Takumi's digivice. Little know to anyone, the blueprint wasn't completed by Takumi alone. The night he was working on it he had encountered a fatal error, and was too frustrated that he took a nap without achknowledging it. As soon as he woke up, however, he found out that the blueprint had been completed, and wondered if he'd done that or some other guys sneaked into his home.

* * *

Magnamon entered the president's office. The two so-called guards were already down at the doorway as the golden armored digimon walked into the leader of the country's room.

'What are you trying to do?' demanded Magnamon upon seeing the pleasant president sitting in her usual position. 'You know how dangerous it is. Why would you do that when you too, are a human?'

'We need to talk this out.' replied the president calmly as the golden digimon heard the sound of the door closing and footsteps approaching. From the reflection of the windows he could tell that the one walking to him was Piedmon, the personal assistant of the president.

'We have been waiting for you for a long time, should we at least have a proper welcome?' said the mega as he walked closer and closer to Magnamon. Magnamon didn't respond, knowing that an inevitable fight was about to begin.

'Leave the kids alone.'

'Then they wouldn't be summoned in the first place.'

* * *

Yuzuki were hardly breathing, she has rushed as fast as she could once she read the newspaper from the morning.

'You've to know this.' She said as she opened the door of Katashi's home. She was given the key incase she need any help from her friend. As she entered the room she found out that both Katashi and Kaoru had just waken up and were hardly at the state of hearing the news she brought them. The black-haired girl knew that she had a particular habit of waking up early in the morning, and that was the first time she actually was graceful that she usually woke up before seven in the morning.

'He's out again.' said the black-haired girl as she coughed out of exhaustion.

'What is it?' asked the Katashi.

She didn't talk again, simply showed them the paper along with the image of a digimon with a terribly familiar outline.

'A golden digimon was spotted crushing three platoons of Centarumon at Vertiro.'

'He's back. Reapermon is back.'

* * *

**This is a chapter I feel ashame of. I call it the connection, having no real content but to connect the plot between 13 and 15. And don't ask about the time period, it's about December in the story and I actually wrote this last Christmas, so just get on with it.**

**And about 's behavioral problem, I based her on a real person, who also loves to make people uneasy by strange manners, though that's a male...**

**So, as promised, here are the two chapters. Strategically stupid, I know. But I want to pass these boring chapters as soon as possible. How do you even stand waiting for writings of this quality weekly?**

**My time for being humble is over. Next up, end of Part 1, so much more entertaining, and be warned: the stroy is about to get dark. (Not very dark by my scale, but I'll still have to warn anyone reading.) **


	16. 15 Vertiro face off

**I update earlier this week due to some personal business.**

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the setting.**

* * *

15 ~Vertiro face off~

SaviorHuckmon could hardly maintain his breathe, and neither could the other digimon as a rapid swipe from Reapermon struck the ultimate while firing a blast of lilac energy toward Pteramon X and Waspmon in the air. Even if BlueMeramon froze him, his strength could easily break the crystal water and move free again.

The six digi-destined were fighting Reapermon at the Unity Square, the very venue where they first met one another. And in no time, this would be the exact place where they would die with one another as well.

'Why are you targeting on us? I thought you were after Magnamon!' uttered Pteramon as he dodged the blast and fired two missiles at the mega. Each of them got incinerated midair before they could even reach half the distance between Pteramon and Reapermon.

'He's fighting us now, so don't ask.' Said Waspmon. 'Turbo gear!'

Reapermon swiftly rotated his body and grabbed Togemon X in the process, using her as a shield against the energy blast from the insect champion before throwing the cactus digimon away, as a means to crush BlueMeramon who was trying to freeze him on the side, and swung his sickle hand to counter the blades from SaviorHuckmon.

'You are my prize, and I would never let my prize slip away from my grip.' Said the golden armored mega before aiming his blaster at the abdomen of SaviorHuckmon and fired another blast, causing the ultimate to went swirling unwillingly backward for more then fifty meters before crashing.

'Seriously, is there any way to stop him?' muttered Ryosuke as he helped his partner to get up to her feet.

'We're trying,' answered Yuzuki, 'but not likely to succeed.' She said with a card swiping through her digivice. 'Fangmon's Snipe steal, connect!'

* * *

_Reapermon had been injured badly enough after his last fight with Magnamon, the target he follows, __which__ forced him to stop from __fulfilling__ his job for weeks._

_And after that, a few __things__ changed._

_Being a bounty hunter, Reapermon was used to all kind of seemingly impossible and unreasonable demands, and he had, without much effort, accomplished the goals. This time, his mysterious client had __requested__ him to do something not to challenging, but a bit odd._

_He had to capture Magnamon, as he had been told to, and eliminate the digi-destined as well._

_That__'__s not challenging at all. He took action once he had recovered. The simplest way to get __the__ kids__'__ attention was to cause some mess, and they would appear as if they were too __delighted__ to see __the__ path that leads them to their doom._

_And they did appear, in no more than a few hours after he demolished all the guards guarding the most important building of Vertiro. None of them, not even Reapermon himself, knew that the very person who paid for him was actually inside that building, overseeing the entire battle as a grin appeared on her pale face._

* * *

The digi-destined had always wondered the reason of their having been summoned. Now it seemed that they had figured that out, to defeat Reapermon. It wasn't an easy from the beginning, having no more than two ultimates on their side while their enemy was a mega. The last time they merely escaped with the help of Magnamon X.

'Sharp wing!' shouted Pteramon X as he jetted directly at the bounty hunter. The only result of the ruthless act was to get himself shot while still charging at his target, turning from a speeding jet into a free-falling digimon with smokes diffusing into the nearby air.

'Pteramon!' Eiji shouted as he saw his partner fell. He didn't move to his partner, however. He had to led the team, even if they were in a bad shape. 'Takumi, does he have any weakness?'

'I don't see any.' Answered the redhead. Most of the time he would have preferred to hit his enemy with strategy seeing that his partner, Clockmon, was still one of the physically weakest. 'Defense plug-in, connect!' he didn't have time to observe his enemy. A few milliseconds' delay might have caused his partner to be killed. The force field didn't protect the machine digimon much, but it still helped to at least reduce the impact as the digimon attacked. 'Time buster!'

'Useless!' Reapermon threw out a few negative comments before charging at the champion. The blast fired by Clockmon weren't on his list of harmful attacks. As he charged he made a few swift movements to evade the icy flames shot from BlueMeramon.

'Rage strayed!' SaviorHuckmon struck as well, Reapermon half turned his body around to block the wrist blades of SaviorHuckmon while still maintaining his speed. He then used the charging force of the ultimate to help throw his aside to block BlueMeramon's flames.

'Ice phantom!' BlueMeramon didn't let that SaviorHuckmon was getting in his way to be an excuse of ceasing fire as he shot more of his chilly flames at the ground in front of Reapermon, creating spikes of ice that forced the mega to smash them with the expense of his concentration.

'Strike now!' Amy yelled at Kaoru as the boy quickly used two cards: Deltamon's triple force and speed, at once. Waspmon aimed at the slow-downed mega and fired without hesitation, and within a minute Reapermon was surrounded by a thick layer of white smoke.

No one could tell if Reapermon was taking it as some kind of strategy, the only thing they could be sure was that the mega must had survived the attack. The problem was soon resolved as a blast of energy took Waspmon down. The next moment anyone could grasp a clear image of what's going on, the bounty hunter was already in combat, with the two ultimates.

'Trident savior!'

'Ice bomb!'

Both attempts to wound Reapermon were futile. Reapermon never enjoyed prolonged battle, all he needed was efficiency, and therefore he never gave any mercy to his targets. With the condition given he had to admit that handling the six digi-destined at once might have proved to be a challenge. Just as he was about to slam SaviorHuckmon, whose blades were grabbed by Reapermon, down to the ground, a shot from behind struck the mega and, finally, damaged him a bit after the long fight.

'Nitro stinger!' the attacker continued to strike. Having noticed the source of the attacks, Reapermon dodged the attacks in time to see that his attacker was a digimon that looked almost like he was wearing a bee hive on its back while having a relatively small body size.

'CannonBeemon,' uttered Amy as she read the data provided by her digivice, 'not bad, especially in times like this.' She winked playfully at Kaoru, who simply replied. 'Focus on the fight.'

An additional ultimate didn't help much. Instead, the prolonged battle enraged Reapermon, who was about to let out a decisive final bow after getting rid of the laser beams from CannonBeemon and the continuous slashes from SaviorHuckmon.

'No wonder why he had to hire me to kill off some kids.' Murmured Reapermon as if showing the minimal respect toward the digi-destined. That was when he found himself losing focus and was shot by a laser blast from Cannobeemon, and would probably have been stabbed by SaviorHuckmon had he not reacted fast enough and used his scythe to block the blades.

'I have things to ask you.' Said SaviorHuckmon as he added strength in his arms and pushed Reapermon a bit backward. 'Five years ago, you slaughtered some humans, and then you chased after Magnamon, and now us. What's the point of that?'

'The point is,' Reapermon replied, kicking the ultimate aside as he fired several shots at the airborne CannonBeemon. 'I get paid.'

'Who pay you?' demanded Kaoru once he heard that. 'Five years ago, who paid you to kill all those innocent people in Xe?'

'I don't think I'll let you take that secret along with you to hell.' replied Reapermon. He had gotten fed up with the battle, and decided to end it once and for all. He charged his cannon, but this time with a bright red light instead of the usual purple light. 'Bone duster!'

None of the digi-destined had ever heard Reapermon shouting a move's name. All of them knew well that a veteran digimon needn't use words to trigger a certain ability, which meant that Reapermon must be out of his mind now, or the move must be so powerful that even he needed to call out the spell, and therefore, a deadly move. Most of them didn't need a second to decided that it was the later in that situation, and so all of them attacked, hoping to stop the mega before he launch the lethal shot.

'Missile storm!'

'Ice phantom!'

'Chronon breaker!'

'Needle spray!'

'Sky rocket infinity!'

'Meteor flame!'

Both six digimon attacked.

Reapermon fired his cannon as well.

An explosion, a large scale one, occurred. The explosive force was so strong that the digi-destined were either forced to stay lying on the ground or to be blown backward for at least a hundred meters. Heavy layers of black some and blinding flash of orange made it impossible to see the surroundings. And there was a huge noise of 'Bang!', hindering, or disabling any means of audio observation.

'Is everyone alright?' shouted Yuzuki as soon as she got back to her feet. She could see nothing but smoke and dust. Not even her own partner.

'We're fine.' the voice of Eiji first reached her audio receptors, then came the familiar sounds if Ryosuke, Amy, and Takumi, as well as their partners.

'I hardly think he could survive that.' Commented Pteramon X. Even being an airborne he couldn't get a good glimpse aerially. He could only imagine that the attack from Reapermon had backfired and saved their lives.

'It's a bit strange.' Suggested Togemon. 'Usually, digimon turn into data that come flying into our cards, but there isn't any here.'

'Don't screw the moment, can you?' muttered Ryosuke. The last thing he wanted was to have the near death experience of facing Reapermon again. That first encounter between them had obviously set some kind of trauma in the black-haired boy.

Unfortunately Togemon X was right. A shadow rose from inside the fading smoke. It was, without a doubt, the shape of Reapermon. The smoke was all soon diffused into the air nearby, providing a clear vision for the digi-destined. Reapermon was, despite a bit battered, still standing still and approaching the digi-destined with an unsteady pace.

'CannonBeemon!' Kaoru shouted as he got up, only to find out that his partner was in a state so bad that he had landed in a messy manner.

'Get up, the fight's not over!' the blond shouted again as ran to the insect digimon. As soon as he took his first step he found two limbs under his armpits, and he could take any step forward.

'What are you doing?' he turned his head to see Amy holding him in place. Frustrated, he shouted. 'Let me go!'

'We can't go on.' The girl said. 'They can't keep fighting.'

'So you want to break your deal?' Kaoru muttered in frustration. He hadn't been so sentiment for some times, but seeing his nemesis in front of him, and probably was going to get away again was really an efficient emotional catalyst, and he couldn't help it.

'I promised you to help you kill Reapermon, not to get yourself killed!' whispered Amy.

'Ryosuke!' Kaoru shouted at the younger boy. Though stunned initially, the black-haired boy immediately figured out the blonde's requirement, and was about to use his healing card on the team's digimon before a great shadow appeared in front of him.

'Oh no.' he uttered as he looked up and saw the shape of Reapermon. Weapons at the ready, the black-haired boy could tell that he would be dead in no more than half a minute. He froze in fear, and dropped his digivice and card.

'Ryosuke!' SaviorHuckmon, one of the very few that was still capable of moving at a relatively agile speed, charged forward. But he wasn't fast enough. Reapermon raised his right arm, prepared to have his first target killed off. Before he could do that, however, he froze in a place, so steady that he almost looked like a statue. The team soon found out that a sword, or a dagger to be precise, penetrated the chest armor of the mega.

'What was that?' most of the group had the same reaction. They watched as the once mighty mega fell, and decomposed into bits of data that flew toward and over the digi-destined. The remainder wasn't even a digi-egg, just a glowing green sphere that was suspending midair.

'That's the digicore!' uttered Takumi. He couldn't be more terrified. The appearance of a digimon's digicore meant that the digimon was killed completely, without a chance of regeneration. The core soon, too, flew past the children.

The group looked back, and saw a figure they couldn't be more familiar with. Piedmon, with a card holding in his hand and the data of Reapermon being drawn into it, stood there.

'Well, it's an astonishing one, isn't it?' said the wizard digimon as he put the card into one of his pockets. 'You've really helped a lot. Really, I mean it.'

'Why did you kill him?' asked Yuzuki. She couldn't bring herself to believe that the assistant of the president would be that cruel. 'You could have let us do our job and disarm him!'

'He's the one behind all this, can't you see?' Eiji whispered to the girl and pulled her away from the mega. 'It's all set up, so that we can do the job for him.'

'So you're the one that sent Reapermon?' demanded Pteramon. 'Why kill him then? Don't you need him?'

'I need him in a manner you won't approve of.' Answered Piedmon. 'You've done a fairly good job luring him out, and weakening him that much.'

'Then you were the one who sent him to Xe five years ago?' questioned Kaoru. 'Why did you kill them, and hide that issue from the public.'

'Why would I tell you?' replied the crown. 'It's not like you can stop me anyway. Are you suggesting that I should let you enter my office again?' he said before vanishing in front of the digi-destined.

'The training center!' Takumi uttered. 'He left us the hint, but why?'

'No time to ask.' Said Yuzuki, already heading to the direction of the president's building. 'If he's behind all these, then I think someone's in great danger.'

* * *

'Are you sure about this?' asked Katashi as he received the call from Yuzuki. 'I can't just go to the principle, or the mayor, without much prove. You know, he's quite, terrifying.'

'No time for this.' Said the muffed voice from the other side of the phone. Yuzuki sounded serious, and her tone was firmer than ever. 'If Piedmon can gain access to controlling Ventrium, then I want to make sure that at least a few of people won't be cooperating.' Her voice sounded harsh, and a bit unsteady. No doubt she was running fast. 'Besides, you can pretend nothing ever happened if we succeed.'

The brown-haired boy opened the doors to his school principle's office as gentle as possible while not being passive. Liollmon was by his side, securing his safety.

'Mr. Smith, I'm sorry but I have something really important to ask you.' Said Katashi immediately as he entered the office, knowing that it would be the only time to say the words before he panic.

'I don't remember having any appointment today.' Said the school principle.

'That's why I said sorry.' Said Katashi. His voice shaking a bit but was still clear enough for his audience.

'You should be one of the students at my school.' Said Smith as two guards in white uniform walked into the room and declared their job of taking the intruder away. 'Let him stay.' Said the mayor, waving his hand to signal the guards to leave. 'Not too many students come to me. Now what is you problem?'

'Thanks.' Said Katashi with a light bawl. 'If you remember, almost a moth ago, a digimon was trying to sneak into your office. I want to know if he was looking for anything precious.'

'And why should I tell you that?'

'Because…' Katashi tried to speak, but his tongue just got stuck whenever he tired to say a word. His jaws were not cooperating as well. Eventually, Liollmon had to speak for him.

'If our source of information is correct, the president's assistant is planning something evil and we think that there might be a connection between the two.' The rookie said, though in a tone just slightly smoother that his partner's. 'And we believe that the president is in danger.'

'Well, you have to be either crazy or really serious to say that.' Commented Smith as he frowned. 'I never really want to keep things secret. But if you're correct, then I don't think you need to be here anymore.' Said him as his eyes narrowed and his expression darkened. 'The object we believed that the digimon was looking for is a data processor that can compress massive amount of data into a handheld size. It was given to me to be kept safe by the president herself, and was retrieved by her immediately after the attack. So you shouldn't be looking at here.'

'What?' both the boy and Liollmon uttered. 'Thank you very much, anyway.' Said Katashi before turning around, ready to leave and report to Yuzuki.

'Wait a minute.' Said Smith. 'Can I ask for your name?'

'My name is Katashi Tadokoro.' The brown-haired boy answered politely, though still in a rush. 'Please forgive my impoliteness, but I really have to go now.' He rushed out of the room as soon as he finished speaking.

'Katashi Tadokoro.' Uttered the principle. 'That's a name to remember.' Then he pressed a few buttons of his computer's keyboard and said. 'Get the troops ready. If anything happens in Vertiro, remember to tell them not to follow their orders.'

* * *

With the help of the speed card of Kaoru and the healing card of Ryosuke, the team entered the training center, the very venue where they first worked together, though not quite successful, in no time. Nobody has the mood to be impressed by how fast they made it there. All twelfth pairs of eyes were searching for the sign of Piedmon. To their surprise, the mega walked out from a shadowed corner without much apparent attempt to attack. The president was beside him as well.

'Well, well. I've been waiting for you for quite some time.' said the female. 'You've caused me quite an amount of troubles here.'

'Step aside, ma'am. That digimon beside you is dangerous.' Said Eiji in a demanding voice.

'I don't see the need to.' The president replied. As soon as she finished saying that, Piedmon disappeared.

'Everybody keep an eye out!" instructed SaviorHuckmon. But it was already too late. A strike from an unknown direction struck Bluemearmon, causing him to fall forward without any precaution.

'Here!' the creepy voice of Piedmon whistled as he suddenly appeared above CannonBeemon and gave him a kick, causing the ultimate to fell immediately. Now with the knowledge of the enemy's location, Clockmon and Togemon aimed at Piedmon and was about to fire.

'Time buster!'

'Needle spray!'

They never succeeded commencing in the attack as two swords of Piedmon struck them from the side, causing them to collide with one another before collapsing onto the ground.

'You're not playing this well.' The taunting voice of Piedmon spoke again as SaviorHuckmon leaped upward. 'Rage strayed!' the ultimate slashed right in front of Piedmon. There was no way to escape the close range attack, in theory. Just as SaviorHuckmon extended his arms forward the mega disappeared again, leaving SaviorHuckmon charging at nothing midair. Then his voice came from his back.

'Too slow.' He said, with a slap that sent SaviorHuckmon plugging straight down to the ground before Piedmon disappeared again.

'How did he do that?' uttered Pteramon X. he never got the answer from the mega, just a kick from his right side that invited him to join the rest of the team.

Within seconds the entire team was down. Piedmon reappeared beside the president. They both looked at the scene and smirked, satisfied.

"No way.' Uttered Yuzuki as she watched their digimon partners crumble. 'How are we supposed to fight back?'

'What's your purpose anyway?' demanded Ryosuke. He seemed to be the only one that wasn't silenced by his partner's defeat. 'You've got the whole country already!'

'Well, that starts with a long story.' Said president Mizuki as she walked forward. 'You surely doubted why a historian like me would suddenly be interested in politics?'

None of the team made any sound. Either too exhausted or not dare to. They simply leaned by their fallen partners while look at the president with hate-filled eyes. The president, seemingly appealed by the scene, continued.

'Try not to panic, cause what I'm going to tell you next is a bit…abstract, unbelievable as well.' Said the female. She paused for about five seconds before letting her dry lips move again. 'It starts with the digimon named…Millenniummon.'

'That's impossible!' said Yuzuki. 'It is just a myth.'

'And I don't care if it's a myth or not,' said Eiji. 'We'll take him down if we have to.'

'How hilarious, you couldn't even have an even match with me.' Said Piedmon.

'Even if we don't, we still got Magnamon.' Said Amy.

'You mean him?' the president said as she took out a card with the image of the royal knight printed on it. 'He wasn't very…smart. Or should I say, he's a bit, protective and…stubborn.'

All the digi-destined watched in shock and horror. They had only met Magnamon X for twice, and each in no more than two minutes. Yet all of them could tell that he was a nice digimon, and was now stunned by the announcement of his death, given what had happened to Reapermon, they knew for instant that Magnamon could not be revived as a digi-egg. None of them said anything. Their expressions had pretty much given away all the hints of their feelings.

The president then took out another card that had the image of the recently deceased Reapermon on it. 'And with these two golden buddies we're finally able to open the gate.' Piedmon moved to a giant computer set next to him and clicked a few buttons in smooth motion.

'A gate to where?' demanded Pteramon X. Despite having been badly injured he seemed to be the only who was capable of speaking at the moment.

'To the digital world, of course!' the president replied. This act seemed to have further shocked the digi-destined. Looking at their puzzled face, the president smiled in return.

'There's no digital world!' said Yuzuki. 'It's gone before you're even born!'

'That's how you're supposed to think.' Answered the president. 'You see, years before. I discovered some ancient records while working as a historian, and do you have any ideas of what I found?' she said with a light wink as if she was only talking to her friends at a private party. 'Something about this Millenniummon.' She continued to say, watching in satisfaction as she noticed that her audience was paying full attention. 'If you have heard of his name, then you must know that he possesses the power to control dimension. But you don't know was that all the myths, all that tells his stories, are true. Very luckily there're always a power to stop him. Well, not about a few thousand years ago, when Millenniummon's power went overdrive and sealed the entire digital world in his own pocket dimension, before he fell into a sleep.'

'What are you talking about?' muttered Ryosuke. He didn't know history well, but all that the president had said just sounded like some kind of tricks to scare a little child to bed at night; something that sounded like it was written by an inexperienced science-fiction writer. 'How was that possible? Digimon were here all at once, they couldn't have done that if their world was in that pocket universe!'

'An amount of them escaped, of course.' Replied the president in a rush tone. 'You don't think this planet will be big enough to hold the entire population of the digimon and human? Besides, worlds don't just merge together for no reason. You actually believed that?'

'But what does that have to do with you?' questioned Kaoru. 'All I see is you killing innocents and letting potential dangers wandering free on the streets.' That reminded Takumi of something as well.

'So you succeed? That Gigadramon thing was a test to your dimensional gate, wasn't that? And I should be stupid enough not to have figured this out early: All the digimon that went through the great barrier were part of your experiments? To test the gates?'

'You see, Millenniummon is a periodic disaster.' Said the president. 'No one can stop him. And our population has already been halved thanks to that Great War caused by stupid beings. If he awakes any sooner then you can expect to see your species only in history books, if there could be any left.' She started to sound serious. 'So we have to move first, get him on our side. So that at least he won't kill us all if he really decides to make some corpses.'

'You can just fight him!' said Eiji. 'We're available at anytime, that's the main reason why we're called, right?'

'You're all dead when you see him. You wouldn't even have the chance to scream.' Said the president. 'All I'm doing is to maintain the continuity of human race. Why should you fight me?'

Piedmon, who had been silent for all the time, stepped forward and then placed his palm on the president's shoulder with a smirk on his face. Takumi was the first to notice that and shouted. 'Watch out!'

But it was far too late. Tough invisible, the digi-destined could tell that Piedmon was passing through some kind of energy, perhaps electricity, which would kill the president to her by her shivering. None of them could even let their vocal cords to vibrate as they watched the smirk on Piedmon's face starting to grow wider and wider until it looked like the face of a maniac as the sound of the mega's laughter spread through the room. Within a few seconds the president collapsed, without any reflexive movements that prevent her head from hitting the ground as her entire body struck the tiled floor.

'I'm sorry to tell you that I might have kept something from you. All of you.' Said Piedmon. The voice was creepy when mixed with his maniac laughter. He gave a slight glance at the president, who was now apparently dead before saying again. 'It'll be a bit disappointing, but I have to tell you that Millenniummon won't be waking up sooner or later.' He said with a fast and witty tone as if the woman he's just killed wasn't even there. 'Instead, we'll be harvesting his power. That's the greatest donation he can give to any of us.' He said. 'I have always wanted to say this. Though I'll still have to do it myself…open the gate!' he then slid the two cards by the gigantic machine by his side. A dimensional vortex appeared right behind him.

'So, hope you enjoy waiting for the end to come!' said Piedmon before jumping into the vortex, disappeared at once before a porker card struck the machine. Bright orange sparks fell as the machine went 'beep!' and started to give off white smoke along with the buzzing sound that indicates the damaged. Something then appeared on the screen of the machine. Words. Words that was large enough for everyone who knows how to read to notice. A number was written there.

'We've got to decide this quickly.' Shouted Takumi. His voice shaking in panic. 'The gate will disappear in a minute. Do we chase in?'

Eiji, leader of the team, turned around to see that most of the team nodded in agreement. He said. 'We chase him. Maybe this is the reason why we're summoned. And I believe this is what Magnamon would have told us to do.' Just right after he finished that, he leaped into the vortex with Pteramon following him, amazingly the champion didn't make any complaints this time.

The rest of the group moved quickly despite the injuries of their digimon. They knew that was something that could be overcome at will. In just two seconds, the only three left in the room was Yuzuki, Amy and Kaoru.

'We got to move!' said Yuzuki. She noticed that Kaoru was in the middle of thought since the death of Reapermon and appeared to be disoriented. Her call got the blonde's attention and, hoping that he had got the message, she ran into the vortex as well.

'Come on kid.' Uttered Amy as she grabbed Kaoru's arm and half-dragged him into the vortex. As if just awaken by the force of the pulling, Kaoru took a few fast paced steps to maintain his balance as the two of them disappeared in the vortex as well.

The vortex rotated faster, and faster as its spiral shape started to contract and, finally leaving nothing but emptiness in the training center.

* * *

The scene was recorded somehow, and was shown to the mayors of every district. Katashi, having just left the room of Smith, noticed the uneasiness of his secretary, returned into the room uninvited and saw the scene on the big screen hanging on the back at Mr. Smith's office.

'No…' he mumbled as his jaws dropped.

Mr., Smith, upon noticing the boy's presence, turned around and said, in a tone so strange that it seemed like he was a completely different person. Perhaps that's the way he speaks when he's serious, seriously needing help. 'It's not the worst, but I'll need your help securing the safety of Ventrium while they were gone.'

* * *

**I'll defend myself by saying that I mentioned nothing about "no digital world" in the summary. In fact, I believe I have given out enough hints lately about it. **

**As hard as it is to accept, Millenniummon is the bad guy...again. (I kind of have the impression that whenever a villain occupation's there, he always appears.) Never mind that, at least the president is not all that evil after all. I really can't think of a better time to let her exit the stage than this chapter.**

**Also, for those (2, I guess) who wanted to see Magnamon in action, I'm afriad you're disappointed. I can only say that I hope Peidmon's portrayal as the bad guy is satisfying... And you can now understand why I called the last chapter "rubbish". This one is sooooooo much better.**

**Soundtrack of the day: Rahkshi Battle (Bionicle Heroes), used for Piedmon's fight.**

**And I'm not done yet. I replaced the cover image with a view of something that will appear in chapter 28. **

**Now I'm free to say this: see you guys next week and let's embrace the much darker story line!**


	17. 16 Digital world

**I kind of changed the openning part of each chapter for now seeing that the old introduction is no longer valid. I wanted to make it feel like the Piraka animation. Let's see if I can do it. **

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the setting.**

* * *

16 ~Digital world~

Enemies appeared one by one.

Just as the digi-destined could find the slightest ray of hope in the maze of shadows, their path became a blur again as Piedmon, the pretended assistant of the president, genuinely revealed his plan to the digi-destined.

* * *

Determined to stop Piedmon, the digi-destined chased him into the digital world that was thought to be long lost without hesitation. But what could they do in the land that had been kept secret for so long?

_It__'__s beautiful!_ Yuzuki thought. She could only keep that in her mind as the team moved silently for almost an hour? Maybe two? She had lost count, but the tense was so dense that she dare only whisper her worries to her partner. 'How long do you think we've been here, SaviorHuckmon?'

The white armored ultimate gave her a shrug as a reply. He, despite being a digimon, had never expected that the digital world could still be stepped by him too. And that arose questions in his mind too, since he knew that digimon should be born with all that they had to know. If the digital world had always been fine, why hadn't they known that until so recently?

'Where are we heading to actually?' shouted Ryosuke. Though it a move that had been expected by everyone, it was quite an impression that he could actually kept his mouth shut for quite sometime before firing bullets of complaints out of his mouth. 'Or do we even know if there's anything to head to?'

'Better than just sitting in an unfamiliar forest and wait for the night to fall.' Replied Eiji. He had been chosen as the leader of the team, and he hadn't acted like one until the moment. 'So, since none of us here know what might be awaiting us here, we'd better get to some place that seemed safer first.'

'Don't fight with him when it comes to moments like this.' Whispered Pteramon as the group moved on. 'He can be quite bossy at times.'

'Actually, if you're asking for directions, I have been working on it for some time.' uttered Takumi. 'But so far, I haven't been able to come up with a way to determine the direction. The compass is not working here. Perhaps this place has no magnetic field at all.' He said with his eyes fixed on his d-magnus. 'And this thing seems to be the only electronic device workable here, if it's electronic.'

'Can't you do something, like…trace some smells or something?' muttered Amy as she gently patted Ryosuke's head, causing him to repel a little. 'You know woods, maybe you have some primitive means to get us out of here.'

'Don't speak like I'm a caveman!' shouted Ryosuke immediately. He had tired to use his ways to leave the forest, but the greens were placed so dense that even him can't locate the directions by watching wind currents of the distribution of the trees. And he couldn't hear any river as well.

'Well, you can just strip naked in the forest back in Kr. That's quite close to being a caveman.' Uttered Togemon as a mean of teasing his partner. The words, if not intended, helped lower the tension as the team started to giggle. The black-haired boy had to scream eventually to get the team back to normal.

'Wait. I heard something.' Said FanBeemon a few seconds after the group had calmed down. 'From the trees, maybe.'

'Well, this is a forest. You've to expect all kind of creatures dwelling here.' Said Ryosuke after having his temporal flush disappeared. 'And since this is a forest in the digital world, it's not unreasonable to think that some kind of digimon would be living here, especially when you yourself is an insect.'

'Better watch out.' whispered Eiji as the noise of leaves falling became more audible. By the next second, two shadows leaped out from the two bushes to both the left and the right of the team. They were moving so fast that none of the team was able to recognize their shapes at once. Just before the blue-haired boy could give another direction to his team, bullets rained down at the digi-destined.

'Gargo pellets!'

Not having recovered from the battle with Piedmon, the digimon weren't able to do much but to first evade the attack before they could get anything planned. BlueMeramon, the less injured digimon, fired two thin towers of blue flames from both of his palms, but could only freeze the leaves nearby without hitting the intended targets.

SaviorHuckmon was the next to strike. With both blades at the ready he swiftly dodged the bullets while advancing, jumping up high at the right distance and kicked one of the shadowed attackers down with a spin of his leg as he slashed the other with his tail blade. The three of them fell with SaviorHuckmon landing perfectly and the two attackers plugging into the muddy ground beside the ultimate. By the time the attackers stood up, Savirohuckmon had already had his arms opened wide, placing his two wrist blades right next to the attackers.

'Ok, let's see.' Muttered Amy. 'Blakgargamon, champion, vaccine and…virus type?'

'Forget about that for now.' Said Yuzuki as she ran up to her partner. 'Why did you attack us?' she asked the attackers. The two BlackGargomon remained silent for a while, but then SaviorHuckmon placed his blades closer to their necks that one of them couldn't keep his mouth shut anymore.

'We struck to protect our village.' He said with his eyes narrowed, not showing the slightest bit of will to surrender. 'There's been so many mysteries, bad mysteries, these days that nobody can be trusted.' He continued, ignoring the hint from the other Blackgargamon that he should shut up. 'If we don't fight, we die.'

'Let's not be barbaric.' Said Savirohuckmon as he withdrew his blades. 'I don't see the need to attack strangers, especially when you don't want to get killed.'

The two BlackGargomon had given up all the attempts to strike back, knowing that the moment they load their arm gatlings would be the time when they got sliced in the neck. Instead they whispered to one another quietly, seemingly deciding whether to trust the digi-destined. A few more seconds passed before one of them said. 'We'll give you the information you want when you have told us all about yourselves, especially about those strange-looking Etemon.'

'What's an Etemon?' Ryosuke whispered to Takumi.

'They're a kind of digimon that looked like this.' The redhead showed a picture of the mentioned digimon to the black-haired boy soon after he finished examining the functions of his digivice.

'You compare us with this thing?!' Ryosuke couldn't help but yell after seeing the picture of the ape digimon. He didn't do that on purpose, yet he just couldn't comprehend the fact that he, as well as the others, was recognized as the disgusting and bizarre digimon. _I__ look nothing like that! At least not with the tail and the sunglasses, and __I'__m some kind of naked monkey!_

'They shouldn't have seen any humans for quite some…centuries, so, just get used to it.' whispered Takumi despite how he was, too, offended by the saying.

The team had a quick consideration, then decided to tell all that they knew to the BlackGargomon seeing that they knew nearly nothing as well. The two BlackGargomon listened, but apparently wasn't convinced.

'And we are not Etemon, we're human.' Said Eiji, representative of the group, eventually.

That seemed to have shocked the two BlackGargomon for a moment. The two of them exchanged a look, and said. 'That's impossible. Human is extinct, a thousand years ago.'

'Not now.' Said Takumi. 'We told you we're from another world. You know about the human world, right?'

'All we know is that they pretended to be separated from here when we need the utmost assistance, and then when they're in trouble they sent a couple of their kinds here, according to you.'

'I know it's a bit of a sudden to say that, but we need your help here.' Said Eiji. 'We don't know the digital world, and you said you've got some troubles here, so shouldn't we help each other?'

'And we've told you everything we know as promised. Though it's up to you to decide whether to believe it.' added Pteramon.

'Very well.' Said one of the BlackGargomon. 'You expect us to believe that?'

'Keep your words!' demanded Savirohuckmon with a hand extended as one of the BlackGargomon made a slight attempt to leave. 'Tell us about here.'

The BlackGargomon, startled, said. 'We don't know much by ourselves as well. All we know is to live a day after day.'

'What do you mean?' the ultimate continued to ask. Suddenly he realized that he was quite good at questioning, possibly due to his look and firm voice.

'You don't expect much resources here? We know very few about the other villages. Too busy defending ourselves against the Krams, not to mention the conflicts between villages.'

'What is the Krams?'

'They're a group of robbers. They take almost everything from every village and are not afraid of making enemies.' Said BlackGargomon. 'And just as the frequency of the robs decreased, some strange digimon showed up no more than two weeks ago.' He said, with his expression darkening and volume lowering. 'they look like your shape, like human. And like the ten legendary warriors.'

'But their not the saviors we've been expecting.' The other interrupted. 'They care nothing about us. All they did is wandering around spookily. One of us tried to talk to them and guess what?' he stopped for a while, making sure that his audience was paying attention to hear the next sentence. 'He got killed.'

'So you're basically suffering from the two groups?' said Yuzuki. 'Robbers and murderous legendary figures.'

'You have to understand why we can't just let you wander around in the woods.' Said the BlackGargomon. 'We can't afford losing anything due to carelessness.'

'You nearly made yourselves a third enemy.' Commented Kaoru. 'That wasn't quite careful.'

'Anyway, can you take us to your village?' asked Eiji, causing not only the two BlackGargomon, but also his team to look at him with curiosity filled eyes. 'We need shelter, and we can help you.'

'We've spent almost half an hour explaining things to these two, and now you want to get us into more trouble?' whispered Ryosuke.

'Better than knowing nothing and getting into the way of those Krams.' Whispered Amy.

* * *

The group arrived at what looked like a third world country. Huts were seen everywhere with primitive chimneys. The village was located at the center of the forest. It was, according to the BlackGargomon, one of the less livable villages in the digital world. Most of the residents had left and only a number of them remained, for fear that they should encounter the Krams on their way to the other villages.

'This is the village Renais.' Said one of the BlackGargomon as he led the digi-destined to the empty roads. 'Welcome to our little world.'

'It's like how they lived in the early years after the war.' Mumbled Yuzuki.

'More like some place Ryosuke could use.' Teased Amy. The black-haired boy gave her an elbow in return, though it didn't shut the shorthaired girl from mumbling all kind of witty words.

'Do you know where we can find shelter?' asked Eiji. Everything in the village seemed to be distributed according to the necessity of the residents, and resources were unbelievably limited. It's almost too harsh for the blue-haired boy to ask for food. So instead he let his partner to take the role. He couldn't keep the complaint-generating champion quiet for a moment anyway

One of the BlackGargomon gave Pteramon X a questioning look before saying. 'We would be really grateful if we could have three meals per day.' Then his expression lightened a little bit. 'But we can help you find some place to stay. There're plenty of abandoned houses anyway. But you have to keep your promise and get the fake legends out of our lives.'

Just as the group reached the middle of the town, another black digimon, thinner and more metallic in appearance, rushed out of one of the huts while screaming. 'Hey! Stop right there!'

As a symbol of having no intention for a fight, the group did as told. The black digimon switched his sight at the two BlackGargomon and said. 'What do you think you're doing leading these strangers into our village? Don't you think we've had enough troubles?'

'BlackRapidmon, ultimate.' Mumbled Takumi before looking around at the huts, and concluded. 'Looks like we're in a village of Lopmon.'

'They said they could help us.' Said one of the BlackGargomon.

'And you believed them?' demanded BlackRapidmon. 'The last time we mistook someone one of us ended up dead. You're still in the mood of handing you lives to the others freely, especially after what happened this morning?'

'What happened here?' asked Eiji before getting the words. 'It's not your turn to speak!'

'He's rule.' Mumbled the blue-haired boy. 'Comparable to you, Pteramon.'

'Just tell us what happened.' One of the BlackGargomon said. 'We left to scout this whole day.'

'The "legendary warriors" have finally decided to take action.' Explained BlackRapidmon. 'You thought they'd just leave us alone? No. Before we could react, one of them attacked our village. See the destruction there?' he pointed at the left of the group. Burnt woods and messed up huts and ashes could be seen there. Everything was basically covered in black. 'A good number of us got killed. And their data were, for some reason, collected.'

Despite that, none of the native digimon seemed shocked, very likely that they had always expected, or foreseen, the coming of this day. The digi-destined, however, weren't as calm as the natives.

'Doesn't that sound familiar?' whispered Amy, responded by no one, she continued. 'Does anyone of you here recall what Piedmon did to the two mega?'

'He said something about Millenniummon, not the ancient warriors.' Replied FanBeemon. As most of the citizens in Ventrium, he was familiar with tales of the digital world, and the two about Millenniummon and the ten legendary warriors were absolutely of no connection.

'We feel sorry for your loss.' Said Eiji. 'I know you don't like to be interrupted, but it's not the time for us to argue. Both of us need each other's help. We can return peace to your village as long as we know how to help.' His words were ignored by the BlackRapidmon, resulting in a few more arguments before the group caught the attention of a bunch of Lopmon.

'I think we should let them try sir.' One of the rookies said. 'Maybe it turns out that the prophets are right.'

'Is there any problem in your mind that leads you to believing those maniacs that live in the temples?' BlackGargomon uttered.

'Is there anything else you're hiding from us?' questioned SaviorHuckmon.

'I don't think you need to know that.' Replied BlackRapidmon. 'Those are just tales from the mouths of a bunch of maniacs. They said there would be someone to help us, but all we got was death after death. We thought the appearance of the legendary warriors were our hope, but it ends up they're just another menace.'

'Maybe they're talking about us?' uttered Yuzuki.

'We are the ones that need help.' Takumi reminded her. 'We know less than anyone here does.'

'What about this?' suggested Ryosuke. 'You let us stay here and we'll help you get rid of the warriors. Just for tomorrow. And then you can tell us where to go, seeing that you really don't like us.'

'Sounds like a deal.' Muttered BlackRapidmon.

'Wait. Don't make the decision on your own!' uttered Togemon, moments before the native and the digi-destined came into agreement. 'We don't even know if they'll turn on us.'

'They won't.' said Ryosuke. 'They know they can't fight us. They're just…acting tough.'

Night. The digi-destined was experiencing a night quieter than they had ever imagined.

'It's rare to see you being bothered by things.' Said Yuzuki. Though SaviorHuckmon had always been the type that wouldn't relax easily, the black-haired girl could readily tell that her partner wasn't acting as concentrated as usual, simply by his slow response.

'The digimon here, they're not having an easy life.' Said the ultimate. 'I wonder if they had always been like that, before they ever made contact with human?'

'This is just a minor area.' Said Yuzuki, trying to make things optimistic despite knowing that the situation was actually much worse than what she would want to believe. 'Remember? They've other villages out there. And maybe they can help them, if we can find them.'

That seemed to have comforted SaviorHuckmon a little. The group, although having agreed to assist the native digimon, wasn't treated quite well. In fact, all they have got in return was a limited amount of water and a burnt down hut that allowed them just to have a place to stay at night. Voices of dissatisfaction had been generated and Eiji, being the leader of the team, had been busy enough to keep the team together seeing that, nobody, especially him, would like to see the team going in separate ways in the land they didn't know much of.

'Can't we sleep separately with the boys?' complained Amy. The only answer she could get was a glance from the only other girl there, hinting her to keep quiet and be satisfied with what they could get at the moment.

'We've still got immediate problems to handle.' Proposed Clockmon. 'Since we left in a hurry and unprepared situation, we have very limited resources on our own, especially food.' He then gave the speech to his partner. 'According to my estimation, we won't be able to last for more than three days if we can't get any supply in the near future.'

'Maybe we should just hope that the temple they had mentioned isn't too far away and hope they have something prepared for us.' Uttered Pteramon. 'As for now, to save the most energy in ourselves, I think we should get rested as early as possible.'

* * *

'Incoming!' that's the first call the digi-destined could hear in the morning. Not a very comforting voice as a waking call.

'That early?' mumbled the sleepy Ryosuke with his eyes struggling to stay opened as the rest of the group rushed outside the hut to see that the entire village, excluding a small portion, about twenty percent, was on fire. The Lopmon were nowhere to be seen while the BlackGargomon and BlackRapidmon were seemingly having trouble deciding whether to first save the fire or to strike the enemy in the smoke.

'What happened?' asked Takumi as he helped a fallen Lopmon to run.

'They took us by surprise.' The Lopmon replied. 'When we're all asleep and readily vulnerable.'

'BlueMeramon, you know what to do.' Said Amy. Her partner immediately shot a couple of his ice blast, which melted as they contacted the flames and helped extinguish some of the fire. Yet the fire was so uncontrollable that BlueMeramon decided to take on another strategy. Instead of trying to set the fire off, he absorbed as much of the flames as he could and, within a minute, the entire fire was settled.

'Let's see what's hiding behind the smoke!' said Pteramon as he swiftly circled the white smoke, revealing the humanoid figure with light brown armor inside as the smoke dispensed. The brown armored figure had a very rounded upper section as if he had no neck at all. The armor of him was perfectly smooth without much decorations and patterns. Right in the middle, about the bottom of the thoracic cavity of the figure was a white oval shape with some zigzag patterns that looked like some kind of incisors.

'AncientTroiamon, mega, data type.'

'That doesn't look anything like that guy.' Uttered Ryosuke. The screen of his digivice depicted their enemy as some kind of a giant wooden horse while the one in front of them was nothing close to a horse.

'Arbormon?' muttered Takumi. 'But that's impossible!'

'What is impossible?' uttered Amy. 'Just another strange digimon, right?'

'Arbormon is a…human hybrid.' Said the redhead. 'But where did the human part come from? I thought we're the only humans in the digital world!'

'Well, why don't you just ask him?' said Pteramon before firing his missiles. 'Missile storm!'

The missiles never reached Arbormon. The hybrid digimon, without much effort, evaded the attack before extending one of his arms and grabbed the champion. Taken by surprise, Pteramon X didn't have much to do before being dragged to the ground.

'What are you?' demanded SaviorHuckmon as he charged at Arbormon. Arbormon readily took the blades of the ultimate. 'Blockage seed.' At a close range, the hybrid digimon fired a bomb from his mouth, throwing SaviorHuckmon several meters away from him before spitting a couple of more bombs at the digi-destined.

'Any plans?' uttered FanBeemon before dodging another bomb from the hybrid.

'None for now.' Said Takumi as he activated the shielding card for Clockmon. 'Arbormon, hybrid of human spirit. He should just be the same as champion level.'

'So you're saying we're outmatched by a champion?' muttered Pteramon as he fired several missiles again. 'Missile storm!'

One drawback of using solid ammo was that they'd always be used up too soon. And in this case, Pteramon X had wasted all his ranged weapons without getting a hit, not even one, which frustrated the champion further and caused his charging at the hybrid mindlessly, resulting in his being struck down.

'Miracle missle!' as if never having put evacuating the natives as the prime priority, BlackRapidmon attacked Arbormon when the others were busy running for their lives. The purple triangle of the cyborg ultimate hit its target. After a vigorous explosion, what was left in the smoke was a completely fine Arbormon, which stunned Blackrapidmmon for a moment that the extendable arm of the hybrid was able to punch the ultimate out of Arbormon's way before the hybrid tossed another bomb at the immobilized ultimate, blowing the exterior armor of BlackRapidmon into pieces of data.

Fortunately the sacrifice of BlackRapidmon was able to buy time for the digi-destined to reorganize and come up with at least some sort of plan. Judging from the fact that Arbormon was the warrior of wood, they decided to send BlueMeramon into the fight in hopes of having an elemental ascendancy, though just theoretical. In the meantime, Kaoru had had FanBeemon digivolved into CannonBeemon.

'Cold flame!' BlueMeramon, as instructed, fired his flames. Having an unlimited amount of resources, the ultimate wasn't concerning much about accuracy, letting his flames hit wherever the hybrid ran, freezing everything in the way while CannonBeemon was intercepting Arbormon from the front. Having no way to run, Arbormon used his Blockage seed again, hoping that it could help him take down someone hindering him from escaping. But instead the bomb hit a beam of fire from BlueMeramon, triggering an explosion instantly that blinded everyone for at least two minutes.

'Don't fight him anymore, we need to ask him for information.' Said Takumi as the team regained their visions. But it was already too late. Right at the site of the explosion was noting but a pit of ashes. Initially hoping to find at least some clue as of how a human hybrid would be possible at the digital world, where human had been extinct for at least some centuries.

'Well, we've got nine left on the way. Surely one of them can tell us where they come from.' Clockmon reassured his partner. 'But which way should we go now?'

'If you're looking for clues I would recommend you to go to the Great temple, also known as the Great Asylum.' Said BlackGargomon as some other natives helped BlackRapidmon recover. 'A whole bunch of weirdo live there. And they make prophecies. I guess you may want to hear the latest version.' He said, softening his voice as if being afraid of letting the others know. 'I don't remember exactly what it was like, but they did mention something about saviors from faraway land, and something they call "the sentinels of dead", which I suspect is the poetic name for the warriors.'

'Dead? Why call them dead?' mumbled Ryosuke. 'Most of the time people use death to represent something horrible.'

'Who knows? I told you they're mad.' Said BlackGargomon. 'You don't question their choice of words. But all I can say is that you can travel north.' He said, pointing at a mountain to the right of them. 'Be careful. And don't tell the others that I guide you there, I might get into trouble.'

'You said a temple?' uttered Kaoru. 'Is there anything related to human, like any records or graphics?'

'Is up to you to find out. I've never been there before.'

'I think we shouldn't bother you anymore. Thinks for the recommendation.' Said Eiji before the group disappeared from the village, ready to head north.

* * *

**Just one remiander for this week: I will be over-powering the hybrids and they will be unbelievably strong, don't complian.**


	18. 17 Sentinels of dead

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the setting.**

* * *

17 ~Sentinels of dead~

Entering the digital world the digi-destined were first greeted by the suspicious native, who claimed that humans had been extinct in the digital world. After unnecessary conflicts, they found themselves on the same side as their common enemy appeared. An unexpected enemy.

Arbormon, a human hybrid.

Though confused, they managed to defeat the hybrid and, despite leaving no clues behind, they decided to head out for the Temple, where they were told they could find possible clues.

* * *

Two days had passed ever since the team left the village Renais. On their way north, they had, fortunately, not encountered any enemy. On the other hand, the group was dying itself. According to Takumi's estimation, they could last for at most, a day, before they all die of starvation. That was, nevertheless, never the valued topic among the team. Most of them were just curious at the presence of the human hybrid digimon.

'Maybe there was human left here when Millenniummon enclosed the digital world into his pocket.' Suggested FanBeemon. 'And because there was too few of them most digimon here think they're extinct.'

'That doesn't explain why they attacked the natives.' Uttered Takumi. 'They even collected their data. Why would any human being do that? Digimon data can't benefit them anyway.'

'Maybe they're cooperating with Piedmon so that they can get back to the human world.' Said Yuzuki.

'But there wasn't any human left when Arbormon exploded.' Said Togemon. 'If that's a human hybrid, then where did the human go? He should at least leave a corps if he died.'

'Don't say it like we're killing people.' Said Ryosuke. 'That really makes me feel uncertain if we should keep fighting them.'

The group continued to move on as Pteramon, having the advantage of aerial sight, flew a bit faster and scouted the surroundings. His report was something that brought a moment of relief to the kids. 'There's something that looked like a village up there, no more than a kilometer from here.' The jet-like digimon said. 'But it was dead quiet. I wonder if they would treat us nicely.'

'Better than staying here.' Said Eiji. He had been tired of walking around in woods since entering the digital world. Though it was a bit better to him that the group wouldn't need to be traveling in a desert, the sight of trees all around again and again just made him wonder if they were just circling the entire jungle without making any progress.

'I hope they get something to share, especially food.' Muttered Amy. 'Have anyone of us here noticed how many pounds I've lost since we came here?'

'If you want to be quick, just shut up and keep walking.' Mumbled Kaoru softly.

* * *

'Seems like your eyesight's not as good as expected.' Muttered Eiji as the group walked into the 'village' Pteramon X had previously mentioned, which turned out to be just a site filled with coats of dust and smashed concrete structures. It's more suitable to say it's a ruin than a village.

'At least I found you a place to rest.' Said Pteramon defensively. 'You hated the woods, didn't you?'

'But this is not better than that.' Said the blue-haired boy. 'What's the use of the rubbles? We're running out of supply and you don't think we can eat these things, right?'

'Stop that for a while can you?' uttered Yuzuki. 'Both of you. And you have a team to lead, right?'

'I'll stop when he did.' Replied Eiji, causing his partner to react irritatingly before the others hinted them to switch the topic on the serious business.

'Are you ok?' Kaoru whispered to Amy out of concern, worried that the ruins in front of them were too familiar with the ones in Ne that it would trigger some bad memories. But instead the girl gave him a smile and said. 'You can just lock me in a prison if you have to worry about that.'

'So…what do we do with these?' Asked Ryosuke. 'I don't think we can just shout out loud and get someone here to respond. Besides, this whole "village" looks pretty huge on its own.'

'We split up.' suggested SaviorHuckmon. 'And see if we can find anything useful here.'

'I don't like the idea.' Said Clockmon. 'We may get lost. And who knows what's waiting for us deep inside? We can't just take the hybrids alone!'

'You don't have to worry about that.' His partner said. 'I do agree that we split up. but incase anything happened, we contact each other first. And we can meet up here after some time if nothing happened.'

'Then it's the plan.' Said Eiji. 'Meet up here after half an hour and see if we find anything.'

* * *

Each of the team set out with their respective partners. Yet none of them was about to find anything out of the land of rubbles. No sign of food, no sign of residents, no sign of any potential enemies, no nothing.

'Why do you think the villagers abandoned the village?' mumbled Yuzuki as she examined an empty house with a wide opening on the roof. Dust was everywhere with cracks on the walls. The sign of the ruins showed the black-haired girl that the village hadn't looked like this for a long time, probably just for a few months, which arose her curiosity. Especially after having witnessed how limited resources were in the digital world. Villagers wouldn't abandon their village for no reason.

'Probably under attack.' Her partner replied. 'Like the one we experienced in Renais. Or maybe the Krams robbed the entire village.'

'And left bullet holes on their apartments?' uttered Yuzuki as she took a closer inspection at the wall to her right. 'And why didn't they get the valuables?' she muttered, having not seen anything of importance gone missing in the house, as if the villagers just decided to disappear and leave everything behind.

'I don't know. But at least I don't think they left here at will.' Said SaviorHuckmon before the two of them heard some strange sound. It sounded like footsteps, but a bit lighter, along with the sound of what seemed to be jet landing.

'Is that Eiji?' said Yuzuki.

'I don't think so.' Said SaviorHuckmon as the two walked out of the house quietly to observe the surroundings. 'Pteramon never lands. And,' the ultimate stopped for a while as he noticed a crimson flash at the sky. If was so fast that he couldn't tell what caused it. But he could be sure that it's not created by their own teammates. 'I think I've found the cause of the village's destruction.'

* * *

'What do you think about this place?' asked Kaoru as he and FanBeemon searched for useful clues in the remains, which shocked the rookie a little seeing that his partner mostly just gave him commands rather than talking to him casually.

Hesitating for a moment, FanBeemon replied. 'Could have been a nice place to live.' He said, referring to the structure of the ruins. Though destroyed, he could clearly tell that it used to be a beautiful site, something that looked like what the ancient Greek would build in his partner's history book.

'Then why did they leave this place?' mumbled Kaoru as he further examined what looked like some kind of hall's remains under his feet. 'Or, why would somebody destroy this place after having driven the natives out? It could've been something of a certain value.'

'Maybe it's the Krams they'd mentioned before.' Said FanBeemon. 'Robbers, probably barbarians, too.'

'No.' replied the blonde boy. 'Robbers know what to take, not what to smash.'

'Then, are you suggesting…' said FanBeemon. His partner gave him a slight nod before he even finished his sentence, knowing exactly what he was about to say.

'About time to return.' Said Kaoru softly before noticing the flashlight then went straight above their heads.

* * *

A light green armored figure landed on the remains softly. Along with him was a dragon-like digimon with crimson armor and wings that were made of burning flames. The dragon took off immediately after having ensured that the green armored figure was safely on the ground. Leaving feathers of flame burning on the ground for several minutes before extinguishing.

The figure walked slowly along the ruins without having any interest at his surroundings. His arms crossed, with two round shields covering his torso. His emotionless face was simply a reflection at the fact around him, nothing personal. Nothing moral.

* * *

'Did you all see that?' asked Ryosuke as he ran back to the meeting point, only to find out that all the others were already there. The answers to his question were all positive, confirming his potential bad feeling.

'What do you think was that?' asked Takumi. 'We've all discussed about that, and all of us came out with the conclusion that that was some kind of airborne digimon.'

'But can a digimon go that fast?' uttered the black-haired boy. 'Even Pteramon can't fly at that speed.'

'You want me to show you?' replied the champion frustratingly.

'We think that has some connection with the destruction of this village.' Said Yuzuki. 'That the digimon might be one of the ten warriors.'

'And you're right.' A familiar voice said. Too familiar that the digi-destined were put into full alert. The master of the voice had beaten them once, and they weren't ready to face him again.

Nonetheless, the figure that carried the voice was, fortunately, not the one the digi-destined had expected. A light green armored humanoid digimon walked to the children with the two round shields on its arms projecting the image of a familiar face.

'Is that digimon called "weird lips-mon"?' uttered Ryosuke. 'It really shouldn't have used any lipsticks.'

'That's Mercurymon.' Corrected Takumi. 'And if anyone want to ask, yes he is a human hybrid. The Human spirit of Steel.'

'I don't think I need to introduce him to you, then?' said the face Piedmon that was shown on the shiny shields of Mercurymon. 'But I do have to ask you, how are you all doing lately?'

'Couldn't have been any better, thanks to you.' Said Yuzuki. 'If I remember correctly the Shields of Irony of Mercurymon don't have that function.' She said. Despite not as knowledgeable as Takumi, she still had a wide range of knowledge about myths of digimon. 'And how did you get any humans to work with you?'

'I thought you've figured that out already.' Said Piedmon in his mockingly high-pitched voice. 'And about the shields, that's a function I required to add, just so that I can see you.'

The digimon that carried the communication tools, on the other hand, was motionless. Silent and still as a robotic creature. Almost too impossible for the digi-destined to believe that there was a human being inside that armor.

'How did you find us anyway?' demanded Pteramon. 'And how can you be so sure that we wouldn't blast you messenger into pieces before you can even talk?' he said as he fired a missile. 'Missile storm!'

'No!' shouted Takumi and Yuzuki at the same time. But both of them were too late to respond. The missile contacted the Shield of Irony of Mercurymon and, as if the shield was just a smooth water surface, the missile was drawn right into the shield, disappearing at the next second. Just before the jet-like digimon could regard doing so, the missile reappeared at the other shield, jetting straight at the digi-destined. The missile, however, didn't hit any intended target as it flew just right beside the digimon that fired it.

'You don't use projectiles at Mercurymon you idiot!' muttered Yuzuki. 'Have you never read about them in the books?'

'Maybe somebody never reads.' Whispered Clockmon.

'Are you finished with your little chat? Cause I've got so many good news to tell you.' Said Piedmon. 'Remember the village Renais?'

'You mean the one you failed to destroy?' replied Togemon. 'We save them, if that's something you want to know.'

'Or, did you?' the response from Piedmon wasn't quite unanticipated, but the next sentence was what caused the digi-destined unease. 'Renais was quite a concealed village, but we can just locate it by visiting the exact location where Arbormon's signal disappeared.' The mega said. 'And, instead of having me talking plainly of what we did there, why don't I show you?'

The surface of Mercurymon's shield flashed back into their original shiny appearance before projecting something else. The scene that was predicted but never wanted to be true by the digi-destined.

There wasn't an entire footage, but rather just some clips of what had happened to Renais. First, there was a red dragon digimon landed on the village, which seemed to have still not recovered from its previous desolation. The fiery wings of the dragon left several trees burning while the force generated by the harsh landing collapsed numerous huts.

'That's BurningGreymon.' Mumbled Takumi. 'So that's the flying object back then.'

'Keep watching.' Whispered Clockmon.

As if planned, the natives of Renais all stopped their work at once and turned to face the dragon. BurningGreymon, without much concern, walked upon the village, carelessly and casually smashing a few huts with his tail before he stopped right at the heart of the village. And then, for the first time, the digi-destined heard the hybrid saying something other than names of moves.

'I demand to know the children's location.' Said BurningGreymon in his deep, mechanical voice, making the digi-destined wonder if that was a recording being played rather than the digimon saying the words. There was no answer in the next few seconds, so the hybrid repeated the demand again, in the exact pattern of words, tone and speed.

'They've gone.' BlackRapidmon, who seemed to have just recovered from his injuries, was the one to give a response.

BurningGreymon repeated the sentence for a third time, apparently asking for the direction as of where the digi-destined had headed. Without anyone to give any reply, BlackRapidmon spoke again.

'How are we supposed to know? Can't you see how grateful we are to have them away?'

That didn't seem to be satisfying to BurningGreymon. The hybrid said nothing, simply raising his arms as the kite-shaped barrels of the guns mounted on his metallic wrist armor rotated slowly to the front. Then, without a warning, two words were sent out of the white head of the dragon as well as bullets of fire from the barrels.

'Pyro barrage!'

The record didn't go smoothly at the moment, and the next thing the digi-destined could see on the 'screens' was village Renais being covered in red and orange as black smoke sealed the opened sky. Audio was provided as well, mostly being the sound of huts burning and tree falling, but those weren't enough to cover the sounds of the natives screaming. The next moment the entire village had already been reduced into nearly nothing. Yet, before that, the digi-destined could swear that they heard the voice of the BlackGargomon saying. 'They headed north. Now leave us alone!'

That wasn't persuasive enough to stop BurningGreymon from burning the village. A few minutes later, all the screams had disappeared with nothing but ashes and the shape of BurningGreymon standing in the center of the still burning fire. Data streams of the native digimon flew to the hybrid. That's when the shields of Mercurymon returned into their shiny appearance, right before the head of Piedmon appeared again.

'That's basically all to show you.' Said Piedmon, sounding like a director feeling proud of his work. 'Personally, I find the screaming part the most enjoyable.' He said, but nobody seemed to care. In fact, all the digi-destined were either too shocked or too furious to give any response. Seeing how pointless it was to continue asking, Piedmon changed his tone a bit, and said. 'You can consider that a warning.'

'You didn't have to kill them!' said Yuzuki. 'That BlackGargomon had already told you where we're heading!'

'Neither did I need them alive.' That was the response from Piedmon, 'we need raw material anyway. Besides, they helped you, which made them guilty. I was only giving them the proper punishment.'

'So you think you're the king of the digital world now?' uttered Ryosuke.

'I'll be sooner or later, so it's not unreasonable to carry out the laws that will soon be there.'

'You won't be, as long as we're here.' The firm voice of Eiji said.

'That's why you have to be eliminated.' Replied Piedmon. 'And, one more reminder: Who ever helps you, or receives your help, will suffer the same fate as those poor little guys.' With that said the Shields of Irony blacked out, and became silver again after several seconds.

'Togemon,' muttered Ryosuke. 'You may not like this, but, kill him, will you?'

That was one of the few times when the plant digimon didn't say no to her partner. 'Lightspeed jabbing!' deciding that Mercurymon's shields couldn't absorb her fists, Togemon X rushed and appeared in front of the hybrid within a minute, punching him with her knuckles nonstop even though Mercurymon was fast enough to evade almost every single strike front Togemon.

The others watched without the ability to join the fight. SaviorHuckmon, being one of the few digimon capable of involving in a close combat, helped battle the hybrid as well.

'Trident saber!' along with the punching of Togemon X, the two basically sealed off Mercurymon's moves, forcing him to keep backing off while occasionally defending himself with his shields. The others had considered using the opportunity to strike as well, but feared that their attacks would hit their allies mistakenly. Trusting their teammates, they stood aside and watched, hoping that their decision was correct.

'These are harder than I expected.' Uttered SaviorHuckmon, He had had his blades slammed at the Shields of Irony a couple of times, believing that the shields were brittle as they looked. Yet not even a single crack could be seen on the reflective surface of them. Togemon X didn't carry weapons as sharp as SaviorHuckmon's, nevertheless the force of her punches should have theoretically at least done some damage to the shields. Nothing happened.

Mercurymon, despite being unharmed, had no means to be offensive as well. All his tactics involved using the others attacks and turning them into his favor. Yet his opponents had been smart enough to use neither energy weapons nor solid projectiles, leaving the human hybrid no choice but to fight in hand, which really wasn't his designed purpose.

'Did anyone notice the same thing as I do?' asked Amy while watching the fight from the side.

'None of them had said anything besides names of their attacks.' Takumi replied.

'Correct.' Amy replied with a wink. 'And, I had BlueMeramon used the telepathy card again, and guess what?' that was a sentence that caused the group to stop for a while, until Takumi replied hesitantly a few seconds later. 'Nothing?'

'You're quite smart.' Replied the older girl.

'What do you mean nothing? Even the quietest has to have thoughts.' Uttered Pteramon, pointing to Kaoru. 'Here's a living example.'

'Maybe they're under some kind of mind control?' suggested FanBeemon.

'Then their minds should be receiving some kind of signal.' Said Clockmon. 'Is there really nothing, or is BlueMeramon or your card just not working properly?'

'Nothing according to BlueMeramon, unless he lied to me, which is impossible.' Replied Amy confidently.

'So, what do you think is going on exactly?' asked Eiji.

'I don't know.' Amy shrugged her shoulders. 'Just wait until they defeat Mercurymon, and hope they don't make him explode.'

Having the power of just a champion in theory, Mercurymon was, surprisingly, a good fighter even with his techniques sealed, being able to take on the attack from an ultimate and a champion at the same time. Sometimes dodging attacks and sometimes using his shield, he was almost untouchable, not to mention his ability to reflect attacks, which caused the others to have no choice but to quit the fight.

'Just how hard can it be to beat one digimon?' shouted Ryosuke impatiently as he watched his partner growing more and more exhausted. He almost wanted his partner to digivolve at the moment just so that she could regain strength. SaviorHuckmon, on the other hand, wasn't fighting efficiently either. He did manage to scratch some paints off Mercurymon's armor, but that's all he could do.

'Remember the last time it took all of us to beat Arbormon with luck?' said Yuzuki, sliding the strength enhancement card, hoping that it could help SaviorHuckmon to do more damage to his opponent. Inspired by the idea, Ryosuke shouted to the group. 'Somebody give me a useful card!'

Despite not being a fan of being shouted impolitely, the team still helped searching for useful cards for them. The only usable outcome turned out to be two speed enhancement cards, owned by Kaoru and Eiji respectively. Even with just that little help the two used the card, believing that they could help SaviorHuckmon and Togemon to at least eliminate the chances of Mercurymon's dodging every single move they made.

'Trident saber!'

'Lightspeed jabbing!'

The two struck again. Being able to hit a target with precision was so much better in a fight. Within minutes the first crack appeared on Mercurymon's shield, indicating that their strategy had succeeded.

'Keep going!' Ryosuke yelled upon seeing how well the fight was going. Unfortunately, both digimon grew tired not long after that, and could no longer carry on the high-speed attack, leaving their partners, and themselves of course, frustrated.

'There's no way I'll give up so easily, especially after seeing what you've done to the villagers!' mumbled Togemon exhaustedly as a slap from Mercurymon sent her to the ground. SaviorHuckmon, barely able to hold on to his feet, was taken down as well.

'Get up!' Shouted Yuzuki and Ryosuke at the same time. While it was true that they didn't want to push their partners too hard, they had to do that seeing that SaviorHuckmon and Togemon X were the only two to fight. Not willing to give up, Togemon forced herself to get up and, luckily, digivolved at the critical moment.

'Lillymon X, ultimate, data type.'

Having regained strength by digivolution, Lillymon said. 'I have another way to fight that guy.' She then straightened her arms and opened her palms, pointing at Mercurymon, who seemingly didn't know what's going on and what's to be afraid of.

'Temptation!' a red aura appeared on Mercurymon just as Lillymon X finished saying the single noun. Slowly and slowly, the hybrid fell, as if losing all his strength in just a few seconds. In no longer than a minute, the fight was over, with the digi-destined being the victors.

'Alright, this time he didn't get blown up.' said Takumi as the rest of the team came to join Yuzuki and Ryosuke. 'Let's see who's the one assisting Piedmon.'

Shiny light blue data streams wrapped around the fallen Mercurymon, forming something that looked like a glowing cocoon around the hybrid. The children watched, both confused and amazed by the scene. But that was nothing when compared to what they saw a few seconds later after the data cocoon unwrapped itself. Their facial expressions changed to tell that the question in their minds had changed from 'What's that?' into 'What the Hell is that?'

A number of them screamed, while the rest just starred at the scene wordlessly. Takumi and Yuzuki immediately turned their heads around to avoid seeing that image in front of them for even just one more second. Eiji covered his eyes for a few seconds before slowly opening them again with them slightly covered by his fingers. The digimon, despite not knowing exactly what's the object that took Mercurymon's place, could tell that it wasn't a good thing seeing how it resembled a human's shape and caused the reaction of their partners. Amazingly, Ryosuke, despite being the youngest of the group, wasn't reacting too overly. He simply turned his head around for a moment before getting used to that object. Even Amy, who, theoretically, should be the one to be capable of taking any circumstances without much effort, had to admit that she was stunned.

'What is that?' asked Pteramon eventually. 'Why do you react like that?'

'That's…' Eiji replied hesitantly. 'That's the bones of a human being, if I am correct.'

'I…guess-s…you are.' Said Takumi, who could still not speak fluently after the shock.

'Then he's…' uttered Pteramon, but was stopped by Clockmon the moment he started speaking. Pteramon didn't argue back, knowing that Clockmon was doing that out of protecting the feelings.

'So that's why they're called the "Sentinels of dead".' Uttered Eiji as softly as possible.

'But, where did he get this?' Finally, Amy spoke, switching the topic to Piedmon. 'Human is extinct, remember? Maybe he just dug them out.' that seemed to have helped the group to get over the fact a little, before the bones disappeared and turned into data.

'We got another problem here.' Kaoru said, looking at the sides of the battlefield. Probably due to the impact of the fact of Piedmon's usage of the Spirits, none of them had noticed that before. But right now they were surrounded by no less than a dozen of red beetle like digimon. Each standing with two legs and was looking neither scared nor frustrated. They just looked, aggressive, with their giant pincers clicking frequently.

'What are these?' asked Ryosuke. 'I've had enough disgusting things today.'

'Kuwagamon, champion, virus type.' Replied Kaoru, taking the role of Takumi, who still was in shock.

* * *

Piedmon, seemingly satisfied, wandered in his base while his partner was working on some configuration work with a giant computer, apparently disturbed by the mega.

'I thought you have finished that.' Uttered Piedmon as he took a closer look at the Scientist's screen.

'Details cannot be neglected.' the Scientist replied in a cold tone. 'Even the smallest bug can cause the whole program to shut down.'

'But you did handled these ancient relics well, in a creative way.' Said Piedmon. 'I'm sure the kids are having a lot of fun lately.'

'You wasted two of my unfinished work and gained nothing.' Said the Scientist. 'And you even killed the only living human we have.'

'We can use the kids if you want.' Replied Piedmon in a playful tone. 'By the way, I see you have finished the "completed" version.'

'That is not complete, just more functional compared to the two you wasted.' Replied the Scientist, apparently blaming Piedmon for getting two of his beloved test objects killed. No, he didn't love them, he just valued them. And they weren't killed, just damaged beyond repair.

'I hope you can bring them back completely.' Said the Scientist. 'We don't have much resources.'

'Enough to use.' Said Piedmon, before clicking a few buttons on the keyboard.

* * *

**The part I wanted to write the most...is not here. I'll upload a separate document called 'deleted scenes' along with the last chapter. The scene I wnated to write is a bit too much for a T-rated fiction. (You know what's that scene, right?)**

**And I forgot to mention that Krams comes from the word 'kramplauzis', Latvian for 'burglar'. Though I don't actually speak Latvian...**


	19. 18 Krams

**Disclaimer: I own only the human characters and the setting.**

* * *

18 ~Krams~

The digi-destined had finally discovered the truth of the human hybrids used by Piedmon: They're made of human remains.

Shocked by the fact, they had no time to think of where the remains come from or how many had Piedmon gotten himself. All they could do at the moment was to be frozen by the disturbing scene.

But the worst was yet to come.

* * *

Leaving the surroundings unattended, they found themselves surrounded by countless of Kuwagamon while they're distracted. Not knowing the intention of the insect digimon and just slightly recovered from knowing the terrible truth, they had much to face.

'What do you think of them?' whispered Ryosuke. None of the Kuwagamon seemed to be in the mood of negotiating like the BlackGargomon they had met previously. With their aggressive look the best thing an ordinary person would hope was to not become their dinner, or lunch, in this occasion.

'We still got five to fight.' Replied Amy. 'But I don't think five against all them is a wise decision.'

The Kuwagamon didn't give them much time to consider before the uncountable insect digimon slowly advanced, forming a circle of a small radius that surrounded the kids.

'Better try then do nothing.' Uttered Pteramon. The team agreed, with SaviorHuckmon too exhausted to battle they still got at least two ultimates on their side, three if FanBeemon could digivolve fast enough.

'Ice phantom!'

'Flower cannon!'

BlueMeramon and Lillymon X were the first two to attack. Using his cold flames BlueMeramon managed to drive a few of the champions back while creating a barricade of ice to prevent them from approaching the digi-destined further. Lillymon, on the other hand, left a lot of petals on the ground as if they were machine gun shells while firing her cannon, successfully forcing some Kuwagamon back.

'Missile storm!' Pteramon X struck as well. His missiles flew at random direction seeing that there was no need for aiming aside of not hitting his partner, causing explosions everywhere. Even with that, the Kuwagamon didn't seem to be afraid. In fact, most of their shells weren't damaged at all. They kept approaching the children at a low velocity.

Clockmon, being the partner of Takumi, who was still in shock, stayed by his side to ensure that nothing could hurt him further. And this, in turn, made him unable to fight at the moment. FanBeemon, too, was busy protecting Yuzuki and Kaoru while SaviorHuckmon wasn't able to fight.

Despite how powerful and explosive the attacks from the digi-destined were, nothing seemed to be capable of stopping the swarm of Kuwagamon. Being forced to retreat to the degree where the digi-destined and their partners on ground were basically sticking together, willingly or not, the insect champions stopped. Though their pincers were still clicking, possibly indicating that resistance would be futile, none of the fightable digimon was ready to give up. That was when a particular shape walked through a passage creating by several rolls of Kuwagamon giving ways. That one looked like a Kuwagamon as well, but was larger in size, had a gray shell instead of the crimson ones wore by the other insects, and was walking with four legs rather than two.

'Okuwamon, ultimate, probably the digivolved form of Kuwagamon.' Whispered Kaoru. None of the group would dare to move for fear that their seriously outnumbered situation should grow worse. Instead of creating disturbing noise by his pincers, the ultimate spoke, surprising most of the digi-destined.

'How rare it is, to see wanderers.' Okuwamon said as he approached the group, in which most of the members were starring at him. 'And I don't suppose you are digimon, are you?'

'Finally, someone to not mix us up with those Etemon.' Uttered Ryosuke, resulting in his getting slightly elbowed by whoever's standing next to him, hinting for him to shut up.

'And just what should I do with you?' said Okuwamon. He didn't have any apparent eyes, which confused the kids as he took a move that looked like he was examining their appearances. 'Should I just have them kill you, or do you have anything valuable?'

That was a warning not to be omitted. It took the digi-destined a while to think. A while, not too long, incase Okuwamon should change his mind and have them all killed.

'We have information.' Said Yuzuki, seeing that none of the others seem to have had any ideas. 'Is that valuable enough to you?'

'That depends on its content.' Said the giant insect. 'You won't expect me to spare you with just a saying?'

'Why don't introduce yourself first?' Eiji demanded, which seemed relatively unwise at the moment. 'It seems that everything that touches us just have bad luck lately. I hope you won't be one of them.'

'You don't know us?' said Okuwamon, obviously surprised. 'That's rare as well. But I don't think a dozen of fools are worth us giving up all the things here. If you don't know us, then our name might very well be the last word you'll ever hear.' He said, walking back without much trouble as if he had a sense of vision. 'We are known as the Krams, though we didn't come up with that name ourselves in the first place.'

'And we are prehistoric.' Said Amy. 'The only six human you can ever find in the digital world.'

Okuwamon hesitated for a while; seemingly considering if the words of the kids were trustworthy. 'Take them, along with everything you can carry.' He ordered. The Kuwagamon immediately followed the order wordlessly, apparently having no ability to talk instead of not wanting to.

'Are you sure it's going to be ok?' whispered Takumi to Amy. Having just slightly recovered from the shock that seemed to be quite a good sign for the redhead.

'Better than to fight them all at once.' The dyed haired girl replied.

* * *

The team was led, or forced, by the army of Kuwagamon into some kind of stone cave. Only it wasn't really a cave. Inside the interior walls were all lined with metal penal that were polished perfectly with a reflective surface very close to that of Mercurymon's shields. Unwillingly, the group was tied up in ropes, which seemed surprisingly minimal to them seeing how the base of the Krams looked. Despite that, they were still not certain about the next step of their plan, if there was any.

The Okuwamon spoke in some kind of made-up language to the Kuwagamon, and about ten of them carried the children along with their partners to a chamber where light could never made its way in except when the door was open.

'So, what do we plan on doing next?' uttered Pteramon X. 'I have this strange feeling that they're gonna cook us up for supper.'

'They're robbers, not desperate scavengers.' Said Clockmon. 'They might be thinking of a way to treat us.'

'I hope we have a plan to escape before they did that.' Said Lillymon. 'I don't really think a bunch of barbarians will treasure human lives.'

'So far, there's nothing we can do until we know a way out.' said Amy. 'I could easily have BlueMeramon burnt all the ropes. In fact, we'd have all been out there if I want.'

'Then why don't you do something?' muttered FanBeemon.

'Because, well, I don't how many of them are out there exactly.' She replied. Surely she had thought of using BlueMeramon and her telepathy card to alter the guards' memories to flee, but with that number of Kuwagamon out there she couldn't been sure if BlueMeramon could do that all in an instant. Furthermore, she wanted to first have a clearer concept of their new enemy. Knowing that the others would go against this idea of risking their lives for information, she decided that she should do it on her own.

Yuzuki, on the other hand, had her own concerns as well. 'How are you feeling, SaviorHuckmon?'

'Fine for moderate combat.' Answered her partner, having been left out of battle for some time the ultimate had regained a certain amount of energy that he should be able to handle the Kuwagamon incase anything happened to the group.

The door didn't stay closed for long. Strong light shed into the chamber as about a dozen of Kuwagamon waited outside and made the disturbing hiss sound again, apparently indicating that they were about to escort, or supervise, the digi-destined to a certain location.

'Do we follow them?' asked Lillymon.

'I don't think there's a choice.' Her partner whispered as the group walked slowly out of the chamber.

Outside the cave stood a metallic blue armored digimon. He looked almost like a tank designed to resemble the shape of a beetle, with both of his arms being a triple barreled gun and his legs having the tracks of a tank. He was in an obvious position, yet no one discovered him. No living ones, to be precise.

He slowly let the tracks on his legs start operating, moving at the entrance of the cave. Yet the opening was too small that his size wouldn't fit in, but that wasn't a concern of his designer as well.

If the Kuwagamon had a sense of vision but not relying entirely on their antennae to detect their surroundings they must have caught the unknown suspending matter that was flowing into the cave above their heads.

'How many do you think are there?' asked Amy as the team experienced the feeling of being surrounding by nothing but bugs. It was a bit grossing to be honest, at least to some of the members. But most of their concerns now was how to get out alive and with a full body.

'Countless.' replied Takumi. 'And there's actually Kabuterimon getting along with Kuwagamon here.' He commented. Around them were only waves of digimon that formed only shades of red and blue without much detail that could be seen. In theory, Kabuterimon were natural enemies of the Kuwagamon, yet somehow the insects were here working together, with some more Okuwamon among them. It was just like a hive.

'Any plans to escape now?' asked Yuzuki, being impatient.

'Not for now.' Replied Eiji. 'Maybe they'll get less cautious later.'

'Hope so.' Whispered the black-haired girl.

It didn't take a long time before they discovered the purpose of their being escorted was to let the leader, or the boss, of the robber group to meet them face-to-face. They were let free from the ropes, probably the Kuwagamon thought that they couldn't have any means to escape now that they were in the very heart of their base, with more than a thousand of guards out there guarding.

In front of the digi-destined was a digimon sitting on something that resembled a throne, only it was made of stone in stead of metal like the lining of the cave. The digimon, apparently an insect kind too, had metallic dark purple shell with no legs but several tails. His head was pointy and he actually had eyes, unlike all other Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon the group had met before. He also had translucent orangey yellow wings, which looked more like a cape when they're not in use.

'TyrantKabuterimon, mega, virus type.'

'They actually let a Kabuterimon species lead them?' whispered Ryosuke. Even with the given fact that the two supposedly rivaled species were working together, since the amount of Kuwagamon outnumbered that of the Kabuterimon, he would of course expect their leader to be a Kuwagamon species one.

'So, you are the precious creature they had reported to me?' said TyrantKabuterimon. It was no surprise that he could tell the shape of the humans seeing that he had eyes. Even with them he looked emotionless; his eyes looked cold and dead and his mouth hardly moved while he was talking. 'Human, I suppose?'

'I'm glad you know us.' Muttered Ryosuke. 'I hope you got that one from yourself, for the last time someone made a blind guess we were turned into some disgusting digimon.'

'My workers told me.' He answered, which frustrated the black-haired boy a little. 'The only six human in the digital world, wandering around with six digimon. You are really out of your mind aren't you?' he continued. 'I know someone who would pay a good price for you. He had always wanted to examine these extinct creatures.' He said, then changed his sight at the digimon. 'As for those, what should I do with them?'

'I hope that someone you're talking about is not a crown-like digimon.' Uttered Pteramon. 'He'll certainly kill you after you hand us over to him.'

'Oh, shall I thank you for that? Fortunately he is not.' Said TyrantKabuterimon, disappointing the digi-destined as well as getting them more nervous. _If there__'__s someone other than Piedmon who knows of our existence here, whom could that be and will he be our enemy?_

'You know how precious we are.' Said Amy with a determined look after she gave a sign for her teammates to stay quiet and leave this to her. 'I don't think you'll give us away that easily, not with a good price at least.'

'But does that have anything to do with you digimon friends here?' demanded TyrantKabuterimon.

'Of course it has!' Amy replied, trying to make her tone sounds like everything is in her control. 'If you kill them or mistreat them, we'll kill ourselves.' She said, giving a mischievous smile to the purple mega. 'We are, very fragile beings after all. We could have died before you could even take notice.'

'What?' Ryosuke, as well as many of the rest of the group, was shocked by the statement made by the girl. 'We don't really have to commit suicide if things go wrong, right?' the black-haired boy whispered to Amy, who gave him no response other than her 'I've got everything in control' look.

'You see, you don't even know in what way we will have this self-destruction done. Maybe we'll explode all at once!' she said. With that, the others knew that she was just exaggerating things to keep everyone alive. That, however, sounded a bit too absurd to believe. Yet TyrantKabuterimon did have to take a while to consider the possibility of that, giving a slight hope for the group. What neither the digi-destined nor the Krams noticed was that, an outstanding figure that belong to neither species of the gang was there standing far behind them.

'We only demand you to keep us alive as long as…' Amy continued bargaining, only to be intruded by a sudden sound of explosion coming form their behind. 'What's that?' the group turned around regardless of the lack of instructions given by the beetle digimon. There they saw a bunch of defeated Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon lying on the ground with their stomachs facing the ceiling beside an odd looking figure that apparently was a digimon who looked like someone was dressing as a beetle with blue shells.

'Who is that guy again?' Ryosuke asked Takumi, also known as the walking encyclopedia of unfamiliar digimon information seeing that the digivice often went wrong lately.

'Beetlemon.' Answered Takumi with a shiver. '…A human hybrid…too.' He said the sentence in a shaky tone. Yuzuki, who was standing next to him, could easily see that the redhead was shivering with his eyes starring at the hybrid un-blinked. In fact, she could feel herself shaking slightly as well.

TyrantKabuterimon, who seemed relatively calm upon the appearance of Beetlemon, didn't take any actions. Not yet, at least. He remained sitting on his throne, overseeing his minions being demolished by the intruder, apparently estimating the odds and the stakes of letting the strange cobalt-armored digimon doing whatever he wants through the expense of his minions.

Beetlemon raised his arms in the air and they started to glow a bright yellow light. The eyes of the hybrid were looking straight as if he didn't need any aiming. Buzzing sounds could be heard as the light glow brighter and brighter.

_It__'__s not the time to panic._ Takumi keep telling himself that mentally. He was practically the most knowledgeable of the group at the hybrids. They'd need his help, especially when he did know a way to due with the warrior of Thunder. Yet he could hardly get his lips and tongue to move at the correct pattern, resulting in producing some strange sounds as he tried to give advices to his teammates. Struggling for a few more seconds and they might all get electrocuted. He didn't have a choice. With that in mind he closed his eyes for no more than a second and took a deep breath, then said. 'Electricity, that's his attacks.' He looked at BlueMeramon. 'Shield us with ice.'

'Are you mad or something?' asked Eiji. 'We all know water is a conductor of electricity!'

'Look around you!' the redhead argued. 'Metal everywhere. If BlueMeramon can make and melt the ice at the same time, we might be able to conduct the electricity to somebody else.'

There wasn't time to argue as the hybrids dead cold voice said. 'Thunder fist.' He punched both of his knuckles at the ground, which was made of metal as well. Luckily, all of the digi-destined were shoed and could remain safe as long as they could keep themselves from falling down, which seemed a bit impossible at the moment seeing how chaotic things were going on.

The lightning struck the ground and fried many of the Kuwagamon and Kabuterimon. A number of them were blown up into the air while some of them just fell in the ground. Seeing that the lightning would soon strike them, the digi-destined carried out the plan as BlueMeramon fired his icy flame to create ice at an instant and then immediately melted them by another blast of flame, a lot higher in terms of temperature. This created a torrent of electrical conductor that directed the blast of lightning out of the way of the kids. They had to be very careful, though, not to be touched by the water.

'It might be our chance.' Whispered SaviorHuckmon. The rest of the group quickly agreed. But even with that they had the chaos in the situation to face. Beetlemon, being a hybrid, was apparently sent by Piedmon to hunt them while they didn't know exactly how he located them. On the other hand, they had the Krams to duel with. Worse, none of them know the way out of this cave.

'Trident saber!' SaviorHuckmon, having recovered from the previous battle, slashed a way out of the horde of insect digimon. Despite not knowing their way out, the children still decided to first leave behind the chaos where they'd most likely get killed in the crossfire. The hybrid wouldn't let them do that, though. None of the digi-destined was aware of that until they heard the dazzling sound of something and then saw a stream of data reforming into a shape of a digimon in front of them. They'd expected it to be Beetlemon, but the shape in front of looked more like a tank than a human. It retained the beetle-inspired design of Beetle, but was a lot bulkier with chunks of armor and both of its arms being guns.

'Know what is that?' uttered Ryosuke.

'MetalKabuterimon.' Replied Takumi. 'Another human hybrid known as the Beast spirit.'

'So there're two of them right now?' asked Pteramon. He looked back, but couldn't find the shape of Beetlemon anymore. 'Nevermind, still enemies. Missile storm!' though it was a bit foolish to use missiles indoor, he didn't have much of a weapon choice so he just performed his most common move. The missiles were about to hit MetalKabuterimon before he opened fire. 'Bolo thunder.'

Within a second both missiles incinerated. The digimon continued to attack, with BlueMeramon throwing chilly flames and Lillymon her energy blast at the beast hybrid. Being expected to take another turn of gunfire to defend himself, MetalKabuterimon did the exact opposite movement. The attacks flew through his body as it decomposed into data streams and revealed the outraging Kuwagamon behind him. The stream of data flew to somewhere distant from the digi-destined and reformed into the shape of Beetlemon, stunning most of them except Takumi, who had some concept of the thing called 'Slide Evolution'.

'Nitro stinger!' CannonBeemon, who had just digivolved a second ago, attacked from above, opening a path for the digi-destined to escape. Meanwhile, Beetlemon was a bit busy ambushing the other beetle digimon, knocking them out of his way with his lightning-filled punches. It seemed like he was an enemy to both sides, having tones of Okuwamon coming in his way didn't scare him, though, seeing that he was just a walking dead.

The digi-destined, having blasted their way to a less chaotic corner, were facing another decision. Through one way they saw sunlight, which indicated that it was the way out. the other had its door blasted open, revealing the supply that the kids would be needing inside.

'Of course we get out first!' muttered Ryosuke. 'I don't want to face those things for even just one more second.'

'But if we can't find any food out there we'll be dead sooner or later.' Argued Kaoru. 'I think it worth a try.'

'Why is it only when we could possibly die will you talk?' uttered the black-haired boy.

'Calm down everyone.' Said Eiji. He wanted to shout, but feared that they should be heard by the Krams. They rely on their antennae, after all. 'I think we should split up.'

'No we can't!' said Yuzuki.

'Let me finish first.' Eiji said, a bit rude, yet form enough to shut the others up. 'Three of us will go and the rest will get out of here quick.' He said, ignoring the opposition sound. 'Amy. Kaoru, you two will be following me in, the rest get out as fast as possible.' He said with his eyes looking unnaturally serious. He turned to Yuzuki and said. 'And if we don't make it out in fifteen minutes, seal the cave.'

'No!' the black-haired girl protested. 'I can't just leave you here.'

'Then you'd better wish us good luck.' The blue-haired boy said. 'Let's get it going then.'

'If you say so, captain.' Mumbled Ryosuke before he and Takumi and Yuzuki went for the light-filled entrance.

'Let's do this quick.' Muttered the oldest boy as he gestured and lead the other two into the supply chamber.

* * *

'Are they gonna be alright?' asked Takumi as the group hid behind some bushes outside the cave.

'I don't know.' Answered Yuzuki. 'We can only trust on them.'

'Will you really do it?' asked Clockmon. 'If they don't return, will you blow up the cave?'

'They will return.' Said the black-haired girl firmly.

'What if they don't?' uttered Ryosuke.

'They will!' she almost screamed, but returned quiet and watched over the entrance of the cave, hoping that her teammates would make their way out as soon as possible.

* * *

'How do we take these things out?' asked Pteramon X. they found what they had expected in the warehouse, food, mainly consisted of berries and other plants that appeared to be eatable.

'By you, if course.' Eiji said. 'You can fly.'

'So can CannonBeemon!' the champion argued, but all he got in return was a 'Shut up and get things working.' by his partner. Frustrated, he took the supply. Fortunately they were held in containers, otherwise they would really be screwed at the moment. Utilizing his flusters, he carried a few boxes of food that seemed to be capable of feeding the group for just one more week if they treated the food without expense.

'Better be quick.' Mumbled Amy in her carefree tone as she and Kaoru noticed the fight in the very core of the cave. Though they couldn't see the battle, the sound pretty much exposed everything. They heard the buzzing sound of the Kuwagamon, and the sound of the thunder created by Beetlemon, or MetalKabuterimon. As guards they were supposed to be at ready at all time, and they were. They had been waiting for their leader to give them signal that they could leave while keeping an eye out. Nothing seemed particularly wrong.

'How long do we have to wait?' the girl uttered again, getting a hush by the boy standing next to her.

'Everything's ready, we can leave now.' Eiji said. When the three was about to leave, however, the battle had already spread to them. A dozen of Kuwagamon flew out of the inner chamber blindly, not noticing the group. They stood behind the supply chamber and waited for the digimon to go away.

By the time they reached the entrance, something struck Pteramon from behind and caused him to drop the supplies. Luckily the containers seemed pretty tough to survive the fall. The thing that hit the champion revealed itself in front of the digi-destined by forming itself into the shape of MetalKabuterimon.

'I though we'd gotten rid of that.' Uttered Amy while her partner had already attacked.

'Cold flame!' BlueMeramon unleashed a blast of his icy flames, hitting his target immediately though it was later proven that no much damage was done. The unharmed MetalKabuterimon charged forward with both of his arm cannons shooting. The digimon of the digi-destined side evaded the attack as they fought back.

'Missile storm!'

'Nitro stinger!'

The two airborne digimon fired at once, both strikes hit MetalKabuterimon. Yet the hybrid seemed just as fine as he had always been. He fired his arm guns again, this time hitting Pteramon X, who fell instantly upon being hit.

'Get the things out of here.' Eiji told Kaoru and CannonBeemon. With Pteramon no longer in the state of being able to deliver the supply, they were the only ones left. Seeing that, the boy immediately grabbed the containers while CannonBeemon took him and flew toward the opening of the cave, leaving Amy and Eiji alone inside.

'How much time do we have left?' asked the girl. Eiji took a quick glance at his digivice and said with a not quite pleasant expression. 'Two minutes.'

'Then let's beat him fast.' Said Pteramon exhaustedly as he once again flew up. Although his partner warned him that he wasn't capable of continuing fighting, he ignored that as usual, firing a dozen of missiles at MetalKabuterimon as the hybrid fired his arm cannon. The lightning blasts contacted with the missiles and caused several mini explosions that created a think layer of smoke which was still able to hinder the vision of the digi-destined a little. BlueMeramon fired a blast of blue flame to illuminate the surroundings, but the only thing the humans could see was MetalKabuterimon positioning his horn down at them, the tip of it shining bright, apparently having some sort of energy being charged.

'Electron cannon.' The emotionless voice of MetalKabuterimon could be heard as a straight beam was shot. Pteramon and BlueMeramon managed to evade that, just barely, and they were slightly touched by it, being hurt even though just a minor area of their body was shot.

'One minutes left.' Eiji reminded the others. Now he really regretted having told the others to leave them behind if they couldn't make it. he hadn't expected his opponent to be that tough back then.

'We not giving up.' said Pteramon as he started to glow, a slight hope illuminated the cave. 'Not yet.'

'Yeah. We aren't dying here.' Said Amy. BlueMeramon started to glow as well. They hoped the digivolution to take place fast before the time's up, but nobody had ever taken control of that. MetaKabuterimon was apparently not surprised by that as the Electron cannon was fired again. the two glowing digimon dodged the attack again as they started to take the shape of another digimon.

In Pteramon X's place was a digimon that looked way more organic than his previous form. He was a red, humanoid digimn with the head of a bird and two giant wings. Most importantly, he had hands now.

BlueMeramon had digivolved into something that resembled a very strong built and bulky half naked man with indescribably thick muscle who was wearing a metal mask and chains. He was like BlueMeramon, on fire, but he had a more solid shape.

'Garudamon X, ultimate, vaccine type.'

'SkullMeramon, mega, data type.'

That being newly digivolved didn't seem to bother the digimon at all as they started to strike again.

'Metal fireball!' SkullMeramon was the first to attack. If the blue flames previously wasn't enough to do damage on the hybrid, then his ball of molten metal could definitely do the job, being at the temperature of at least a thousand and five hundred degree, Amy had completely no idea how that thing was being spitted out from her partner's mouth. The only thing she knew was that the attack worked as the armor of MetalKabuterimon started to soften.

'Wing blade!' Garudamon X was the next to strike. His strong wings unleashed a vacuum blade. The fire on MetalKabuterimon immediately went off as the hybrid was cut in half by what shaped like a black jetting bird. MetalKabuterimon was defeated.

'Time to go!' shouted Eiji as the group ran. They didn't have time, and weren't quite willing, to see the remains that would be left behind. Only a few more seconds and their teammates would blow the cave into pieces along with them. Very hopefully the entrance wasn't quite far away from the battle had taken place.

'So, where do we go next?' asked Takumi as the group reunited. None of them knew what happened to TyrantKabuterimon inside the cave. They did seal off the cave, but they could almost be certain that it could buy them much time. They had to find a way to their destination immediately while they had totally lost track of directions while being sent here.

'They told us to go to the mountain, right?' said Clockmon. 'But I don't think I can see any here.'

'Of course you can't' Ryosuke's voice came from a distant. They went to the black-haired boy, who was standing by the edge of the rocky road, looking downward. 'We are on the mountain.' He said as he took a step back.

Sounds of stone cracking could already be heard. The digi-destined knew they didn't have much time to think.

'We should we go then?' asked Togemon, who had just degenerated from Lillymon recently.

'Well, they told us to head for the mountain, not climb on it.' Suggested Yuzuki. 'I think we should go down.'

The decision was made quickly as the group left without a trace.

* * *

**The slide evolution of the hybrids...just imagine AOE Galvatron, that's what I wanted them to be. **

**A bit of an announcement: The next chapter will be all about the sequel, so if you don't want the sequel, you can just skip it and wait for another week until I update the 20th chapter.**

**And finally, a bit of a runt here: I have six followers and seven favourites and yet I haven't gotten quite an amout of reviews. You can just say whatever you want in the reveiws, the number would seem better that way at least.**

**I forgot...don't complain about SkullMeramon being mega.**


	20. 19 Break I

**This is a very important announcement( to me, mostly)**

**I know there're at least three** **of you reading, 2 from the US and 1 from the UK( there should be one more, from Brazil, though my graph didn't show that, I don't know why.) but so far I have got only one reviewer. So, in order to test if anybody really reads, I have decided to take a risk. By 4/4, the next time I update, if all of my reviews are still from Best OC maker( sorry for putting your name here), I will come to the conclusion that nobody( except him, of course) actually reads,_ and I will quit updating._**

**Now back to business.**

**Disclaimer: I own ****nothing but the human characters and the setting.**

* * *

19 ~Break I~

Almost immediately after having defeated Mercurymon, the digi-destined were approached by a bunch of Kuwagamon and Kabuterimon species digimon who called themselves the Krams who was, in fact, a group of robbers.

Outnumbered, they were taken to their stronghold, where, fortunately, thanks to the interruption of the now transformable ancient warrior Beetlemon, they were able to escape, resulting in their now closer to their destination.

Yuzuki starred at the starless sky very late at night. She was supposed to be sleeping, and she did manage to sleep for just a while. She didn't know how long she'd been awake, only that the image of the gross body that formed Mervurymon wouldn't leave her mind so easily. She had wondered what happened back in the human world, what happened to Katashi and her family? She had heard that digital world had a different time flow than the human world, and she might just return home in a split second. But what if they returned home, and everybody else had already been dead for years? Or worse, what if she returned home, and found her most loved ones all aged and had forgotten her?

That thought was pushed away as she heard some strange sounds coming from her left. She had been so deep in her thoughts that she didn't realize a small flare of light was there. Curious, she went for the light and sound; only to found out that Takumi and Kaoru were sitting on the stone ground, apparently studying something with their digivices.

'What are you doing so late at night?' she whispered, dare not to wale the others up.

The redhead didn't seem surprised. He turned his face at the black-haired girl and said. 'You don't really think you're the only one who can't sleep?'

'Well, the others did manage to do that.' Yuzuki sighed. She had completely no idea why the others could sleep so pleasantly after what they had been through. 'And what exactly are you doing?'

'I'm helping,' Kaoru replied, 'and he's finding a way to communicate with the human world.'

'You can do that?' the black-haired girl uttered in surprise. She had to keep her volume as low as possible though she could really yell in joy.

'Remember the duplicate digivice I gave to Katashi?' said Takumi. 'I should be able to connect with that, yet I couldn't find the right channel. Kaoru is helping me trying them out one by one.'

'Mind if I join in?' asked Yuzuki. She didn't need an answer, though, seeing that the only other choice left was to lie down and stare at the dark sky again.

* * *

Katashi lied on his bed, wondering how it had all happened. At first, he had suddenly been surprised by the fact that her childhood friend had returned home, and then he had partnered himself with Liollmon, owing to nothing but his sympathetic nature. Not long after that, he was sent by Yuzuki to warn Smith, the mayor of Rn, about Piedmon, the president's assistant. And now this?

He took a quick glance at his dark gray digivice. Nothing. He had expected to use it as a means to communicate with Yuzuki, who had gone to the digital world. Yes, now he remembered that as well. He saw them rushing into the dimensional vortex at the very moment when everything changed at Smith's very office.

* * *

'_What do you mean?__'__ Katashi was quite stunned, by both the scenario he had just witnessed on the screen and the sentence of unknown meaning coming out from Smith._

'_As how it seems to mean.__'__ Mr. Smith replied in his usual firm and deep tone. His bright red eyes were a bit different, though. They didn__'__t have that sharpness when the brown-haired boy saw him at school. Instead they looked almost a bit too old for his age. The way the eyelids were resting just made the man in front of Katashi look like he__'__s been through so much, and he was just about forty or something!_

'_I still don__'__t get it.__'__ Katashi said softly and hesitantly. Liollmon kept silent, for fear that he should say something improper and screw things up. _

'_You really think those battles that were carried out at the alleys, at different districts, were unseen by us?__'__ the black-haired man said. __'__And you made quite a mess at my school, too.__'_

'_I__'__m sorry for that.__'__ Replied the brown-haired boy. He had felt a bit strange back then when nothing seemed to have been noticed when Yuzuki fought the Fangmon and when Kaoru destroyed the Deltamon that could have __whipped__ out the school, but he simply thought that it was just his being too unattended to news. _

'_Then, you know who __I__ used to be?__'__ asked Liollmon silently. The only topic he had always wanted to avoid was, interestingly, brought upon by himself._

'_Of course __I__ do.__'__ Answered Smith. __'__I have been keeping an eye on you and that girl with a dragon digimon.__'_

'_But, __I__ still can__'__t see any connection in these things?__'__ asked Katashi, confused._

'_But you just came asking me about the hard drive Fangmon tried to steal.__'__ The man said. __'__Isn__'__t that a prove that you have at least some idea of what__'__s going on? __I__ would really like to listen to how you link these things up.__'_

'_But, what about Yuzuki and the others? Where did they go?__'__ the brown-haired boy continued asking._

'_Where do you think they had gone?__'__ asked Smith. He sounded serious while not being harsh. __'__I think __I__ should probably tell you about all that __I__ know.__'__ He said._

'_It started five years ago, when Mizuki was voted __president;__ she gave each of us mayors an __important__ item. Mine was the hard drive you have just talked about. She entrusted them to us, saying that they could be powerful __enough__ to bring her down. That wasn__'__t the thing that arose our caution. Her having __hidden__ the event of mass __disappearances__ in Xe was what made things stand out.__'__ he said._

'_The one that caused Ishiguro to lost his parents?__'__ uttered Katashi._

'_Oh, that poor little boy from Xe. They had been trying very hard to drive him mad.__'__ Commented Smith. __'__But she banned us from announcing that to the public. The most we could do was to say we were sorry we couldn__'__t do anything about that.__'__ His voice, despite sounding sorrowful, was a bit unnatural, as if he was trying to pretend something. __'__And of course, you must, too, have noticed that Mizuki__'__s origin was doubtful as well. She was a historian, and a famous one, but why would such a woman suddenly turn into politics?__'_

'_So?__'__ muttered Katashi. His mind was not functioning very well at the moment._

'_So we, the mayors, secretly investigated a bit about her and decided that she had something behind all these, and you just saw that.__'__ He continued with a smirk, making the brown-haired boy and his partner uneasy. __'__There had been so many things going on lately. Our school was just a small part of them. We decided to see if you__'__re reliable as a means against her.__'__ He paused a little, then said. __'__You couldn__'__t have left that mall mangled behind if it wasn__'__t me.__'_

'_Which means?__'__ asked Katashi. He still couldn__'__t put things together in his mind. He had experienced __similar__ feeling during examination, but that wasn__'__t quite dense as this one._

'_I think you can help me, as well as the rest of us, while they__'__re gone.__'__ Smith said. __'__If __I__ heard it correctly they should currently be in the digital world. Honestly saying, that surprised me as well.__'__ He stopped, thinking about what to say next. Well, he couldn__'__t just tell everyone in the country that their beloved president had been brutally killed because she had involved herself in some business that was best not to be told to anyone. Katashi knew that as well, but wasn__'__t able to comprehend all that at once._

_With a deep breath, Smith said. __'__I want you to look after this place with the Centuramon while we duel with the politics. That Piedmon, if __I__ am right, should have himself some friends, and __I__ want you to take care of them in case they show up. as __I__ have told you; __I__ saw your battle with the wild digimon and honestly, __I__ thnk you__'__re better in doing this than that girl.__'_

'_But, I__…'_

'_You needn__'__t answer me now. Just come to me whenever you feel comfortable.__'_

* * *

And so passed a few days, and Katashi was still struggling in his thoughts to decided whether to trust his mayor plus principle or to leave everything behind, continue the mental torture he had brought for himself.

'Should we at least try?' asked Liollmon softly. 'It seems to be the best way to help Yuzuki and the others.'

'But I don't even know who to trust.' Uttered the brown-haired boy as he let out a deep sigh. 'A moment before, I could still confidently give the answer "yes", but now things just seem so mad to me. I mean, first the president was revealed as the bad guy all along, then she was killed, than Mr. Smith said he and his comrades had been spying on every of us.'

Liollmon didn't answer this time. Surely he could understand the feeling of that kind of metal struggle. Just a few weeks ago, he had, too, been doubting himself for being some sort of murderous figure in his previous life, and that wasn't a good feeling. Yet the Katashi he knew could never been this troubled, or at least he just hadn't seen him being so. Not like his partner, he didn't know how to handle this kind of situation, so he just left him alone, deciding that it would be the best way.

'Do you think I should trust him?' that was almost the twelfth time Katashi had asked that question to his partner during the days. He still couldn't decide what to do. 'His words sounded a bit ridiculous, yet they still made sense when connected to the previous events.'

'I should leave the final decision to you.' Answered Liollmon. 'I'm really not good at making decisions. But if I were you I would do whatever I can to aid my friends.'

That sentence of Liollmon had to have been said for quite a few times, but it seemed like it was the first time Katashi really paid attention to it. _Whatever __I__ can do to aid Yuzuki? _He thought. The obvious answer would be to answer Smith's call and help him defend the city, if he wasn't lying. There wasn't much of a choice, in fact. He couldn't just pop in the digital world like his friend's group, even if he could, he would just get lost and end up the one who need help, completely opposing his initial aim of helping.

'Maybe Smith is the only option.' He muttered as he got up from his bed. Quickly he picked a few items into his messenger beg, including his digivice, and gesture at Liollmon, motioning for him to follow. _It__'__s been a few __days;__ hope he hasn__'__t changed his mind._ He though as he and his partner walked out of his room. He didn't even need to say goodbye, seeing that his parents were at work as usual, as if nothing had happened. Well, he was one of the only few that knew the recent events. All other citizens just thought that some kind of outlaws had been causing quite a mess and suddenly disappeared.

Katashi paced rapidly round the entrance of the building in which Smith's office was located. _I__ thought __I__ had made up my mind._ The apparently uneasy kid thought to himself. Liollmon wouldn't go in without his partner. Both of them seemed nervous, as if they had been dropped here by their parents and had been told to wait for the never returning pair.

'Oh, what are you doing here.' A voice found its way into the brown-haired boy's head. The most unwanted voice he had ever heard.

_Does it have to be her?_ The primary subject of his thoughts changed at the instant. _Of all places, all people, all time, why does it have to be her, at her, at this moment?_ Though unwilling, he turned to face his classmate who wasn't practically a mate of his.

'You look a bit better than I expected.' He said as casually as he could. He didn't really hate her, but she was irritating enough that he seemed to be the only one, excluding Yuzuki, who would have a considerably normal conversation with her. Liollmon, not having seen the girl, had thought for a moment that the girl had been ill, and Katashi was referring to her healed state. But what the brown-haired boy actually meant was Elsa's hair. He had always found her double-tail style a bit disturbing, and now she had switched her haircut into a simpler style with just one long horsetail.

'And what are you supposed to be doing here, pacing in front of the front door of the mayor's office?' she said in her usual sarcastic tone. 'Someone not as friendly as I am might think that you're up to something.'

'You're not very friendly, actually.' Replied Katashi, never hesitating to let the words flow out of his mouth. He knew those words wouldn't hurt the blonde's feeling that much, if she had some kind of self-awareness. 'And in fact, yes, I'm up to something. So I'm just gonna walk into this building and find Mr. Smith.' He then gave a quick glance to Liollmon, who looked a bit confused, asking him to come with him.

Then came the thing that was on the top position of Katashi's "Not to happen today list". Just as the boy walked into the building, he heard footsteps following him. He looked to his side; Liollmon was there. He rarely walks so loudly. Therefore, with the most optimistic thought that he should probably be wrong, he turned his head and confirmed that he shouldn't have wasted the time hesitating in front of the building. The shape of the blonde was behind him, just a few steps away from the two.

'What are you doing here?' he whispered. He wanted to shout, in fact, but couldn't bring himself into doing so seeing that the building was supposed to be a quiet place for work.

'I was planning to wander around, see if there's anything worth my time. You know, things have been pretty boring lately.' Elsa, as if nothing seems wrong with her following Katashi, said.

'I've got serious business here.' Whispered Katashi. Liollmon was keeping silent all the time, mostly due to his not knowing the girl very much. 'If you want someone to talk with, maybe next time.'

'Well, is that how you treat your dear classmate?' uttered Elsa. Katashi so wanted to say that she was nothing close to being a dare friend. Yet he did have things to handle, so he decided to get the girl away by switching topic. 'What about you? I heard you've a crush on someone.'

'I'm admired by many.' That's the reply from Elsa. The strategy of getting her embarrassed and get away didn't really work on her. Yet Katashi wasn't giving up, not now. 'Mind if I guess? I've heard that you kissed Ishiguro.'

'Oh, he's not very good at keeping secrets, then.' The blonde replied. Katashi sighed. It was Eiji who actually accidentally let everyone know that. 'You should've been there. He looked so cute upon the astonishment.'

'That's just one of your tricks?' uttered Katashi. _Just how far would she go to make people feel __awkward__?_ With no means to get the irritating girl away, he decided to just ignore her and enter the elevator; she would get herself into trouble by the secretary sooner or later, anyway.

'Who's that girl?' asked Liollmon. He hadn't quite met any human beings other than the digi-destined.

'Just someone annoying.' That was all Katashi could say. The girl was following them, as he's previously presumed. Trying to get rid of her would just be a waste of energy at this point of time. 'Just follow me tight. She shouldn't be allowed to enter the office later.'

* * *

He walked to the secretary, who was sitting in her working position right at the left side of the door of the office. He whispered a few words to the lady, hoping that she could remember his face and avoid all the redundant procedure of checking identification documents. The woman didn't say anything to the boy, instead she typed a few words with her computer and by the next moment Katashi could hear the door unlocking. 'You may enter.' She said.

With the permission Katashi and Liollmon went into the room without hesitation, hoping to get rid of Elsa as soon as possible. Inside the room was Smith as usual. He seemed to have already known that the boy was coming, as shown by his gentle smile that welcomed the non-destined human.

'I've been thinking for days,' said Katashi, not bothering the formal greetings he should have done seconds ago. He was just glad that Elsa couldn't be here to disturb his meeting with Smith. 'I think I should help you, but I don't know if there's anything I could do.'

'I knew you would come eventually.' Said the suited man. 'Just a bit longer than I'd expected.'

'But what can we do, actually?' asked Liollmon. 'We don't even have the slightest clue of what to do, everything seem quite normal.'

'That's why I need you.' Said Smith. 'You're more mobile than most of the official forces.' Then he suddenly paused for a moment, staring at the door just in time to find out that their conversation had been overheard by a certain blonde girl.

'Who is she and how is she able to be out there without my permission?' he uttered. Katashi suddenly felt a feeling mixed with shock and frustration. _She should__'__ve been sent away by now!_ He turned around and proved that seemingly no one could ever get the girl to do anything against her will.

The door was opened. Elsa, apparently aware of her having been discovered, walked into the room with out a bit of hesitation on her face. She gave a quick glance to Katashi, and then looked forward, stopping just right next to the brown-haired boy as if waiting for someone to say something. Katashi seemed nothing close to how he looked seconds before. His face a bit pale with uneasily shaped eyes staring at Elsa, then looked innocently and doubtfully at Smith. He couldn't believe what was happening right now and didn't want to know what would happen next.

Katashi and Liollmon, along with Elsa, were walking on the streets again.

* * *

He simply couldn't believe that Smith had done nothing about Elsa but to ask Katashi to look after her. Now he was "escorting" her back to her home. He really hated the idea of hating people, but there's always someone who seemed to be born to be hated. And to Katashi, Elsa was the living example. Really, letting her in the entire thing wasn't that dangerous, yet she could, and would very likely, be a burden to the boy when it came to fighting. He couldn't do anything, though. _Either kill her off to shut her mouth for good or protect her at all cost._ He remembered Smith's words.

'Where do you live actually?' he asked, realizing that he never really had any idea of the location of her home.

'Just follow me.' Uttered Elsa in response.

'The next time, before you do anything, could you just stop for a moment and think about the stakes?' muttered Katashi. He knew he was mostly talking to himself seeing that the girl beside him would hardly listen to anyone but herself.

'I don't remember having seen him at school that time.' Elsa wasn't replying the question as Katashi had expected. She changed the subject to Liollmon, who had been silent long enough. 'Who's he, actually?'

'Liollmon.' The rookie answered before his partner did. 'Friend of Katashi.' Yes, he considered himself as a friend more than a partner most of the time, since they were always out of the dangerous fight the official digi-destined had to face.

'He certainly knows the meaning of "manner" better than you do.' The blonde joked. In fact, Liollmon was being a bit nicer simply because Elsa was a complete stranger to him, and he never misbehave in front of strangers (but that doesn't mean he misbehave while around his friends).

Then their pleasant talk was ended violently by a bat-like object that plugged directly toward the ground in front of them and exploded. The power of the explosion wasn't enough to injure the trio, but it certainly caused a moment of chaos.

When they reorganized, all they could see was a humanoid digimon, looking a bit like the Devimon species but a lot more female in terms of appearance. She stared at Katashi as well as all beings standing next to him. 'Be glad I'm with you.' Uttered Katashi before he took out his digivice and had a quick look at digimon's information.

'LadyDevimon. Ultimate, virus type.'

'Can you delay her?' asked the brown-haired boy. He knew very surely that Liollmon would never stand a chance against an ultimate even if he digivolved into Leomon, which he did.

'Hide!' said Leomon as it engaged combat with LadyDevimon. Nobody knew why the fallen angel digimon would suddenly have the mood of attacking him or her; all they knew was that they had to run to stay alive. Leomon drew his dagger and charged at the ultimate, who wordlessly smirked before she swung her cape as a means of distraction and drifted to Leomon's left, slapping the champion.

'That's the one that killed Devimon? A bit disappointing.' Uttered the ultimate. Obviously she was saying that out a bit too loudly that Katashi was able to hear. Despite the danger, he stood out and demand. 'What do you mean?'

LadyDevimon didn't respond in words immediately, instead she took out a piece of paper and threw it to the brown-haired boy. He immediately understood what was going on as soon as he set his sight on the paper. The paper was the design of Takumi's digivice, which had been lost since their last battle with Devimon. That also explained how LadyDevimon could distinguish the digivice-carrier.

'I just can't believe he was that weak.' She said before reaching her hand to her cape and swung it again. 'Evil wing!' she said as countless bat-shaped flying objects jetted toward Katashi.

'Juga-maru!' the brown-haired boy used the card Yuzuki had left for him. Leomon used his two blades to slash as many bats as he could while protecting his partner. Being kept busy he couldn't have the slightest opportunity to strike, while LadyDevimon was more than convenient to give a strike to Leomon; and she did so.

'Black wing!' her left hand suddenly transformed into a long sharp spike, almost like the spear of Gallantmon the royal knight. With her weapon she effortlessly slammed it against Leomon, causing him to fall. She could've stabbed him instead, but she wanted to have fun in a battle, and expected something unexpected to happen by pushing her opponent to their limits. They defeated Devimon, after all, unless Devimon was really that useless.

'What do you have to do with Devimon?' demanded Katashi again despite being the disadvantaged.

'Just want to have some fun!' replied LadyDevimon with a tone too similar to that of Amy's. She then swung her spike-hand at Katashi, but Leomon would, of course, not let her do that. He sprung up immediately and used his two blades to block the weapon-arm of LadyDevimon, who cheated by giving the champion a kick in the stomach. Leomon fell back a couple meters before he charged at the ultimate again. this time he threw his two blades at LadyDevimon, who easily knocked them aside.

'Fist of Beast King!' Leomon yelled as he punched in the air. A lion head-shaped energy pulse jetted straight at LadyDevimon Taken by surprise, LadyDevion got hit directly by the strike. Though having difference in level, the strike was still powerful enough to injure the ultimate to the point that she had to use a hand to use her right hand to cover her left chest –the position where the attack landed. Angered, she cried. 'Evil wing!'

The bat-like creatures, if they were alive, appeared again and struck Leomon. Leomon endured that, however, and charged at LadyDevimon, retrieving his blades as he rushed, and was about to give a final blow to the ultimate before the bat-like creature outnumbered him and trapped him.

That was when Leomon started to glow.

Though it was too fast a progress for a non-destined, Leomon was, without a doubt, digivolving. By the next second a figure resembling a robotic version of Leomon stood there.

'GrapLeomon, ultimate, vaccine type.'

'The King of Fist!' GrapLeomon yelled, blasting the bats out of his way in a split second as he resumed his way to LadyDevimon. The turbines on both of his wrists could be seen spinning at a speed so fast that only blurs of colors were there. Then slowly the turbines slowed as the ultimate gripped LadyDevimon, who had been too startled to respond to the attack, by her neck and threw her to the ground.

'Who's being beaten now?' said Elsa in a mocking tone despite not knowing anything about the relation of the ultimate and her classmate. That seemed nothing different from committing suicide from Katashi's perspective, and he didn't know when had she popped out as well. LadyDevimon, apparently finding the insult intolerable, gave the girl a deadly gaze as she launched her right arm at her. Before anyone could react to protect her, however, the girl said. 'I'm not afraid of you. You're nothing more than a beaten digimon, and see who have I got as back up?'

If she had a death wish, then certainly she had failed to achieve her goal. LadyDevimon stopped before she was forced to, and a smirk appeared on her bitter face. 'You're nuts.' She uttered. 'I like you.'

'What do you want with us anyway?' demanded GrapLeomon.

'Well, I have got to see who are the ones that defeated the famous Reapermon; aka: my boss. Well, former boss.' LadyDevimon replied. Katashi wanted to hear more from her as well as to tell her that she had found the wrong ones. But before he could do that, Elsa spoke again.

'We'll spare you in one condition.' She said, totally against Katashi's will at sparing her without any condition. The blonde seemed to have her own plan in her unpredictable little mind, as she said. 'You are to become my partner, or body guard, or something like that.'

'Are you nuts? She worked for Reapermon!' yelled Katashi. Seeing that she had no idea what a Reapermon was, he added. 'The one who killed Ishiguro's parents as well as many others in Xe!'

'Then make her pay!' said Elsa in an irresponsible tone, as if threatening Katashi to make a choice between letting a dangerous digimon be around the girl or to be a cold-blooded murderer.

'She'll kill you in two minutes after we're gone!' said GrapLeomon.

'No she won't' to everyone's surprise, LadyDevimon was the one to answer. 'Didn't I say I liked the girl? She was so much better than you dull human. Besides, I'm getting tired running around for a digimon who's now dead. It should be a nice try partnering with human, if that gives me power.'

'I'll not let you kill yourself, even if I hate you so much.' Said Katashi firmly. Elsa, on the other hand, didn't seem to be scared. She simply walked to LadyDevimon and said. 'I don't need your protection anymore, who cares if you feel guilty letting me be with this digimon?'

'Never mind. You can never outtalk her.' Sighed GrapLeomon, who seemed to have learned the character of Elsa in just a few hours of interaction.

With that, LadyDevimon gave them a smirk.

* * *

Yuzuki woke up, and found that the two boys beside her had already fallen asleep. The sun was rising at a low pace as she noticed that her digivice was in her palm and remembered that she was trying to find a channel to connect to Katashi the last night. She must have fallen asleep during the testing.

She took one last look at the two peacefully asleep boys near her as she clicked a few buttons on her d-magnus. She expected to see nothing. After all, she had tried all night with the other two without a single solution coming out. to her surprise, her friend's voice came from the tiny machine in her hand.

'Katashi? Is that you?' she asked.

'I've been waiting for it for a long time. I knew you'd eventually find me.' Said the voice on the other side of the digivice. Though a bit blurred, the black-haired girl could be sure that that was Katashi's voice.

'You've thought of it already?' she asked, a bit surprised.

'I kept thinking of you, so I fancied every possibility.' He replied.

'Did anything happened back home? How many days has passed since we're gone?' she asked anxiously. The question of time difference appeared in her head again.

'Four days.' The boy answered, much to Yuzuki's relief. 'A lot happened here. What about you? Are you doing good?'

'A lot happened here too.' Yuzuki replied. She had to force herself to stop for a while, not willing to tell the terrible things to Katashi. 'I'll tell you later. We can chat now, after all.'

* * *

**A remarkable word count: 4,999, excluding the disclaimer and the note here.**

**As the title suggests, there will, of course, be a part II of this kind of chapters, otherwise the whole story would just be 32 chapters long, which is not a bad thing for me and, as the chapter suggests. the sequel will be about Katashi and seriously, from the authro's point of view, I think the entire book 1 is just there so that I can write the book 2.**


	21. 20 Another digivolutionary error

**I have to admit that I was really surprised that my experiment did work. I know I was being very pushy, but that also proved that people do leave reviews with a 'genital' little push. Most importantly it showed that people do read; they just don't leave anything behind.**

20 ~Another digivolutinonary error~

The digi-destined had to admit that they had underestimated the distance they had to walk.

Ever since they'd escaped the Krams they'd been walking down the mountain, hoping to reach the temple where they had been directed to, not knowing if they're even on the right side. Of course none of them wanted to get to the wrong side and circle around the mountain for who knows how many more days to get to their destination. They didn't even know if they could really find anything there.

'How long do we have to keep walking?' complained Ryosuke despite being one of the more physically advantaged kids.

'Maybe days, or maybe a few more weeks. Who knows?' answered Yuzuki. That was, obviously, not the answer the black-haired boy had wanted. Yet he had expected to hear something like that. 'But, seeing that we've already walked for so many days, I'd say we're pretty close to the bottom.'

'That's not quite the correct way to estimate.' Commented Clockmon, but he was quickly kept silent by his partner, who claimed that a little hope is better than a little worry. 'Let's just hope we're almost there.' Said Takumi, who was, too, in fact worried that they would have to walk for a few more weeks.

'We don't even know what we're looking for,' said Pteramon X, 'all we know was that there're some loonies living inside a temple. Why didn't we ask for the description of the temple earlier? That way we can at least have something to look for.'

'Maybe you can go ahead and tell us what you find out?' said Amy jokingly. Eiji had, more than once, stated clear that they had to stay together no matter the circumstances, for fear that anyone should get lost and is never to be found again. That was part of the reason why the group was making a slow progress, but they did agree that keeping all of them safe and fine for the moment was more important than having a fast progress.

'I'm actually quite surprised that Piedmon hasn't given us another visit lately.' Said Togemon.

'You mean you want his warriors here?' said FanBeemon. He could remember too well the others' look when they learned the truth of the hybrids Piedmon was using.

'Well, let's just get going before one of them could find us.' Said SaviorHuckmon. Unfortunately as soon as they walked out of the woody section of the mountain and got to somewhere with more sunlight, the very person they had just talked about stood there, as if it'd been anticipating their arrivals.

'What's that this time?' asked Ryosuke.

'That's Grumblemon.' Said Takumi. He'd gotten used to the hybrids now that he was less frightened when facing them. 'And his Beast form is Gigasmon.'

'Anyone want to make that thing grumble?' said Pteramon as he, as always, fired his missiles before anyone else could say anything. 'Missile storm!'

'You're not leaving us behind.' Said Ryosuke as Togemon charged at Grumblemon as well. 'Needle spray!'

Grumblemon, having a small body size, used it to his advantage as he jumped sideways swiftly and evaded both attacks. He then, out of nowhere, gripped a giant hammer in his hands and swung it forward as if he didn't even need any strength to carry the hammer, which seemed a bit of a contrary to his small size. He was already on top of Pteramon X as he yelled. 'Seismic sledge!'

A bit to the digi-destined's surprise; his voice was quite a human one, unlike the cold monotone of the previous warriors. Anyway he hit Pteramon right from the above within a second and sent the poor jet-like digimon straight down the earth. Seeing that Grumblemon couldn't dodge any attack while he's midair, Clockmon attacked.

'Time buster!' he shouted as he fired his arm gun. It'd been quite a long time since he's last joined a battle, still his aim was fairly well that the attack should've hit the hybrid had he not transformed himself into a stream of data and let the blast go straight through his body as his data flowed to Clockmon's back and reformed into a much larger digimon. That was no doubt the Gigasmon Takumi had warned them about.

'Tectonic slam.' Said Gigasmon as his giant fists slammed toward Clockmon. The champion reflexively used his hammer-like staff to hold the attack, only it was too strong that Clockmon's staff was soon broken in half not long before he slipped away and let the hybrid's fists hit the ground. Although he didn't have a direct hit, Gigasmon's slam was still powerful enough that the earth shook upon contact with the giant digimon.

Clockmon was blown away for a few meters by the quake. Togemon X was also having a hard time standing firm while trying to attack. The others immediately rushed to join in the battle. They were a bit too slow, however. Gigasmon transformed himself into data streams again and successfully evaded a fireball from BlueMeramon and reformed into the form of Grumblemon next to Clockmon.

'Time buster!' Clockmon attacked again. Grunblemon didn't transform this time; he simply leaped backward and then forward again, with his giant hammer in his hands he cried 'Seismic sledge!' without much time to react, the attack hit Clockmon right on, causing the champion to fly a few feet backward while yelling in pain.

'Clockmon!' Takumi gave out a useless yell while running to his partner. The others took the chance to strike; SaviorHuckmon drifted and slashed with his blades while Pteramon jetted forward and used his wings as a means of attacking. They weren't agile enough it seemed, for none of the attacks reached Grumblemon.

'Why are the hybrids always dodging?' uttered Ryosuke, frustrated as Grumblemon dodged another wave of needles from Togemon X.

Clockmon, on the other hand, wasn't quite in the shape of continuing battle. He was trying to use his limited time-controlling ability to help, which he hadn't done before for fear that he should lost control. He didn't succeed this time, nor was he able to even make the move as soon as his damaged mechanical body started to glow. That gave hope to the others, hoping that another ultimate could help the fight.

The truth was, of course, not as optimistic as the digi-destined had hoped. As soon as Clockmon finished digivolution something that look even more sinister and more suitable for the title "Reapermon" replaced the shape of the clock-like digimon. The digimon had only a spine linked with a glowing purple sphere as his body. It had no arms, but bolts of purple lights that linked the hands with the torso. The entire body was covered in a cloak that was blood red inside and black outside. The head of the digimon was a human skull. With the giant laser scythe that was held in both his hands he truly deserves to be named after the Grim Reaper more than Reapermon himself.

'MetalPhantomon, ultimate, data type.'

'Soul predator!' MetalPhantomon screamed. His sickle's blades enlarged as he suddenly appeared behind Grumblemon and, taking the hybrid by surprise, directly swung the sickle at him. Grumblemon was not fast enough to dodge the attack, yet he wasn't too slow either. As soon as the laser blades found their way into the hybrid's skin, he transformed himself into three large data streams and fled, nowhere to be seen after just a single second.

'That's quite close.' Said Eiji as the group relaxed a bit. The team then gathered and was about to continue going on their way before they realized that MetalPhantomon was not behaving normally as he would as Clockmon. He stayed still as the others moved on, which drew their attention on him.

'What's wrong, MetalPhantomon?' asked Takumi. His voice a bit hesitant as if he knew what was happening but was trying to act fine. In fact, he wasn't staying quite close to MetalPhantomon as if he was expecting something, something terrible, to happen. He kept his eyes on his partner as much as possible while occasionally checking on his digivice, looking puzzled.

'What's with you two?' asked Togemon. 'We've to leave now.'

And then, to everyone's surprise, MetalPhantomon charged forward and swung his scythe at the digi-destined. SaviorHuckmon reacted immediately, using his wrist blades to counter the attack. He was barely blocking the attack; his arms could be seen being pushed backward every second and he was using his tail to help him stabilize as well even though it was proved useless as MetalPhantomon pushed harder. The next second SaviorHuckmon was already on the ground meters away from MetalPhantomon.

'What's wrong with you?' uttered Pteramon X as he fired a missile. Unexpectedly, the ultimate managed to slice it in half precisely before the missile was even at its greatest speed. Takumi didn't seem surprised at all, though. The only thing he did was kept mumbling words too soft for the others to hear. He looked stressed, but not unprepared, just like a student facing some Mathematical questions that he should be able to solve but was at the moment too hard to him.

'Ice phantom!' BlueMeramon was about to attack. Before that could happen, however, MetalPhantomon started to glow an unpleasant orange light. The next moment, he was like a bomb, exploded with the light spreading to everywhere.

Quickly Takumi ran to the location were MetalPhantomon once where after the explosion. The ground filled with cracks on a pit with radius no less than two hundred meters. In the very center of the pit lay Solarmon, the rookie form of MetalPhantomon, unconscious and motionless. Takumi held his partner in his arms as he reached the pit. His voice could be heard. 'Why it has to happen again?'

'Again?' that's the question in almost everyone's mind at the moment. Eiji, being the rightful leader, ordered them to first find a place of shelter for the rest of the day and settle the issue later. And they obeyed, seeing no point in staying in the middle of nowhere with an obvious aerial mark that something had happened.

* * *

Night had fallen sooner than they had expect just about the time they found another woody land to spend the night. Near a large tree they sat, with BlueMeramon being the source of illumination. There was no need to make a fire when you have a living one, after all.

'Now can you explain what actually happened back then?' asked Eiji. Takumi didn't answer at once. He was a bit overwhelmed by his partner's stilling in a coma, and could not have his mind cleared up for a rational talk at fast as he used to. After a few minutes of silence he talked.

'When I first received Solarmon, as a digi-egg,' the redhead started, 'He was not as gentle as he's been so far.'

* * *

_It was, perhaps, the worse day Takumi had __experienced__ in his fourteen years of life._

_It wasn__'__t that much of an issue in others__'__ eyes, mostly because the others didn__'__t treat __academicals as much as the redhead did.__ He was deeply depressed by the fact that he was performing as one of the worst in class, not to mention how much worse he would be when compared to the entire district._

_He walked slowly back home with his tie __loosened__, the way he did so that he could breath more __easily__. He was alone, as he__'__d always been, but wasn__'__t depressed by that that day. In fact, he could really use the __loneliness__ to think, though there__'__s not much to be thought of. Then, out of nowhere, he suddenly saw a great shadow that covered his own. Having been keeping his head staring at the ground, he looked up and saw a digimon, a strong-built, shiny one. His armor golden with blue lights al over. Takumi, having much knowledge of digimon, deduced immediately that the digimon was Magnamon, only he looked a nit different from what the books had said. The other question was that he__'d__ always thought of Magnamon as a mere legend, eve nif he__'__s really he couldn__'__t figure out why a legend would be there blocking his way home._

_And then, the golden armored digimon spoke as he handed something to the red-haired boy. __'__Keep good watch over them.__'__ He said. Takumi was, of course, more confused than he__'d ever been.__ He took the stone carven and the digi-egg that Magnamon gave him anyway, and immediately the stone began to crack._

_Not giving him a chance of questioning, Magnamon was gone by the time Takumi had turned his sight on the armored digimon again. __His__ digi-egg had already hatched, and out of it jumped a digimon that looked like a mouse, silver in color with no limbs at all. Takumi then took the device that came out from the stone carven, at the instant it beeped, and caught the boy__'__s attention. The words on the screen wrote. __'__MetalKoromon, fresh, no attribute.__'_

'_A digimon, and a digivice?__'__ mumbled the still confused Takumi. But he didn__'__t have much time to think; the moment he got his attention on MetalKoromon the fresh was already rushing around madly, the spark on his tail were left everywhere, causing small fires. Then, in no time, the fresh started to glow, becoming a digimon with a body that looked like three linked gears, the center one was especially large, outlined in gold and filled with a gunmetal color. He didn__'__t speak, but threw gears at all __directions__. Takumi was scared at the moment. He__'__d read a lot about digimon, yet he__'__d never faced one on his own, especially one going mad and destroying everything around. All he knew at the moment was that he had to run, or hide, or do whatever that could get him out of the __chaos__. But then he stopped thinking, having no tome to do so when he had to protect himself from an incoming gear that__'__d been shot by the digimon, he instinctively raised both his arms to protect his torso. What he didn__'__t know was that as soon as his hand, which was holding the digivice, was facing the digimon and a thin red beam was shot out from the black machine._

_The digimon was hit by the beam. Almost immediately, his color changed, the black center gear was now an orange one, and he stopped his craze. For the first time, he spoke. __'__Hi, I__'__m Solarmon.__'_

_Takumi was more confused. The digimon that__'__d been mad and nearly killed him was talking to him as if nothing had ever happened. Still, he managed to retain his manner and said. __'__Hi, I__'__m Takumi, Takumi Saikachi.__'__ Though he had completely no idea of what__'__s happening, he just accepted the theory that Solarmon later proposed that he should be with the gear digimon._

* * *

'Reminds me of something.' Said Yuzuki to SaviorHuckmon. 'Remember the first time you digivolved, something like that happened? Though you didn't go mad.'

'You had this experience before?' asked Takumi, taken by surprise. 'Then why didn't tell us? Maybe that's something to do with Solarmon's going mad.'

'Well, the last time, Huckmon said that he just wasn't awake enough.' Replied the black-haired girl.

'I thought so.' Added SaviorHuckmon.

'So, you didn't actually know what was happening back then?'

'I thought I knew that.'

'Stop it,' said Eiji, 'it's not the best time to discuss things like that. What we currently need is how to duel with Solarmon when he digivlove into MetalPhantomon again?'

'Maybe attacking him would help.' Uttered Pteramon X, who then earned himself a slam from his partner. 'Just joking.' He added, but that didn't seem to satisfy Eiji, nor could that satisfy Takumi, who seemed to be deep in thoughts. In fact, the red-haired boy had much to consider; he'd thought of stop letting Solarmon in battle, but that would only mean that they would become the others' burden; he'd thought of taking the risk again and let Solarmon digivolve, and then, if he's fine, everything'd been fine; if not, then he'd let the others stop his partner. But could he? He doubted that himself. Facing the unusually tough hybrids had already been an exhausting issue; the others would hardly have time to duel with a maddening digimon from their own team. Even if they did managed to stop MetalPhantomon, what then? Reduce him into a digi-egg? That's be the greatest torture to the redhead. Watch the berserk MetalPhantomon attack his own teammates while telling them not to retaliate? That seemed impossible, either.

'Maybe I'll work on the digivice and try to figure out a way to keep him sane.' He finally said. Quite to his surprise, no one argued, nor did anyone say anything. The only thing they discussed afterwards was who to be the night guard. Again, Kaoru volunteered, with the excuse that he'd not be able to sleep anyway.

* * *

It turned out Kaoru wasn't the only one taking the night guard's job. Takumi, who found himself restless, was focusing entirely on his digivice, clicking the buttons on it so frequently that one could almost be driven insane by the sound produced. He checked all that he knew about the digivice, and was hoping that somehow the cure, or some program to get MetalPhantomon sane, was hidden within the digivice. Smart as he could, the digivice was a machine that he wouldn't dare dissecting. The most that he'd done was duplicating the its program into another shell.

He stared at the monitor almost blink-less for at least another hour or two, or even three. There wasn't very much that he could do, though. He was good at electronics, but not to the degree where he could single-handedly write a computer program flawlessly, nor could he risk his partner's life by doing so. A bug or two would kill his partner in an instant; or worse, drive him madder then ever. Frustrated, he sighed, but then he remained himself that the others were sleeping, he shouldn't be waking them up. He did notice that Kaoru had, for a few times, had a quick glance at him, probably worried that he might be left defenseless, or was just annoyed by the fact that the flash light and the clicking sound of the digivice might draw unnecessary attention. Then, out of nowhere, he had a thought which he thought he should have thought of a few hours before.

'What do you think about the whole MetalPhantomon thing?' he asked the blond boy, who seemed to be quite prepared for the question.

'No idea.' He replied, not even bothering to look at Takumi. 'But I've heard of something about digimon going insane when their cores are damaged.'

'I should've thought of that before!' whispered Takumi. As excited as he was, he was still aware of the darkness surrounding the digi-destined and the mountain. Quickly he resumed his work on the digivice after giving a thank to Kaoru, who didn't seem to care less about that.

* * *

'How are things going?' asked Yuzuki to Takumi. Obviously, Takumi's sleepless state could easily be told by anyone with a normal sight. His eyes barely opening and his back arched up, as if he'd been drunken for quite a while before getting awaken, only in this case he could answer the girl in a rational, though weary, tone.

'I think, I've figured out what my digivice had done to Solarmon the first time we met.' He said, then gave out a large yawn. Apologizing quickly he continued. 'I'm quite confident I can get things right the next time he digivolves.'

Clockmon, who had regained conscious and returned to his champion form, was very curious at what might be his cure. Despite that, Takumi wouldn't tell him a single word about his theory, with the reason that Clockmon would not like it and would definitely refuse to cooperate afterward. Clockmon had to admit he was a bit –very –disappointed at his partner; usually he would trust him at doing whatever he was doing. From the others Clockmon had gathered the knowledge of why his partner was acting like so. He understood that, but that didn't mean he had to like that.

'I think we should get to the bottom at a few more days walk.' Said Ryosuke. Most others didn't challenge his authority at things like this, seeing that he had the most outdoors experience alone (or with Togemon X). The group didn't stop even after what seemed to them a few hours of walk. The sun, which Takumi had refused to call in that manner due to their being in digital world, which meant that the star was an entirely different planet, had risen to the highest point at the sky, which was as blue an cloudless as it'd always been. And by that time there had been more than half of the group complaining that they should rest for a while, with the most voiced protesters being Pteramon X and Amy.

'If we make it to the bottom by the next few days, I'm sure you'll be glad and thankful at me.' Said Ryosuke. He was acting a bit out of his routine, being a more well thought out guide at the wild instead of the annoying complainer, whose role had been taken by you-know-who.

'Why hadn't Grumblemon returned?' uttered FanBeemon.

'You should be glad we have a nice and clean way to walk.' Replied Togemon.

'But that might mean that Piedmon has something worse for us.' Said Eiji, who immediately received the questioning glares from the others. 'He never lets us go away, does he?' he said, knowing quite well that he'd just said the most unwanted situation out aloud. Willing or not, the group did encounter a digimon from Piedmon not very soon after that. To their relief, that was just Grumblemon.

'This time I'm sure he's gonna grunble!' uttered Ryosuke as he instructed his partner to attack. With the evolution card at the ready he took out his digivice, only to be stopped by Takumi.

'Wait, I might need that sometimes later.' Said the redhead. He could've asked the others, but both Eiji and Kaoru had used theirs to digivolve their respective partners. Amy, on the other hand, wasn't quite a good target to bargain with. That left him no choice but to ask for the black-haired boy's help, who just said. 'It'd better be working.'

The battle had begun.

Grumblemon wasn't quite keen on transforming this time. Quite on the contrary, he made very good use of his body size, and kept dodging attacks, which maddened the digi-destined by a very great degree.

CannonBeemon, for instance, was having a hard time aiming the hybrid. 'Nitro stinger!' he kept yelling that as his wasp sting-like cannon fired countless laser beams. Yet, none of them could evade the fate of crashing the ground. It seemed that he could aim better in his rookie form, but then the firepower would be far too weak to do any damage on the hybrid.

'Wing blade!' Garudamon X yelled as he struck. Theoretically, the attack should be inevitable, traveling at the speed of sound. That was the time when he really hated his necessary battle cry, which had certainly alerted Grumblemon about his attacks. Grumblemon wasn't quite concern with that, it seemed. He simply kept dodging from here to there, and then from there to here, as if he didn't even want to attack. The most possible strategy he was using, as concluded by Yuzuki, was that he wanted to first make the entire team worn out, and then pick them out one by one.

While the girl was doing the thinking, her partner wasn't quite at a pleasant situation. The battlefield was so filled with laser blades and sonic blades. Togemon X, on the other hand, was stuffing the ground with spikes, making it more impossible for the ultimate to join the battle.

Clockmon, feeling responsible for being the reason of digi-destined's not having been able to defeat Grumblemon earlier, joined in the battle as well. He charged his arm cannon, ready to fire. Before that could happen, however, he started to glow, to digivolve. The worse case the digi-destined wanted. Not for Takumi, though; he had waited for this moment to come, knowing that he'll have to duel with it sooner or later. He was confident, or forced himself to be. The only chance of getting his partner out of the madness had come, and he wasn't going to waste it.

'Please be patient, it might hurt a bit.' Said the red-haired boy with both his eyes shut, showing a no-choice expression. The digivolution began rather quickly; the body of Clockmon had already been covered entirely by a brilliant white light. Takumi, without the slightest bit of hesitation, used the evolution card on his partner, his mouth kept mumbling. 'Please work…'

The black d-magnus of Takumi shone a bright white light as well. A beam of thin red light shot straight out of the screen of it and landed on Clockmon, who was now only a blur of light. Then came screams, lots of them. It sounded like metal screech, mixed with a variety of human screams from high-pitched women's to low-pitched men's. This lasted for a few minutes.

In the meantime, the digi-destined had almost gotten themselves a beaten Grumblemon. Garudamon X suggested using Wormmon's Sticky net to hold the evading hybrid in place, remembering his first fight with Eiji. That worked for a while, before Grumblemon used the transforming trick to dodge the Wing blade of the bird-man digimon.

They couldn't take it anymore. The battle had gone to a state of being too annoying. CannonBeemon had left enough burnt holes on the ground while Grumblemon was still shifting from form to form. Togemon X could do nothing but keep spraying needles at the hybrid, which prevented SaviorHuckmon from getting close to Grumblemon/Gigasmon to fight. And there was the demonic and irritating, nevertheless agonizing yell from the digivolving Clockmon.

Then the scream stopped. MetalPhantomon appeared as expected. Wordlessly, he gripped his laser scythe tight in his hands and dashed –or floated –at Grumblemon, who was now in the form of Gigasmon, who was currently making use of his oversized arms and crashing the digi-destined's digimon partners.

'Grave scream!' MetalPhantomon yelled. Nearly all of the digi-destined expected the hybrid to dodge the attack by transforming, but he didn't; he couldn't, in fact. Almost as if someone had frozen him, Gigasmon stood motionless, as if anticipating to be deleted by MetalPhantomon, who now had his sickle right on top of him. And then, seeing that the hybrid was not making a move, MetalPhantomon raised his arms, his grim face didn't give out any trace of pity. With that, he screamed. 'Soul predator!'

There was no chance for Gagasmon to react; his body was sliced in half immediately before the screamed even started to fade. And then, the most unwanted scene appeared again, though the digi-destined had kind of gotten used to the corpses used by Piedmon, they still looked disgusting and disturbing.

'Did you succeed?' asked Ryosuke after seeing the violence of MetalPhantomon. That was a strong evident to the black-haired boy that the ultimate was still insane, warlike.

'You don't have to worry about that.' Then came MetalPhantomon's grim voice. 'I was just…too excited.' He said, sounding like the old Clockmon again; he didn't even know how he was able to change his voice like that. 'What did you actually do?' he asked his partner.

'Actually, that's not very impressive. But it happened anyway, so I guess there's no need for explanation.' Answered the redhead. 'But you'll have to stay in this form, like it or not. I can't take you back to champion form, neither can I get you to digivolve, sorry.' Then the group gathered and discussed where to go next. Their discussion was, however, redundant, as proved when the ground started to shake, first already not to gently, then a lot more violent a few seconds later. That was when the group realized that they had been on a slope all the time while battling Grunblemon. And now the consequences came. The damage done to the ground had already exceeded its endurance, and now it started to crack, to fall, and it brought with itself the twelve digimon and humans.

* * *

'Are we done letting them go every time?' asked Piedmon, annoyed. 'I don't really know why you insist on keeping them alive. You've got what you need already.' He grumbled. Back when he was in the human world he could take charge very easily, but now in digital world his partner didn't seem to respect him very much.

'Their responses are very important.' Replied the Scientist in his stone-cold tone. 'And yes, I've collected enough data. They can be disposed.'

'Because of your silly data-collecting thing four of the Spirits have already given their lives.' Muttered the mega, which seemed to have caused the attention of the Scientist. As a scientist, he couldn't accept someone to call data-collecting as "silly". And as a creator, he said. 'Keeping the humans alive doesn't you have to get all my work destroyed.'

'That was the least suspicious way.' Replied Piedmon, a bit angered this time. 'And if you don't finish the main course quick, I'm not sure what I may do.' With that, he disappeared, preparing to have a stealth strike as a threaten to his "partner". That didn't work, however. Before he even reappeared, the Scientist gripped his lance so fast it could not be seen for a while, and then pointed it at the empty air. The next second, Piedmon reappeared, right in the spot where the Scientist had pointed his lance at, the tip of the lance right in front of the mega's face.

'You are predictable.' Said the Scientist. 'But you don't seem to have good memory.' Then, he pointed his lance a bit closer at Piedmon, just enough so that it touched his pretty face without hurting him. 'However forgetful you are, remember this for the last time: I am working with you, not for you.' He then lowered the lance and resumed his computer work. 'Red Digizoid is not easy to produce, especially with the number you demand and the little resources you brought.'

'Never mind, you can carry on with your own calculating work. I'll just go have some fun myself.' Piedmon said, and walked away with two shaded figures following him.

* * *

The digi-destined couldn't tell where they were, all they knew was that they had been rolling and rolling and rolling down the slope for who knows how long. A good amount of them grumbled about how it hurt, but more were amazed at how they were not dead yet. Patting her right arm, which was the most injured part, gently Yuzuki stood up and saw something –something she thought might be a clue after all their traveling for weeks.

In front of her was a giant waterfall, about twice the height of her house's building. The running water was light blue but extremely clear as if the waterfall were made of crystal. The water surface didn't only let her see through it, but also reflected and refracted sunlight so that it glister as if it were a diamond in liquid form. Around the fall were rocks –large rocks that shone a dark brown color because of the water accumulated on their surfaces. Beside it was the ground filled with green grass, greener than she'd ever seen, even in the digital world. A few hemispherical buildings about her height were to the right of the fall, behind those were a fill trees with only branches but not a single leaf, a complete contrast to the emerald grasses.

Then, out of one of the hemispherical structures came a digimon. Humanoid, with the height of about that of Ryosuke, which wasn't very high. He wore a blue pointy hat and blue cape. A skull symbol embedded on his hat. His hand held a staff, with one end looking like a poetic sun. he walked to the digi-destined with neither sign of hesitation nor panic. Once he was about ten meters away from the kids, he said. 'Welcome. You have been expected here. Please follow me.' And with that he gestured and turned around.

* * *

**It's a bit -very -rediculous, well, I had to find a way to get rid of the hybrids, there're too many of them after all.**

**And before anyone complain about MetalPhantomon, I'll justify myself. CLockmon can't digivolve further, so I picked an ultimate similar in appearance( at least they seem similar to me: both got a weapon with a lond pole, both have a cape, both have their lower torso attached to something rounded)**

**The coming chapters will be far better than this one.**


	22. 21 The prophecies

21 ~The prophecies~

Days –weeks –of boring walk was all the digi-destined had been doing lately until they met one more of Pidemon's puppets –Grumblemon.

During the confrontation with Grumblemon Clockmon digivolved. But things didn't go very smoothly. MetalPhantomon, the ultimate form of Clockmon, went berserk the moment he finished digivolving.

That seemed troublesome enough, but Takumi managed to fix that. And then, with the power of MetalPhantomon, they defeated Grumblemon, but that came with a cost as well. After the battle, they fell down the slope if the mountain, and reached an unknown place. An unknown but surprisingly fateful place.

* * *

'Please follow me.' Said the blue-caped digimon after seeing that none of the digi-destined made a move. He seemed not surprised, but still insisted on getting the kids to walk his way.

'Wizardmon, champion, data type.' Mumbled Yuzuki.

'Should we go with him?' asked Takumi in a whisper.

'Better not.' Answered Eiji. The group had been through too much, and knew well that the only ones they could trust were themselves. Besides, even if the Wizardmon did mean to be friendly, his kin would just end up the same way as the race of Renias –being "punished" by Piedmon. The blue-haired boy looked at every member of the team as if asking for votes. Then, after most of them had nodded at him, even just slightly, he walked forward to Wizardmon and said. 'We agree to go with you. But I'd like to know where are we heading?'

Pausing for a while as if he needed think, Wizardmon answered. 'To the Temple of the Council of the Wizards.' He said as he gestured again. This time, the digi-destined followed, having heard the word "Temple". The place they had been looking for was right in front of them; accidentally they had arrived. Inly they could see no temple like buildings everywhere. The direction where Wizardmon was leading them to was just the waterfall. They followed, nevertheless.

'That's only a waterfall!' uttered Ryosuke. 'And there's a freakin' pool of water right in front of it, where is that temple thing?'

'Just follow suit.' Replied Wizardmon. He walked into the pool of water where the waterfall ends, and straight into the waterfall. After that he spoke, in a language neither the digi-destined nor their partners could understand. Maybe he was speaking some kind of spells; he's a wizard, after all.

Than, not very surprisingly, a wooden door, painted in silver and outlined in gold, appeared right behind the waterfall. Most of the digi-destined had guessed that right at the moment Wizardmon had started to speak, though. Wizardmon looked back at the children for one last time, then stepped into the corridor where the door led to, disappearing.

'Do we walk into that pond?' asked Yuzuki, not sure if she really wanted to get herself wet, even if she guessed that the water wasn't too deep to drown the team. Their leader nodded as he shrugged his shoulder, indicating that the team had no choice but to do so. Unwillingly, Yuzuki found herself the first one to walk into the water. It was freezing at first, but very soon the water warmed, much to her surprise. She than waved at the rest of the digi-destined and said that it was okay to walk into the water. SaviorHuckmon leaped forward directly. Slowly everyone followed and soon they all found themselves inside the stone tunnel behind the waterfall.

The tunnel was not as dark as they had expected. It was lit by torches; the flames was a bluish green color which shone through the entire corridor. It was kind of impossible that not a bit of the light could be seen outside through the waterfall. Stone walled the corridor; some of them a bit moist due to the fire; some of them dry as matches.

'The light makes it real creepy here.' Uttered Ryosuke. It was, indeed, creepy with every of his single words echoed all around for a few dozen times. Then the black-haired boy decided to shut his mouth.

'Follow suit.' Whispered Eiji as the group set their sight back on Wizardmon, who had already been a few feet in front of them as if he was thinking that the team was following tight. They walked; sounds of footsteps filled the corridor, which resulted in their not willing to make any extra sounds.

A few minutes later the narrow path was gone, replaced with it a giant cave. It was almost twice, or even trice the size of the Krams cave. The walls were, however completely natural this time. Green torches were replaced with golden-yellow ones. The light was so brilliant that it was almost impossible to tell that they were inside a cave if it wasn't for the ceiling, which was almost a kilometer above where the digi-destined stood.

Wizardmon turned at the digi-destined and said. 'Wait for a while here, I'll announce the others that you have come.' With that, he walked away and soon faded into the kids' sight.

'It's really gorgeous here.' Mumbled Yuzuki. She had never seem anything like this cave. It was natural, but not primitive. The cave had a very clearly layered structure; the floor the digi-destined were on was seemingly of one of the higher floors. They could see the other floors as well; there were enough spaces for fools to jump to their deaths; there were also bridges and staircases that connected the floors and the roads.

'What is that?' uttered FanBeemon. In front of them was a room specially large, and looked specially important as well. The room was dark, a contrast to the bright lights everywhere. There were writings craved on the top of both doors of the room, some kind of language neither the digi-destined nor the digimon could read, very possibly the one Wizardmon had just said.

'Who cares, I'm cold!' Complained Ryosuke, this time a bit louder now that not too much echoing occurred. While it was true that the pool warmed as soon as living beings stepped into it, the water seemed to have cooled down as the kids walked into the cave.

'Plenty of torches here,' uttered Amy, 'and if that's not enough I van ask BlueMeramon to help you.'

'Jokes later, can you?' said MetalPhantomon. 'We still don't know if it is where we've been looking for.'

'What do you thick?' SaviroHuckmon asked his partner, who simply shrugged in response. None of the group seemed very eager at conspiracy for now; they just felt tired. That was when Wizardmon returned. He was walking in a fast pace, quite different from how he'd behaved. That was a sign that showed Wizardmon's impatience.

'The Witch is not available now.' He said as if he assumed the digi-destined to know the entire working system of the Temple, which, of course, they didn't know. He seemed a bit anxious and frustrated as well. 'I shall take you to rest for now.' He said, then paused for a while as if thinking about which word to say next.

The digi-destined could only understand the last sentence Wizardmon had said. At least they could rest. Only they still hadn't fully trusted the Wizard, who seemed to be quite an important person in the Temple. 'How did you know about us exactly?' asked Yuzuki friendly. The answer was as she'd expected. 'The Witch foretold that humans would be here.' Said Wizardmon. 'It is not my business to ask, but I would like to know if anything happened to Magnamon?'

That was what brought a sting into the black-haired girl's heart. Wizardmon knew Magnamon, that's for sure. Maybe they were friends, or maybe they just used to know each other. Either way, it was a bit hard for her to announce the death of the golden armored digimon. 'He's…dead.' That's SaviorHuckmon. He was always the straightest one. 'I'm sorry for your loss.'

'Even Magnamon couldn't escape…' murmured Wizardmon.

'Escape what?' asked Kaoru, interested in the Wizard's use of words.

'His destiny.' Wizardmon replied. 'It was foretold that he would go fine digi-destined in human world, and then he would die eventually.' Wizardmon, who'd been formal all the time, seemed to be a bit emotional as he talked, a slight trace of light could be found near his eyes, probably tears. 'He was never scared, though. And he remained cheerful and positive when he departed, saying that he would return safe and sound.'

'I'm sorry.' Uttered Kaoru for bringing some bad memories to the Wizard.

'Never mind, nobody seems to be able to run from their fates.' That's all Wizardmon could do to rationalize the issue for himself. 'Let me lead you to your rooms.'

All the digi-destined had to admit that they were stunned. Wizardmon led them all the way down to a floor where it seemed to be right between the entrance floor and the bottom of the cave. There the Wizard showed them two rooms that would serve as the digi-destiend's hospitality –one for boys and one for girls. They didn't immediately took the offer gracefully, though, for fear that it should be another trick of Piedmon or whatever digimon on his side. But quickly tiredness won, they could not resist a chance to rest when they had spent so many days out in the wild.

Yuzuki and SaviorHuckmon, along with Amy and BlueMeramon, walked into one room. Immediately she was left speechless. 'It's a bit too…human!' she exclaimed. The huts she'd seen back in Renais and the ruins had been made specifically for a kind of digimon to live, and those seemed a lot more primitive –no beds, no tables, no nothing. But now, the room in front of her looked nothing close to a stone cave. 'I must be dreaming.' She mumbled.

'No you're not.' Said Amy. 'Unless we're sharing a dream, which sounds a bit ridiculous to me.'

'How should we ever repay you?' said SaviorHuckmon to Wizardmon, who was at the front door –the room actually had a backdoor as well, which also stunned the girls.

'It is just our duty.' Replied the blue-caped Wizard. 'We should provide as much as we can to aid you.'

'Is he telling the truth?' whispered Yuzuki to Amy. She never really liked the girl, nor the idea of sneaking into others' minds. But that was the moment when she had to give in to reality.

'Just look at BlueMeramon.' Replied the older girl. Yuzuki did exactly as she told, turning her head to the side of the room. The mostly calm –unnaturally calm –ultimate seemed to be struggling to do something, which was probably to read their host's mind in this case. 'His mind is shielded.' Whispered Amy.

'Please serve yourselves.' Said the Wizard. 'Water is that way.' He said, pointing at a third door on the left side of the room.

Water! That idea sounded like the greatest news in the girls' lives. They were far from dehydration, though. After days and days staying in the wild, it's actually good news to have water. Yuzuki had forgotten all manners already and rushed to open the door. There she saw a large pool, maybe one forth the area of an ordinary lake, of hot water. The source of water was proved to be holes from the walls of the room.

'Hot spring inside a mountain cave?' uttered the girl in disbelieve. But she was glad anyway.

The boys were experiencing the same as the girls has been, only the room was a bit larger as if specifically designed for them to stay. They were a bit too tired to think of anything else; they'd already accepted the hospitality, even if they had doubts they should have said them out earlier. All they cared now was to rest. Still, there was someone who couldn't quit his curiosity.

'Were here once humans?' asked Takumi; that's the only reasonable explanation he could think of.

'Yes.' Replied Wizardmon. 'There were once humans here, but that was very long ago. We lived here, and they helped design the System.'

_System? _Now there were more who seemed curious. Anyway they could get rid of the tiredness, so they could only leave the question for now.

'One more thing.' Said Wizardmon before leaving. 'The water doesn't stay at a constant temperature.' That sounded a bit ridiculous, but the group had gone through the Waterfall Gate, in which the water did the exact same trick as Wizardmon suggested.

'Then you should leave us now.' Mumbled Kaoru, his eyes already starting to close against his will. The others felt the same as well; they just didn't say it out.

Despite the comfort of the room, Yuzuki would still wake up midnight. The images of the last week flashed in her mind so frequently that she almost felt like she was enchanted by some kind of weird digimon so that the images could keep in haunting her.

Her partner wasn't asleep as well, which wasn't usual. And it arose curiosity in the black-haired girl.

'What's bothering you?' she asked softly. Beside her was a girl she didn't really like, but there was no reason to disturb her slumber; she was her teammate, after all.

'I'm just wondering how this will end.' Replied the ultimate. 'So many had happened. There was a village exterminated just because we stayed there, even if they didn't really approve of that; there were dead men being used as puppets for Piedmon's sinister purpose; there was the Krams, and we still don't know which side they are on.'

'I just hope it will end in a good way.' Said the girl. 'We've been here for almost a month. We can't just be here to fail.' She paused, starting to doubt her own words. Deep inside she did feel like things were going the bad way, but she had to be positive; that's what kept her, as well as the others, going on. 'But I feel like we're doing very normal, even below average, lately.'

'I feel so.' Said SaviorHuckmon. It was true, even if he didn't want to believe that. Ever since he'd digivolved while batting GigaDramon back in Rn, he hadn't improved much. The other digimon had been digivolving one by one, and BlueMeramon had even reached mega level. And still, he was performing not enough, and things were having the tendency of going worse.

'Let's just forget about that and enjoy the moment of comfort we have.' Said Yuzuki, returning to her bed to sleep, or at least to try to.

Despite the comfort, all the digi-destined woke up quite early the next day. The first thing they noticed was that food had been served to them at an unknown period of time –food that tasted a lot better than the ones they got from TryantKabuterimon's cave. They met up at the same floor where their rooms were, and discussed about what to do next. Even though they had been treated extremely luxuriously, they could still hardly trust anyone in the digital world. The whole Temple might just be another trap of Piedmon's.

'He said they had a Witch.' Suggested Yuzuki. 'I wonder if she can help us.'

'And I wonder if she has anything to do with Piedmon.' Said Ryosuke sarcastically. Normally he couldn't say things in that manner, but he had learned a bit lately, especially on how their enemy would do anything to break the team.

'That's no way to treat people who'd been so nice to us like that.' Argued Takumi.

'But we do have to be cautious with anything.' Said FanBeemon. 'In here, anyone can be our enemy. If we want to stay safe we'll have to mistrust anyone; we don't have a choice.'

'Then you're just thinking like how Piedmon thinks.' Said Takumi, a bit disappointed that their team had become so calculative. 'Can't we at least try to believe that someone in the digital world is still good?'

'The fact is , we can't.' said SaviorHuckmon. 'As Amy has tried, Wizardmon's mind is shielded, and I guess so are the others'. Why would they have to do that if they have nothing to hide?'

'Maybe you shouldn't try to sneak in some others' minds in the first place.' Said MetalPhantomon.

And then, Pteramon X, who had been keeping quiet unnaturally, said. 'Have anyone of you noticed that there's a way leading to the bottom, with no one guarding?' he said, pointing at a hidden staircase near the boy's dorm. 'Why can't you go explore instead of arguing for such a long time?'

'When did you become so smart?' asked Eiji as the group decided to go where Pteramon had pointed. The champion simply gave him a smirky smile in return.

'There's nothing here.' Said Amy, disappointed. 'That's why no one is guarding here.'

'Well, at least you don't have to let the others know how "noble" you think of them down here.' Said Togemon. She could hardly tell who gave her an elbow soon after she had said that; the only source of illumination there was the glowing flames of BlueMeramon, who was at the moment not so close to the plant digimon.

'Maybe it's too dark here they decided not to use this floor.' Said Eiji, though the others could only tell that by his voice. Basement was indeed very large, almost tens few tens times Yuzuki's bedroom by estimation. They kept walking along the walls for fear that they should ever get lost. Now that they had gone to about the middle of the room, the staircase that'd led them in had already gone from their sights.

'For some reason I feel familiar with this place.' Said SaviorHuckmon out of the blue. He immediately knew he said something wrong, for he, too, found that ridiculous.

'I have the same feeling too.' Surprisingly, someone had said the same nonsense thing as he had. That was Togemon X, who should be standing at the last row of the group judging by the volume. Soon all the other digimon confessed that they had the same kind of strange feeling once they had entered the room –everyone except BlueMeramon, of course.

'How's that possible?' said Ryosuke. 'The first thing you guys saw must be our faces.' He said, forgetting the fact that digimon could have a previous life before turning into an egg. But even with that there's no way to explain why the digimon would feel familiar with a place they'd never visited in their current lives –digimon didn't remember anything about their previous lives.

Then came the sounds of footsteps and someone calling. It was Wizardmon, walking down the stone staircase. They could hear him mumble very clearly.

'I wonder if they'd gone down here.' Wizardmon's pace was slow, and his voice sounded not friendly at all. With all the echoes of the sounds, he just sounded sinister, as if he'd expected the digi-destined to be wandering about the Temple and now they'd gone to somewhere they were not supposed to be. With the approaching sounds of the footsteps the digi-destined started to be afraid, to get nervous, to be alarmed.

Quickly they decided that they should hide, wait until Wizardmon was gone, then pretend nothing ever happened. With that though they leaned down, hoping not to be detected. Amy leaned back at the wall, and immediately she felt something wrong.

She pressed something.

Maybe something like a switch, or maybe just a stone being dug into the wall. Either way, the sound produced could have exposed their position. Actually, it's not the sound that exposed their hiding place. As soon as the girl pressed the stone button, the whole room was illuminated with torches; bright red light everywhere. There would be nowhere to hide… had she not discovered a door that had opened about a few seconds before all the torches were lit. She rapidly informed the others with the telepathic ability of BlueMeramon, and the group slipped inside the door, hopefully before they were spotted by Wizardmon.

The door was shut right after all the digi-destined had entered the room that was inside. The interior of the room was lit by torches as well. The room, when compared to the one that was connected to it, was ridiculously large, about one forth the size of the square at Vertiro. The room was walled by rough stones just like all the others, but the content was a bit different. In front of the digi-destined was a hemispherical objset that was mounted to the ground, apparently made of stone as well; what was different was that the object was well polished and had an unbelievably smooth surface. There were markings –thin lines that divided the hemisphere into six equal parts. Within each part lay a socket that seemed to have had once held something, but that was now just empty.

'What is it?' That was Takumi, obviously couldn't hide his curiosity.

'You should say: What are these?' said Amy, pointing at the corners of the room, where a few more similar objects lay. The only difference was that the sockets weren't empty, and were covered by some shiny matter, probably some kind of metal leverage.

Then came the sounds of footsteps that had driven them into the room in the first place. In walked Wizardmon; his face a blur under the light of the torches; his staff held in one hand, occasionally hitting the ground as the Wizard walked. 'I should've figured it out that you'd find out about this place sooner or later.' Said him as he stopped at about twenty meters in front of the digi-destined. He didn't seem surprised, nor did he seem particularly evil, as he'd been thought of before.

'What is this place?' asked SaviorHuckmon. 'And why do we feel familiar with it?'

'It might be a bit hard for you to accept,' said Wizardmon, sounding mysterious. He then walked over to the hemisphere where the sockets had been emptied and said. 'This is where you came from, before you're hatched.'

'What?' someone said, but nobody could identify the owner of the sound. 'But, how?'

'As I have said, Magnamon was supposed to deliver the destined digi-eggs to their respective partner.' Said Wazrdmon. 'This is were the digi-eggs and their respective charms were held.' Now most of the digi-destined could make out what that "charm" thing was –the stone carven that contained their digivices and the card deck. 'They had been here before the System was designed and put into usage. ' Wizardmon continued to explained. He sounded calm, and a bit professional as well, as if he had prepared the entire speech days before. 'Just before the day Magnamon departed here, one of these had its sockets unlocked and revealed the digi-eggs, as the prophecy had foretold.'

'Wait a minute,' said Ryosuke. 'What exactly are this System and the prophecies you have been talking about?'

'That is something I have planned on to tell you all along.' Replied Wizardmon as he turned around and gestured for the digi-destined to follow. 'Please, follow me this way.'

Moments later they were back at the entrance floor, where the dim room lay. As expected, Wizardmon led the group into the dimly illuminated, almost black, room. He said nothing on the journey, which caused the digi-destined to have a wild imagination of what might actually lie inside the room. Their questions were soon answered by actions. Wizardmon led them directly into the room, where a narrow and dark corridor was there between the actual room and the outside. Once inside they found themselves in a cylindrical room, lit not by torches, but a vast blue light from the center of the room. The light source was like some kind of crystal, with a perfectly smooth surface and a light so bright that it couldn't be seen directly.

'This is the heart of the Temple.' Said Wizardmon, seeing that all the digi-destined had the question printed on their faces. 'This is also the System that I have been talking about.' He said, pointing at the glowing crystal with his staff. 'Humans built it. I don't really know how it works, but whenever it gives the Temple the power it needs and, when it glows red, which had only happened once, that means things are going wrong.'

Without much response, Wizardmon decided that the digi-destined probably needed some time to comprehend with what had been told, so he simply led them forward, walked round the crystal and to the other side of the room where a door led to an inner part.

Then, like the last night, he asked the digi-destined to stay where they were and walked into the room alone. Several minutes passed, but there was still no sign of Wizardmon. The digi-destined were now a bit more in the mood of talking, which was when Wizardmon came back and said. 'You can go in, please follow me tightly.'

The door led to another passage. This time it was illuminated by glowing crystals of various colors. 'Mind your steps.' Said Wizardmon, pointing at the abyss beneath their feet. Only a stone bridge was there ahead, and it didn't seem to be designed user-friendly; there would only be enough spaces for about an ordinary adult to pass through one a time. Walking in a straight line they crossed the bridge steadily and slowly, wondering how deep the abyss was actually. After a few minutes of walk they reached another door; its sides with flaming brick-red torches. Wizardmon walked forth, knocked it gently with his staff as he whispered the Wizard Language again. The next moment the door vanished as if it were never there.

Without a word, seeing that things could be explained later, the digi-destined walked into the room. It was just like the one in the basement; except there was a fire in the middle of the room instead of multiple destined-egg carriers. Beside the fire sat two digimon that resembled Wizardmon –one with the exact same style of clothing with Wizardmon, only that was all white; the top of his staff was like a snow flick. The other without a cape, and had goggles on his hat that looked like it was burning. The clothes of the digimon were red as well; his staff resembling a giant match.

'Sorcermon, champion, vaccine type.'

'FlaWizarmon, Armor, virus type.'

'Alright, now can you please tell us why did you lead us here?' muttered Ryosuke, finally overcame by the urge to speak.

'I don't think they're gonna give us any answers.' Uttered Yuzuki. That was proved wrong as one of the wizard-like digimon, Sorcermon, spoke. 'Welcome to the Council of the Wizards.' He said, though it sounded more like he was talking in a way he liked rather than answering questions. 'The Witch would like to see you; she has been seeing visions lately.'

'Yeah, I almost forgot to ask. Who's this Witch you've been talking about?' demanded Pteramon X. What none of them noticed was that, next to FlaWizarmon was a digimon who looked just like a female version of Wizardmon. She was in a crimson pointy hat and a black cape, with a broomstick lying next to her.

'There she is.' Said Wizardmon, looking at where the Witch was.

'Witchmon, champion, data type.' Eiji read the information of the digimon. 'Sounds pretty normal to me.'

The Witch, who had had her head down ever since the digi-destined had entered the room, slowly raised her head. Under the dim red light in the room her face seemed just like a ghost's, and her eyes flickered with the red light, giving her an even more terrible look. Then she spoke, in the Wizard Language that no one but the native digimon could understand. Despite that, her voice still sounded haunting –deep and layered, as if several differently pitched voices were speaking at once. Her throat, if she had any, must be rough and dry, for her voice sounded extremely scratchy.

'What is she saying?' asked Kaoru.

Sorcermon, who seemed to be the most trusted and respected digimon at the Temple besides Witchmon judging by how the other digimon treated him, translated the words for the Witch, who, at the moment, seemed a bit incapable of having any awareness of her surroundings.

'The chosen ones from human world,' he said as Witchmon finished her first line. Amazingly and surprisingly, it didn't sound as poetic as the digi-destined had expected –no rhythms, no fancy stuffs, no nothing. Sorcermon then translated the rest of the line one by one, with apparent simplifications that helped the digi-destined understand.

'You will face extreme decisions.'

'Between the living and the dead, the innocent and the enemy.'

'He who wants to seize power will be destroyed.'

'And shadow will fall.'

'To destroy it.'

'One must make the ultimate sacrifice.'

Then even Sorcermon paused for a while, as if he, too, was confused by the words. The digi-destined, despite already not knowing the user-friendlily translated words' meaning, gave the white Wizard questioning looks. Sorcermon, after pausing for about a minute, spoke again. 'You must be together as one.'

Then Witchmon stopped her haunting voice. She looked a bit normal now as she lowered her head and let the rest of her face be covered in shadow.

'What are these supposed to mean?' uttered Ryosuke as his immediate response. 'That doesn't make much sense to me.'

'Well, at least we know Piedmon will somehow be defeated in the end.' Said Yuzuki. She then, too, like Sorcermon had done, paused for a while before saying. 'And…someone will die as well.'

'But that's not how she ended the sentence.' Suggested Takumi. 'She just said we had to be together as one. How can we do that if one of us dies?'

'No wonder why the digimon call this place a loony bin.' Mumbled Pteramon.

'Do you have any idea about that prophecy?' asked SaviorHuckmon, knowing that the most direct way was to ask the one who had said that, or ones that could understand that. In this case, he didn't expect Witchmon to be answering any more questions, so he just asked one of the three Wizards.

'We do not know, and we cannot expose what is to come.' Replied FlaWizarmon.

The digi-destined planned on asking more questions –had they not heard the loud explosion sound that came from the direction of the entrance. 'Someone tracked us, who want to guess who that will be?' said Ryosuke, but there was no one to enjoy the humor as they went out. Sorcermon stopped them at the bridge, though. He said. 'We will protect the Temple. Nothing can cross us.'

Then he, along with Wizardmon and FlaWizarmon, vanished.

* * *

**I know that few lines sound extremely weird...well, I'm not quite good at that kind of stuff, so just get on with it. By the way, the rdeal deal is coming up ahead.**


	23. 22 Fire

**Disclaimer: Things are starting to get fun (for me)**

* * *

22 ~Fire~

The digi-destined had learned about almost everything they needed at the Temple, yet it just made they wonder more about everything that had happened to them –why were they chosen to be the digi-destined, why were the digimon their partners, and what was the meaning of the other digi-eggs that were yet to hatch.

But there was no time to think. Someone had attacked the Temple. Probably Piedmon.

They had to hurry.

* * *

The digi-destined went as fast as they could to the entrance of the cave and found out that the three Wizards were already there. They were standing right in front of the waterfall, where the entrance lay, and they were facing outward, to two digimon.

'That's KendoGarurumon.' Said Takumi. The digimon he was referring to had a wolf's shape, with white armor covered all over its body and two blades which shone an attractive yellow light from its sides. 'And that's Zephyrmon.' He said, pointing to the digimon who had a female body shape with two brown wings on her back. Her hair was seemingly made of feathers as well.

'Piedmon sent them here.' Mumbled Yuzuki.

The Wizars, however, didn't seem the last bit frightened. They were, on the contrary, extremely calm. Sorcermon stood in the middle, raised his staff as the other two Wizards did so. They didn't say a word, nor did they give any notice to the arrival of the digi-destined. The two hybrids sent by Piedmon charged at the waterfall, speeding up on the wall. Just as they reached about a few feet in front of the Wizards, both three of the Wizards stomped their staffs on the ground, sending an invisible wave of energy that knocked the hybrids a few ten meters away from the entrance. The hybrids got to their feet again fast, and charged again, but could never reach their target as they were blocked and bounced away by an invisible wall.

'That's not something the Wizardmon species does.' Commented Takumi as the group watched the Wizards mumble words they could never understand. A few seconds later they stopped mumbling the spells, and turned to the digi-destined.

'Things are settled.' Said Wizardmon, seemingly satisfied.

'What? You can't just leave them out there!' uttered Pteramon.

'Yeah. And how are we supposed to get out of here with them raging out there?' added Togemon X.

The Wizards, as usual, didn't give any responses.

'I don't know how good you are, but I'm sure they'll eventually get over your barrier.' Said Takumi. He'd seen the hybrids done things way being their supposed power for so many times.

'Nothing can come through the barrier.' Said Sorcermon. 'The Temple is protected. It cannot be destroyed even by the most powerful digimon.'

'But they don't need one.' Said Ryosuke, pointing at the two hybrids, who were running at the exact opposite direction from the Temple, as if they had already given up the quest so easily and decided to head back to their master. But that was not possible, for the black-haired boy had learned a bit about how Piedmon uses the innocent as weapons against them. So, naturally, he said. 'Where's the nearest village?'

The others seemed to have realized that as well, and asked frantically for the help from the Wizards. It was only too grateful that they were willing to tell where the nearest, which was the most vulnerable village, were. Once the digi-destined got the location of the village known as Hepia, they set off. Luckily they could leave the barrier from the inside, but the Wizards had warned them that they would not be able to come back until the current crisis foretold was over.

* * *

Soon they chased the hybrids into yet another forest. KendoGarurumon and Zephyrmon were not far from sight. SaviorHuckmon rushed forward and yelled as he fired a fireball from his mouth. 'Meteor flame!'

The ball of burning orange fire could've hit KendoGarurumon had he not transformed himself into a bunch of data and reformed into a human shape. That digimon was identified as Lobomon by Takumi, and he immediately drew two light sabers which glowed with a dim yellow light.

'Lobo Kendo.' Once again in the emotionless tone, Lobomon dashed at the ultimate and slashed with his light sabers, known as the Licht Schwert, at SaviorHuckmon.

'Trident Saber!' SaviorHickmon yelled, countered with his two wrist blades. It seemed almost impossible to him that the light bodies of the Licht Schwert were actually able to go head to head with SaviorHuckmon;s blades without passing directly through them. And they were not light as well. Maybe it was because of Lobomon's force, or the weight of the light sabers themselves, SaviorHuckmon was actually having a hard time countering the slashes while using his tail to gain balance. At the close range, he decided to make use of his every function.

'Meteor flame!' he yelled, believing that Lobomon could never dodge the attack at the close range. Yet he'd forgotten that the hybrid didn't have to. All he need was to break himself into data streams and reformed at another location, which was, in this case, the back of SaviorHuckmon. Without hesitation, Lobomon slashed with both of his sabers.

'Nitro stinger!'

Without that, SaviorHuckmon would have been injured badly. The laser beam from CannonBeemon struck Lobomon, causing him to stumble backward before he could hit SaviorHuckmon. The hybrid turned his sight at the digimon swooping above him and took aim. 'Howling laser.'

The blast from his left wirst didn't hit CannoBeemon, at least not directly. But a couple more made it hard for the ultimate to dodge the attacks. Fortunately he was only hit by a few number of the beams, and could still retain his flight.

* * *

Things weren't going smoothly as well on the other side of the battle.

'Chain of pain!' SkullMeramon whipped with his chains at Zephyrmon, who swiftly dodged the attack. Amy dared not let SkullMeramon attack widely; for fear that he should burn the entire forest and kill both the digi-destined and the hybrids at once. That's when she found out how much she hated to be in a forest, and how much she hated the digital world, where most of the land she'd walked on had been filled with leaves and woods.

'Flower cannon!' Lillymon thrust both of her arms forward, and fired a couple of energy blasts with petals that fell like machine gun shells. Zephyrmon didn't react in time, and took a good few numbers of those blasts. Yet she seemed fine, not bothering with the damage done and charged at the ultimate.

'Plasma claw!' she yelled, in a rather human tone as her claws glowed a red light like iron being heated strongly. Lillymon dodged swiftly to the left, but then the hybrid drifted unexpectedly at her back and, when Lillymon could see her again, her claws were the immediate signs of the hybrid's presence.

'Wind blade!' Garudamon unleashed a vacuum blade just in time before Zephyrmon could do any damage to Lillymon, expecting the hybrid to be sliced in half instantly. That could not be done so easily, though. Being the legendary warrior of Wind, Zephyrmon seemed to have her own technique to deflect any attack related to air. 'Hurricane gale' she shouted as she threw two pink energy blades at the incoming Wind Blade. Immediately the Wind Blade was gone as the pink blades of Zephyrmon went through it, and landed on Garudamon X's left shoulder.

Garudamon yelled in pain, but that was no excuse for Zephyrmon to stop attacking him. A more blades at the direction of the bird-man ultimate and already he was on the ground, painfully holding himself to his feet.

Zephyrmon then paid Lillymon her attention as she flew closer and slashed her with her glowing claws. 'Vicious vine' Lillymon X used a hardened vine on her hand to counter the attack, but that didn't seem to work too well. With a little force Zephyrmon easily broke the vine into two, and kicked the defenseless Lillymon with her leg, knocking the once levitating digimon to the ground.

'Metal fireball!' SkullMeramon attacked again, aimed with extreme care so that the forest wouldn't have to burn with him. Zephyrmon dodged that. She, however, didn't seem to like the idea of having the entire forest on fire as well, and threw a few of her high speed blades at the fire ball, using the vacuum created by the high speed to set off the fire.

* * *

'Why are they always so strong when they're supposed to be only at champion level?' mumbled Takumi. His partner had joined the fight a few minutes ago, and still it seemed that all the efforts MetalPhantomon had given were useless. Lobomon was not only swift, but was also smart. Occasionally he would let the grim-faced ultimate's scythe met with the blades of SaviroHuckmon while he was standing aside.

'Sky rocket ∞!' CannonBeemon fired countless rockets at the hybrid, who, amazingly, didn't even transform to dodge the attack. Instead he waved his sabers, and slashed each and every one of the rockets precisely; the rockets exploded midair, creating a thick layer of smoke, which made CannonBeemon regret his decision.

'Lobo Kendo.' The voice of Lobomon came again. Without a clear vision, the destined-digimon couldn't make out where the hybrid was coming. Another voice, a voice that sounded like a typical human teenager, was probably the one that saved the digimon.

'Twinkle shoot!' with that sound came a knife, a jetting one. Nobody could tell whether the knife hit its target or not, but it found its resting place on Lobomon's chest, and caused the hybrid to fall to his knees almost instantly. The smoke was than cleared, and the result could be seen. Behind Lobomon came a digimon, he looked almost as human as the humans themselves, wearing a lime green jacket over something that seemed to be a white shirt; he also wore a green hat which had an abnormally long red feather on one side. He had long blonde hair and red eyes. He walked to the fallen Lobomon, and pulled the knife out of his chest.

'Who's that?' whispered Takumi. None of them could be sure if the new human-like digimon is a friend or enemy, but most were ready for the latter. Reading the information of the digivice they knew only that the digimon was Petermon, a data type champion.

'Hey!' he said, or half-shouted, as he walked to the stunted digi-destined. 'You guys have any problem?'

* * *

Zephyrmon was in a good shape of battling, having almost defeated Lillymon X and Garudamon X within a few minutes. She would have gotten her job done had her tow foes not unexpectedly digivolved.

That was actually quite surprising to the digi-destined as well. It seemed almost like that the digimon somehow knew when to digivolve, and every time they did that just right before they were defeated. Garudamon digivolved into a more bird-like digimon, with four giant wings covered in golden feathers and countless decorative tails of red and orange feather; Lillymon digivolved into a digimon with a female adult shape; her limbs wrapped in yellow vines and red cloth; her head like a normal human head with its upper part swallowed by a giant red rose. She had a dark green cape as well.

'Hououmon, mega, vaccine type.'

'Rosemon X, mega, data type.'

'You look…red.' Uttered Ryosuke upon seeing his partner's new form, almost forgetting that they were in the middle of a fight.

'You've any opinion about that?' muttered Rosemon as if she was a totally different digimon. She then rejoined the battle, and rushed at Zephyrmon, who had seriously injured her.

'Forbidden temptation!' she shouted as several –multiple glowing red petals appeared around her out of nowhere. And then, with a narrowed eye, the petals shot themselves automatically at the hybrid. Zephyrmon, as she'd been doing lately, threw several wind-speeded blades at the incoming petals, managing to blew a few of them off track while still got hurt by a dozen of the glowing petals. Rosemon didn't seem satisfied, and rushed to the hybrid with a yell. 'Rose spear!'

'Don't take all the fun yourself!' uttered Hououmon as he charged, faster than he'd ever done. 'Flaming wing!' the four cross-shaped wings of the golden phoenix digimon contacted with the hybrid as soon as the sound of his yell faded. It seemed a bit too fast that even before Rosemon was able to reach Zephyrmon with her Rose spear, the hybrid had already been on fire. Several seconds later the hybrid could have been reduced to nothing but ashes, but that didn't seem satisfying to the digimon.

'Crimson flare!' yelled Hououmon as he emitted a bright red flame from his beak. Probably because he wanted the digi-destined to be able to avoid the terrible scene of the dead bodies, he decided to burn the hybrid to nothing, like how they had had Arbormon blown up to nothing when they first met the hybrids. And it worked. Soon, there was nothing left, not even dust and ashes –the force of the jetting flames was a bit too strong that the particles were blown to all directions as soon as the digimon was blown apart.

* * *

As soon as the fight was finished, they reunited, or tried to do so, with their teammates. There was one limiting factor that stopped them from shouting to the rest of the group immediately. A digimon, human-shaped with a knife holding in hand and a dead Lobomon by his feet, was approaching the three digi-destined. Who knew if he was up to anything sinister? And they might distract their teammates at the very moment. Than the digimon could get them.

But that wasn't what actually happened. The digimon, as identified as Petermon, simply walked forward and said a casual 'Hi!' before anything happened. He even put his knife back into a sheath at his waist, as if willingly anticipating being smashed into a pulp without any defense by the strangers in front of him.

'What's wrong with you guys?' he said, almost like he knew them somehow. 'Don't give me that "I'm gonna kill you" look!'

'Then who are you?' demanded Kaoru. 'Petermon, a champion, suddenly stabbing a probably unknown digimon; it's us who should be asking questions.'

'Hate that tone.' That's all Petermon did to reply the blonde boy. 'And do call me Peter please, I don't like to be all formal.'

'But, you're a digimon.' Uttered Yuzuki. She couldn't think of anything else to say besides that at the moment.

'We're all digimon, though you do look quite odd.' Replied Petermon.

'We're not.' That came from behind the champion. He turned around to find out that it was a black-haired boy talking. 'And I hate clarifying it every time –We are no digimon. We're human!'

'Don't be silly, humans were gone…'

'Before you're even born? Correct.' Said Takumi. 'But that's not how things are going now. And I have to ask, why did you attack Lobomon?'

'Cause you seemed to be in trouble.'

'We obviously outnumbered them.' Mumbled Amy.

'Doesn't mean you're having a good time.'

'That doesn't mean you have to attack him. What if you got the wrong guy and we're the bad ones?' asked Eiji. Though he hadn't heard much about what Petermon had done, he pretty much got the whole story from the conversation, and deduced that Petermon was somehow a digimon version ofRyosuke, only a bit more able at fighting, for he said. 'I just know.'

He then continued scanning the faces of the digi-destined, in which all of them showed almost the same kind of expression. 'Your turn now. Tell me your story; you can't really be human, right?'

'That's a long story,' sighed Yuzuki. 'And we are human.' She then mumbled in a whisper. 'I really don't want to go through this all over again.'

'What'd you say?'

'Nothing, just tired.' Answered the black-haired girl.

'Well then you can tell me more about your tale on the way to my village.' Said Petermon. As if he'd assumed that the digi-destined had agreed to go with him, he started to walk right away without hesitation, which left the digi-destined no choice but to follow.

'Where are we going?' asked CannoBeemon, hovering above the group as they walked unwillingly.

'Hepia.' Replied Petermon. 'A great village.'

* * *

Hepia, the nearest village to the Temple, did turn out to be a great one. It was, just like Renais, located in the jungle. Trees made the home of native digimon, which contained mostly in-training and rookie. All kind of digimon were there, from the soft and fluffy Botamon to the green, a bit sickly-looking Aruraumon. Huts were all over the ground, and on treetops as well. No means of illumination were there; seemingly the village didn't need much light at night. The trees were all covered in green, from the yellowish grass to the emerald, broad leaves that covered half the sky, and the reddish orange rotten leaves that covered the roof of the huts.

Petermon led the digi-destined into a specially large hut on one of the higher trees, which seemed to be home to the humanly digimon. There he treated the destined with food and other services. They were kind of redundant, though, seeing that the digi-destined had already been treated well back in the Temple.

Once they're settled Eiji, representing the team, told the entire story to Petermon, starting from where they had fought Reapermon, again.

'I can still hardly believe that.' Said Petermon. He was indeed a merry fellow, and was quite nice as well. But his smile always seemed a bit fake, like another expression was under that face.

'That's all we can say, Petermon. Believe it or not, just don't call us digimon.' Said Yuzuki.

'I told you to call me Peter!' Petermon reinforced his demand. It just didn't seem right to the kids to call a digimon in a human way.

'Then do the same to us.' Demanded Ryosuke. He'd had enough being mistaken as some kind of weird digimon. 'Call us by our names.'

Petermon, still not seeming to have believed what the digi-destined had said, uttered. 'Well, if you insist on things like that. Fine for me.'

They then exchanged a few more lines; Petermon offered them hospitality despite the short period of time they'd met with each other; the digi-destined didn't accept the offer graciously, remembering how they'd caused the destruction of Renais, but Peter insisted that they should stay, stating that the jungle wouldn't be save at night. Yuzuki was the one particularly against the idea, saying. 'We can't do that. He'll find us, and he'll kill you all. Just consider me selfish, but I really can't live with the guilt anymore, and I don't think none of you can.'

The argument was then settled when Takumi suggested that they could keep watch on the village, and hope that Piedmon sent his man early so that they could defend the village. Yuzuki barely accepted that.

* * *

The sky was red. It was dusk –late dusk. The digi-destined took rest early, for fear that Piedmon's minions should come at late night and none of them should be able to react at once. The digi-destined stayed at Petermon's house, and was quite surprised that none of the villagers actually rejected their presence. The village looked great, and it looked peaceful, making then wonder if that was the result of the digital world's having gotten rid of human interference.

It was almost too peaceful that they had forgotten they ought to be alarmed. Time of peacefulness went on for a longer while, and almost all the digi-destined could've dwelled well in their sweet dreams had there not been a sound of flustering air so loud that was almost as deafening as a jet taking off.

'What's that?' Yuzuki was the first one to get notice of the sound and went out of the hut. There she saw nothing but a rapid shadow flashing right across the higher trees a few ten meters away from her. The others had seen that too by the time the shadow took its form. Though they'd only seen it once via Piedmon's "TV", none of them could forget that demonic shape –a dragon-like head white as tile, flaming feathers of fire, armor red as blood. It couldn't be wrong, the shape was BurningGreymon, the one who had burnt Renais and all its residents into ashes.

And he'd come after the digi-destined.

Alarm really wasn't the first emotion to come across them. They knew exactly what BurningGreymon was here for –he would burn the village, just like he had done to Renais. The digi-destined rushed to alarm Petermon, hoping that he would somehow have some quick means to alert the others, but it was too late.

BurninGreymon, still gliding at a fast speed, roared. It was so loud that the sound almost sounded like a hundred of elephants screaming together. The roar was then accompanied by sounds of bullets being shot from a gatling gun. Then there was the sound of fire; of leaves being burnt down into nothing; of young defenseless digimon screaming; of trunks and twigs falling apart as they burned.

And then, not only the sky was red. The entire village of Hepia had turned into an inferno so bright that even the jetting blur of BurningGreymon could not be seen. The digi-destined watched on the high tree, and immediately none of them disagreed that they should take action, even if it's already too late.

'Cold flame!' BlueMeramon slid along the stem of the giant tree with one hand and fired his blue flame, which was evaporated immediately, in hopes of extinguishing the fire. He failed. The fire was never overpowered by the slight change in temperature. It was just shining so bright that it made BlueMeramon look like he's back to his red champion form.

Pteramon X flied across the burning village and spotted BurningGreymon standing right in the middle of the village. Without the thought of notifying the others, he immediately fired a missile at the hybrid. Seemingly having no notice of the champion, BurningGreymon let the missile hit his armor. But it turned out that not even a scratch on his bright metallic armor could be formed. That tickled, though. Now that BurningGreymon had noticed his attacker, he would give no mercy to them.

One of his arms shot out in a second and fired several bullets at Pteramon, who barely escaped all of them. Then CannonBeemon and Lillymon X joined the fight. Most of them shot things –laser beams or energized petals or even just projectiles –at the hybrid. BurningGreymon swiftly dodged the beams from CannonBeemon with a slight drift and, using the motion of his turn, he slammed his tail right at Pteramon before aiming his arm cannons at Lillymon and fired.

'How are we supposed to take down this thing?' Uttered Eiji. Then came a voice of different opinion, from Yuzuki.

'Leave him, evacuate the village first!' then, nothing giving the older boy a chance to present his agreement, she rushed into the fire. SaviroHuckmon followed her tight. Eiji agreed with that idea instantly and felt, for a second, ashamed of himself that he only cared about battling the hybrid.

* * *

'That way, don't panic!' most of the common lines used in evacuation didn't seem true, and that was the same this time. The digi-destined ran into the village, with no sign of Petermon. They each ran in a different direction, Yuzuki came across the middle part of the village, and kept yelling that very line despite the fact that she was, too, panicking.

On she ran, and on she saw miserable things. There were digimon being burnt to death alive –they screamed until the very end of their lives; their huts flashing and flying in all directions and being reduced into tiny particles. That wasn't the worst she had to see. There was the time, when she thought things couldn't have been worse, when she thought she'd gotten used to the agony of the digimon, there came an Aruraumon, perfectly intact, but was scared to the very limit; it went to the girl and SaviorHuckmon for help, and Yuzuki ran to it as well, as fast as she could, determined to save as much as possible. The distance between the two dropped as they went, and they were closer to each other, very close, almost there.

'You'll be safe now.' Mumbled Yuzuki to the poor plant digimon as it went under SaviorHuckmon's cover. They then escorted her out, or decided to. There was a sound of explosion, of distraction, that came from their right. And SaviorHuckmon turned to look at the source, and there came a fireball, a burning truck, falling right at the uncovered Aruraumon. Instantly the plant digimon caught fire. It screaned, eyes watered, and clutched to the human girl, trying very hard to get help, to be safe. There Yuzuki watched, and did nothing. She desperately wanted to help, but she couldn't. She could only watch as the Aruraumon struggled for the last few seconds of life, hanging to the girl who'd given it a hope of escaping. It burned, hands clutched tightly to the girl's, the flame went everywhere on its body.

'Help me!' it yelled. The flame had started to invade its head as it held its grip as tightly as it could to the black-haired girl's.

But she let it slip away.

The fire had taken over the Aruraumon. There was nothing else Yuzuki could do. She loosened her grip –she had to, to save herself. As she did so she watched, without a blink, as the fire overcame Aruraumon and the light in its eyes replaced by that of the fire's.

* * *

The others went through the village as well, saving as many as possible. But there stood BurningGreymon, intensifying the fire at intervals. For a moment Eiji did considered the option of battling BurningGreymon, that way he couldn't do anything anymore. But Yuzuki had been right, saving the lives were more important. As he rushed through the burning greens he could swear that he heard Petermon's voice again. Ant then he saw the digimon, swinging from trees to trees as he chased BurningGreymon, who had been gliding about the village all the time and had been keeping the fire by his bullets.

'Hey, you there!' the champion shouted as he drew his sword, swinging on a vine that would soon be overcome by the fire. He let it go, and dropped right on top BurningGreymon with the tip of his sword facing downwards. Then he dropped and dropped, feeling the satisfaction of getting his village revenged…until a giant had gripped him by the waist. He jerked, but nothing worked. There were three silver claws –the left hand of BurningGreymon. The grip tightened, and it hurt so much that Petermon had to scream despite his resistance, a few second later he was tossed aside, straight into the fire.

That wasn't over, not yet. BurningGreymon swung his tail at the champion just before he plugged into the inferno, lifting him midair again, and watched him fall, and smacked him up again, and went on and on, like a child playing with a little insect, each time with a yell of pain from Petermon. It was loud, than it grew louder, and louder, until finally it was too much to Petermon, and the scream faded. With that, BurningGreymon smacked him one last time and aimed his barrel at him.

'Hououmon, get him!'

A golden flash, and the severely injured and insulted Petermon was gone.

BurningGreymon seemed to have considered his job done as more than half of Hepia was no more. He swung his wings of flames. Feathers of spark lit the remaining of the village as the dragon took off.

* * *

'How many have we got here?' asked Eiji as he ran exhaustedly out of the village, gasping for air. Petermon rested in the grip of Hououmon. The others had all made their way out of the village before the ground and the sky fused into one picture of red, orange, yellow, crimson, and red again.

'Less than one-third.' Replied Amy. The digimon they'd gotten out were either unconscious or too tired and frightened. The only ones able to talk were the digi-destined.

And Petermon. Although weakened, he managed to utter the words out, painfully, word by word. 'How…are t…the…' he couldn't even finish the sentence.

None of them said anything. They watched as the fire went on. They couldn't really tell if night had fallen, the light of the village being burnt was so bright that the sky looked just like how it had been mere minutes ago –red as fire.

'At least we got as many out as possible.' Said Takumi, trying to be positive. He immediately regretted having said that. All his teammates didn't seem relieved; none of them could, not even him.

Yuzuki's eyes filled with tears. She'd seen Renais being burnt, through a TV, and already that hurt. Now she'd experienced that herself. She blamed herself for how little they had managed to save, hated herself for letting the Aruraumon die right in front of her while not being able to do anything.

'He went that way.' Said Kaoru eventually. 'When he left, he was heading that way.' He said as he pointed at the north, though any direction shared the same view. 'Do we follow him?' asked the boy, a slight trace of sadness in the usually detached boy's tone.

'Of course we do.' The weak voice of Petermon came to the kids' ears. Ryosuek had used the healing card on him. It was like a medicine, a fast one, yet it still took time for its consumer to recover. Petermon still needed to clutch to Eiji's arm as he walked. His voice weak but firm. 'If you're going after him, then I'm in. There's no way I'm letting that get away.'

'But what about…' said Eiji, but was immediately cut off.

'You're not leaving me behind!' Petermon yelled as hard as he could, which was still a light voice.

'How do we settle them?' asked SaviorHuckmon.

'Get then to the Temple, maybe they can take care of them.' Suggested Yuzuki. The rest of the group agreed as the watched the fire went out and the emptiness left by it.

* * *

**The ending was a bit...well, not usual, but whoever's reading this has to get used to it, cause that's the turn the story's taking right now, and there's gonna be tones of this stuff in the near future, as well as in the sequel. The children need to learn what failure can lead to! (Though that's a bit too extreme for this genre...)**

**Something not as important: I am writing the last chapter at this point of time, hopefully I can start book 2 before May.**


	24. 23 Enemies united

**I should probably quit doing the disclaimer by now.**

* * *

23 ~Enemies united~

A digimon named Petermon helped the digi-destined as they chased the hybrids out of the Temple, and aided them in his own village.

Then came the worst thing. As Piedmon had warned earlier, any help for the digi-destined would be eliminated. BurningGreymon raided the village Hepia as soon as the digi-destined settled. Then there was fire, and agony.

The digi-destined barely escaped the inferno, and they could do nothing but watch the village being incinerated. Determined to do the village the justice it deserved, the digi-destined, along with Petermon, set north, where BurningGreymon went after he finished his business.

* * *

Yuzuki set her sight north at late night. The sky was dark, starless as always, with the moonlight its only illumination. She enjoyed that, though. Better than the sky that was stained red by the fire.

The digimon from Hepia had been settled in the Temple. It had taken the destined a bit of an effort to get the Wizards to open the gate for the survivors. But there they were, and there they would be protected. They also got the information from Sorcermon that some of their agents from the north spotted something strange, which further confirmed the idea that they had to set north. But there were digimon who didn't make it, digimon that died in the fire, digimon that they hadn't been able to save.

And that thought started to surface on the black-haired girl's mind. She tried to suppress the idea, but it overcame her effortlessly. She couldn't help but remember the scene where the Aruraumon died right in front of her, when she had promised that it would be saved. And that just hurt so much that she found herself in tears a few seconds later, when a voice brought her back to reality.

'You all right?' that was the voice of Kaoru. She'd almost forgotten that he didn't sleep much. And it was just a bit too embarrassing that she let someone saw her cry. She turned to face the boy as soon as she dried her eyes, and said. 'Shouldn't have let you seen that.'

Kaoru walked forth and sat beside her, both had their backs against a tree. They weren't really feeling natural at this, but that would just help them pass the night easier.

'No need to be ashamed of that.' Said Kaoru. 'I did that a lot.'

'You didn't see that.' Replied Yuzuki, her voice sadder than usual. She than told everything, how she felt when she had thought for a moment that Aruraumon had been safe, how it had looked when it had been on fire with its watery eyes, how she had let it go to safe herself. With all that said, she burst into tears again, though this time not as loud as the last time.

Kaoru didn't give out any reply; he just listened, deciding that a moment of silence was necessary for the girl. He thought he could say something, about how they should be glad at least someone had been saved, but just couldn't bring it out, knowing well that they'd failed horribly.

'I never really knew how emotional I can act.' Said Yuzuki, her tears seemingly having run out. The two of them were sitting close to each other, but she leaned closer. For some reasons even she herself couldn't name. She just felt more secure that way.

'So was I.' Replied Kaoru. He could felt the head of Yuzuki resting on his left shoulder, and he didn't resist that. Maybe that's a way to stabilize her emotions. Seeing that her eyes were closed, he concluded that she'd fallen asleep again. He had to admit that their position was a bit awkward; he wasn't even used to interacting with others, not to mention to a heart-broken girl. He could felt her head slipping away while he was thinking, and acted without any thought, using a hand to pull her closer. It just wasn't nice letting someone's head slam into the ground.

'Isn't it kinda funny,' it turned out she wasn't asleep after all, 'that we're having a conversation like this, in the digital world instead of our classroom?'

'Kind of.' He replied. Back in the few days in school, they never really talked, no more than five minutes if all the time they'd actually talked were summed up. 'You're something close to a friend, I suppose.' He said, 'besides FanBeemon.'

'Do you think we'll ever get back?' Yuzuki muttered. Things had happened so quickly and miserably that she'd almost given up the idea of getting home safe and sound.

'I hope.'

* * *

'How a things like at the north?' asked Ryosuke. It was better to know the place before you get there. Petermon hesitated a while. 'I don't really know.' Said him. 'I haven't really been to the north for too many times, and that place wasn't quite nice to remember as well.'

'So you'd been there?' asked Pteramon.

'I mostly wander round my village.' Replied Peter. 'The north just doesn't suit me.'

They asked a few more questions, and Petermon mostly just said he didn't know things, but could only remember a rough route. He didn't even know if things had changed in the north, or if anything new happened. The worst case he could imagine was that the resident of the north had been part of Piedmon's force, and had been part of having Hepia destroyed.

They walked for a long while, all the way out of the forest. There they were, on a rocky road with the sound of running water. Not much green could be seen anymore, which didn't really mean anything to them. Their vision fixed on the road most of the time. After a few more hours they reached a place where the sound of water could be heard more clearly. The splashing sound was like an indication that they reached somewhere else.

'That's the river, don't exactly remember its name.' Said Petermon. The digi-destined looked, and saw the clear water roaring down a direction in front of them. 'It's not quite possible to cross the river at this point; you can't even see the other side.' Said the champion, pointing at the horizon. 'We'll have to move to the lower bank, where the current's not as furious and the river's not as wide. If I remember correctly, maybe we can even cross it while it's still frozen.'

That idea struck the digi-destined. A frozen river? There wasn't even the slightest trace of snow nearby.

'Can't you just freeze the river here and we'll get across?' suggested Ryosuke, staring at BlueMeramon.

'Don't even think about that.' Said Amy. 'You see how wide the river is; it'll take him a whole day to get us half way, and then the ice will melt right away. If you want to drown us all, I'd say we can just jump into the river now.'

'Stop arguing would you?' every time; it had to be Eiji to be the one to get things back on track. 'We go down that way then. Don you know if we can get any supply along the way, Peter?'

Then the entire group went silent. If the vision of Renais hadn't been enough to scare them, Hepia would certainly get the job done. Just days before they'd failed to save a village, and of course they would dare to get others to share its fate. Wordlessly, the group went on along the riverside. They didn't actually need to worry about supply, though; the river could provide them with water. And they had enough food packed when they left the Temple.

'That's what Piedmon wanted.' Mumbled Pteramon hatefully. 'To get us isolated.'

'And he's succeeded.' Uttered Eiji in response.

* * *

Nothing really special happened along the way. The river was really long, though. Peter estimated that they hadn't even got to one seventh of the river after their hours of walk. Night was already falling, and there was, unlike the previous places they'd visited, no shelter at all. No trees, no soft leafed ground. Just rock. They had to get used to that, though. Night was dangerous, especially when they weren't familiar with the place. Even with Petermon around, nobody really knew the way.

They didn't even have the material to camp; all they could do was to sleep on the hard ground without any protection. Even the dumbest person wouldn't do that if he had a choice.

The only sound that accompanied some of the destined's snores was the running water. The current was still furious; every time a wave hit a rock, it sent a great splashing sound as a distraction for the destined. It was better annoyed by the water sounds than to think about all the deaths that happened lately.

But soon the water sounds weren't the only sound to accompany them.

'Wake up!' whispered Kaoru as he shook the others. They robbed their eyes and got in a lazy position, eagerly demanding for an explanation.

'Listen.' Said the blonde boy. The reason why he'd wakened them up was that he'd heard some strange noise, noise that belonged to neither the river nor the destined. Simply, he'd come up with the conclusion that something else was out there, and that it might be dangerous to keep the others asleep.

The digi-destined stayed silent as requested, and listened hard. There wasn't anything at first –at least that's how they thought. Seconds later, they thought they heard something, some clicking sound, and some hissing sound. It was light even in the quietness of the night, but clear. None of them spoke a word in order to trace the source of the sound, even though they didn't really expect to go somewhere else. The view was so clear that one could tell by a glance whether there's anything else out there.

But the sound grew louder before they could take any action. And this time, they thought they heard not only clocking sounds, but something like someone talking as well. The digi-destined did follow the source this time, leaving their original post. On and on they went, and still the sound seemed to be keeping a constant distance with them. It was until minutes later could they found out that there were lights in the dark.

At first there were only flickers, like sparks that couldn't last for more than a second. But then they realized that it was because they were too far away from the light that it seemed to go out and light up again and again.

'Why are we chasing these lights? Aren't we supposed to stick to the route and avoid any trouble?' whispered Amy.

'They might have something to do with Piedmon.' Replied Kaoru, also in a whisper. 'Is that a reason enough to go after them?'

'Everybody just shut up!' Yuzuki wanted to scold, but it wasn't the right time to do so. Furthermore, there wasn't really time to stay there and discuss. The light seemed to be moving at a rather fast pace, and they'd have to stay focus to follow them all the way.

Not very soon later they went into somewhere filled with rocks –giant rocks. The light had been visible all the time, and whoever made them didn't seem to realize that they'd been followed. They went on and on, but then suddenly stopped. The light didn't go out, but the clicking sound, now verified as the marching sound of whoever was holding the light, stopped, replaced with the hissing sound. It sounded like some entities having a conversation, only in a language they couldn't understand. And the tine wasn't nice either; it sounded nasty, like someone bargaining in a pesky tone, like students whispering and laughing at each other secretly during class, like insect hissing.

Insect. That idea didn't sound optimistic to the digi-destined. They could only hope that they were thinking at the wrong direction.

'Go sneak a bit.' Whispered Ryosuke. Before anyone could disagree, he'd already gone and peeked at the talkers behind two adjacent rocks, leaving only his eyes visible for whoever was on the other side.

* * *

Red flickers, torches, shadowy figures. None of them really helped. He hoped to see more, but the torches didn't seem to be favoring him much. All he could see was the dim shape of the beings talking. He couldn't even make out their shapes. _Why couldn__'__t they use a __brighter__ torch!_

Almost like they could hear his thought, a brighter light came out. it wasn't red like the torches, but a blue one. The light was enough that Ryosuke could tell the whisperers. And, unfortunately, he'd guessed correctly. On the other side of the rocks he's hiding behind stood a dozen beetle-like digimon –Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon. They were talking in their nasty-sounded language, and the source of the blue light was from the ground. Then, he had to admit that he was either shocked or enraged.

Out of the blue light came an image, a hologram or something like that. And that image was the one digimon he hated with all his might. Piedmon. Somehow the clown digimon was speaking in that strange language as well, and it seemed to Ryosuke that the Kuwagamon and Kabuterimon were listening to Piedmon, rather peacefully. And then they spoke as well, then Piedmon replied. The whole conversation went on for only a few minutes. And, before they could spot anything, the black-haired boy had already sneaked back to the other destined.

'Not good.' Said him, in a tone lower than how they'd been doing.

'What's wrong?' asked Lillymon, her tone as low, affected by her partner.

'It was the Krams.' Said Ryosuke. 'Those ugly things are here again.'

'I thought they'd be pretty screwed after their cave collapsed.' Uttered Pteramon.

'You collapsed their cave?' uttered Petermon in surprise. As a digion in the digital world he'd know about the robbers for quite a long time, and had occasionally fought them. Most of the time he'd emerge victorious, but that was it. He'd never imagined someone to actually attack the beetles' base.

'Yeah. They somehow kidnapped us and the whole thing went crazy,' answered Ryosuke, sounding impatient, 'but I have more important things to say.' he said. The others looked at him as he paused. He took a deep breath, something he didn't quite do usually, and said. 'Don't scream or yell or say anything after hearing what I have to say.'

'Just tell us already!' whispered Petermon, getting impatient.

'They're not alone, not anymore. Piedmon was, somehow, in control or working with them.' Said Ryosuek after he took another deep breath. He was quite terrified by himself at saying that, afraid that the others would lose control over their vocal cods and utter something to catch the not-too-faraway beetles' attention.

To his relief, none of them did the dreadful thing. They simply gave him shocked faces and started taking breathes deeply like how he'd just done.

'That Piedmon, he just can't leave us alone!' Pteramon wanted to exclaim, and would've done so had there not been the sound of the Krams marching that alerted them.

'How far away were them from here?' asked Yuzuki.

'Not very far.' Replied Ryosuke, and he knew it was about time they shut their mouths tightly as the marching sound got closer and closer. The digi-destined slowed their breaths, and stayed still, keeping eyes out to see where the Krams were coming from.

And then, even in the dark night, a shadow fell.

The digi-destined had been hiding behind giant rocks, and that shadow came from above them, which meant nothing but that someone was sneaking on them, hopefully still seeking but haven't found them, from the other side. Petermon, sensing the danger, drew his knife as quietly as possible from its sheath while Yuzuki, who had been hiding next to him, hushed him to stay low. The sounds of the footsteps were now like thunder; the digi-destined could now estimate the distance between them and the Krams. At the greatest hope, they were about less than ten meters away.

The shadow grew large; two especially long shapes could be seen. There was no doubt the one peeking on them was a Kuwagamon, or an Okuwamon. Either way, seeing that the neither the Kuwagamon nor the Kabuterimon species detect the surroundings with eyes, but rather relay on their antennae, the digi-destined couldn't risk making even the slightest movement.

Then there was the sound of the pincers of the digimon getting closer and closer. It sounded like metal chips colliding together, fresh and high-pitched. And was rather annoying; it was getting to their nerves, like a calling that suggested them to show up instead of hiding and holding breathes. Then there was another sound, this time like a chainsaw operating. Ryosuke, being the closest to the source of the sound, could only imagine the Kwuagamon leaning lower and lower to the destined, with its gigantic pincers opening and closing at intervals and its saliva-filled mouth with teeth slicing against one another.

'Can't we just get away?' he whispered as inaudible as possible, which still seemed to be an unwise decision. The others tried to warn him not to make the sound, but that only could only make things worse. All that action lured the attention of the Kuwagamon, and the shadow grew even larger and darker as it leaned lower.

Petermon was eager to fight, but just as he held his blade in his grip he had another idea. Looking around he grabbed a quite sizable stone, and, without a thought, threw it right opposite to where they were. The action caused the wind current to change, but what was more attractive was the landing noise of the stone against the rock floor. He saw the shadow turning away. Though very slowly, it was turning at the direction at which the stone had landed.

For a moment, Petermon, as well as the others, let out a sigh of relief. The specific Kuwagamon had gone away, and the marching sound of the other had faded gradually. It was a moment when they could finally breathe again.

'That was close.' Whispered Lillymon. Although she was confident that even if they had to face the Krams in violence, they would have won easily, it was still better to have avoided a fight than to waste the entire night. Furthermore, seeing that they had allied with Piedmon in some manner, fighting them could mean giving their certain location to the mega, though the digi-destined had no doubt that the crazy clown could find them single-handedly anyway.

'But why would they get themselves with Piedmon? I thought they were only interested in valuables.' Uttered SaviorHuckmon.

'Maybe Piedmon is offering some sort of reward to them.' Suggested Takumi. 'You know, the last time we saw them; TyrantKabuterimon did mention something about someone wanting living human in the digital world. Now that we think about it, who would know there's living humans here besides Piedmon?'

'But he said that was not a clown-like digimon.' Muttered Pteramon.

'Maybe he just have no idea of what a clown is,' replied MetalPhantomon, 'or maybe Piedmon had accomplice as well. Maybe it wasn't he who used the Spirits in the first place.'

'Then who would that be, to work with that sick idea?' uttered Eiji. The response to this question, however, wasn't come from any of the other digi-destined. A click sound nearby caught his, as well as the others', attention. The blue-haired boy, hesitantly, turned his head to his right, where the sound came from.

That was a digimon, with a look similar to the Kabuterimon, but red in shell, and had a more developed horn. Once he saw the digimon, it roared, revealing its disgusting mouth where tree rows of teeth were arranged messily, saliva splashing everywhere as the digimon's low-pitched, elephant-like roar went out.

'MegaKabuterimon red (later denoted as MegaKabuterimon R), ultimate, vaccine type.'

'Well, someone has found us.' Uttered FanBeemon. 'What do we do now?'

_I think there should be a little more around us. _Amy's voice popped in everyone's mind. It was one of the few moments when the digi-destined didn't find the telepathy card intrusive. _BlueMeramon will light up the place soon, and then, we run to the nearest path, where the __numbers of the Krams are__ the fewest._

They didn't know how to present their response, so some just imagine the words "got it" in their minds while some simply nodded in return.

_Ready? 3, 2, 1__…_

'Now!' Amy shouted out directly. At the same moment, BlueMeramon, who'd been, for some unexplainable reasons, dark for all the time, let his body glow. The digi-destined could now see their surroundings clearly. A couple of MegaKabuterimon were there, in whom some of them were blue (denoted as MegaKabuterimon B). Among them stood a horde of Kuwagamon, and a few Okuwamon. They were surrounding the digi-destined in a circular pattern, almost impenetrable, except for one tiny corner, about the eleven o'clock direction of Amy, where there were more rocks and fewer Kuwagamon. No one had to pleasure to ask how, or why, did they come back. All they need to do, and want to do, at the moment, was to run away from them.

'Electro shocker!' it seemed that the MegaKabuterimon didn't really have the patience to let the digi-destined react. In just a few milliseconds after the environment was lit, they fired electrical balls from their hands, with six per MegaKabuterimon, you could only imagine how chaotic was the scene.

'Defense plug-in, connect!' the digi-destined seemed to know where to run, but didn't have the time to.

'Just run, don't look back!' someone, probably Yuzuki, shouted as Takumi used the card. MetalPhantomon swung his scythe as an invisible force field surrounded him, blocking most of the electrical balls from the kids. 'Keep running!' Takumi yelled at his partner, knowing that the force field wouldn't last long.

In front of them flew a few Kuwagamon; their pincers making the saw-like noise as they approached the destined.

'Cold flame!' shouted BlueMeramon as he fired multiple ice blast from both of his hands while running, instantly freezing the Kuwagamon blocking their way.

More and more were on their way. SaviroHuckmon had to slash their way for the kids; Lillymon firing her organic plant cannon at all direction; Pteramon firing missiles, causing explosions that lighted the darkness.

Snipe sting!' yelled Petermon as one of the beetle digion approached him from midair. He didn't even have the time to recognize the species; he could only react in time to stab his knife into the chest of the digimon. A little greenish-brown fluid went out of the wound as he with drew his knife. 'Ewe…'

They didn't stop running; none of them could afford turning back. Who knew how many were there?

'Meteor flame!' SaviorHuckmon fired at a MegaKabuterimon R, who were right on top of the group and was ready to slam its way down.

There were more. Electrical spheres flying at all direction; the digi-destined must be really lucky to not have been struck by any of those. MetaPhantomon kept blocking the balls, staying at the back of the group while BlueMeramon kept freeze-frying the beetles in front of them. It seemed just like they were again, in the cave of the Krams, where countless supply of those digimon was waiting.

'They just keep coming!' yelled Ryosuek as he ran, hardly catching his breath.

'Just keep moving!' Lillymon yelled back as she fired another energy blast at a Kabuterimon approaching her. 'Where'd they get all this?' she mumbled, aiming at another one.

'I have another plan.' Shouted Yuzuki. She could only hope that anyone could listen to what she had to say. 'Eiji, Kaoru, can we escape by flight?'

'That'd be crazy!' the immediate response came from Pteramon. 'We're busing busting these things, how can we even get you on board?'

'I don't think there'll be a way out on the ground, either.' Uttered Eiji. 'It's worth a try!' he then exchanged a look with Kaoru, who nodded in response.

'Evolution.'

'Mega evolution.'

Both the boys had their partners digivolved. Immediately, Eiji clinbed on the back of Hououmon, who was now a few times bigger than Pteramon.

'Get on!' he yelled as he gave his hands to the others. Takumi was the first to get onboard, then Amy, roughly dodging a blast from a MegaKabuterimon. BlueMeramon, without a second of hesitation, grabbed one of Hououmon's legs. 'You'll get us off balance!' complained the golden bird. That was settled as SaviorHuckmon grabbed the other leg. The other digimon, namely MetalPhantomon and Lillymon, could at least levitate on their own to keep up.

'Quick!' yelled CannonBeemon after Kaoru had just barely gotten onboard without getting himself seriously injured. The next one was Ryosuke, then Peter.

'Give me your hand!' yelled Kaoru, handing his hand for Yuzuki, the only one still on the ground. Yuzuki was ready to get on, but the second she extended her arm, a dozen of electrical balls flew at the direction of CannonBeemon. The ultimate reflexively dodged those attacks, only to get the black-haired girl left behind on the ground.

Then from behind came a few more dozens, or even moles, of the beetles, all firing electrical balls at the destined.

'Get out!' yelled Yuzuki. For a moment, she had given up any hopes of being rescued. The beetles were too close, the others had to go. 'Leave me behind!'

'No!' to everyone's surprise, it was Kaoru who yelled that single word. He, seemingly out of his mind, got down of CannonBeemon and gripped the Black-haired girl by her hand. And then he used his other free hand to grab onto CannonBeemon's cannon. 'Fly!'

'Sky rocket ∞!' CannonBeemon fired own his stock once he made sure that no one was left behind on the ground. He then took off. Luckily there was room on top of his giant Royal base. Otherwise the destined would be fried by his flusters.

There were smoke all over the beetles, but there were still followers. A particular Okuwamon flew upward, almost reaching Yuzuki, who was barely hanging on.

The Okuwamon opened and closed its pincers again and again, each time flying closer to CannonBeemon. It was so close that it almost got Yuzuki for a few times. CannonBeemon wanted to accelerate to get rid of their chaser, but feared that Kaoru and Yuzuki might fall. Okuwamon got closer and closer to succeeding in gripping the human girl. She screamed multiple times while not daring to look down to the pincers and the fluidly mouth of the Okuwamon; her hand holding tight to Kaoru's, hoping he was holding tight too. Any slip would mean her end.

'Ahhhhh!' along with that battle cry came Petermon's knife. It jetted directly at the Okuwamon's mouth, instantly stabbing it to its death.

* * *

No one was following them now. They were save, at least for the moment.

'What were you thinking?' asked Yuzuki frustratingly at Kaoru, who was now sitting on CannonBeemon's cannon behind him. 'You could've killed yourself!'

'I just couldn't leave anyone behind.' Replied the boy.

Yuzuki couldn't get anything out of her lips, remembering how she left the burning Hepia behind, thinking if she had changed after all those tragedies; if she'd become that selfish, and that calculative, to do anything for her own survival; if she's becoming more and more like the president.

'I know what you're thinking.' Uttered Kaoru. 'You are not that kind of person.'

'How do you know I'm not?' she asked back. 'I left an entire village behind and got away. And, when I left Aruraumon in the fire, I knew what I was doing! I did that on purpose! I left it behind to save myself!'

'You just chose to leave yourself behind to safe us all.' Said Kaoru. 'That's the best evident.'

'That might be you the next time.' she grievously replied. None of them said another word for the rest of the night.

* * *

'Your required material is here.' Said Piedmon, looking at a few cargos that had just arrived at his base, delivered by the Krams.

'It has completed.' The other voice said.

'Then test it.' said Peidmon. He didn't really like the way his partner's speaking. He's always so cold, and that always destroyed Piedmon's mood of having a nice day.

'It is on its way.' Said Piedmon's partner. 'Once the prototype's test is complete, I can produce more. But I will need more materials.'

'You can have all you want from your testes.' Replied Piedmon. He really didn't have the mood to talk to the Scientist right now. He looked behind at a giant cylindrical container, where the body of a giant four-handed digimon was held.

'Millenniummon.' He mumbled. 'However wonderful you once were, you're now nothing more than a vegetable.'

'Even I can't turn him into a vegetable.' Said The Scientist. 'And I have to remind you, he is not dead.'

'Just get on with your toys.' Mumbled Piedmon, getting tired talking to a nerdy partner.

* * *

**Now, obviously as proved before, people don't really leave comments without much threat, so that's kind of disappointing. Another thing I care about is that if people really read this or just add it to their favourites and follow it by chance. From the data collected I can only count 5 visitors for the last chapter, but there're, in fact, 9 favourites and 7 followers by now. Sometimes I really wonder if I should deduce a list of 'not-reading followers/favourites' and disclose it. After all, I haven't really got too much to filter by comparing visitors' countries and the followers/favourites'. (And yes, that's a possible task and I'm certainly not lazy at things like that.)**

**Forgive me for ring so rude. That was extremely unfriendly of me. All I wanted I is some reviews that showed people are reading, like some grammar nutties saying "Oh you should do something, it should be like that or that..." what I mean is that you're free to say whatever you think, or that I want people to say whatever's in their mijnds after reading.**

**Now back to business again. The story is going this style for almost every remaining chapters, and I quite like that. I have, in fact, finished the story by now. The wait is definitely killing me, but it's worth it.**

**Last but not least, please remember to review and leave a comment or whatever you like to say.**


	25. 24 The blood-coated dragon

**Disclaimer: this chapter is disturbingly long...**

* * *

24 ~The blood-coated Dragon~

Piedmon's plan had entered the main stage.

The Scientist, otherwise known as Piedmon's partner, had, received some sort of material, which he claimed to be necessary for the production of "something"

In the meantime, the digi-destined were still traveling to the north, where they believed the base of Piedmon was located.

* * *

It was late at night, and most of the BlackAgumon at the village were asleep. Near the river, there wasn't much threat compared to what they'd heard from the south, near the mountain. They'd heard many things, including the two lately destroyed villages, and could only be glad that they hadn't been the ones to be destroyed. At least, they had one final guardian –BlackWarGreymon.

Then came the first light besides the moon.

Then there were much light, all of which being red.

Noise was what came next before the screams surfaced.

The BlackAgumon could no longer sleep now. Their village was on fire. There were nothing more than red and screams. The BlackAgumon ran at all directions. Some were screaming while running; some tripped over; some yelled for help; some frozen in fear.

There was a particular one, who was neither running nor screaming. He was the only one there to do so besides BlackWarGreymon. Then, to the left of that BlackAgumon came a circular ring, which emitted a blue light. It hit the ground just as the BlackAgumon noticed it, and sent a pulse that sent BlackAgumon flying away. The spot where the ring hit became nothing at the instant –nothing but fire.

Then there were more and more of that blue rings, all coming from the same source. BlackWarGreymon noticed that, and took a look at the source. There was nothing too much to see. In the black night and the fire that had too brightly illuminated the surroundings, not even a shape could be seen, but there was certainly something there, something responsible for the catastrophe.

With that thought, BlackWarGreymon jumped up high; his two armored hands rose above his head, where a tiny purple sphere started to form. The sphere became larger and larger as BlackWarGreymon got closer to his unknown target. It was about time to attack their attacker.

'Terra destroyer!' yelled the guardian of the village as he threw the energy sphere, now trice the size of himself, at the one hiding in the shadows.

There was a brief moment when he grasped a look at their attacker –Its armor red as blood; its size almost the same as the Terra destroyer. Nothing else.

That moment didn't last long. According to what BlackWarGreymon could see, the attacker didn't even move as the Terra destroyer hit him. The energy sphere bounced off the armor of the attacker and hit somewhere at the village, causing an even greater fire.

He forgot one thing –he hadn't landed yet.

And he didn't need to. Three giant talons, most likely from the attacker, grabbed him midair just before he could hit the ground. The sudden shock caused a violent shaking of BlackWarGreymon's head. He saw much while doing that, but mostly blurs of his own village's devastation. The arm that had gripped then swung to one direction, and then sounds began to appear.

BlackWarGreymon believed that he heard the sound from inside the grip. The next moment he felt warmth, or his stomach felt so. Seconds later the sound was louder, and the grip had loosened. But that wasn't much of a relief. The attacker swung its arm again; BlackWarGreymon was thrown aside; the sound rose to the loudest.

A blast of energy struck BlackWarGreymon. He fell; lay on the ground, with the last thing he saw being the 90 degree rotated image of his village being reduced to nothing. Then a giant foott stepped in front of his eye –a giant, metallic foot, along with an extremely loud crack sound of the earth.

He passed out.

* * *

'_Help me!_'

It echoed again and again in her head, along with the image of Aruraumon. They were killing her. Every time she closed her eyes, those two would find their ways into her nerves. And that hurt.

Yuzuki treated them the same way she treated all nightmares while she'd been home. She grabbed something next to her, pulled that thing close to her, like how she would do at home with her pillow.

But she weren't home, and there was no pillow.

She opened her eyes to find out that both her arms were wrapping around someone's waist, and had, apparently, woken that someone up. She tried to remember who's sleeping next to her, only to find out that she didn't need to. She took a look at that someone, who seemed to be trying to get up but then realized that would mean waking Yuzuki up too, ending up in that someone's returning into a lying position.

It was Yuzuki's turn to withdraw her arms. Whoever that someone was, she wanted to apologize.

'I'm sorry.' She whispered. She then became guiltier once she found out that someone was Kaoru. Lately she'd come to know how it feels like to be haunted by countless uninvited nightmares, like the blonde boy. And it seemed to her that he had been having a good sleep, which was rare and precious to him.

'Never mind.' Replied Kaoru, not seeming to have any intention at getting up as he stared at the sky.

'I'm sorry.' Muttered Yuzuki silently, 'for what I said to you earlier.'

'You didn't mean to say that.' Replied Kaoru, turning his head to his right lazily to meet the girl's gaze. 'We've lost much.'

'I'm sorry.' That was the second apology, as well as the second sentence Yuzuki had said to Kaoru ever since they escaped the Krams just the day before.

'I said, never mind.' He muttered, preparing to close his eyes for sleep. Before anyone of them could do that, however, there was the flash that caught everyone's –even the one asleep –attention. Slowly getting up the two of them saw a quick flash of orange. It lasted no more than a second, and along with it came a "boom" sound, like a thunder following a lightning.

A few seconds later there were more of those lights and sounds, and they lasted longer than the first one. The sky was still dark, but there were definitely traces of smoke hovering below the moon. A little bit downward, right on top of the horizon, was a line of fading orange and red, as if the dawn had been put there. But the time was nothing near dawn, and the light lasted for too long and was too light to be the sunrise.

'Is that BurningGreymon again?' they had been too absorbed by the scene that they didn't really noticed that the others had woken up, all standing beside them. The one talking was Ryosuke.

'But we haven't gone that far.' Uttered Eiji. 'And if he's to strike at night, he'd have picked us, right?'

'Then I guess we should be going there to check things out tomorrow. Agree?' proposed Lillymon.

Nobody actually answered, for they all knew the answer too well inside.

* * *

It wasn't before dusk of the day could they reach the destination. To be honest, it was already a surprise to them that they could be walking that fast. Judging from what they'd seen the last night, they had expected to walk for at least two days before they could reach there.

There wasn't much to seen. The digi-destined had seen much before. The village, or its ruins, to be exact, was nothing more than a splattered bowl of scorched building materials. They roughly estimated that the original site had been quite large, approximately twice the size of Renais.

'They didn't have to do this.' Uttered Eiji, looking at all the ruins around him. There were no digi-eggs, conforming the hypothesis of the village being ambushed by Piedmon. The residents must have been all turned into data and collected by some means, not even giving them a chance to be reborn.

Ryosuke walked on the ground, where a few dozen of broken bricks lay. He could swear that he could've been sick upon seeing someone doing something like this to the others, but he'd seen much –too much that they almost numbed the black-haired boy.

'I wonder when will we meet BurningGreymon again.' he muttered, his partner looking concern. Despite the hot temper the boy had, Lillymon knew that he wasn't really a bad one, that's why what he said next scared her a bit. 'Then we can kill him. I don't care if he's legendary or not.'

_You have to calm down. _She could've said that had it not been the slight movement the bricks under Ryosuke's feet, which caused him to jerk back and scream in an extraordinarily high-pitched voice.

'Is someone down there?' he uttered while calling the others to the position, feared that it might be another trap.

'We'll see.' Said SaviorHuckmon, who instantly lifted the brick of concrete with a single hand. There the digi-destined saw a digimon, roughly the same size as Petermon. It bore a striking resemblance to a digimon that was well known as WarGreymon, only its armor was black instead of orange. It was lying on the ground, unconscious, but still breathing.

'BlackWarGreymon, mega, virus type.'

'Where's the nearest village?' asked Yuzuki immediately. Despite knowing that Petermon was, too, not very familiar with the north, she hoped that he could at least have some idea. To her relief, Petermon did have something to say.

'I know somewhere close, a place they call the Fortress.' Said the champion. 'But that'll be on the other side of the river.'

'Then we'd better take him somewhere else.' Uttered Ryosuke as he used the healing card on BlackWarGreymon. He'd expected him to stay asleep for a while, maybe a long while, but instead the Dragon-man digimon sprung up to life the moment his card left his d-magnus.

In a split second, their positions were exchanged. BlakcWarGreymon was standing on the ground firmly; the three claws on his forearm extended, pointing at Ryosuke, who had stumbled back the moment BlackWarGreymon sprung up and fell. The claws were just millimeters next to his throat, and already he could feel the sharpness of the blades. Lillymon, as well as the other digimon, were surrounding BlackWarGreymon, with weapons at ready.

'What's happened here? Where're the others?' demanded the mega. His eyes fixed on the black-haired boy's, claws lowering.

'We just came here! If there's anything to be told then we should be the ones to listen!' uttered Ryosuke without even thinking. A moment later he felt like he'd just said the stupidest thing in his entire life, and felt that it might be the last sentence he'd ever say.

BlackWarGreymon didn't seem satisfied by that, naturally. He glared at the others, who'd had him surrounded with weapons. Then he looked up at his place, and saw nothing more than bricks shattered in pieces and fallen, burnt trees. He then remembered what had happened the night before, when he'd fought the mysterious attacker, and failed to protect his village.

'Just let him go, and we'll tell you everything we know.' Demanded Lillymon; her arm cannon pointing straight at BlackWarGreymon. 'We've really not much to tell you, anyway.'

Then BlackWarGreymon, willingly or not, stumbled backward and fell. It was obvious that his wound wasn't quite healed as he'd thought. Ryosuke stood up and said. 'We saw fire last night, so we went here, and found you.'

BlackWarGreymon didn't seem to have any energy left to say anything, so the black-haired boy simply proceeded. 'We think we might have a clue of whoever did this to this place. Can you remember seeing something red, in a shape of a dragon, and would shoot and burn anything at will?'

'I can't remember much, but I can tell that someone did this to my village.' Answered BlackWarGreymon, trying hard to get up to his feet, only to fell down again. 'But I remember well how it looked like. It has red armor, almost as reflective as the river water. And it is large; I can grip me in one grip. It is also ridiculously strong in strength.'

'That fits BurningGreymon.' Mumbled Pteramon. He wanted to ask for the whereabouts of the hybrid, the supposed attacker, but was blocked by his partner before he could do so.

'Where's the nearest village?' asked Eiji, almost demanding.

'We can't…'said Yuzuki. Before she could finish that, however, she was stopped by the older boy.

'They are attacking villages at will. I don't think it matters anymore if we are to cause any more of these attacks.' Said the leader of the group. 'Also, we need to get BlackWarGreymon to shelter. And, wherever the closet village is, that might be their next target.'

That left most of the group speechless. They decided to go, and slightly forced BlackWaraGreymon, who refused the destined's help, to reveal the location of the nearest village, which is known as Mespho and was just a few miles away from their current location.

* * *

They reached Mespho before the end of the day, which was quite a relief. It seemed to them that their journey had become shorter lately, which was good. According to BlackWarGreymon, the previous village used to be mainly inhabited by BlackAgumon. Coincidentally, Mespho, the village next to the destroyed one, was inhabited with mainly Agumon. The yellow reptilian digimon wasn't so much different from the black ones except for the color, which led to the thought that those digital creatures were, in some way, quite raciest.

Even the natives had welcomed them warmly, the digi-destined couldn't risk letting their guards off. Piedmon seemed to be quite fond of night raids lately, and could strike at anytime. The kids took turns sleeping and watching over the village after having informed Mespho about what'd happened to the other villages and warned them to stay on guard. The natives seemed to be worried, but didn't show that much. They didn't have any guardians like BlackWarGreymon, and so they were, or course, defenseless had there not been the digi-destined. Even if they were there, things wouldn't seem to go any better.

* * *

Much to the digi-destined's relief, nothing had happened. At least nothing bad had. BlackWarGreymon was recovering rather fast and quite already walk and run a short distance on his own. On the other hand, the digi-destined had had enough rest after all the raids lately.

But the relief didn't last long. Yuzuki, having been on the last turn the night before, walked out of the accommodation given and looked out at the village after having taken a nap. What she saw, however, didn't quite set her nerves calm.

'What is that?' she couldn't help mumble that line as the others woke up and joined her as well.

'Where the hell did that thing come here?' muttered FanBeemon. 'And when? I'm quite sure that nothing could've escaped our sight last night.'

'What is it you're talking about?' asked Ryosuke, who woke up a few minutes later than the others and just reached them in time to hear their conversation.

'That.' Said Amy, showing the black-haired boy the gigantic thing that had been, from an unknown point of time, standing right at the center of Mespho as if it had just popped out of nowhere.

'It looks quite cool, and quite familiar as well.' Said Ryosuke.

'Of course you'll find that familiar.' Said Takumi, handing him his digivice, where the words 'Machinedramon, mega, virus type.' Was shown along with the picture of the digimon.

Only the thing in their sights wasn't quite the same as the one shown by the digivice, which had probably gone wrong again. The digimon, if it was one, bore a resemblance to the cyborg digimon as shown, only it had armor made of red, almost blood-like metal, and those were extremely reflective, giving it a shinny appearance. On its shoulder rested two giant cannons, outlined in silver. It was turned upside-down, facing the ground. The dragon-like outline of the digimon remained the same, only that the joints of it seemed more flexible, like they were made of cloth, with red gridlines on. One of its arm was a triple-clawed weapon; the other looked similar, but the three talons were positioned in a more triangular shape, seemingly hiding something in the middle of its palm. Also, unlike Machinedramon, it had a tail, made also of the cloth-like material as the joints. The eye sockets on its helmet were lightless and lifeless, as if it was a dead machine, which was true.

The digi-destined kept an eye on the mysteriously arrived digimon, but it didn't do anything. Somehow they found it quite close to the attacker BlackWarGreymon had described, but it looked less aggressive, almost like someone just decided to dump it there like a junk.

BlackWarGreymon, on the other hand, hadn't been seen since then. It was believed that he'd been healed, and was helping the native Agumon, but then he should have noticed the strange inactive cyborg digimon.

Despite all that, the digi-destined decided to not do anything, just observe. That would be the best way to handle things by now.

* * *

Everything changed as noon came. Right at twelve o'clock, the exact second, without even a picosecond's error, the eyes of the inactive machine sparked to life, revealing a demonic red flash. They shot out two rays of red light, scanning across the village as if someone was aiming with a rifle with laser aim. Then it moved. First its arms rose slowly, along with then a sharp metallic screech and the sound of engine and motor. Then the two cannons of it flipped forward, light glowing from the interior of the barrels.

'Something's wrong.' Uttered Yuzuki.

'Thanks for stating the obvious.' Replied Pteramon X, who had already had his missiles at ready.

'Maybe it's not intended to do any harm.' Suggested Takumi, whose friendly hypothesis was immediately disputed by the red dragon. The dragon digimon, as identified as Machinedramon, fired two energy pulses at the ground of the village without any warning. It was only fortunately for the digi-destined that it was not aiming at them.

'I think, we have no choice but to fight.' Said Eiji. 'And we might have found the attacker last night.' With that, he immediately called the other digi-destined and called the villagers to look for BlaxkWarGreymon, who should've been around and ought to be told of this digimon.

'Metal fireball!' SkullMeramon fired a fireball mixed with molten metal, which should, theoretically, be hot enough to melt the armor of the dragon digimon, who was at the moment rampaging and shooting everything at its way. The fact was, however, not quite as expected. The fireball landed on the thigh of the dragon digimon, instantly giving out a white smoke. But nothing happened after that.

'Nitro stinger!'

'Rosy cradle!'

'Meteor flame!'

The three different types of long-ranged attacks hit the dragon digimon, who seemed to have no intention at evading. Instantly upon contact with its crimson armor, the attacks flew back at different directions, making the desolation worse. The dragon digimon seemed to not quite care about the digi-destined, walking and stomping things with its disturbing machinery noise as it rose its right arm, turned to MetalPhantomon, who'd just threw his laser sickle at it without any use, and fired after a few seconds of charging. Despite the charging time, the blast came so suddenly that neither Takumi nor his partner had anytime to react, even to just use a card.

MetalPhantomon plugged backward swirling, crashed into a short building nearby, and was buried under the rubbles.

The dragon digimon continued proceeding, scanning the village with its beam-emitting eyes. Every time it made a move, a flash of its eyes accompanied. Somehow, Petermon had gotten himself on a rather high building and jumped to the top of the dragon digimon, gripping one of its shoulder cannons for support while swinging his dagger aimlessly. His attempt at damaging the mega was, of course, futile. The Dragon didn't even bother to shake him down; instead it turned at SaviorHuckmon and fired the cannon Petermon was hanging on. The heat produced by the shooting was so intense that Petermon had no choice but to let go, giving himself no defense against the Dragon's tail that was swinging upward. Petermon was, once again, being slammed by a dragon's tail. Relatively luckily for him, this time he was just sent to the ground, laying next to the digi-destined but not being hit for multiple times.

At the same time, a ring, a giant ring, of light blue energy was shot from the cannon. It was fast, at least faster than usual cannons, and hit SaviourHuckmon in no more than a second.

Blasted to the ground, SaviorHuckmon could hardly get himself back up before the giant claws of the Dragon came. Those were from its left arm, where the three claws were lined up linearly. SaviorHuckmon reflexively raised his arms and used his wrist blades to counter the attack. By those claws were so heavy that it seemed like their weight was measured in tones. A second later he realized that he should have just slipped away instead of using the foolish means of countering the attack with his blades.

The claws sank further with an increasing force, leaving SaviorHuckmon no choice but to run. Before he could do that, however, he experienced what might be the most awful feeling for him yet. With a cry of agony, both his blades broke into pieces as he rolled to his left, barely evading the three claws that had already dug into the earth.

'Flame chain!' to the Dragon's left came the flaming chains of SkullMeramon jetting at it, circling its left arm. The Dragon pulled its arm out of the ground without much effort, and swung it along with the chain and SkullMeramon who was linked by it. Without much anticipation of what was to come, the mega was hurled upward in a perfect parabola. That wasn't the end of his attacks, nevertheless. SkullMeramon, while in midair and was right on top of the Dragon, fired a couple more of his Metal fireball. All of them landed on the helmet of the Dragon and were, as proved before, useless against the highly deflective armor of the Dragon.

'Nitro stinger!' CannonBeemon fired a couple more of his laser blast, but all of them were then redirected to other directions, where some hit the digimon on the destined's side, some just hit the earth, some hit the buildings. That was about the time when SkullMeramon was threw at the ultimate's direction, getting both of them on the ground. The sound of a cannon charging was what came next. Just as they could look up, bot hof the shoulder cannons of the Dragon had fired, leaving them no chance to escape.

'Crimson flare!'

'Rosy cradle!'

Those were just more and more futile attempts. The Dragon never really dodged any attacks; it looked like as if it were programmed somehow, to achieve a goal, and would simply ignore anything unrelated. With that loud turbine noise it slammed its left arm into Rosemon X, who barely escaped the strike. But then came the Dragon's right grip, holding the mega tightly in place before it threw it away and aimed at the falling Rosemon, fired its blast with extreme precision.

Hououmon wasn't having a good time, either. Due to his attempt to save Rosemon, he was, too, hit by the blast wave. Both of them created cracks on the ground as they crash-landed.

'Where the hell is BlackWarGreymon when we could really use him?' uttered Ryosuke impatiently. His question was answered the next second. The black mega was somehow helping the village extinguishing the fire caused by the fight and evacuating the villagers. But he had to turn his attention to the Dragon sooner or later, for the digimon of the destined had all been defeated and degenerated somehow.

But he didn't need to join the fight. Just when things seemed the most hopeless, the Dragon stopped. Just one quick noise of machine shutting down, and all the movement of the Dragon stopped all at the same time. On top of the Dragon came a translucent red screen, seemingly a hologram, with the following writings:

**Chaosdramon, until next activation: 10:56:35:06**

* * *

'Is that a clock?' asked Petermon, again. It had been a few hours since the digimon –now identified as Chaosdramon, had been deactivated. The village was, luckily, not too heavily damaged. At least there were still houses left; still had villagers alive. Rebuilding the village was just a matter of time. What really concerned the digi-destined was that the hologram stated clearly that Chaosdramon would, at some point of time, be activated again. Whoever sent it here and for what purpose remained a mystery, but at least the destined digimon had recovered enough to hold to their usual forms.

'Yes. That's a clock.' Replied Pteramon irritatingly. 'And the designated time is midnight. Any more questions?'

'Why don't you stay focus on the important things?' uttered his partner harshly. 'We don't have much time left, and yet we still haven't figured out a way to duel with that thing.' He then turned his attention to the digi-destined, mainly Yuzuki, who gave him a shocked look. He knew he hadn't been behaving like that, but the situation was really driving him mad. 'If we can't come up with any plans, we'll have to get the villagers to somewhere save before Chaosdramon is activated again.'

'You need to calm down.' replied Yuzukim who'd been sitting by his side, helping him coming up with a plan. 'For all we know, we can't damage Chaosdramon because of its armor.' She said as she received several looks from the others, indicating that she'd just said something as useless as tossing a grenade at Chaosdramon. 'But if we can attack it from inside, like shooting through its cannons or something like that?'

'That cannon is insane.' Said Petermon, pulling his knife out of its sheath and putting it back inside again and again. 'If you want to aim close, then just forget it.'

'What about the mouth?' suggested SaviorHuckmon. His blades had already "grown" back on his wrists after degenerating into Huckmon and digivolving back into SaviorHuckmon. 'It has a mouth, right?'

'But when's the last time you saw that thing open its mouth?' uttered Lillymon.

'But that's our only chance, unless you've some other brilliant ideas.' Replied Yuzuki.

'I think.' Said Eiji. 'Maybe we have no choice but to leave. Get the villagers out and let Chaosdramon destroy whatever it wants.'

'Where do they go then?' argued the black-haired girl. 'The nearest village had been demolished. And we don't know if there's anywhere around here that can be called safe!'

'But leaving them here means certain death.' Said Eiji. He couldn't really think of a nicer expression to represent that idea at the moment, and he had to make things as clear as possible.

They later on voted for the options, and decided to go with Eiji, thinking that engaging combat with Chaosdramon was far too dangerous and risky.

It was nearly midnight, with only a few minutes left before the countdown was over. The digi-destined had gotten half the village out, with nowhere to go to. But still, there were more remained in the village than that out of it. Some Agumon saw the point of leaving and had been terrified by the brutal force of Chaosdramon, deciding that keeping their lives was the primary priority while some insisted to remain.

'It's your last chance.' Said Yuzuki to the group of about half the population of Mespho. 'We can't protect you anymore, and we're leaving too. You have to come.'

But one of the Agumon stood out, and said. 'We'd rather die here then to be hunted out there.' For a moment, it seemed to be the stupidest sentence Yuzuki had ever heard, but somehow it made sense to her, knowing that escaping once didn't they could be safe forever. The previous events had proven that Piedmon, and probably whoever sent Chaosdramon here, would never stop at one. Escaping now only meant to be haunted by the fear of the uncertainty of threats out there without protection. Maybe dying here was really a better option than being chased out there.

That was why she, against all anticipation, said. 'Fine. But we have to get going.'

'Are you insane?' demanded Petermon, as well as SaviorHuckmon, the girl's partner who'd always been nice and formal to her. For a moment she, too, thought that she was out of her mind, that she had been acting like the president again –abandoning the less valuable to safe the more. But there was no time to be wasted, she simply said. 'We can't die as well. Who's to stop Piedmon if we stay here with them?'

Nobody could really answer that, not even herself. That's what made the others, but mostly herself, realize how calculative and detached she'd become.

'We've got to go now.' She said, ignoring the furious glances from Petermon and BlackWarGreymon as she walked with those willing to run.

* * *

Even in just a few minutes, they'd reached the woody area by Mespho, about a few miles away from the village. During the walk, Yuzuki's mind struggled. She felt like she'd made a wrong decision leaving some behind, and that kind of slowed her down. She kept staring at the ground all time, shameful to turn and face Mespho, the village about to be destroyed and wiped out of the map, for even just a second.

'It's midnight.' Said Takumi. Almost immediately after he'd said that, the loud turbine noise of Chaosdramon appeared again. Within a minute the entire sky had already been dyed red.

'_Help me!_' Yuzuki imagined the digimon remained screaming.

The fire rose higher in the sky.

'_Help me!_' she kept hearing that pleading, lively last words of Aruraumon; it never gave her a chance to rest.

Noises of explosions started to fill the silent night.

'_Help me!__'_

_Get out of my head! _Somehow, she found it useless screaming to herself inside. It was as if her brain was protesting against her will; torturing the body it commanded. She closed her eyes; her body not able to stand up straight; both her hands on either side of her head, covering the ears as if that could stop the imaginary screams.

At this point, the others had already found out that the black-haired girl was not right. They said things to her, but she wouldn't listen; couldn't listen any. She was seriously considering that she might be starting to get some mental illness. For a moment she had wished that she could be as detached and cold-blooded as Piedmon, at least that way she could have been less painful fighting the memories of those who had died, and those who were about to die.

That was why when she finally heard the others talking, she said. 'We have to go back.

'What?' someone, probably Pteramon or Ryosuke, said. 'But you're the one who said we had to leave.'

'I was, and I was wrong.' Yuzuki managed to get up to her feet. 'I can't live with it anymore.' It seemed to her that even that option was a selfish one, but she had to go. Any moment later another group of dead would reside in her mind, and she simply couldn't let that happen.

'But even if we go back we still can't take Chaosdramon down.' suggested someone. This time she could be sure that the voice belonged to Eiji.

'Yuzuki had a plan.' That was Kaoru talking. 'Should we take the risk?'

Nobody could answer that, however. Not before Yuzuki started running at the direction at which Mespho lay. That left them no choice but to follow, unless they all wanted her dead, which was certainly not the case. Along with them ran BlackWarGreymon, stating that he had always wanted to stay behind to protect the village instead of running away.

_I should really be glad that I wasn__'__t chosen as the leader._ Thought Yuzuki. _Or we might have died long ago._

* * *

They got back, not caring if it had already been too late. All they saw was fire just like the time they did in Hepia. There weren't even screams, but there were certainly shapes of digimon running and dodging. Maybe the Agumon had already scared to the degree where they could no longer express fear in terms of physiological activities.

In the shadow of the smoke there stood Chaosdramon. Its armor redder in the flame, and its artillery cannons glowing blue all the time. Every once in a while, rings of light blue energy crashed the buildings and anything next to them, leaving the villagers no chance to hide.

'Meteor flame!'

'Nitro stinger!'

'Cold flame!'

'Flower cannon!'

'Missile storm!'

'Soul predator!'

None of the destined digimon could digivolve again yet, but there they stood, and there they would fight. Despite having known that all their attacks would be useless against the machine dragon, they still did whatever they could. Even just switching the rampaging digimon's attention would be enough for them right now. All they needed was to attack constantly until the digimon revealed its only weakness, the only part of it where it was not covered in that crazily defensive armor –its mouth cavity.

That would be the best situation. However, reality was always cruel. The attacks did catch Chaosdramon's attention, which was both good and bad at the same time. A blast of cannon from its arm and already Lillymon, one of the slower digimon, was hit and sent dashing to the burning ground. The others kept striking, though, knowing that they could not be distracted for even the slightest moment.

Another blast from the cannons came, this time flying at SaviorHuckmon. BlackWarGreymon blocked the attack, however, with his two wrist armor pieces shielding his torso. Even by doing so he had to be sent back flying a couple of meters. Petermon, on the other hand, had gotten on Pteramon, who was jetting at Chaosdramon, trying to get a good view for Petermon to strike from above. In spite of knowing that attacking through the cannons was nearly impossible and dangerous, he had no other choices left. Chaosdramon would hardly open its mouth.

The left arm of Chaosdramon swung to its left, slamming both Pteramon and Petermon off balance. Taking the chance, BlueMeramon fired his icy flames, hoping to at least damage the robotic dragon with low temperature. And he seemed to be succeeding. Chucks of ice were building themselves up around the torso of Chaosdramon, which, to a certain degree, restrained his movements. Not wasting the chance, both CannonBeemon, SaviroHuckmon and Metalphantomon attacked at once, either shooting bemas of high temperature of throwing objects at the dragon.

But things were, of course, not that easy. Chaosdramon defrosted itself with just one simple mechanism –charging its cannons. The heat produced was enough that the thick ice layer just disappeared –probably turned into water vapour directly before it could even stay in the form of water. Once freed, Chaosdramon aimed at the digi-destined and fired again. The blast either hit the ground or the digimon, both causing strong waves that sent the kids, as well as the still standing digimon, falling to the earth.

Petermon turned out to be still all right; at least he could still fight. He gripped his knife tightly and leaped forward as Chaosdramon fired at CannonBeemon, who barely dodged the attack by almost letting himself fall to the earth. Not noticing the incoming champion, Chaosdramon was stabbed in the back by Petermon, whose knife simply broke into pieces before it could scratch the surface of Chaosdramon's armor.

'Just can't that thing open its mouth!' exclaimed Yuzuki, getting impatient. Her partner was one of the few who were still able to fight. Others, like Lillymon, were not capable of fighting anymore.

SaviorHuckmon struck once he got back to his feet, jumping into midair with both his blades ready to slash the dragon. He'd experienced the pain of having a part of his body broke, though it hadn't hurt much. And to be honest he really didn't want that felling again. But that was nothing compared to the digimon that were about to lose their lives, the digimon that had lost their lives.

'Trident saber!' with a roar, he slashed at the head of the dragon, hoping that hitting its eyes would at least make that thing have some more vigorous reaction and have some responses. Surprisingly, that actually worked for a while. Chaosdramon waved its hands aimlessly at SaviorHuckmon, who believed that the strategy had worked and continued slashing before he was caught by the right grip of Chaosdramon. Energy began to charge in the arm cannon of the dragon immediately.

Trying to split its attention, BlueMeramon fired at the ground, hoping to at least turn the dragon's head at him by freezing its feet. Chaosdramon did reply with its feet, by kicking the ultimate out of its way. BlueMeramon rolled several meters until he hit a building, falling unconscious.

SaviorHuckmon could feel the energy building up inside the cannon on Chaosdramon's right arm. A hit at him directly and the entire world he knew would come to an end. He might not even have a chance to get back into a digi-egg. That thought somehow caused him to struggle, to retaliate, but nothing could work. It was over.

So terrified was he, that he didn't realize that BlackWarGreymon, who he thought had fallen, had climbed onto the head of Chaosdramon. His claws slashing the crimson dragon, causing it to shake in retaliation; its arms shaking frantically and lost grip of SavioruHuckmon. BlackWarGreymon held on to the neck of Chaosdramon tight while Chaosdramon turned unexpectedly and swung its tail at the incoming Petermon, causing both of them to fall.

Determined, BlackWarGreymon once again jumped to the head of Chaosdramon and this time he held his claws at the jaws of the dragon, endeavoring to open its mouth. It almost ripped every single of his claws apart in doing so, but he still manage to open the jaws of Chaosdramon, if just slightly.

'Now!' he yelled.

SaviorHuckmon dashed up, but he didn't attack. Instead, he put his arms wide apart as he reached the mouth cavity of Chaosdramon and extended his arms to support, opening the mouth of Chaosdramon wide enough for anyone to attack. He gave BlackWarGreymon a glance, too tired to talk. Immediately the mega knew what he meant.

'Terra destroyer!' screamed BlackWarGreymon as he tossed the small, still developing purple energy sphere into the inside of Chaosdramon, where they had suspected that was the weakest part of the machine. The sphere didn't blow up the digimon immediately, and Chasodramon was still able to burn down a couple more buildings before he imploded. The impact was so great that SaviorHuckmon and BlackWarGreymon were still thrown aside even though they had already gotten off Chaosdramon.

It was over. The theoretically unstoppable Chaosdramon had been blown into pieces, leaving only a fire and some broken mechanical parts at the land it once stood. Relief flooded across the digi-destined as they watched the robotic digimon's remains.

It had never been so great to look at someone's dead body, even if that was a machine's.

'We won.' Uttered BlackWarGreymon. 'We actually beat that thing.'

'And we're still alive.' Added Pteramon, who'd just gotten out of a mountain of rubbles.

'Never do that again.' said Eiji to Yuzuki, a friendly warning. 'I seriously thought you had gone crazy for a moment.'

'So did I.' Replied Yuzuki. 'But at least we saved some.' She said, looking across Mespho, which had been wracked into nearly nothing. The residing Agumon were still there though decreased in number.

Just when they thought they could finally have some rest, trouble had found its way to the destined again. On top of the sky there appeared a vortex, the kind of dimensional vortex that had brought the destined to the digital world. This time, however, the vortex glowed with a light blue ray, and had something that looked like lightning crawling over it.

'What again?' uttered Ryosuke. As if answering his question, a winged shape flew down. Too fast and dim was he that only a blur could be seen. He landed on the remains of Chaosdramon, and stood there looking downward. Without a pause, he launched his arm straight and grabbed something –something that resembled a sort of circuit board, out of the machinery parts of the exploded dragon.

'Cyberdramon, ultimate, vaccine type.'

'This thing's not working again!' complained Ryosuke. The digimon that was there looked nothing close to the one described by the digivice. The digimon was, first of all, blue in color instead of black. It had four wings, with holes on them that made them look like rotten leaves, which had color that closely resembled the color of clotted blood. The figure was slim instead of the muscular being shown by the digivice. The head of the digimon was like a giant capsule –several horns were pointing backward at the end of the head while a giant translucent purple visor-like thing was covering its front. Inside the visor were some small purple dots. The limbs of the digimon had that purple parts as well.

Without a warning, the digimon, as identified as Cyberdramon for whatever reason, had his chest blasted open, and put the circuit board inside his open chest. BlackWarGreymon went to strike despite not knowing anything about the digimon. The visor part of Cyberdramon's face sparkled with random patterns of purple dots. Instantly out of nowhere, a spear appeared in both hands of Cyberdramon, and he swiftly turned to face BlackWarGreymon with his spear countering the claws of BlackWarGreymon. The next moment BlackWarGreymon knew Cyberdramon was already behind him, and kicked him with a foot.

SaviorHuckmon, despite not having learned much of the Cyberdramon, deduced that he was an enemy, at least at the moment, and rushed to help BlackWarGreymon. Both his blades at ready, he expected Cyberdramon to be not able to react in time, but the alien-looking digimon simply used the rod of his spear to hold both blades of SaviorHuckmon, and threw him aside as the spear extended itself. BlackWarGreymon came rushing at his back, believing that he could have the advantage.

That was when he got stabbed right in the abdomen. Cyberdramon didn't even look back; his lance had dug its way into the mega's torso, causing him to stay in motion. Cyberdramon didn't waste any second, though. Instantly he withdrew his spear, and flew upward faster than anyone had expected him to be. In front of him a gate opened, and in he flew, disappearing right after a second when the gate concealed itself.

Nobody, however, had any time to ask for what had happened out of astonishment. All the attentions of the digi-destined turned to BlackWarGreymon, who was laying on the ground, probably dying. It was only too fortunate that the mega didn't suffer a fatal strike, and could, with luck, be healed.

* * *

Cyberdramon returned to the base, with the circuit board he had obtained. He examined the board, confirming that it was intact and usable.

Piedmon walked to the strange-looking digimon, clapping in sarcasm as he said. 'That was, indeed, a great result of your creation.' He said that while actually thinking that what he had been promised ought to be much better. At least that should have gotten the digi-destined out of his way, not to be destroyed by the kids.

'The test for the prototype is complete.' Said Cyberdramon, coldly. He placed the circuit board on top of some kind of giant devices, and started typing things at the keyboard. 'The results are satisfying, even with its design amended.'

'What do you mean?' demanded Piedmon, impatient. The results, from his point of view, were far from satisfying.

'The original design of Chaosdramon was to use a virus as its mean means of attacking.' Said the scientist, not bothering to give his partner a look. 'The formula, however, had been stolen, and had remained lost.'

'The humans, they never really now how to store things.' Murmured Piedmon. 'I should just have stopped them when they decided to forever hid that stuff.'

Cyberdramon said nothing, staring at the monitor. His primary duty was now completed, but he, as a scientist, had more to investigate –the Spirits, for instance. He received them the first time he met Piedmon, who claimed to have the relics come into his possession by accident. Though he could obviously tell that Piedmon had been lying, he never really cared at all. Looking at the side of his working place, he counted the remaining bodies to be used. BurningGreymon, a specific specimen, had proved itself to be a success. Though a couple of those bodies had been wasted in the testing, the Scientist could now be confident that the technology of using the dead could now be fully applied on Millenniummon. And he had done that, by concentrating all the power of the legendary digimon into one Chaosdramon.

'The dimensional power of Mellinniummon had been grossed.' He claimed. 'Now it left only its fire power to be used.'

_And by then, you will be used up, too._ Thought Piedmon.

* * *

**So yeah, that's what I''ve been planning to play with the whole Millenniummon thing. It's kind a like cloning it, in an upgraded fashion. And if any of you noticed towards the end of this chapter, yes, Pierson is ridiculously old, and I might do a prequel on that, if I still have the mood by the time I finished book 2. I have other work to do, mainly starting with the world 'school'. I''ll be busy. And by the way, that Cyberdramon is the 2010 version, cause that look so much cooler and, well, without an official level, I can make him howevr strong as I like. I basically wanted to make him a 'Shockwave' like character.**

**And one more thing that had kind of gotten to me is that, I haven't felt like Yuzuki was the main character until chapter 22, and she might seem minor again in the near future. The reason I picked her as the protagonist in the first place was that: she was the most ordinary one out of the team, and she was around 13, which, from my personal observation(I might be wrong) is the period when the most notable psychological change happens. I also pi did a female protagonist because, well, I had been reading stuffs with female protagonists at that time, and I have to declare that I'm not a girl, so I might got her character wrong. But well, not much character development can be done if your character is already special. (About this, it''ll be more obvious in the sequel.)**

**And if any of you have the patience to read through all this, please remember to leave a review.**


	26. 25 Neither living nor dead

25 ~Neither living nor dead~

The digi-destiend had left Mespho for three days now. BlackWarGreymon, despite having been seriously stabbed, had recovered enough that at least he was not dead and could move around freely. He had chosen to stay behind; for fear that anything like Chaosdramon should ever came again.

As for the digi-destined, they proceed heading north, where they believed that the base of Piedmon was located.

* * *

'That's pretty obvious, wasn't it?' said Takumi, seemingly irritated. He didn't behave in that way most of the time but he had gotten tired of the repeating questions of the others asking about Chaosdramon. 'Cyberdramon obviously has something to do with Chaosdramon, otherwise he couldn't have been there. And since he arrived with the portal thing, it's quite certain that he must have some relation with Piedmon.'

'Speaking of Piedmon,' uttered Amy. 'We haven't seen any of those hybrids lately.'

'That's a good thing.' Replied MetalPhantomon. Ever after having learned that the hybrids were made of dead human, the group had felt quite sick battling them. Surely the psychological assault of Piedmon by using his zombies had proven itself to be efficient. The idea of fighting, and killing human beings, even the dead ones, kind of hindered the kids from concentrating while battling.

'How many of those are left?' asked Yuzuki. All she could do now was to find something to get her mind distracted from the images of the cruel "executions" of BurningGreymon, Piedmon's apparent personal assassin.

'Well, excluding BurningGreymon, we've ourselves only three left.' Answered Takumi immediately. He didn't even need to count in doing so. Sometimes Yuzuki just wondered if he had "downloaded" a book in his own mind. 'We have, the Spirit of Water: Ranamon and Calmaramon;

'The Spirit of Ice: Kumamon and Korikakumon;

'And last but not least, the Spirit of Darkness: Loweemon and JagerLoweemon.'

'So, we're gonna duel with four more of them?' uttered Ryosuke.

'Not really, if we can get Piedmon first.' Answered Takumi. 'Though that is not very likely to happen.'

Yuzuki, having spent all her attention on the hybrids, decided that she need to have some other topics to maintain being distracted. She looked at FanBeemon, who'd been abnormally silent for quite some time ever since they'd arrived the digital world. She'd noticed that long before, but just hadn't considered that as a major issue. Now that she needed distractions, she asked the rookie. 'Why are you looking so, weird? It's like you've been thinking on something for a long time and still haven't come up with a solution.' She asked the question softly, so with all hopes no one could hear that.

'Huh?' murmured the rookie, as if he'd just woken up from a dream. 'Nothing really. You know, my partnership with Kaoru is based entirely on Reapermon. Now that Reapermon is dead, I…'

'You don't really have to worry about that.' Interrupted Amy. Obviously conversation had been overheard by the older girl. 'First of all, he's still sticking around you. And if he dose want to leave you behind, I can still use his contract to get you some nicer treatment.' She then remembered her long forgotten pact with Kaoru. Somehow, things were always getting in their way and she hadn't really have time to think about issues other than battling enemies.

Therefore she went to the boy, wrapped her right arm around his shoulder as she leaned forward –a manner she knew he hated. Kaoru simply shrugged in response, knowing that there was no way to get rid of the older girl.

'I've done my part in our little promise. How about you?' whispered Amy as she leaned closer tot Kaoru's ear, almost causing him to fall off balance.

Not to her surprise, he didn't respond.

'You haven't thought about it, have you?' she asked, knowing the immediate answer to her question.

'It's not easy to change the unchangeable.' Replied Kaoru. 'And I'm not even sure if we can ever get back.'

'That's not an answer.' Said Amy. 'Don't even try to fool me.'

'No, I haven't thought of that.' Confessed Kaoru.

'I knew it.' uttered Amy as she backed off, giving Kaoru some room to breath. 'Then will you consider my suggestion?'

'You really want to talk about that now?'

'Absolutely.'

Just say it already.'

'Well.' She paused for a while, as if to pronounce something professional. After she made sure that the boy was listening, which she never really needed to worry about, she cleared her throat, and said. 'Maybe you can consider living with me sometimes.'

'So you can have me do all your work?' the reply was expectable, yet not quite wanted by the girl. 'I'm lonely sometimes.' She said. Most of the time, she was either hiding in her house or wandering in other districts –she had too many enemies in her own district. Although she could simply make others forget about her now, she still hated to do things with that much of an effort. Yes, she was ready to do that if she wanted.

'I have nowhere to go, anyway.' Said Kaoru finally. She considered that as a shy manner of "yes"

* * *

'We should be at the lower bank in a few more days.' Said Petermon. Sometimes, the digi-destined really doubted if he did in fact not travel to the north too frequently. They had been walking along the river for almost a week, and had gone through the part of nothingness. Now they had reached a part with trees –not too dense as those in the forests, nor too scarce as those of the rocky region they'd just gone through. It was in fact very natural there –no villages, no artificial buildings, no sign of digimon battle; just the trees and the grassy land which was moistened by the river water.

'Peter,' said Eiji. He was really not accustomed to calling a digimon by a human name, even if he had been demanded to a long time ago. 'Do you think we have actually been talking the wrong route all the time?' the question had occurred to him ever since the team had started to walk that way. The only reason he hadn't said that out was that that was the only clue they had. And he didn't want to bring any hopes down. But with the all the deaths lately, he wasn't sure if they could risk getting at the wrong way.

'I don't suppose that's true.' Replied the human-like digimon. 'BurningGreymon flew this way, and if he didn't go back to his master then where would he have gone?'

'I hope that's true.' Muttered Eiji.

* * *

'It's kind of boring to just wait.' Mumbled Piedmon as he wandering about in his own "office" as he would like to call it. Cyberdramon had been at work lately for their plan, but even if he weren't at work things would still be the same to the mega. Everything seemed too normal and easy for him. That's basically how he had come to all his plans so long ago, just to entertain himself.

But things had become boring lately again. His several attempts to play with the digi-destined were over, and had been successful. He had, as he believed, mentally harmed, if not broken, the digi-destined. He was bored.

_Surely he won__'__t mid if __I__ use one of them._He pushed a button while looking the other way, pretending to have accidentally pushed a button despite not really having to.

The one he'd chosen was a particularly important one, for he was labeled as highly dangerous, just as BurningGreymon was. They were together considered as one of the greatest creations Cyberdramon had produced out of the ten Spirits._ BurningGreymon had nothing to do by now, and Cyberdramon wanted to further improve that one._ Thought Piedmon. _Though __I__ think they__'__re enough, __just__ let him do whatever he wants for now, as long as __I__ have this particularly nasty one to play with._ He watched as the digimon emerged from a cylindrical tube. There were dim glows of red light out of the mist as the digimon walked out of the tube with a pace that made it seem like it had a tangled leg. The glow came from the armor of the digimon. In the mist, it almost looked like as if there were giant red eyes staring and scanning the environment.

* * *

'Maybe we can make it faster.' Suggested Ryosuke. 'Can we just make a boat or something like that?'

'You, as well as many others, have suggested that for not less than a thousand times.' Replied Petermon. 'I still can't see the other side of the river. It'll be too risky to travel via the water now.'

'Then maybe we can just walk faster.' Said Lillymon. 'Maybe we can then…' before she could finish, a wave of energy shocked her and sent her, as well as Ryosuke and Takumi, who'd been standing beside her, crashing to the ground away from the river. They could really be grateful now that the ground was at least covered with grasses, which cushioned the impact.

'Why dose it happens every time when I think we're out of problems?' grumbled Ryosuke as he got up, turning around to look for their attacker, but couldn't find any.

'Be on guard!' warned SaviorHuckmon. The digi-destined stood back-to-back, forming a circular formation with the humans save inside.

Their attacker turned out to be not really intending to hide itself. In the form of a mist of black smoke, the attacker drifted round the digi-destined, circling the digimon while not getting close to them all at once. After about two turns, the black mist dashed to one of the digimon –CannonBeemon and, before he could react, jetted upward as if humiliating the destined.

'I've had enough of this!' groaned Pteramon as he, once again, got himself ready to fire a missile. Before he could do that, however, Lillymon took his position.

'I don't suggest using solid weapons.' Said the ultimate before she held her arms at the mist and fired a couple of energy petals. The mist didn't get hit –the petals just went straight through the mist, as they should. However, the mist did stop after being attack, taking a solid form in front of the destined. Just before the mist was turned into a digimon's shape, the gaseous being turned into a stream of data and formed himself into an eagle's shape before he landed. Then he turned into a humanoid digion, with his armor entirely being black. The digimon had golden hair; the two hands of his were in the shape of some kind of beast's skull, with a metallic red blade in the middle of the mouth of the skulls like tongues being spilled out; the most distinguishable feature of the digimon was his excess abundance of eyeballs –he had two real eyes on his head; one on his chest; one on either side of his shoulders; one on each knee and one on each shoe. It could only be said that whoever created this digimon had an abnormal love for eyeballs.

'What is it this time?' asked Ryoskue. His digivice showed him only the original information of AncientSphinxmon, the original warrior of Darkness, but nothing about their current foe. 'Is that the Loweemon you've just told us?'

'No.' answered Takumi, almost immediately. 'Loweemon doesn't look like that –according to the books.'

'Then maybe you have a not quite accurate book.' Uttered Amy.

'How can several books make the same mistake?' Takumi mumbled. He had always been the one to provide information since the arrival to the digital world. And now, seeing something he had no clue really made him feel a bit –very –powerless.

'You can talk about your academic projects later.' Said Pteramon. 'That digimon is about to attack.'

The conversation made the destined forgot that their time was running out; their foe had already made a move, dashing at the digi-destiend with both his blades positioned in front of his chest in a cross shape. SaviorHuckmon, being the closet one to the digimon, was the first one to strike. 'Trident saber!' the two swordsmen went face-to-face; their blades colliding from time to time with high-pitched metal screeches; sometimes, even sparks could be seen as the two blades crushed each other.

The other digimon, if course, didn't just stand by and watch. Pteramon fired a couple of missiles, but all of them got chopped up in half before they could hit the digimon. More amazingly, the hybrid was doing that at the same time as he blocked two attempts to strike from SaviorHuckmon.

'Cold flame!'

'Nitro stinger!'

The hybrid couldn't escape this time; first it was the icy blue flame that froze him into a statue, then the laser beam from CannonBeemon struck the frozen hybrid, causing yet another explosion just right after the sliced missiles had exploded themselves. Rains of broken metal fragments dropped directly at the hybrid. In theory, the hybrid, whose level should just be the same as that of a champion, could not survive that. Nevertheless, the hybrids had proven themselves to be a lot more capable in terms of practical combat overtime.

'Lunar plasma.' The stone-cold voice was a prove to that. In the thick white smoke out rushed the hybrid, both blades at ready. He leaped into midair and caught CannonBeemon, who'd been on top of the smoke hovering to ensure that the hybrid could not escape his next strike, by surprise and, slashed.

Without even the time to scream, CannonBeemon was sent directly jetting towards the ground. The impact caused the ultimate to degenerate back into his rookie form. Worried, Kaoru rushed to his partaner, hoping to get him out in time. It was, however, too late. With a steady pace, the hybrid had, quite impossibly, walked at a speed faster than that of any ordinary person. It was as if the hybrid's movement had been edited by some video software, he walked like he were just floating.

By the time Kaoru and FanBeemon could look at their surroundings, the hybrid had reached him; swords rose, ready to strike. A red mist was produced as the swords moved, as if those were vapourized blood, dripping from the red wine-colored blades. Probably for the first time, Kaoru showed signs of fear on his face, leaning back at the tree behind them. FanBeemon, on the other hand, was too wounded to feel anything. The others were too far away and too busy occupied by the smoke caused by the explosions. Nothing could save that now.

The hybrid dropped his hands; the blade on his right arm reached the top of the blonde boy's head just when he suddenly stopped. He didn't look like he was being attacked, nor did he look like he was being manipulated somehow. It just seemed that the hybrid was doing that out of his own will –if he had any. Kaoru watched in both fear and shock. The hybrid was somehow sparing them –the only thing they knew could never be done by them. He didn't say anything; for fear that anything should change the hybrid's mind of not killing him and his partner.

* * *

'Kaoru, are you all right?' yelled Eiji right after the smoke was dispensed. The group turned to where CannonBeemon was supposed to be, and saw something they hadn't quite expected. In front of them were two frozen figures –one being Kaoru, leaning by the tree while looking up; the other being the hybrid, with his swords lowered below his waist. The hybrid seemed to have noticed the digi-destined's arrival, and transformed into his eagle-like form, flying away instantly.

'How are you? Is anything all right?' asked a couple of the team again as they approached the blonde boy.

'What happened? Answer me!' said Eiji, waving his hand in front of Kaoru's eyes to see if he could respond to irritation normally. Kaoru, who seemed to have not noticed the team before, blinked and took a deep breath. He slowly turned to his team as if there's something wrong with them. And then, slowly, he spoke.

'We cannot battle her.'

'What do you mean?' asked Takumi. 'And why did you say "her"?'

'I can't fight her.' He simply repeated, as if he hadn't listened to anyone.

'Can't you say something that makes sense?' asked Ryosuke.

Kaoru didn't respond; his face was easily readable. His expression told only one thing –that he was probably in shock, with his eyes open wide and his frequent short breaths. No one could really tell what had happened in the few minutes when they hadn't been able to see him. FanBeemon, who was by his side, was unconscious, which only meant that he could tell nothing.

'Whatever happened back there, I think it's best we find somewhere to rest first.' Said Petermon. Though it was still early –at least the sun was still high up in the sky, the team could hardly take another attack for now. And they had just reached a place that could provide comfortable –if not too seeable, rests.

* * *

_The hybrid held his arm just right before he could take Kaoru__'__s life._

_None of them spoke a word. It was as if the atmosphere had frozen. The hybrid seemed almost dead; his arms weren__'__t moving at all__; his legs were still, his eyes staring straight at those of Kaoru._

_Then,__ suddenly, what Kaoru could see was no longer the menacing hybrid. At least for a second, the entire digimon flashed. Part of him became data streams while the other parts remained intact. First, the data part started to change color, as if the digimon was trying to do his transforming trick but couldn__'__t. But then Kaoru noticed the odds. The remaining parts of the digimon began to change as well. Though no for long, the blonde boy could swear that he could see an image, of a human. _

_The hybrid became himself again, and slowly he lowered his blades, taking a few steps back. He then started to flicker again. __Judging__ from his random jerking movement, those flickers were against his will. This time, it took a longer while for the image of the human to come out, but once it was there it __remained__ for a long time, and it terrified Kaoru._

_That was a woman. But that the blonde__ boy'__s previous presume of the hybrid__'__s gender was not what shocked him. The woman was tall, about a head taller than the boy. She had long blonde hair, just like the hybrid did. Her eyes were blue, and not just any kind of blue, but the blue of the color of a kind of chemical that Kaoru couldn__'__t quite remember its name. The iris of the woman__'__s eyes sparkled even in the dim smoke. _

_Not quite believing what he was seeing, Kaoru did __nonsense__ movement anyone could think of under that circumstance __–__he quickly took his necklace out from under his shirt, and flipped the pendent open. From that moment on he could be sure. That was definitely her, and she was looking just like she__'__d been five years ago._

'_Mom?__'__ Kaoru didn__'__t even know that he mumbled that. All he could remember was that his parent__s had been killed, by Reapermon, five years ago.__ The woman in front of him made no sense at all. But then he remembered, that the bodies of that incident had not been discovered. As for why, he was the only one to know __–__he__'__d seen them disappear in front of him. That was why most of the public wouldn__'__t believe in him about people being murdered in __the__ first place. Back then he had always __thought__ that the bodies faded because they had been killed by a digimon, in a __"__digital__"__ manner. But now he had to reconsider the possibilities. Could the bodies be somehow transferred to the digital world even back then, five years ago? And, could someone, who was obviously Piedmon, be able to keep those from rotting after all those years? _

_Tears started to find their way out of the blonde boy__'__s eyelids as he once again mumbled. __'__Mom.__'_

_As he did so, the woman replied a single word._

* * *

'What's wrong with you?' asked Yuzuki as she pulled Kaoru to walk by his sleeve. The boy had not spoken another word since the hybrid had departed, and he was, apparently, refusing to fight with the hybrid in the near future. The group found a place with a higher density of trees, which was still very few in number, so that they could rest with a higher chance of being unseen.

Kaoru sit with his back against a tree as he started to speak again. 'I…I think…' just when he was about to talk to the subject, something in his mind stopped him. He didn't know if he should say it out, but he just didn't so it. 'I think…' he tried again, but still couldn't get himself to speak properly.

'He thinks,' said Amy, who'd obviously read Kaoru's mind. 'That he just saw his dead mother.' She finished without much facial expression. The others seemed shocked, but that was expected. 'He thinks that hybrid is his mother.' She reinforced the statement.

'Is that why you said you couldn't fight her?' asked Eiji, but there was no response.

'I hardly think that matters now.' Said Petermon. 'That digimon was trying to kill us, and will continue to do that unless stop her.'

'You don't get the point!' the first complete sentence Kaoru said was a scream. 'She recognized me; she was there; she spoke my name. That's the reason I'm still here; that's why she didn't kill me!'

'You have to calm down.' said Yuzuki. 'The hybrids are made of…you know what, which means…' she, too, found it hard to continue to speak the word.

'She's alive!' yelled Kaoru, looking as crazy as he'd ever been.

'Well then, we need evidence.' Said Amy, cold and analytical. 'Did you see anything, FanBeemon?'

'Well, I passed out.' replied the rookie. 'I'm sorry, but I can't help you.'

* * *

'I see you have made an error with the Spirits.' Said Piedmon to Cyberdramon, who was too busy at his work to even show that he noticed his presence.

'And what might that be?' he simply asked.

'It's out of control.' Said Piedmon. 'You can see the recording and the readings yourself. Somehow the specimen is not following my command.'

That seemed to have arisen a bit of an interest in Cyberdramon's cold scientific mind. He turned around to a big screen and pressed a few buttons on the keyboard. After seeing what the hybrid had done, he was satisfied.

'Well, what do you think? Should you repair Duskmon?'

'Leave it.' said Cyberdramon. 'It is not losing control, but gaining it. This is a good error.'

'What?'

'The subject's condition is rare, and cannot be created artificially. I should see what kind of data it can bring me.'

'And if it turns to their side, don't you regret.' Said Piedmon grimly.

* * *

'She's there!' said MetalPhantomon, pointing at the sky where a mist of black smoke had just flown past.

'Well then what are we waiting for?' said Pteramon X. 'She's probably gonna kill us again.'

'We'll fight.' Said Eiji, in a soft, almost unwilling tone. He turned to Kaoru. 'I'm sorry, but I cannot risk our, or others' lives because of something only you know.'

'No, you're not going to fight her!'

'Calm down.' said Eiji, who knew that couldn't do much. 'I…'

'Let me handle this.' Interrupted Amy before he could even start his sentence. 'Get ready, BlueMeramon.' She said in a cold tone as she drew a card out of her deck.

'Wait, what are you doing?' Eiji couldn't help but say that. He knew he was representing most of the team as well by the astonishing statement. 'Don't tell me you're trying to…'

'He cannot go with us.' Replied Amy. 'You have two choices, stay here nicely or I force you to.'

'I can't let you go.' Said Kaoru as he drew a card out of his deck as well. FanBeemon looked nervous, knowing that he was to be involved in a fight with his teammate. Though most of the time he wouldn't mind battling his own team if that was to help Kaoru, but this time he really thought that his partner had gone a bit too far.

'Don't make me do this.' whispered Amy. Her hands were already at move as she spoke, knowing that the final warning would be ignored eventually. Her prediction was, of course, correct. Kaoru didn't say anything as he slid the card by his digivice. Amy did the same at the same time.

BlueMeramon digivolved into SkullMeramon while FanBeemon digivolved into CannonBeemon.

'You're not really doing this, are you?' uttered Yuzuki. Surely she hadn't known the other girl too well of what she was capable of doing. She just hoped that neither one of them should get hurt because of the misunderstanding. Her question was responded by action. SkullMeramon didn't have his flames glowing too intense; he took one of the chains on his torso as he swung his muscular arm with it, causing low-pitched metal noise every time it hit the ground. And then, as expected, he tossed the chain at Kaoru, who dodged to his left, barely escaping.

'Nitro stinger!' CannonBeemon didn't really know that he had fired a laser beam. He just couldn't help but do that when he saw his partner in danger, like a reflexive defense. SkullMeramon dodged the attack, and spit a fireball at the ultimate, who was too busy occupied by his though that he couldn't see it coming. With a yell of pain, CannonBeemon fell.

SkullMeramon returned his focus on the blonde boy as he once again swung his chain at him. Kaoru couldn't escape this time, and within seconds he was tied onto a tree nearby; his hands and torso being restricted from moving as he kicked with both of his legs frantically and yelled like a complete psycho for getting free.

'You have to stay here.' Said Amy, giving him a sharp gaze. 'We'll pick you up when the thing's settled.'

'Let me go!' it really didn't matter if Kaoru heard what Amy had said; he just kept on shouting and screaming. CannonBeemon had regained his strength and was hovering midair, and Kaoru noticed that, and yelled for CannoBeemon to continue the strike.

'Kaoru, I…' the ultimate didn't know what to say. Half of him wanted to help his partner no matter the circumstances; another half of him wanted to convince his partner that he'd done enough. He stopped, hovering midair without doing anything as the rest of the group left.

'Are you on my side or not?'

'That's enough!' shouted Amy upon hearing that. 'I must say that I'm very disappointed in you.' She said as she gave on last glance at the boy before the group's departure. Kaoru kept yelling, but no one would give him any responses.

* * *

'Let's finish this quick.' Mumbled Yuzuki as they saw Duskmon. The hybrid stood there, seemingly awaiting the digi-destined. Once she'd seen them, she raised her blades and was ready to fight again. Nobody at this point would believe any word spoken by Kaoru, for the enemy in front of them seemed completely offensive, with her eyes narrowed and her hesitate-less dash at the group.

'Flower cannon!' Lillymon shot multiple energy beams at Duskmon, who just shifted to her left while dashing as if she had just disappeared and reappeared on the track.

'Meteor flame!'

'Missile storm!' the two of them attacked as Duskmon got closer. She didn't evade any attack this time, and she wasn't letting the attacks to delay her, either. A few seconds later and she had already reached the kids. Petermon drew his knife and went forward, blocking one of Duskmon's blades as she was about to slice at Yuzuki. SaviorHuckmon got the other. Even with the two digimon's strength, the hybrid was still having the upper hand and could easily suppress the two, forcing them to fall to their knees with her two bloody-colored blades close to their throats, only blocked by inches with the two digimon's swords.

The others, of course, didn't waste any chance to strike. SkullMeramon threw his chains, which were on fire, at the hybrid, who kicked the two digimon she was suppressing aside with no effort and swiftly dashed to the side of the mega, knocking him in the head with the back of her blades. Petermon, being the one that had been kicked to a shorted distance, charged at Duskmon, hoping to stab her at the back. As if the many eyes on her body could really see the surroundings, Duskmon immediately launched her unused arm backwards and knocked Petermon at SkullMeramon's direction as she turned. The two digimon crashed, and Duskmon seized the chance, slashing them all at once.

'Don't you have any plans?' asked MetalPhantomon impatiently to his partner, who simply shook his head. MetalPhantomon charge into battle as well, raising his laser sickle as he floated at a high speed. Duskmon was as free as a jobless man at the moment, and easily she used her head-like hands to punch at the ultimate, who had thought that he had been fast enough to strike. His laser sickle fell on the ground as he took the unexpected punch. A few missiles from Duskmon's left were spotted, and were each sliced in half just like they had been treated before. Petermon took the chance and went sneakily in the smoke. Before he could act, however, a punch in his stomach caused him to fall to the ground, curled into a ball out of sheer pain.

* * *

Kaoru kept on shouting for a few minutes, until he got too hopeless and lowered his volume. The screams slowly turned into utters, and utters slowly turned into whispers, filled with despair and, just a little, sound of someone crying.

He had given up yelling, seeing that the others had already gone too far to hear him, not to mention that his throat burned like he'd just caught some fatal disease. He looked at the ground, not even bothering to struggle for his freedom. Slowly he recalled the whole thing, and reconsidered if he was being too emotional. Still, he believed in himself, that Duskmon, or whatever the name of that digimon was, was his mom.

'_Kaoru._'

That's the only word she'd said, and that's a prove enough for the blonde boy to determine the digimon's true identity. Although he knew what that would mean, he knew it too well. His mother had died, been killed a long time ago, and the hybrids were made of dead bodies. The one he'd seen could not really be her, but rather something like her consciousness, or her soul, in a poetic manner.

But the thought of having to fight, kill, taking her only chance of seeing her son again, that was just too much for him to comprehend. He did nothing wrong, did he? He recalled the entire day again. _I__ didn__'__t do anything wrong; they just couldn__'__t understand, even FanBeemon__…_

_FanBeemon__…_

He turned to see the rookie standing by his side, looking down just like he did.

'I'm sorry.' Said Kaoru, having just realized how much he'd hurt his partner just a few moments ago. Fanbeemon looked at him, with an expression that looked neither shocked nor amazed. He just looked like he'd always been –a bit of a surprised look. 'I couldn't control myself.'

'It's okay.' Replied FanBeemon. 'I'll always be on your side.'

'But I'm not.' Said Kaoru grimly. 'I simply used you as a tool for revenge, then I didn't really take notice of you. But you're still here.'

'Just like why I followed you to Rn.' Replied FanBeemon. 'I couldn't leave you.'

'Stop being so nice!' exclaimed Kaoru. 'I don't deserve that.'

'But I think you do.' Said the rookie. 'You have no family, no friends. I cannot just leave you like that.'

'That's why I said I didn't deserve that. I don't treasure anything you have, and will offer to me.'

'At least you listen now.'

Kaoru stayed silent for a moment, and then he suddenly felt like he'd just realized something that he should have a long time ago. Something he didn't say a long time ago. 'I never realized how much you are to me.' Said him, in a sad tone, yet there were no tears on his face. 'If I still have the right to ask you for one thing as a friend, would you let me do that?'

'Anything.'

'Let me finish this on my own.' He said. 'I can't trouble the others, trouble you, anymore.'

_Are you sure about this?_ That was what FanBeemon wanted to say, but he knew well that his partner must be really serious and must have considered before saying something as dreadful as that. He walked to his partner, slowly raising his hand and smashed the chain. It fell of easily, unexpectedly.

'Let's go.' Said Kaoru as he slid the evolution card along his d-magnus. FanBeemon glowed, and grew larger, into something different –a humanoid shape. As the light faded there stood a humanoid digimon. Its head like that of a wasp; its armor golden, lined with shiny black; in both his hands he gripped two swords –swords that looked like stings, with a glowing blue light surrounding the stings.

'TigerVespamon, mega, virus type.'

'Let's go.' The mega replied.

* * *

Yuzuki looked up. She was lying on her stomach, so were the others. Duskmon had been too tough an opponent to beat, even if all of them attacked at once. Sometimes she seriously wondered if the hybrids were all at mega level.

She was hopeless, or about to be. That was when she saw the familiar shape that walked out of the denser woods to her right.

'Kaoru?' she uttered, though painfully. 'How did you get here? And is that FanBeemon?'

'I told you to stay behind!' groaned Amy.

Neither the blonde boy nor the golden armored digimon replied them. As they walked, Duskmon seemed to notice their presence, and turned to face them. She stood straight and motionless –a complete contrast to how she'd behaved moments ago. Kaoru walked a few more steps and he was as motionless as Duskmon. They looked at each other, eye-to-eye. It was a strange scene to the other digi-destined, and that made them believe that somehow Kaoru had been telling the truth. Duskmon acted as if she recognized Kaoru; the gaze of hers was not a sharp one, but rather a pleasant one, like greeting an old friend. Kaoru stood there, his face unreadable.

Then TigerVespamon took a step forward, then two, then started to run. He held his swords firmly in his hand as he accelerated. The sounds of his footsteps were as clear as that of a drum.

Duskmon did nothing, nothing to defense herself against the incoming mega. The two of them were closer, and closer. And finally, when they were just a few meters apart, the hybrid opened her arms wide; her chest facing forward as the sting of TigerVespamon stabbed her, penetrating her torso.

She fell as TigerVespamon withdrew the sting. Immediately Kaoru ran to her. The others believed him now. Duskmon was no longer there, replaced by a woman's image. Not like the last time, this one was a lot more solid, and there were obvious signs that she recognized the blonde boy as he approached her. She held out her arms as she fell on her knees; Kaoru kneel before her, letting her hands touch his cheek.

'I'm sorry.' Said Kaoru. He was endeavoring to keep the tears inside his eyelids.

'No, you've done a great job.' Said his mother. 'My boy has grown up.'

'No!' he shouted; the tears escaping his eyelids at the same moment.

She didn't say anything, simply smiled. That almost made it harder for Kaoru. She pulled him to her and hugged him. It seemed to them that the few seconds were eternality, and time was frozen between them.

'You have to let go.' She whispered as she gently pushed Kaoru backward. Kaoru didn't have any will to fight; he simply accepted that. Not sooner when he was further apart from the woman, she disappeared, returning into the unrecognizable remains that soon faded as data streams. No body could know that part of the data flew into Kaoru's pocket, where he kept his card deck.

Nothing more was needed. Kaoru didn't even bother containing himself now. He let tears flow down his cheek as he fell to his knees. For the first time in front of the others, he cried. The sound of the sobbing could clearly be heard. Nobody said anything; nobody dared to say anything at that moment.

Suddenly he felt someone –someone who let him rest his head on a shoulder.

'It'll make you feel better.' That's Amy's voice. No longer that ten seconds her shirt had already been soaked with tears. She gently held out her arms and patted the poor boy's back.

The other stood by and watched.

* * *

**Yes, that's basically what happened, should've been easy to foresee. Actually, I hadn't come up with the idea until I wrote chapter 5, which was quite a long time ago. But yeah, two more hybrids, and nine more chapters to go!**

**Just as a side note, I went crazy a few days ago and did a live-action styled sketch on Yuzuki. I'm a better writer (which wasn't too good already) than an artist, so don'y expect much. **

**link: **** yo11110. deviantart art / Live- action- sketch- 531913134**


	27. 26 Across the river

26 ~Across the river~

With the utmost unwillingness, Kaoru had witnessed the death of Duskmon, also known as his semi-resurrected mother, done by none other than TigerVespamon, out of the blonde boy's order.

The fact that the hybrids were in fact, the victims that had disappeared years ago struck the digi-destined. Worse, the knowledge that the human parts of the hybrid might actually still have consciousness, could acknowledge their surroundings, and might have been, forced to see and kill the innocent digimon, really moved the team's belief that they had been fighting with dean men whose memories were dishonored by Piedmon.

* * *

'Com'on, it's time to go.' Said Yuzuki gently as she finished picking water for the team. She softly shook Kaoru, who was sitting next to her, to let him acknowledge that the team was about to depart. Without a word, the blonde boy stood up, very slowly. He didn't move at once, just kept staring at the ground; his eyes soulless, as if they could never reflect any light anymore; his mouth stayed at a constant semi-opened state, gasping for breaths occasionally. Yuzuki held the water bag at one hand, and gripped Kaoru's wrist with another as she pulled the boy to walk.

It had been four days since they had beaten Duskmon, and Kaoru had not spoken another word since then, like he had returned to his old self, or worse. Sometimes at night, the other digi-destined, mostly Yuzuki, who couldn't sleep well, could hear him mumble words like "I'm so sorry…" or "Don't leave me…" during his dreams. To sum up his state in a simple sentence, he was broken.

He walked, or was made to, by Yuzuki's pulling him by his wrist. The others could tell why he acted like that, but could never understand how it feels. All they could do was to give him comforting statements at intervals or get their schedule tightened so as to let him focus on current issues, but he couldn't. They had gotten pretty fast lately, and would reach the lowest bank of the river by the morrow. Already they could see the other side of the river, but could still not get cross it. The frozen surface of the river was not solid enough at their current position. Anyone with geographic knowledge could tell that the lower bank of the river should not have tightly frozen ice plates if the region not more than a few miles away was not as cold. But well, that's the digital world, so none said anything about that.

Yuzuki had just gotten over, or thought she had, the trauma of Hepia and Mespho, which was why she paid the most concern to Kaoru, who was as good as a walking dead at the very moment. Though the previous four days she had been getting Kaoru to walk by the same manner as she was doing at the moment, which actually amazed her that the group could still make it that fast. 'If you need anything, just say it out.' she whispered to him again as they reunite with the team.

'Maybe we can even reach there by tonight.' Said Petermon, with the utmost optimistic prediction. 'Then we can spend the night by the river side and cross it tomorrow.' He continued to say, having the only knowledge in the group of what it was like at there. 'Every time I went there the river was frozen, and I think it will be the same this time. But I can't tell what's on the other side, for I have never been there before. Or maybe I have, but I couldn't remember that. All that I know is that there is a place they call "the Fortress", something like a war facility left by ancient people.'

* * *

The group spent no more than three hours to reach their destination, and by the time they were there the sun had already fallen. They had to camp beside the frozen water for the rest of the night.

The view of the frozen river was really a remarkable one, even in the dim light of the night. Beside the river, standing close to the water were grasses, of different species and color –some typically green; some red with fading green; some entirely pink. Over the closet meter to the river snow were covering the grasses, gifting them an extra white color. But anything further were perfectly normal –no snow, no water stains, no nothing, as if the river was a separated region from the banks. The weather was not as cold as the destined had thought of, either.

The river was of a large surface area, even when the destined could see the other side now. The entire surface was coated with ice, as clear as diamond. The icy surface sparkled upon the last light of the day as the sun descended below the horizon. Even after that the river was still glistering with occasional flickers. It was dead silent about the river, the only sound to be heard of was the digi-destined's, and they were not quite used to that, for they had been around a roaring river for more than a week previously.

Yuzuki found a sizable wood, and placed Kaoru near it as she sighed. 'Please, at least speak to me.' She mumbled, though knowing that it would just be too impractical for that to come true. She took a quick glance at the others, and was pleased at how well they were doing. Eiji was taking his role as the leader well, frequently instructing the others, especially his own partner, to do different tasks while making sure that everyone got an even amount of work; Amy had wandered off, most likely scouting the surroundings before the group rested; Ryosuke and Takumi sat by the frozen river, staring at the far side, their destination.

She looked at the others so focused that she didn't realize someone had been behind her.

'Thank you.' That was the voice of TigerVespamon. 'Even I couldn't have taken care of him so well.'

'I'm sure he'd do the same for me.' Said Yuzuki, glancing to see Kaoru lying next to a tree, as spiritless as he'd been for days. That surely lasted long, and shouldn't be, or their later fights would be in a serious trouble.

'Go get some food, shall we?' uttered the black-haired girl as she reached Kaoru, helped him up and escorted him to the others. The evening passed quickly, and nothing troublesome happened, to their relief. Not sooner than an hour, most of them were asleep.

* * *

_Kaoru was standing in the center of darkness._

_In fact, he even doubted if he was even standing; the floor, or whatever he was standing on, seemed to be nothing but a pit of blackness. He glanced around in fear, and saw nothing, as if he were, also, nothing._

_More frightened, he ran, and shouted. Still, nothing came, not even echoes or the sounds of his own footsteps. He could, however, still see himself, indicating that he was still having some kind of sanity. _

_This lasted for a long while, and he__'__d been forced to think, for he could do nothing else. He wondered if this was the punishment he deserved, for killing his own mother. Despite never believing in God or anything like that, he somehow believed that that would be some kind of result to his actions, and that wasn__'__t what scared him the most. He__'__d been through all this, after all. Nothing more could probably torture him more, maybe not even death._

_And then, uncontrollably, he started to weep. Sitting on the __ground that seemed so not real, he covered his face with his two hands as the __tears patrolled out of his eyelids. He shouldn__'__t be doing that, but somehow he was. __It__ made him feel like he was insane, which, surprisingly, seemed quite true to himself._

_After ten minutes or so, he started to gain control over his tear __glands__, and could make himself stop for a while. With his tear-filled eyes he looked up, and saw the first thing he__'__d seen since he__'__d been in the weird darkness. It was his mother __–__or her image __–__glowing in the dark like those spirits in the old fairy tales. He wasn__'__t sure if the tears were affecting his sight, but he still ran at __his mom, all the while shouting for her attention._

_He should__'__ve __known__ this. No matter how hard he forced himself to run, it seemed like that the distance was remaining a constant. He got anxious, and worried, and sad, waving and yelling at the same time as he forced his legs to move. Nothing happened. _

_He gave up, cried again._

_His mother turned around, and looked at him from the __distance__. He felt like he__'__d finally a chance to talk to her, to apologize to her, and to see her again, even in just a __few__ seconds. _

_But her light glowed stronger, and the brilliance shone through the dark, but not __enveloping__ the world. The light flew at him, or he was moving toward the light. He couldn__'__t really __distinguish__ between the two. Hiding his face behind his hands as the light glowed too strong to bare, he found himself in darkness again._

He woke up. Usually he would scream, or cry. But he did none of those. He was too numb by now that he didn't know what his reaction should be. His eyes stayed open, seeing nothing but the starless sky and the moon that shone particularly bright that night.

Feeling nothing, Kaoru took out his card deck and flipped it open, examined the cards inside. All the hybrids had left the destined cards as "departure gifts". But not Duskmon. He could find nothing relating her. But he found something that caught his attention –a card that shouldn't be there. It wasn't lie the others, in which the image of a digimon was printed. It looked more like the enhancement cards, with some strange symbols going on. But there were some writings that made him feel uneasy –right on top of the description, there was a line of words written in red, very bright red.

* * *

Morning came sooner than anyone of the team expected, and by the time they woke up the sun had already risen to the highest point in the sky. After a few minutes of preparation and breakfast they were ready to walk upon the river, which was solid ice. The plan seemed a bit risky, but they had accepted that long ago.

'Seriously, how can you be fine with this?' asked Eiji before the group set off. He couldn't help but say that out to Ryosuke, the youngest member of the group who wasn't wearing much. 'We're about to walk on top of ice.'

'I just can.' Replied Ryosuke. He gestured for Lillymon to follow him as he took the first step. To be honest, he was a bit scared, not knowing whether the ice layer would be thick and solid enough to hold his weight. Luckily he didn't sank the ice layer. For a moment he thought maybe it was because he wasn't too heavy, but the ice layer was in fact very solid, not even shaking as the boy set his feet on it.

'Should be safe to come.' He yelled at the others.

'We're about to cross the river, and…' said Yuzuki, holding Kaoru's hand. 'Just be careful.'

To her surprise the blonde boy shook her hand off and walked. _It__'__s an improvement. _She thought as she followed. The two of them, along with their partners, walked at the back of the group for all the time.

'How long do you think we'll spend?' asked Pteramon before he jetted ahead, using scouting as his excuse. 'See you later!'

Eiji wanted to shout at him for abandoning them, though not permanently, yet he decided to stay calm for the moment, feared that anything should happen on the river. They, even with Petermon on their side, knew almost nothing about the other side of the river, not to mention if anyone should strike while they're still walking on the frozen water. Not even wanting to draw the attention of wild digimon, he shut himself.

'At least I can tell you we'll not be spending a night on top of a river.' Said Petermon.

'Don't even think about that.' Uttered Ryosuke. He had to admit that the chill had found a way to invade him and he was starting to get cold, though not completely overtaken by the low temperature, he was still a bit not accustomed to the temperature change.

'Then shut up and walk faster.' Muttered Liilymon.

'I'm still not sure if we can stay casual like this.' Said Takumi. 'We're technically walking on water, shouldn't we be paying extra attention to everything?'

'I'll get you if you fall.' Said MetalPhantomon. 'And the others, of course.'

'Who'd most likely be our attacker here? If they break the ice, they fall, too.' Uttered Lillymon.

'Someone who can swim.' Replied Petermon, almost immediately.

'So, I'd say that we'll be facing Ranamon or Calmaramon soon.' Explained Takumi. 'Though I hope we can get pass without a fight.'

Another half hour passed, and the group had crossed two-third of the river, which meant that they had still a long way to go. Much to their relief, no enemies appeared. No giant freaking squid, nor machine dragons, nor any other assaults.

'I suggest we take a break here.' Said Amy. The others gave her questioning looks, apparently meaning that they should be getting as fast as possible on the unstable floor instead of resting. She, of course, pretended not to know what they meant, and said. 'Anybody wants to vote?'

'We don't have time for this.' Said SaviorHuckmon. 'I think we can get pass here in no more than twenty minutes, and then we can be safe to rest as we like.'

'That doesn't sound like yourself.' Uttered Amy. 'I thought you should be more, gentle.'

SaviorHuckmon realized that as well. In fact, he'd realized how much he'd change ever since he had entered the digital world. Fights after fights had made him more practical, more realistic, and further away from his original self. That was what a quest –an unprepared and real quest –did to people, at least to him. Lately he'd felt all sort of negative emotions that he hadn't experienced before –hatred toward Piedmon; uselessness of his not digivolving into much useful digimon. He felt like that was the kind of thing Piedmon wanted them to think, and he had to admit that he had failed to the emotional trials.

'I just don't want to face any of the hybrids anymore. I don't know if I can fight them.'

'Then I suppose we're not resting?'

'No.'

'Wait.' Uttered Yuzuki suddenly. 'I think I saw something, down there.'

'The river is frozen, what can be down there?' muttered Takumi.

'Maybe it's just myself. Anyway, I think we should speed up.'

A violent shake of the ice layer proved her unfortunately correct. This time she could swear that she saw shadow swimming under the ice layer, rapidly passing her so that she could hardly tell what the shape was like. The others sensed that as well, and all the digimon got their battle-ready pose in response.

'I think we should run.' Said Ryosuke.

'Though I'd say that running would caught that thing's attention, I agree.' Answered Lillymon.

There was, however, no time for them to consider the options. The icy floor shook again; more violent this time the digi-destined nearly fell off balance. They didn't even have the time to express their shock as the floor shook for the third time. Then the ice layer began to crack, little by little. They concluded that something was down there, trying to break through the ice. The cracks were like spider webs, some here and some there.

'Run!' Petermon did the shouting this time. The group hadn't, nonetheless, already begun doing that before he even said anything.

MetalPhantomon carried Takumi, but couldn't reach the others. Petermon took the lead, not looking back for a single second while Eiji was silently blaming Pteramon for having left them behind. They couldn't run fast enough; the thing broke through the layer as a sizable piece of ice rocketed upward, a strong torrent below it like jet fuel. It was soon revealed that a tentacle-like object was the course of that. The tentacle was white and blue in color; its end was a thick muscular tissue lined with spikes.

Stunned, the group slowed, but then regained their speed, and ran even faster. A couple more of the tentacles sprang upward, leaving blocks of ice raining at the digi-destined. One of them hit MetalPhantomon, causing Takumi to fall onto the ice layer; Ryosuke and Petermon dodged most of them at the cost of slowing a little; a few number of them were about to fall on Eiji before Lillymon blasted them apart, turning them into fine ice particles that were harmless against the group leader.

* * *

Yuzuki and Kaoru were still falling behind. Their partners slowed to protect them, slicing a few of the tentacles every time they were about to get hit. TigerVespamon got caught by two of those accidentally after having cleared a path for the two humans, and would have been carried down to the water had SaviorHuckmon not slashed the tentacles, freeing the mega. The rumble continued for a while as they ran, blocks of ice falling from the sky, ice-cold water splashing everywhere as they ran.

Then suddenly everything stopped –everything except the digi-destined. TigerVespamon and SaviorHuckmon had gotten to the front of their partners while the others were almost at the other side. They kept on running as if their lives depended on it, which was true.

The floor then shook for the forth time, so unprepared and violent that all of them fell off balance. Larger cracks appeared on the ice layer instead of small holes. The digi-destined managed to get up, but was again seized to the floor by another shook. More cracks appeared, and the floor seemed no longer stable. At any moment the ice layer would be separated into icebergs, and that would mean the end of their journey, for none of them would be able to pass through the river by then.

And so they kept on running. The tentacles made their reappearance, jetting out of the small holes they'd created not long ago and crawling on the ice plate. MetalPhantomon gave up the idea of carrying his partner seeing that he had been already joint by the others, and kept his focus on driving the tentacles back underwater. Lillymon managed to shot a few of them, by whoever owned them didn't seem to have a good sense of pain, and the tentacles continued to crawl on the surface of the plate, sometimes causing the plate to shake so that the digi-destined couldn't run as smoothly as they'd like to, but they mostly contracted and caused more and more cracks to form as the tentacles applied more force on the ice plate.

Eiji, Takumi and Ryosuke, as well as their respective partners, had gotten to the other side of the river, and that was when the cracks were not cracks anymore. The ice plate had become too weak to hold itself together and it was separated into pieces just as the three got their feet on the solid ground. For a moment they were relieved that they no longer needed to worry about their footing.

'They're still there!' Petermon was the one to point out that they had forgotten something.

Yuzuki fell again as the ice plate was torn into pieces. SaviorHuckmon and TigerVespamon were, unfortunately, not on the same piece as Yuzuki and Kaoru were. The plates shook as the current of the river intensified, giving the humans no chance of getting up. Yuzuki tried to hook herself on the unsteady plate, but as soon as she laid her hands on that she immediately regretted doing that. The ice plate was freezing; she should've known that. Reflexively she pulled her hands away, and was forced to the floor by another shake. She saw the plate she was on inclining at an angle, with a few of the tentacles beside her. She was on the lower side of the plate, and had her feet already in the icy water unwillingly. She didn't care how the chilling ice burned her palms this time, as she held on to the plate tight. She saw Kaoru on the other side, struggling to prevent himself from falling. Half of her body was in the water by that time and with a last strike from the tentacles, she loosened her grip and fell, plugged into the abyss.

She kept her eyes shut as she fell. The water surrounding her was already nothing compared to what she'd felt up there. For a few seconds the river water actually warmed her up before sending her into another refrigerator. She endeavored to hold her breath, but gave in as the water found its way to enter her mouth cavity, nostrils, all the way into her oesophagus, trying to invade her trachea to try to drown her to death. Instinctively she swung her limbs aimlessly, but that did nothing to safe her; the motions just made things worse as the added force further sank the black-haired girl down the bottom of the river. That was, to her surprise that she was actually noticing that, a really deep river.

There was nothing beside her, only water. She couldn't find anything to hang onto, nor could she ask for anything's help. The only thing she managed to do on her own was to kept her eyes shut, but that was nothing too important at the moment. She was about to give in to the water and let it drag her down the river.

But someone wasn't. Just when she decided that she was done and gave up on struggling, a pair of arms reached her, held her by her armpits and rose up. She couldn't really feel that, though, having already been numbed by the coldness of the water. She didn't even know that someone was rescuing her before her head surfaced on the river. Only then could she realize that she was saved, or partially saved, as only her head was on top of the water surface. She desperately launched her arms onto the nearest iceberg, which was just right behind her. There she finally felt someone reaching her. A pair of hands held hers tight, and pulled her onto the plate. With her vision blurred by the water and her hair, she couldn't quite tell who was the one to save her, all she could do was to lie on the plate, gasping for air while recovering slowly.

Then she could see again. Though upside down, she was still capable of distinguishing the shape of the one that had saved her. It was Kaoru, as wet as she was, falling on his knees, looking at her without blinking. She rapidly got up, fighting the chill that had, and was about to once again, immobilize her. She reached Kaoru, who was already motionless, apparently due to the cold water and the wearying effort of pulling her out of the river. She found herself on a smaller ice plate, and they had occupied one third of its surface area. The others had already reached the other side of the river, was shouting something at them, probably words of encouragement. She didn't blame them for not helping them, seeing that there was no way they could reach them. SaviorHuckmon and TigerVespamon were nowhere to be seen.

A shape emerged from the river. At first it resembled the shape of a woman, bearing abnormally white skin and ling purple hair. On top of its head was a helmet that looked just like a bucket. Then the shape came further atop of the river, and they could see more. Under that female shape were the tentacles, and under them was a giant cone-shaped body that looked as if it were an upside-down squid. Along with its emergent came a couple of ice blocks raining into the river. Fortunately none of them hit the ice plate where Yuzuki and Kaoru were on.

Yuzuki and Kaoru were sitting next to each other, hugged together to gain warmth while looking upward at the digimon that was apparently responsible for the attack. Fear found its way to present itself on their face. That was really no way they could remain calm, though. Both of them had just been dumped into a freezing river, and they barely escaped that. Their partners were missing, and they were on an unstable piece of ice that was most likely to be pushed over by the squid-like digimon, how could they not be scared?

The squid digimon, most probably the Calmaramon Takumi had mentioned before, took the first step and attacked, launching two of her tentacles at the humans. Owing to that nothing could possibly be done just by them, they simply held each other tighter while looking away from the source of the attack. That was why they didn't see their partner's returning. The familiar voice of 'Meteor flame!' gave them the first hope as the tentacles fell back. They quickly scanned around to see that SaviorHuckmon was near them, skipping on smaller ice plates while firing his fire. TigerVespamon was beside him, throwing one of his swords at Calmaramon.

'We have to help them.' Mumbled Yuzuki as she endeavored to get up to her feet. Kaoru nodded slightly as he did the same. The two of them then took out their digivices, and were a bit amazed at how well the waterproof of the device was done. By the time Calmaramon was ready to strike again, SaviorHuckmon and TigerVespamon had already gotten to a plate close enough to their partners'.

'Acid ink!' before she could even finish the last word, black liquid had been spilt from the digimon's mouth, a rather disgusting scene. SaviorHuckmon responded by shooting flames at the liquid, successfully evaporating a bit of it. The remaining landed on the ice plate Yuzuki and Kaoru were standing on, though not hitting them. The portion of which the liquid had hit instantly dissolved, making the plate even smaller. TigerVespamon didn't wait for the hybrid to attack. He tossed one of his swords at the hybrid; it hit the target, sliced at about her waist. A yell of pain came, followed by the digimon's becoming slightly blurred, with some data blocks appearing and disappearing randomly.

Yuzuki had previously been quite pleased at how fast Kaoru could recover to fight, especially in emergency situations like this one. She now found out that she couldn't have been more wrong. The scene of Calmaramon decomposing must have remained not only her how Duskmon had behaved before her death. Kaoru stood still, looking up at the hybrid. Yuzuki could tell that he was endeavoring to get to his normal state, but failed. His whole body was shaking, and he didn't even realize that his digivice had slipped away from his grip, sliding down toward the river on the ice.

Yuzuki didn't have time to hesitate. She wanted to help Kaoru, but reflexively she approached the sliding digivice, and put it into her pocket. When she returned her sight at Calmaramon the hybrid was already on the move again. Her whole body rotated, with the female shape withdrawing into the squid-like body. Yuzuki could be sure that she heard the scream 'Titanic tempest!' before the hybrid started the attack.

Without even thinking, Yuzuki rushed to Kaoru, who was still standing as if he were a statue. The two of them fell, but didn't drop into the water. The sudden act seemed to have awakened Kaoru from his daydreaming state and he quickly looked at Calmaramon, and found out that the digimon had already been killed, with TigerVespamon clutching on the hybrid's body and had one of his swords stabbed right in the spot where the humanoid shape emerged.

* * *

None of them actually noticed that due to the fight, the water current had driven them close to the coast, and they could, without much effort, get on the solid ground.

'You guys all right?' asked Eiji as he approached the two, who were hugging at each other to gain support.

'Just be glad it's over.' Interrupted Amy. 'BlueMeramon, you know what to do.' Without much delay, the flaming ultimate shot a tower of flame at the two. To showcase his ability of controlling flame, the two humans didn't catch fire, just had their clothes dried.

'Thanks.' Uttered Yuzuki. 'Let's just get on before someone else finds us.'

Unfortunately, that someone had already found them. With the sound of a machine gun firing, a couple of bullets rained down at the digi-destined.

* * *

**I just noticed that I've reached 100,000 words for the first time. That feeling is really...interesting, if not too special. Also, chapters starting from now on will br more cohesive, and so will book 2 be. The previous chapters were really kind of separated, and didn't look like how a book show be. **


	28. 27 Only human

27 ~Only human~

'Who's that again?' uttered Ryosuke, annoyed. The group had just escaped Calmaramon and crossed the river, and was yet to recover from the fatigue. Their enemy, however, was not intending to give them any time to rest. As soon as all of them had got to the solid ground of the other side, another wave of assault was launched.

'Whatever that is, it must not be a friendly one.' Mumbled Amy not sooner before she instructed BlueMeramon to create a shield of ice to block the raining snowballs, which, not surprisingly, exploded upon contact with the shield. The digi-destined were already running as soon as the smoke caused by the explosion was cleared. Yuzuki took a look back, and confirmed that their attacker was, also not surprisingly, a digimon, with a pretty small body size. It had skin whiter than the ice blocks at the river, and wore dark green armor. The launcher it held in its right arm was almost as large as the digimon himself in terms of length.

'That'd be Kumamon.' Muttered Takumi. 'And if I'm not mistaken, he'd be one of the last two of the hybrids left.'

'That's good.' Replied Lillymon. 'Then why are we running?'

'Because.' The redhead replied. 'Yuzuki and Kaoru haven't recovered yet.'

Their pursuer seemed to be in no mood of waiting for them to complete their conversation. Kumamon fired a dozen more snowballs from his launcher, dashing at the same time to catch up with the digi-destined. None of the snowballs hit the kids directly, however they proved that even just hitting the road would be enough to make the escape ten times harder. Maybe it'd be easier had the snowballs just hit the digimon rather than sending up sands and mud from the blown ground.

'Soul predator!' yelled MetalPhantomon as he created a shockwave from a swing of his sickle, which seemed to have hit their pursuer precisely. More smoke came afterwards, and there were the wired, chain-like sound that came from the smoke layers. None of them stopped the destined's will of running, though.

They continued running, ignoring the protest from their feet until an object was thrust upon them. It was a spinning one, so none of them could really tell what that thing was. Anyway, it was about to ht Yuzuki, one of the last one in the group, before SaviorHuckmon knocked the spinning object back. Upon contacting the object he estimated that it was something sharp, like a knife. The object was thrown back to its rightful owner, who was soon revealed to be a rolling ball of whiteness, accelerating. The wired chain-like noise was then cleared that they came from the edged objects the digimon was holding hitting the ground.

BlueMeramon fired a couple waves of fire, but were all ignored by the rolling digimon. MetalPhantomon helped by generating a few more of the shockwaves, which were also dodged by the digimon. As unwilling as they were, they had to admit that the one chasing them was truly agile.

The distance between them went short, and became shorter and shorter as the white rolling digimon speeded up. He didn't make any attempts to attack anymore, simply rolling fast to catch up with the destined. And he was doing his job well. In a few seconds he had already approached the digi-destined, and quit his rolling form as he revealed his true outfit. The digimon looked a bit like a bear, with white fur and two horns on his head; axes held firm in both of his grips.

'Let me guess, that's the Korikakumon you'd spoken of earlier?' uttered Ryosuke.

'I don't think now's the time to talk about that.' Muttered MetalPhantomon as he raised his arms to block an incoming strike from the hybrid. To his surprise the hybrid was not too strong in terms of physical strength. Without much effort MetalPhantomon swung his arms, and knocked Korikakumon back, who then gave out a roar. It was mixed with anger and madness, and was even crazier seeing that the roar was actually coming from a human being whose consciousness should not have been destroyed completely. But there was no time to hesitate. The hybrid was the enemy now; that's the notion that had kept the destined fighting. Making up his mind, MetalPhantomon struck, using the back of his sickle to hit the hybrid in the head. He was still no used to killing humans.

Korikakumon jerked back, and threw his axes at the destined. Petermon managed to smack one of them down, but got himself injured in his left thigh by the other axe. Korikakumon retrieved the axes and proceeded in approaching Petermon, who was now lying on his stomach, immobilized by his wounded leg.

Though anyone there could've saved Petermon, a blast of missile was what actually did the job.

'What took you so long?' immediately recognizing that the attack came from his partner, Eiji uttered to Pteramon, who had technically abandoned them previously.

'Shut up and follow me!' replied Pteramon, flying away at a direction where more woods could be seen before anyone could give any responses, leaving the destined no choice but to do so. MetalPhantomon carried Petermon as they ran. The smoke layer caused by the explosions didn't last long, and though they hadn't been looking back, Yuzuki could be sure that she heard a high-pitched scream as they ran. No sign of any followers was there, hopefully.

* * *

Piedmon looked at his fingers as he moved them randomly. He then lowered one arm, turned his head at Cyberdramon, and then he switched his gaze at something else. Aimlessly, he returned his sight as his fingers, counting. 'Two left.'

He couldn't help but feel a bit grave about all this. He had discovered the Spirits himself, though accidentally, and had used them as a price for Cyberdramon to work with him, and had expected his "treasures" to function well. Now only two of those were left, and yet one of them didn't seem to be working correctly.

'I thought Duskmon was just an accident.' He mumbled.

'What are you talking about?' Cyberdramon responded, still not leaving his work. On the screen of his computer were blueprints, results of his work for Piedmon, though he really didn't consider it that way. He was just doing his own research, and didn't really care how his commercial partner would use them. 'I had warned you about the risks of using human as the base.'

'And I have expected you to reduce those risks.' Muttered Piedmon. 'Kumamon is not under control as well.'

'I told you once that the phenomenon can be used to collect rare data.' Said Cyberdramon, finally turning from his computer. 'But I have collected enough. If the subject remains incontrollable, then I shall clean up the mess myself.'

'And that's gonna be so entertaining.' Whispered Piedmon secretly to himself. If there's ever one thing that he enjoyed about his partner, that'd be his style of battling. _Maybe he can __clean__ up more than one failed subject._

* * *

'You left us behind just to find a cave?' uttered Eiji. 'We'd have passed the river so much easier it you'd been there.'

'As least he came back.' said Takumi, trying to lower the tension a bit. They were right now inside a cave near the river, in a hidden corner where they didn't need to worry about being found, though their enemy seemed to know every corner of the digital world better than they did.

'Petermon, are you feeling better?' the first concern of Yuzuki really wasn't about their hiding place, seeing that Piedmon could find them no matter where they were. Petermon, having been injured in the battle earlier, was healing quickly thanks to Ryosuke's card. Still, he was in no shape of further battling any other enemies, even just a champion like himself.

'I'm fine.' replied Petermon weakly. 'And how many times do I have to tell you, just call me Peter.'

'I think we have other things to discuss.' Interrupted Amy. 'I don't suppose any of us here want another attack at night?'

'There're just two left.' Mumbled Takumi. 'And I don't really think taking then down one by one would be a problem.'

'Just one more.' Mumbled Petermon. 'And I can get BurningGreymon.' He hadn't forgotten the reason why he'd been with the digi-destined, to find BurningGreymon, the one who'd burnt his village into ashes. And when he did so –he swore to himself silently –the hybrid would be dead, human or not.

* * *

Kumamon walked, or tried to, before he fell next to a rectangular boulder. His entire body was shivering, as if he couldn't control it. The darkness brought by the night had hindered his vision, but he could still see clearly the outline of things around him, of himself.

'_What happened to me?_' that was something he'd have said had he been able to do so. Simply by looking around at the strange environment had already taken away his ability to speak, not to mention seeing his own hands becoming exceptionally white with only three fingers on each hand. He wandered around, and saw how he looked like now with a nearby pond. It had already been a miracle that he had not yet committed suicide, if he could do that.

He felt weak, almost like he'd been put to work all day without rest, which was true, only without his knowledge. During his whole life he'd never been in any woody regions before, at least not alone. He started to panic; his pace quickened despite the rapid loss of energy. The night was a complete darkness; there was no light, no sound that could guide him to anywhere safe. The only thing he remembered having seen was a river nearby, which seemed to have been frozen for quite a while and had been demolished quite recently. He dared not to visit that place; for fear that he should fall into the river and meet his end just like that.

Luckily for him, it seemed that he wasn't meant to die yet. In the darkness he wandered for an unknown period of time –he'd lost count. Almost when he was about to give up, he saw light. The gentle blue light was like the best thing he'd ever seen in his whole life –he'd never been so grateful to see light.

Without any hesitation, he walked toward the light.

* * *

'We can't just spend the night restless.' Suggested TigerVespamon. Though the battle previously didn't wear him out, he was concern for his partner, who had already fallen asleep near him.

'Peter, where is that Fortress you'd mentioned before?' asked Eiji. He was struggling to get his eyes open, but he wanted to fulfill his role as the leader, and didn't want to rest before everything was settled. 'I think we should go there at once after tomorrow morning.'

'I don't know for sure.' Answered Petermon. 'Like I'd said, I haven't been around for quite some time, and I can't tell you how far the Fortress is from this cave, but it shouldn't be too far away if we're still near the river.'

'I have another question.' Uttered Amy. 'How can you be sure that whoever live in that Fortress would welcome us? They might have joint Piedmon already.'

'I never really thought of that.' Replied Petermon.

'Though I have doubted that we might have come the wrong way, I can be quite confident to say that Piedmon's base is near.' Said Takumi. 'They'd tried very hard to stop us from proceeding recently.'

'I hope that's true.' Muttered Ryosuke. He hadn't acted like himself lately –all the events had given him enough stress that he couldn't quite remain his normal self, as if the world was telling him that he had to change his attitude by throwing the various circumstances at them. And he felt like the world had succeeded in changing him if that was the case. He used to make decisions quickly without much consideration, and that seemed stupid to him now; he used to keep looking at things as optimistically as possible, but now that seemed just like he was lying to himself.

They stayed silent for a while until a soft, gentle noise of grass joined the conversation.

'BlueMeramon.' Uttered Amy. Immediately her partner "turned off" himself and left the cave lightless. 'Wake the two sleeping beauties up.' she said to Takumi, the one closet to Yuzuki and Kaoru, in an almost commanding tone. Petermon drew his knife, and got to the right hand side of the cave entrance, ready to slice any enemy.

'Help…' an unexpected, child-like voice was the first to come. That, however, did nothing to lower the alertness of the digi-destined. They'd experienced much of Piedmon's strategy, and could not easily trust anyone –anything could be a trap of the trickster.

No other sounds were produced soon after the cave was darkened. Yuzuki and Kaoru woke up, and were told briefly of what's happening. Convinced by the quiet that things should probably be safe, Amy let BlueMeramon lit a slight spark on his right hand, which provided enough illumination already that they could see clearly the source of the noise.

'That's the digimon that attacked us earlier today.' Immediately identifying the digimon that was lying on the cave entrance, Petermon warned the others. 'He looks…dead.'

'Dead?' uttered Eiji as he approached the digimon. He could see by the time he was only a few meters from the digimon that he was indeed Kumamon, and was pretty dead-looking. However, knowing that hybrids didn't die that way, the leader of the team wouldn't let his guard off. He poked the hybrid's back, testing if anything responses would be given. Kumamon, although not having huge movements, jerked a bit for the irritation, much to Eiji's relief. 'Alive.' He confirmed the others.

Almost immediately after the announcement that the hybrid was not dead, Kumamon sprang up, seemingly shocked. His breathing frequency increased tremendously; his pupils enlarged; every part of his body showed that he was scared. 'Where am I?' muttered him as he jerked backward. 'What happened?'

'Is he…?' Amy whispered to Eiji, completely ignoring Kumamon. Their leader, too, ignored the hybrid as he nodded in return. Kumamon continued asking; his voice shaky; in fact, his entire body was shivering. Ryosuke was the one to approach the hubrid.

'You won't be harmed now.' He whispered. 'What do you remember?'

'I…I don't know.' Replied Kumamon. Judging from his voice, Ryosuke could tell that whoever was inside the hybrid was just a kid, maybe not even older than him. 'What happened to me?' his high-pitched childish voice echoed round the small cave again.

'It's okay.' The black-haired boy said in a comforting tone. 'It might sound crazy, but you're currently in the digital world.' He said, pausing a few seconds for the hybrid to get accustomed to the circumstance. 'And…you were once…dead.'

Immediately he regretted having said that. Kumamon, apparently believing what he said, started to panic again and, even though he appeared to not know how to use his launcher, gripped it and raised it with his two arms. The destined digimon got to their battle-ready state, but was stopped by Ryosuke.

'Hey.' He said softly. 'It's fine. You're not dead now.'

'Then what has happened to me?'

Ryosuke knew he hadn't been making much sense, but he couldn't have done anything better. He was simply telling the truth, which hurt much to both of them. 'Basically, you were killed five years ago, and were resurrected in this form.' He talked as slowly and clear as possible. 'Just let me finish this first. I know it must be hard for you, but you will be fine, just like us.'

Kumamon listened silently, maybe just too afraid to say anything.

'You are basically a digimon now.' It was tough for Ryosuke, but he still had to say that out, not willing to hide anything from Kumamon. Secretly he cursed Piedmon for doing such thing to a kid who seemed to be younger than him, which meant that whoever was inside should not exceed ten years old. Though not liking a normal lifestyle, he still hated Reapermon for taking everything from a little child like that –his friends his parents, everything that mattered to him, had been taken away from him the moment he was killed. And Piedmon, or whoever was helping him with the Spirits. He just couldn't tolerate him for turning such an innocent kid into a weapon. It was at that moment when he understood why Kaoru hated Reapermon so much.

Kumamon stayed in silence. Ryosuke continued to explain, about how he was supposed to be obeying orders blindly, and how lucky he was to be able to retain his own consciousness. Every words that came out of his mouth hurt almost as much as they did to Kumamon, but he felt that the hybrid had the right to know what had happened to him.

'So…what has become of me?' uttered Kumamon, depressed.

'You're still yourself.' Said Ryosuke. 'Inside. Nobody can change that.' He then got an idea, perhaps a bad one, but he felt like that would help Kumamon, and that's why he said. 'Maybe you can tell me things about you. What's your name anyway? I don't want to call you like a digimon.'

'Thomas.' The hybrid whispered.

'Well, can I just call Tommy? Anyway, maybe you can tell me more about the past, maybe that helps.'

Kumamon, or Thomas, then proceeded in talking about his past life. For a moment Ryosuke was scared that he might have made a mistake asking Thomas to recall the history of himself that had been taken away from him, but as time passed he was more relieved as Thomas seemed to be getting less and less depressed.

The others said nothing, confident in leaving Ryosuke with the hybrid.

* * *

'_Another failure.__'_

'_Well, we__'__ve got plenty of them to use.__'_

'_Incorrect, we have only eleven of those left.__'_

'_Then you better get things done the right way.__'_

'_I am. Ten would be enough, after all.__'_

'_Would you mid if __I__ ask: How did you preserve all these bodies?__'_

'_You will not understand.__'_

'_Well then just get to work, and what__'__s that noise?__'_

'_Another failure. __'_

'_Then treasure the remaining ten.__'_

Kumamon, now identified with his human name Thomas, woke up in fright. He turned around to see that he had been with the digi-destined all night, and hadn't left the cave since then. There were rays of light coming from the cave mouth, just thin lines indicating that the sun had risen. He then turned his head to the other side to see that the destined were fast asleep.

The idea of running away immediately occurred in his mid, but he was stopped unexpectedly by Eiji, who seemed to be awake for quite some time.

'To be honest, I didn't trust you at first.' The blue-haired boy said. 'So I sacrificed my sleep to have an eye on you, to see if that was some sick tricks of Piedmon, if you would turn against us after we're unconscious. But I have to admit that I should be ashamed of myself to have had that idea.'

Thomas said nothing, looking at the cave opening aimlessly as he held his now three-fingered hand up to block some sunlight from the entrance.

'Hey.' The familiar voice of Ryosuke came from behind. 'How're you feeling, Tommy?'

'I…I saw some wired things.' Replied the hybrid. 'Like some clown and alien-looking thing talking –about something that they preserve. They said they had ten left.'

'Ten?' the word "clown" immediately gave Ryosuke the impression of Piedmon, and the number "ten" sounded familiar as well. He spent some time recalling anything regarding Piedmon, so deep in though that he didn't even notice his fellow teammates' waking up.

'Why'd you keep mumbling "ten"?' asked Takumi, causing Ryosuke to spring back in surprise as if the redhead appeared from nowhere. 'You don't have to scare me like that!'

'I though you noticed that we've woken up.' replied Takumi. 'Anyway, why do you keep saying that number again and again?'

'It's Tommy.' Answered Ryosuke. Though it felt strange to Takumi to use a human name to call a digimon, he was a bit surprised that he had actually gotten used to that, thanks to Petermon. 'He thinks he saw Piedmon in his dreams, saying something about only ten left.'

'Are they talking about the hybrids?' suggested Takumi almost immediately. 'You know, there're ten of them in total.'

'But then what about "left"? Are you suggesting that there're more than tem hybrids originally?' asked Ryosuke, though he instantly thought of a better way then asking. He asked Kaoru about the number of deaths of caused by Reapermon, and got the answer "twenty-one"

'That's sick.' Commented the black-haired boy. 'So they've wasted ten of those dead to get the hybrids working?'

'I guess so.' Replied Lillymon, unwillingly agreeing her partner's hypothesis.

Ryosuke tried hard to forget about that, and stayed close to Kumamon. It seemed almost out of his character to the others that he could actually be gentle toward another living being.

'Well, they're similar in age.' Explained Amy, turning to point at Yuzuki and Kaoru. 'Like those two.'

They were soon on their way to the Fortress again. Though initially lost, Petermon was, hopefully, able to find the right way back. It was a broad road, covered in only random bushes, and no trees as cover like the places the team had visited before, and therefore, kind of dangerous. Despite that, the group decided to keep moving on that way, hoping to reach the Fortress before anyone could find them.

'What is this Fortress?' asked Kumamon on the way.

'I don't know that either.' Replied Ryouske. 'But I think it's kind of a place where we can be safe for a while. It wouldn't have been named "Fortress" otherwise.'

'I miss my home.' Uttered Kumamon.

'I'm sorry about that, but I really can't do anything about that.' Replied Ryosuke softly. It was really rare to see the black-haired boy to be so close to someone. Though he was a particularly outgoing member in the team, none of the others had seen this side of him before, and could be sure that he had become friend with a former enemy quickly. 'But you can start a new life there. We've been in the digital world for quite a while, and have seen various places. There're some really nice places here.'

Kumamon stayed wordless, walking silently for the rest of the time. Ryosuke tried to talk with him all the way, about how he could still be with him as a friend even in the form of a digimon; about how beautiful the digital world could be and how Thomas might enjoy it; about how having a second chance to live sounded purely amazing. He avoided anything about his previous life, though; not willing to let the memories of the past hurt him. From the occasionally smile from Kumamon –or Thomas –he could tell that he was succeeding in lightening the little kid inside the hybrid up.

That was when a strange noise suddenly appeared from nowhere. It did nothing to the digi-destined except for hurting their ears slightly, nor did it do anything special to the digimon. The only apparent effect was on Kumamon, who seemed to be in enormous pain upon hearing the strange call.

'Who's that?' shouted Lillymon while her partner was busy taking care of Thomas. 'I know you're hiding somewhere, show yourself!'

The other digi-destined also got themselves ready for whatever might come to them. Knowing that no more hybrids except BurningGreymon were out there, they could be pretty sure that their enemy this time would be a tough one.

Nothing happened except for the sudden stop of the whistle.

'Show yourself!' this time it was SaviorHuckmon who shouted.

In the sky, at the direction of the river, a dimensional vortex appeared just like the time when the digi-destined fought Chaosdramon. Along with it came the strange whistle again. Kumamon covered his ears with his hands, dropping the launcher on the ground, but that didn't seem to help much; he fell to his knees, then lay on the ground entirely, rolling and thrusting out of agony.

'Stop it!' yelled Ryosuke.

'That's not quite nice.' A terribly familiar voice came out from the vortex. 'We haven't seen each other for so long and you don't even say hello?'

'Piedmon.' Mumbled Yuzuki, immediately recognizing the playful yet menacing tone of the mega.

Piedmon did nothing to stop the noise, leaving Kumamon struggling for free from the effect of it; the mega stepped out of the vortex, landing in an absurd manner. The vortex, however, didn't close after that. Another shape was seen flying out of it before the vortex collapsed. So fast was it that the digi-destined could hardly get a glimpse of what that digimon was. As soon as the shape came out of the vortex, the strange and torturing noise stopped. The shape landed, a lot cooler than Piedmon did.

The digi-destined soon realized who that shape was –Cyberdramon.

'So they're together.' Mumbled TigerVespamon.

'I've told you many times.' Argued Takumi.

'What do you want?' demanded SaviorHuckmon; blades at ready.

'Do you want me to tell you the whole story, which I'd much enjoy to do; or should I just tell you the aim of our little trip here?' replied Piedmon pleasantly in his chillingly casual tone. Nobody gave any responses. 'Well then, I suppose you all want to hear the whole story again?'

Cyberdramon was the first to have a move, stepping forward with his double-ended lance in his grip. Piedmon extended an arm and stopped him from advancing, saying. 'Just let me enjoy the moment, and then you can have all you want, please~?'

'If you have any last words, now'd be the best time to say.' snarled Ryosuke, glaring at Piedmon, who didn't seem to care at all. The digimon on the destined's side all held up their weapons, aiming at the two.

'Remember when I tell you about Millenniummon?' Piedmon started, not caring about the digi-destined's threat at all. 'Well, that can basically be divided into two parts: First, his dimensional power. As you must have observed we have acquired his ability to produce these things we call Portals, though not perfect, resulting in my having to come all the way here to open another single-way Portal to send things back to the human world.'

'What's the second then?' demanded SaviorHuckmon.

'Well, Millenniummon is known not only for his dimensional ability, but also his firepower.' Explained Piedmon. 'I'm not sure if you have seen our Chaosdramon before, that's simply fascinating.'

'So you dissected Millenniummon to get his cannons?' uttered Takumi in disbelief.

'No. That'd be a terrible waste.'

'Then what about them?' yelled Ryosuke. 'What do they have to do with you?'

'Well, they're presents.' Said Piedmon. 'For my scientist friend here.'

'So you're the one responsible for making them into weapons!' Ryouske's gaze now turned to Cyberdramon. Cyberdramon said nothing, simply walked forward, raising his lance. Piedmon didn't stop him this time, instead he gave a smirk to the destined, making them feel even more uneasy.

'Subject has been proved to be a failure.' Said Cyberdramon as he approached Kumamon, who had resumed his standing position weakly with Ryosuke on his side, supporting him in standing. Cyberdramon's tone sounded almost double as creepy as Piedmon's, having a machinery and deep monotone, almost like he had to use a computer to talk. There was no emotion in his tone, matching his appearance.

'No!' shouted Ryosuke as he stood in front of Kumamon, extending his arm in a protective position. 'I won't let you hurt him; he's the only one to remain human, and he's my friend!'

Cyberdramon, of course, gave nothing about the declaration. He raised his free arm, ready to strike as he rapidly swung it in the air.

Ryouske didn't know what kind of attack that was supposed to be, but for a moment he felt like he was about to die, to be torn into pieces by whatever was coming from Cyberdramon. What came to him, nevertheless, was from his left. He felt a soft push, and, being unprepared, was pushed aside. The next moment he could react, Kumamon was already lying on the ground, dying. Though there was no blood on him, he flowing of data streams basically meant the same.

Ryosuke got to Kumamon as soon as possible, holding his shivering hands. There were three scratches on the hybrid's chest, right below his neck, probably the future cause of death. The hybrid kept mumbling things, but was too weak that none of any words he wanted to say could come together. His body temperature was increasing.

In the meantime, the digi-destined were at alarm, positioned to get ready for the oncoming fight, but not making any moves, knowing that their foe would strike faster than any of them could, and could demolish the entire group in no time.

'Hang on, I'm getting you healed.' Mumbled Ryosuke with tears all over his face; frantically he found his digivice and the healing card, barely having them in his grip as his impatience caused his grip to shake. He swiped the card with the digivice, hoping to heal the hybrid before it was too late.

Nothing happened.

He tried again, and again for countless times. Still, nothing happened. 'Why isn't it working!' he murmured as he tried again. The same result was the only thing to come to him.

Piedmon, watching by the side, laughed at the scenario. 'Technically it is not a digimon, of course your card can not work.' His tone was purely playful this time, with the menacing nature replaced by the mocking in the voice. Ryosuke, however, was in no mood to pay attention to that. He continued to try and use his card, only to be stopped by Kumamon, holding to his wrists weakly. He kept mumbling the words that never formed.

Cyberdramon was impatient as well. He had taken down his failure, but there were more in front of him. Though he had much appreciated the digi-destined's effort of making his hybrids better, they had proved themselves to be too much of a trouble, and had to be eliminated when the chance was there, which was now. Cyberdramon raised his lance-holding arm as the destined digimon raised their own weapons; both sides ready to strike.

Cyberdramon seemed furious –something not supposed to happen on him. Piedmon used the explanation 'He has to destroy his own creation; that hurts!', but anyone knew that was not what was happening. The flashlights on the Scientist's head flickered rapidly in a seemingly random pattern as the dragon leaped. SaviorHuckmon was the first to respond, also leaping forward. But their blades never met. An arrow flew straight at Cyberdramon and prevented him from getting to SaviorHuckmon. Cyberdramon backed off, keeping a few meters from the digi-destined.

'Where'd that come from?' uttered Eiji as he looked at his back –where the arrow came from, soon his question was answered by the sounds of marching and the sight of a group of digimon. They were too far away that none of the group could really tell what kind of digimon were there, nor could they tell if they meant to help them, or just missed and shot Cyberdramon. Either way, the arrow had saved them for a while.

A little while later the digi-destined could tell that the group of digimon was not their enemy; more arrows jetted at Cyberdramon, and, hardly coincidentally, they all avoided hitting the destined. The arrows, however, could harm neither Piedmon nor Cyberdramon.

'Sagittarimon, armor level, vaccine type.' Information of the digimon appeared in the screen of the destined's digivices as the group approached them. The digi-destined now had a good look at their supposed rescuer –they had the appearance of centaur, though their lower limbs looked more like a bear's than a horse's. They each held a red bow in one hand, and aimed at Piedmon and Cyberdramon. From the far end of the group came a humanoid digimon that looked like a girl with a sneak-like hat. She was holding a sword almost as large as herself.

'Minervamon, mega, virus type.'

'Please come with us.' Said Minervamon. 'We can't hold them for too long.'

_Who are you guys? _That was what Eiji would've said, but he decided that they really should escape first, facing Piedmon and Cyberdramon together. With that in mind, he told the others to follow the group of Sagittarimon and go with them.

Ryosuke however, was not willing to go. He held tight to Kumamon, whose body was now stone cold and motionless. However unwilling he was, he had no choice but to go with the others as Lillymon X dragged him away from the dead hybrid. Piedmon and Cyberdramon showed intension of going after the digi-destined, but were delayed by the arrows shot by the Sagittarimon.

Ryosuke saw things with his tear-filled eyes. He saw the couple of Sagittarimon that stayed behind and got killed; he saw Kumamon, the friend he'd just made not long ago, decomposing back into data bits and vanished. He shouted, and yelled all the way while being forced to go with the rest of his team, but nothing could be done anymore.

* * *

**About the name "Tommy", those who watched the english dub version should be quite familiar with. Unfortunately I'm not one of those, which made me quite surprised to see that name in Digimon wiki when I started to do research on Kumamon. That's right, I decided to name him Tommy before I knew he's called that way in the show...**

**But now, only one more hybrid to go, and still there're seven chapters more, how did I write all that?**


	29. 28 Fighting back

28 ~Fighting back~

'Stop!' demanded Eiji just right at the time when Piedmon and Cyberdramon were no longer in the team's sight. 'Who are you guys and how do we know if we can trust you?'

The Sagittarimon to his right was the first to answer, saying. 'You don't talk to us like that!' but was soon stopped by Minervamon. The humanoid digimon walked away from her position of the leading role and stepped to Eiji's side.

'We don't have much time left.' She said; her tone desperate. 'Just come with us first, and I can tell you everything.' Seeing that the leader of the digi-destined, and the rest of the group, showed no sign of believing her, she added. 'To make things short, I have Sorcermon's words. Is that enough to make you believe me?'

That was, in fact, enough to shut the digi-destined up. The kids followed the group tight for the next few moments. It seemed like they walked for hours, or even half a day just to get to where the group led by Minervamon was intending to take them. The soon arrived there, where giant reddish brown walls stood, the walls didn't seem intact, with several scratches and bullet holes on them, but they did look solid enough. The giant walls were divided in different rectangular pieces, each linked together with some metal frames that were now covered in rust. Occasionally in between the walls stood a giant gear, for unknown purpose, at least to the digi-destined.

'How are we supposed to get through that?' uttered Amy. 'I don't see any doors.'

'Please step on there.' Instructed Minervamon, gesturing for the digi-destined to go to a specific area where thick black boundaries were drawn to form a perfect square near the wall. Without much choice, the destined went there. It was hardly large enough for all of them, but they did manage to get into the square without missing any members.

'I suggest you close your eyes.' Shouted Minervamon, who was now far away from the digi-destined.

Without much time to react, the entire scene in front of the destined changed in a split second. The rocky roads and the bushes were gone, replaced by hemispheric huts and numerous digimon that seemed to be labouring. The group of Sagittarimon was gone, as did Minervamon. The digi-destined turned their heads round frantically, finding an entirely different environment. To their right was an especially large structure that looked like a warehouse of some sort; digimon around them didn't seem to care if there were humans or some freak-looking digimon species. The only thing remained there were the walls –they seemed the same whatsoever, only now they were not surrounding something in front of the destined, they were surrounding the destined. It was only then did they realize that they were inside wherever the walls were protecting.

Seconds later Minervamon and her squad were there as well, appearing from nowhere.

'How'd you get here?' asked Takumi, more shocked than surprised.

'Through this.' Answered Minervamon, taking out a strange-looking, semicircular machine from somewhere near her. 'This is one of the remains left here. We call them Transports. They allow us to get to anywhere from anywhere as long as we have one on the other side. But as you can see, these machines tend to break down after used. The only one that ever remained intact is the one by the gate, where I asked you to step onto.'

'So, this is the Fortress?' mumbled Eiji.

'That's how we call it.' Petermon was the one to answer. 'Though I've never been inside before.'

'Then, can anyone tell us what's going on?' demanded MetalPhantomon.

'Fine, now that we're safe.' Replied Minervamon; her voice was soft, almost a complete opposite to her warlike outfit, and so was her gaze. 'We have digimon here working for the ones in the Temple, and that's how we got Sorcermon's message that you might be in danger.'

'I thought you all considered them as some crazy psychos.' Mumbled Amy, immediately hushed by Yuzuki.

'This is a place left behind by humans.' Minervamon continued to explain. 'And since we work with Sorcermon, most digimon here is not surprised to see you.'

'But how did you find us?' asked SaviorHuckmon.

'Sorcermon has more than you can think of.' Replied Minervamon. She then pointed at the back of the destined, where a double-layered house stood. 'That's an empty house. I believe you can use that.'

As told, the destined went to that building, all except Petermon. He was detained by Minervamon while the others headed into the house.

'Sorcermon said nothing about you.' Uttered Minervamon; her gaze sharpened, like how she was supposed to do with that giant sword in a battlefield.

'Surely your versatile friend told you about Hepia?' replied Petermon, receiving a nod from the female digimon as a confirmation. 'I from there.' He continued. His eyes filled with hatred, as if he could single-handedly outmatch the mega confronting him. 'That digimon –BurningGreymon –destroyed my homeland. I joined them so I can find him, and get my village the justice it deserved.'

'So, you want to get your village revenged?'

'More.' Replied Petermon. 'During the travel with the humans I figured out what Piedmon is doing to the others. I want to revenge my village, but I also want to stop Piedmon from hurting the others. You haven't seen what he's capable of; that freak has to be stopped!'

'Then I suppose this conversation is over.' Murmured Minervamon.

'Wait.' Muttered Petermon, successfully preventing Minervamon from leaving as she stayed and turned at the champion. 'What are you fighting for, then?'

'I don't know.' Replied Minervamon immediately, so fast that it seemed like she had foreseen the question. 'Survival, I guess.'

* * *

'Damn it!' shouted Ryosuke as he kicked a rusted tank next to him, causing it to fall and roll a couple feet away towards the door of the building. Everyone knew what's going on with him, which was why no one complained. Lillymon X, however, had to admit that she was a bit scared by her partner's rage. She had seen the black-haired boy's emotional side before, way more used to his quick than any other destined, but she'd never seen him real angry before, not even once.

'The next time I see him, he's dead!' he shouted as he kicked another tank towards the door.

'Get some rest then.' Whispered Eiji, who tried to approach him, only to be pushed aside. 'The digimon here seem to be willing to help us. Maybe tomorrow they will tell us more about the digital world, about Piedmon.' He continued regardless of the younger boy's emotional state.

Yuzuki sat on the bed, next to where Kaoru was sitting.

'Don't look like that all day.' Said the black-haired girl in a failed attempt to cheer Kaoru up. 'We've still got lots of fights ahead.'

'Thanks.' That all Kaoru would say.

'Then, I guess we should just sleep early?' uttered Yuzuki as she lay on the bed, covered herself with the blanket and closed her eyes. Though not very willing, Kaoru joined her a few minutes later after having stared at the ground for almost an hour since he'd finished taking a shower and all other personal needs.

* * *

'_Can __I__ ask for something?__'__ asked Yuzuki to Eiji, after __remaining members had been arranged to their__ rooms. _

'_I__'__m not actually that terrible, am __I__?__'__ replied Eiji. He__'__d taken the role of the leader for long, but was not accustomed to being asked formally._

'_Can __I__ stay with Kaoru?__'_

_The first person to respond was __the__ one that__'__d been mentioned. __'__I can be fine on my own.__'__ Uttered the blonde boy. He knew he__'__d been acting weird lately, and could understand why the others cared about him, yet he was still, in his own opinion, relatively capable of taking care of himself. Having said that, he immediately walked to one of the rooms to his left, only to be stopped by Yuzuki, holding his sleeve._

'_No, you__'__re not.__'__ Said Yuzuki, taking something out from her pocket __–__Kaoru__'__s digivic, which had been lost by him a day before while they were battling Calmaramon._

'_When__…__?__'_

'_You didn__'__t even notice that, did you?__'__interrupted__ Yuzuki. __S__he pulled Kaoru back from the door and continued. __'__You can__'__t keep acting like that. Sometimes __I__ even have to call you three times in a row before you take any notice of me.__'__ Despite knowing that Kaoru wasn__'__t a very talkative person, the situations in which she then mentioned were all some life-or-dead ones, and thus she was really __concerned__ that Kaoru__'__s concentration problem might get him into big troubles __–__at least that__'__s what she said._

'_Well, you don__'__t really have to ask for my permission; __I'__m not really that manipulative, anyway.__'__ That__'__s all the leader of the destined could say. __'__Though it might be a bit __awkward__–__you know, a boy and girl __–__we were mostly together in the wild, so, as long as you two come into agreement, __I__ have no objection.__'__ With that said, he went to a room to his right. __'__Call me if anything happens.__'_

'_Well, what do you think?__'__ asked Yuzuki. Kaoru, who__'__d been staring at his digivice since he__'__d got it back, seemed surprised to hear the black-haired girl__'__s voice and switched his sight back to __the__horizon__._

'_Wait, I still__…'__ he scanned around, but could find no trace of Eiji. __'__When did he go?__'_

'_See?__'__ uttered Yuzuki. She pulled Kaoru__'__s arm and gestured for him to come with her. __'__You__'__re not acting like yourself.__'_

'_Right__…'__ mumbled Kaoru, neither following Yuzuki__'__s lead nor resisting, he simply allowing her to pull him to wherever she wanted to._

* * *

Kaoru woke up not soon after he had fallen asleep. Not having any clock or timing machine, he could only estimate by the view outside the window that it should be about two in the morning. He looked at the other side of the bed, where Yuzuki was lying, to ensure that he didn't wake her up, though it turned out that she was as awake as anyone in the morning.

'Sorry, I…' whispered Kaoru, only to be interrupted by Yuzuki. 'It's fine. I haven't been able to sleep all the time, so you didn't actually wake me up.' she said as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

'You don't have to do so much for me.' Mumbled Kaoru.

'Well,' uttered Yuzuki as she turned down her head. 'I didn't do this for you –not only for you.' She said, wanting to tell the blonde boy that she had started to experience the situation of seeing every dead face in her head after Kumamon was killed, and that that made her felt weak and wanted to not be left alone, but seeing that saying those things out might only make Kaoru remember more about Duskmon, she only said one simple sentence. Turning her head at Kaoru's direction, she said. 'I didn't want to be alone.'

None of them said anything. They both stared at each other's glistering eyes in the darkness for a few minutes, which seemed like an eternity to them. And then, out of an unknown urge, they leaned closer to each other, held an arm out, placed it at the back of the other's neck, pulled the other's head toward themselves, closed their eyes, and pressed their lips together. It almost seemed like their moves were perfectly identical to one another's.

The kiss went on for no more than ten seconds, but it seemed long enough for the two that when they were separated it felt like hours had already passed away.

'Sorry, you…' uttered Kaoru. Yuzuki didn't have to listen to him to know what's going to be said, that she already had a boyfriend. Though many had thought in that way, she really only considered Katashi as a good friend, without romantic relations. Yet it seemed like everyone was thinking differently, and that made her wonder if Katashi, too, thought that they were in a relation and loved her. Though that made it extremely uneasy to say this, she still said. 'We're not lovers, at least that's what I've been thinking.'

'I still shouldn't have done that.' Mumbled Kaoru.

Trying to switch the topic, Yuzuki said. 'Anyway, is your shirt always wet?'

'It just happens, every time I have nightmares.' Replied Kaoru, in a whisper. 'It doesn't feel good, but I can't just take it off. It dries in the morning anyway.'

'You can, if that makes you feel better.' Uttered Yuzuki. Normally she'd think that she must be out of her mind to say that, yet somehow, in the night, she just thought differently than she did in daytime.

Kaoru was also an example of not acting normally at night, like being controlled by some kind of brainwaves such that he thought differently than usual. He took off his sweaty shirt, placed it on top of the small cupboard near the bed, where he placed his hoodie.

They stared at each other for a longer time. Though they couldn't see one another clearly in the darkness, the awkwardness came after the prolonged staring and both of them turned their faces to the opposite direction, getting back into the sleeping position. The darkness was always there to hinder visions, but none of them necessarily needed their actual sights to tell that both their faces were flushing red.

A few minutes passed, and they had, fortunately, reached a less awkward state. Yuzuki was the first to speak, saying. 'Can I ask for a favor?' no responses came. Knowing what that meant, she said directly. 'Remember the time when I accidentally…'

'You always can.' Replied Kaoru before the black-haired girl even finished her sentence. Silently, Yuzuki held out her arms, wrapped them round Kaoru's waist and pressed her face against the blonde boy's bare shoulder.

'Can I ask for a favor in return?' asked Kaoru as he placed his hands on Yuzuki's arms.

'You always can.' Replied Yuzuki. Though they couldn't see each other's face, they were feeling closer than ever.

'Don't let me go.' Kaoru uttered.

'Never.' Whispered Yuzuki. Knowing how impractical her answer was, she added. 'Until morning.'

* * *

'Sorry, we're late.' Uttered Yuzuki as she and Kaoru went downstairs to see that everyone, even their respective digimon partners, had arrived –quite long ago apparently. They spend a little time discussing issues at the hall, then Minervamon took them out, stating that they needed to know about what they were about to face.

'Go up there.' Requested the mega in a half-commanding tone. To her left was a stone staircase, embedded to one of the walls surrounding the fortress. The destined went up one by one without objections, but could see nothing really special even when they had all reached up the top of the walls –not until Minervamon was up there too.

'I think you might have something to show us?' muttered Pteramon.

'You can it from here.' Said Minervamon, pointing outside the walls.

'I don't see anything.' Uttered Amy. As soon as she said that, she turned her head a little right, and found the view that contradicted her previous comment.

'I suppose you all see that now?' said Minervamon.

'What is that?' asked Eiji. He saw, or believed he saw, something like a warehouse –an especially large one, that was covered in nicely painted iron walls. Though distant, he guessed that the warehouse should be at least one-third the size of the Fortress, which made that quite a luxury in the digital world.

'That's a place we're planning to strike.' Answered Minervamon. Before anyone could ask the reason for the seemingly unnecessary violence, she said. 'Lately we've discovered that the notorious Krams has been going in and out of that warehouse frequently, with boxes of materials.'

'You think that's their base?' asked Yuzuki.

'No.'

'Then why are you planning on a strike?' asked Lillymon.

'We suspect that they are working with someone else. Some of us had claimed that for more than once, they saw a digimon welcoming the Krams at the front door of the warehouse –a digimon that looked like a human in fancy clothes.' Explained Minervamon. 'I assume you have some idea who that was?'

'I can't be sure.' Uttered TigierVespamon. 'But if that's Piedmon then this might be our best chance to take him down.'

'But how are you planning to strike exactly?' questioned MetalPhantomon. 'I don't think that warehouse's walls can be torn down easily.'

'You have experienced using the Transports, right?' said Minervamon. 'We have a few remaining in store. Our plan is that, we'll get someone inside, and plant one of those Transports there. Then we'll sneak inside that facility from here without being noticed at all. That'll also be our way out if anything happens.' She then paused for a while, looking, for the first time in front of the destined, worried. 'We only have one problem.'

'And what might that be?' asked Yuzuki.

'We can't get anyone inside, and we have completely no idea of whatever might be inside.' Replied Minervamon.

'So the whole plan is just a talk?' uttered Ryosuke.

'I thought you might have something to help us.' Replied Minervamon, frustrated.

'And we do have that something.' Answered Kaoru out of the blue. 'I know someone here who's very skilled at sneaking around.' He said, staring at Amy.

'What?' muttered Amy as soon as she realized that everyone there was staring at her, with the obvious demand written on their faces.

'I don't know you much, but I trust Kaoru's decision.' Uttered Petermon.

'Can you actually get into the warehouse?' asked Minervamon, seemingly excited at the fact that the plan could finally go on.

'Well, I can, technically.' Uttered Amy, turning to BlueMeramon. 'But why will I do as you ask? I might get myself killed in the process.'

'Or you may get us all killed if the plan goes on without some inside information.' Added Takumi.

'Fine.' mumbled Amy, annoyed. She then asked if anything needed to be prepared, and received the unexpected answer that she needed to go as soon as possible, which was that day.

'I will get you one of the Transport. Once you get there, place it there, and then scout around. You'd better return this afternoon.' Requested Minervamon.

'Or maybe she don't have to.' Suggested Takumi. 'She can do that telepathy trick, right?'

'BlueMeramon can.' Corrected Amy. 'And I'm not sure if it could reach that far away.'

'Anyway, just give it a try.' Uttered Ryosuke.

'Then please follow me.' Demanded Minervamon.

'Before I go, can I have a moment?' demanded Amy. She then turned to Kaoru, and dragged him away from the others to a faraway corner. 'We need a little chat, I believe.'

'I maintain my opinion that you're the best choice to infiltrate the warehouse.' Whispered Kaoru.

'You really think I'm up to that?' uttered Amy. Though it was known to everyone that Amy was a bit different in the way of thinking, Kaoru could hardly think of what else the older girl would want at the moment, given that almost anything between the two of them had been settled.

'Tell me,' continued Amy, 'will it be too harsh of me to occupy you from her after all this is over?'

Kaoru's red face instantly answered the question before he could say. 'I don't think now's the best time to talk about that.'

'When are you planning to announce that to us, publicly?' continued Amy, giggling.

'How did you know that?' whispered Kaoru.

'I think that's pretty obvious.' Replied Amy. 'Anyway, at least announce that after we get out of the digital world.'

'Maybe.' Whispered Kaoru.

* * *

'What took you two so long?' questioned Minervamon as Amy returned to the group, impatient.

'Nothing important to you.' Replied Amy casually. 'I'm ready to go, show me the way.'

'Please follow me.' Said Minervamon, guiding the girl and her partner digimon to the small warehouse where the inhabitant of the Fortress kept the Transports.

A few more minutes passed, and only Minervamon returned from the Transport storage.

'They've gone, successfully.' Reported the mega.

'Then there's nothing we can do for now?' asked Pteramon despite how the others in the group really enjoyed a moment of rest. They'd been through so many battles in the last few days.

'We should get ourselves ready.' Suggested Petermon. 'Now that you're all here, there's a great chance that BurningGreymon may come here.'

'Yeah, I didn't really think of that.' Muttered Eiji. With all the things they'd gone through in the last few days and the prolonged company of Petermon, he'd almost forgotten that Petermon was with them because of BurningGreymon, which caused him to wonder if he'd continue to go with the group after they defeated the last hybrid, or would he simply settle down at somewhere and rebuild his village with the survivors. _The latter__'__s not too bad._ He thought, knowing that they'd given enough trouble to the other digimon.

'I wonder what the Krams are transporting for Piedmon?' uttered SaviorHuckmon.

'Something precious for sure.' Replied his partner.

'What if that's not Piedmon at all?' suspected TigerVespamon, followed only by another question by MetalPhantomon, pointing at the wall to the team's left. 'What's that?'

At the wall where MetalPhantomon was pointing at, a bright orange light shone. So bright was it that it almost made the digi-destiend believe that it was about time of sunset, while it was still actually early in the morning. Minervamon, immediately alerted, ordered a few other digimon, mostly Sagittarimon, to the direction of the light to investigate while trying to go to somewhere to figure out what to do. But it was a bit late; the light suddenly disappeared. It just disappeared at an instant, not like turning off a light bulb, as if the light was never there.

Then, just when the destined thought that the wired thing was over, a large bombing noise came. It led the digi-destined's attention to the wall where the noise came from –the same wall where the light had come from. Nothing happened at first, but then the wall started to go through a change in color –its original dull gray surface with the reddish brown rust became a dark gray color; the tone of the gray was so consistent that the wall seemed just like a new one. The color also reminded the destined of that of burnt coal.

The idea of burnt coal turned out to be no coincident at all –a few seconds after the wall had changed its color it started to fall apart. Unlike the usual cracking and rumbling, the wall fell off, becoming countless black tiny particles that rained down silently. In no more than a minute an entire portion of the wall was gone, as if someone had cut a perfectly smooth rectangle form the wall. The destined could now grasp a clear image of the cause of that.

They were a bit stunned at first, but later found out that they shouldn't actually be all that surprised. Behind the now gone wall was TyrantKabuterimon, accompanied by countless Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon species digimon.

'So he escaped the cave after all.' Mumbled Ryosuke.

'Wanna guess what he's up to?' uttered Pteramon, but there wasn't the time for a casual conversation. The Krams, with the opened wall, rushed inside the Fortress, so tightly packed were they that from a aerial view, the Krams seemed just like a water current of red and blue.

'Go to the storage!' yelled Minervamon to the destined. 'Guard the remaining Transports!' with that, she went off to the direction of the broken wall, where the Krams had already begun slashing and grasping things and slicing villagers.

'What do we do now?' muttered Petermon.

'Go to the storage as tasked.' Replied Eiji. Immediately he went off to the direction of the storage without waiting the others. Without much choice, the others had to follow. Only it wasn't all of them who went to the direction of the storage. SaviorHuckmon discovered half way that Petermon was gone, and then found out that he was at a distant area, fighting the beetle digimon.

'He can take care of himself. Go to the storage first!' ordered the leader of the destined. They went on, only to encounter a bunch of the Krams. They didn't seem to be blocking their way, but rather just there by coincident. There were too many of them, after all.

'Any suggestions?' asked Ryosuke. 'If no, I suggest beating everything in our way.'

Nobody was free enough to give any responses. SaviorHuckmon was busy slicing a few Kuwagamon nearby where the humans were just trying to hide. He stabbed a Kuwagamon in the mouth, throwing its lifeless body away while turning around and slashed another with his tail blade; Pteramon was accelerating for the storage while shooting as many beetle digimon as he could, resulting in numerous explosions and flying bodies of the Krams. Focusing solely on reaching the storage, he seemed to ignored as many digimon as he could, only to be eventually overcome by a sudden strike from an Okuwamon, who crushed into the champion with its giant pincers opening and closing, getting closer and closer to Pteramon, who was forced to land, every time the Okuwamon made a move.

A knock from MetalPhantomon was what saved Pteramon. He knocked the Okuwamon with the back of his sickle, threw him midair and then slashed it with the laser part of the sickle. While doing that he failed to pay attention to his back, where a MegaKabuterimon was approaching. He could only know that when the beetle approaching him yelled upon being stung by the sword of TigerVespamon, which had been thrown to the ultimate. Nearby Lillymon was blasting as many Krams as she could while occasionally receiving help from others from the team.

Everything was chaos at that few minutes –digimon fighting everywhere; arrows flying; the destined dodging blasts and approaching the storage. Yuzuki was right in the middle of the battlefield. Things seemed to be a blur to her, as if her eyesight had suddenly gone bad and needed extra lenses to help focus; the noise was loud and messy, so messy that the black-haired girl felt like she heard nothing at all. From all of that, however, one particular scene caught her attention the m,ost.

Minervamon, wielding her giant blade, jumped up and down and swung her blade at the leader of the Krams, who swiftly responded every single strike with the metal claws mounted on his forearms. Regardless of the sheer size of Minervamon's freaking sword, not even a scratch could be seen on TyrantKabuterimon's armor, as if the giant blade was no more than a plastic toy. TyrantKabuterimon swung his tail at Minervamon, who jumped up and evaded the strike even with the additional weight of her sword.

Seizing the chance while the female digimon was midair without any means of defense, TyrantKabuterimon launched his right arm at Minervamon and gripped her tight in his fist. Minervamon struggled, swung her sword aimlessly at TyrantKabuterimon. The result was the same –not even a scratch was made.

'Chrome Digizoid, like it?' taunted TyrantKabuterimon as he tightened his grip. 'The jobs given to us were so easy lately –transporting metals; hunting down humans that is supposed to be extinct, which turned out to be not true. Isn't it great to have a chance to finally crack something?'

Minervamon let out a painful expression, but never screamed. She kicked the other mega while still trying to free herself by swinging her blade. Almost every hit was useless. Enraged, she threw her sword straight at the head of the leader of the Krams and, hopefully, stabbed his left eye, which was, unfortunately, not protected by the metal TyrantKabuterimon had mentioned no more than five seconds before. Feeling the instant pain, the mega loosened his grip and dropped Minervamon.

TyrantKabuterimon let our a long and, needless to say, painful scream. Enraged, he gripped the sword of Minervamon out of his eye socket, swung his tail to knock off the mega who'd just barely escaped him and, with a long cry, broke the sword in half, throwing the broken pieces to Minervamon, who was still struggling to get on to her feet.

'We have to help her!' shouted Yuzuki, watching from faraway. As soon as she said that, she found herself occupied by the Krams once again and had to hide all the way as the brutal killing went on. The beetle digimon seemed to care less about taking and more about chopping things in half, which caused quite a lot of trouble to the destined. They'd been charged to guard the storage, and yet they were still very far away from their destination, where they're supposed to be half an hour ago even when under attack.

'We have to take care of ourselves first!' replied MetalPhantomon in a rush as he knocked another Kuwagamon away with the back of his sickle, barely escaping another incoming MegaKabuterimon from his back.

'How can we even get there without getting ourselves killed?' muttered Pteramon as he drifted away from an Okuwamon, only to found himself nearly killed by some other Kuwagamon. The beetle digimon were so unorganized the destined somehow hoped they were more in order, like an army. At least that way the mess caused would be more comprehensible. Another thing Pteramon hated was that his partner was insisting that they should follow the plan and get to the storage, where everything depends on, when they could only be thankful not to get killed by the craze.

Another strike from a Kuwagamon, this time reaching SaviorHuckmon's left arm as he swung his blade. Fortunately the jaws of the beetle was opened too wide that not much damage could be done before the ultimate took notice of that and threw the Kuwagamon away. Just when he thought the density of the Krams was the greatest, all the digimon –champion and ultimate, beetle and stag beetle –backed off, as if they had received an order of some sort.

What SaviorHuckmon found out was that they weren't receiving any orders. They were receiving a warning. The same bright orange light was there as the beetles retreated. Barely noticing that due to the mess of the fight, the destined looked to the source of the light, and found out that, not surprisingly, the light belonged to TyrantKabuterimon.

The orange sphere at the abdomen of the purple-armored mega was glowing, possibly giving out quite an amount of heat, too, if the destined had the chance to feel that other than just deducing from the observation that smoke was beginning to appear around the area where the light shone. Remembering what happened to the Fortress wall earlier, it didn't need a particular genius to tell that the target of the mega –Minervamon in this case –would surely end up dead once the leader of the Krams finished his move, no matter how that ought to be done, seeing that no one had actually seen that before.

Minervamon got up to her knees, taking breaths deeply. The armor of her opponent had proved too hard to penetrate even with the sword she had been so proud of, not to mention that the sword had now been broken into two. Desperate, she searched for a weakness of the mega, any one that would let her give a fatal strike. Surprisingly, even to herself, she could only come up with the crazy notion that the sphere at which the light was being given out was the only spot where she could place her bet on.

The light glowed brighter and brighter, just like the time when the Fortress wall was turned into ash instantly. Minervamon gripped her broken blade, rose up, and charged, right at TyrantKabuterimon. As exhausted as she was, she could surely feel that she was running faster than she'd even done in her entirely life. The great distance between the two was shorted within seconds. She was very close to her target –so close.

TyrantKabuterimon fired.

A beam of orange light with an estimated base radius of about two of the hemispheric buildings tall could be seen jetting out the mega's abdomen. It went straight through anything in its path; the wall behind where Minervamon had once stood was now the victim of the beam, too. Nothing could really be seen under the effect of the brilliant light except for the outline of the retreating Krams and the buildings.

Time passed –an unknown period of time. No one could really tell how long had passed –very long, that was for sure. The light faded; first the luminous intensity dropped drastically, then the fading was much slower. Things could be seen again with colors, and the first sight terrified the digi-destined.

Minervamon, if the thing in front of TyrantKabuterimon could still be called so, stood right in front of TyrantKabuterimon. Both her arms raised; her feet still in a running position. She was, horribly discolored, as if a human-shaped coal standing with a fighting pose with still glowing sparks lit randomly all over her lifeless body. Layers of burnt tissue started to flake off the body like rust.

The bad guy wasn't too good, either. The broken sword of Minervamon was there, embedded right in the middle of the orange sphere of his body; only the handle of the sword could be seen. The two digimon were the same –motionless and dead.

The scene was too terrible that, even though they're safe, no one dared to go to the bodies. So lost in thought was the destined that only a cry from some other digimon brought them back to reality.

'It's gone! They're all gone!' shouted the digimon.

'What's gone?' inquired Eiji, realizing how foolish he was to have asked that soon after he finished speaking.

'The Transports. They're all destroyed!'

Yuzuki, upon overhearing that at the side of Eiji, dropped to her knees and stared at the dead digimon for who knew how long.

Minervamon had died in vain.


	30. 29 Last resort

29 ~Last resort~

If there were one thing Yuzuki ever disliked about digimon, it'd be the fact that they turned back into digi-eggs only some time after their deaths, which left the terribly damaged body all over the Fortress at the moment. Minervamon, TyrantKabuterimon, all the others who'd died during the invasion of the Krams, which was very likely to be plotted by Piedmon, were now gone, back into the form of digi-eggs, awaiting to hatch again some long time later.

_Anybody hears me?_The mental voice of Amy was what brought her back to reality. Apparently, the others, too, had received the message from Amy, who should be inside the warehouse of Piedmon at the moment.

'I guess we can all hear you.' Said her, not even bothering to try to figure out how the older girl did the telepathy trick with her partner. Not in a particular mood to talk, she uttered. 'Come back now, on foot.'

_What?_

'Just do it.'

* * *

'So that's it? It all ends here?' groaned Pteramon. The destined were now inside a less damaged hut, which had had its ceiling gone; its walls with random holes that made the entire building look like it was made of waffles, except for the dust all over them.

'So I went there for nothing?' muttered Amy. Her partner was at the door side as always. 'I got so much about that warehouse.'

'Well, you think we can go on like this?' said Eiji, pointing at the Transport storage, which was now severely burnt down, with all the equipment the destined needed gone with it.

'What can we do then?' mumbled Petermon, impatient. As though he was never one of the destined, he'd blended in the group naturally ever since he joined the group when they departed the dead village, and now he had some place in the group, too.

'Actually, we can.' Proposed Takumi, much to the others' surprise.

'You'll have to explain yourself.' Uttered Lillymon. 'Unless you want us all dead by charging blindly into the warehouse.'

'Yes, I'm proposing to get into the warehouse on foot. And no, we're not gonna get ourselves killed.' Explained the redhead.

'How?' asked SaviorHuckmon.

'Amy had been there, right? She can help guide us inside the warehouse.' Said Takumi. 'Now that all the Transports are gone, our enemy will no doubt assume that we have lost all the means to enter the warehouse, hopefully.' He paused, taking a deep breath. 'I think we can get in there when they lower their defenses. In fact, it seems to me the best and only chance we have to strike.'

'What's inside that warehouse anyway?' muttered MetalPhantomon.

'A big surprise.' Whispered Amy, the only one who'd seen what's inside Piedmon's warehouse.

'Just get on with it.' uttered Ryosuke.

'Actually, that's more like a factory than a warehouse.' Said Amy. 'I suppose you know what I mean by now? Chaosdramon –tones of them. That's what the deliveries are used for.'

'How many, exactly, are you talking about?' questioned TigerVespamon. He didn't need to tell the others to recall their memories that just one Chaosdramon had gotten enough trouble for them, including exterminating an entire village within five minutes.

'Hundreds.' Replied Amy casually, as if that number wasn't enough. 'Don't freak out yet. They're not covered with that armor yet. Quite disgusting, actually.'

'Then it's our chance.' Said Takumi, reinforcing his idea. 'Like I've said, we can get inside, and destroy them while we can.'

'Then we need to learn about the interior.' Said Eiji. 'It'll take us quite some time, not to mention that destroying the Chaosdramon takes time, too.'

'Who says that?' uttered Amy, playfully. 'Don't forget I've been inside. We don't need to take them one by one; we can blow them off al at once. There're plenty of explosives inside.'

'So you're suggesting?' inquired Petermon.

'Do we have bombs?' replied Amy.

'I bet the have some. But we still need to learn about the inside.' Said Yuzuki.

'That's quite easy.' Explained Amy. 'There're two doors: one in the front and one back door. Both lead to the three places where the explosives are placed. The front door leads to one and the back door branches to two. We set bombs at those three places, get out in time, and watch everything goes bomb.'

'How can you be sure we won't get lost?' doubted MetalPhantomon.

'You'll know the routes once you're there. They're pretty straightforward.' Replied the girl. 'One more thing.' She added. 'Get every digimon digivolved before we get going.'

The rest of the afternoon went pretty fast, and the destined had decided to strike at evening, while their enemy had their guards, supposedly, down. One good thing created by the Krams' assault was that even with the Transports gone, they could still get out of the Fortress using simply the gigantic hole blown by TyrantKabuterimon on the fortress wall. They divided themselves into three groups: Amy with Takumi; Eiji with Ryosuke, both because they had to get the uncontrollable with a rational member. The final pair, or trio, consisted of Yuzuki, Kaoru and Petermon.

* * *

Amy led the destined to the warehouse, where they hid behind some boulders while the girl was explaining about the entrance and exits of the warehouse. Thankfully, the bombs provided by the digimon in the Fortress were theoretically powerful –too powerful that the destined had to get out far away from the warehouse before they detonate the bombs. Amy's group approached by the front door, where Amy had SkullMeramon used his telepathy to gain entrance by erasing the memories of their existence in the minds of the guards. Eiji and Yuzuki's group went from the back door, with no guards at all. Takumi had been right.

'Once we got there, there's no turning back.' warned Amy before the groups separated.

'That's a pretty neat trick of yours, really.' Murmured Takumi as he and Amy and their partners walked in from the front door without any particular precautions, as if the guarding Kuwagamon were welcoming them as they walked in. They even closed the door fro them.

'Sometimes I really wonder how you do this. We can talk, right?' mumbled Takumi.

'Just stay on guard.' Replied Amy. 'Though I don't think that's necessary. There weren't many guards here when I first came in.'

They walked along a broad path, where little light was shed such that all the time the factory seemed just as dark and haunted as any cave. The only different feeling was that the road was extremely smooth, and, unexpected by the redhead, no sign of rusting could be found there. To the group's top right corner there stood a pathway, hanging from the ceiling, where, as indicated by Amy, Eiji's group would pass. No sign of the older boy was seen, though.

It was, all along, too quiet. Even to Amy, who'd been there just the morning, it was so unnaturally quiet that it sounded almost terrible. She, though believing that Piedmon wouldn't be setting much guard around, didn't expect it to be so dead quiet. It certainly had not been the case when she first infiltrated the warehouse.

'So,' uttered MetalPhantomon, breaking the silence. 'You two communicate inside your minds all the time?'

'Yeah.' Replied Amy, not bothering to look back to the talking digimon.

'So do you know why he doesn't talk at all?'

'Freedom of speech.'

'Maybe we should focus on the enemies.' Said whispered Takumi. 'Though I can see none.'

It had somehow been a tradition, that whenever someone said things like that, enemies are going to rush out from nowhere. This time was, much to the group's presumption, not an exception. At first they heard the sounds of footsteps –messily arranged and loud, a bit like a thousand drunken men was approaching them wearing metal boots. It took little to no time for them to figure out that their pursuers were a bunch of Kuwagamon and Kabuterimon. Though their boss had died, they seemed to be still in Piedmon's services.

'Get ready!' uttered Takumi; his partner was already in position, holding his giant sickle before his partner. SkullMeramon was on the other side, with his flaming chains in his hands.

'How much further do we have to go?' asked MetalPhantomon. Before anyone could answer that, a Kuwagamon, expectedly, charged at the ultimate. Without a moment of hesitation, MetalPhantomon smacked his incoming foe with the back of his sickle, not too willing to use the laser side. Their enemies, on the contrary, never seemed to care about how cruel they should act in a fight. SkullMeramon fired several fireballs at the incoming beetle digimon, successfully taking a few of them out.

'Keep moving!' yelled Amy as the digimon went on a full out confliction. The humans were kept between the two digimon as they advanced, with SkullMeramon at the front and MetalPhantomon at the back. They ran fast, and straight, for most of the beetle digimon were coming from behind. A few that struck from the front were handled by SkullMeramon with the whipping of his red-hot chains. The humans kept their eyesight forward; they could only imagine the battle of MetalPhantomon by hearing the sound of the metal colliding. They kept on moving, even faster than the time when they had been crossing the river. Amy took the lead all the way, turning left, and right, then left again.

'Do all the others have to go through this complex routes?' muttered MetalPhantomon as he knocked a Kabuterimon aside while slicing a Kuwagamon and another Kabuterimon with his laser sickle. The bodies hit the walls of the corridors, bounced forth and back as the hit the ground, hindering the Krams from getting to the human. MetalPhantomon, however, never stopped defending the humans as they went on, slashing more and more of the beetle digimon.

'We're almost there!' indicated Amy as she started to run faster. Though he had never run this fast, Takumi was not feeling all too exhausted to accelerate at the moment. SkullMeramon kept on burning whatever got in their way; MetalPhantomon continued to slice whatever was pursuing the group; the humans continued running.

They reached a door in just a few seconds. Without any need of communication, they opened the door, confident that they had found the right way. The Krams were behind them quite far away thanks to the complicated route the destined had taken. Once the door was opened, Amy informed SkullMeramon to stand forward, facing the upcoming beetle digimon.

'What are we waiting for?' questioned MetalPhantomon, not understanding why the girl wanted them to wait for a while before getting into the room, where they were supposed to go in as soon as possible.

'Just wait and see.' Muttered Amy. 'Here they come, get ready.'

The never-stopping marching sound of the Krams were growing louder and louder each second, and within a few seconds the destined could see the first three of the beetle digimon approaching them, appearing from the corner from the right where they had used to escape the Krams. A few seconds later there were more, and soon the entire corridor would be filled with the beetle digimon.

'Now!' shouted Amy.

'Metal fireball!' yelled SkullMeramon as he spitted molten metal from his mouth. Not just one, but many. They landed everywhere –the ceiling, the walls, but mostly the ground. The extreme heat caused the metal corridor to melt. The ground became hot and gooey; the ceiling began to rain down smoking orangey red liquid. Knowing that they could go no further, the Krams stopped, not even daring to fly through the inferno.

'You can really be crazy sometimes.' Commented Takumi as the group proceeded.

'Let's place it somewhere safe.' Mumbled Amy as she took out the pocket-sized bomb. It was really amazement that the villagers in the Fortress could make such delicate devices, even if those were used in combat purpose.

'How're the others doing?' asked MetalPhantomon, impatient.

'Contacting.' Replied Takumi. The others could just wait as they blasted a whole on a nearby wall, which led they outside the factory.

* * *

'Let's just make it quick.' Mumbled Eiji. The members in his group really made him a bit nervous. Though Ryouske had been behaving rather reasonable lately, he stilled worried about Hououmon, who usually just did whatever he wanted without making much sense,

'That looks kind of impressive, actually.' Muttered Ryouske. The group was walking on a panel hanged to the ceiling, and therefore could see the entire image below. The warehouse was, indeed, bigger on the inside, at least it felt that way. Below the group were Chaosdramon –tones of them. Each of the dragon digimon could be a potential threat to the digital world, and, from what the destined had guessed, Piedmon was planning to do something with those. Without the metallic red coat of armor, the artificial digimon looked rather blank, a bit like Machinedramon, one of the digimon that formed Millenniummon, but never less terrifying.

'Do you really think the bombs can take them out?' asked Rosemon.

'There're explosives.' Answered Eiji. 'And the Chaosdramon aren't coated with the metal yet, so I guess, yes.'

'At least we're not chased by some crazy zombies.' uttered Hououmon, who immediately gained a furious glare from his partner. To mention that topic at that critical moment was basically meaning to screw the whole plan up. Luckily Ryosuke wasn't reacting much –the events lately had surely taught the black-haired boy some lessons, including what he should and shouldn't do in order to gain revenge for those who suffered from Cyberdramon's experimental test.

'Let's just get going.' Murmured Ryouske. The group of four went on for a few more seconds without encountering any trouble up until the moment when they started hearing sounds –sounds that didn't belong to them. Without much thought, they turned around and observed. Even in the darkness, the could sense that digimon were approaching them and, seeing that the facility seemed to be quite important to Piedmon, they presumed that the digimon surrounding them must be formidable.

'Do you know a way to hide?' whispered Eiji. 'I really don't want to fight in a confined space.'

'Amy said the route would lead us directly to the explosives.' Replied Rosemon, also in a whisper.

'Then I guess we don't have much choice.'

The guards –wherever they were, weren't waiting for them to come up with any plans. The dark space was illuminated at the instant as several bright energy spheres came into sight of the destined. Knowing that the spheres were coming for them, the dodged to the ground immediately. The illumination provided by the attacks, however, did help the digi-destined as the got a good glimpse at what's approaching them –the Krams.

'Shouldn't be surprised.' Mumbled Ryouske. 'Any plans?'

'Hououmon and Rosemon, cover us. We'll run as fast as we can to the destination.' Whispered Eiji. With that said, he got up and immediately started to run without awaiting the others' responses. Rosemon X came up with a glowing vein from nowhere and whipped it at the beetle digimon as she ensured that the humans had all gotten to the back of Hououmon such that they could reach their destination at highest efficient.

Hououmon, despite how he wanted to join the battle, flew fast, but not too fast so that the humans he was carrying could withstand the air resistance. Carrying passengers, he could hardly react when a dozen of Kuwagamon were in front of him, with their salivary mouth cavities wild open and their gigantic red pincers clicking in and out. Using his wings, Hououmon managed to knock a few of them out of the way as he advanced while keeping the humans safe.

Rosemon really wanted to help him, but she was already too busy occupied by the fight of her own that she could hardly pay any attention to the others. She used her whip to keep as many of the digimon away from the humans as possible while stay keeping up with them. Yet there were simply too of them that she could hardly keep an attention at all her foes. Most of the time there were always ten more around her when she managed to defeat one.

'I need some help here!' yelled Rosemon X; she didn't even have the time to turn over her head to talk to the rest of the group. Seeing that only one digimon could hardly handle all the Krams, the humans had no choice but to walk on foot, giving Hououmon the mobility to fight.

'Crimson flare!' immediately after he joined the fight, Hououmon flew to the front of Rosemon and, having all the digimon in front of him as his enemy, he fired a wave of flame from his mouth, incinerating the beetles at a high efficient. There was, however, not much time left as the Krams continued to show up. already having known that, the humans never stopped running once they'd landed.

'Are you sure we're on the right way?' despite already running out of his breath, Ryosuke still couldn't help asking the obvious yet always neglected question.

'We can only trust Amy for now.' Muttered Eiji in response, too tired to speak and run at the same time.

Their partners, in the meantime, didn't even have the time to discuss any plans. All that they were doing was hardly defending the humans anymore –they were barely keeping their own lives. Hououmon fired at multiple targets, each time with the reward of more targets; Rosemon whipped as many as she could, yet some of the Krams could always find a way to her blind spot and got her by surprise.

'Get going!' Hououmon had to yell that every time his partner looked back at him. Knowing that they could never stop the outraging Krams, Hououmon made a decision –a quick and seemingly unconsidered one. Without much notification he gripped Rosemon and forced her out of the battlefield and, with an accelerating speed, gripped the two humans and started to fly at full speed.

There seemed to be nothing, and yet it seemed that everything was there. As the humans were carried away from the battlefield everything seemed so comical, as if all their surroundings were not real, and that they were merely inside a terrible nightmare, without occasional threat from man-eating insect digimon. The circumstance later proved itself real as Hououmon decelerated and led the humans, as well as Rosemon, into a room –the very room they needed to get to.

'Place the bomb somewhere safe.' Mumbled Hououmon, exhausted with his flight.

'Then what?' asked Eiji as he put the bomb near an almost invisible corner. The loudening sound of footsteps did nothing but to nervous the humans, indicating that the Krams were getting closer and closer.

Without much hesitation, Rosemon blasted a hole on the ceiling and instructed the humans to went out through there with the help of Hououmon, with the hope that the Krams would stop once they noticed that their targets were gone.

Once outside the building, Eiji immediately thought of contacting the other, only he never had the chance to. As soon as he took out his cobalt blue digivice, he received a call from Takumi.

'Everthing alright?' asked the older boy, not awaiting Takumi to say anything.

'We've placed the bomb. What about you and the others?'

'We've done that, too. I'll contact Yuzuki and see if she needs any help.'

Without further delay he phoned Yuzuki, only to hear her desperate voice as well as the sound of metal colliding and crashing.

'Detonate the bombs!' though a bit unclear with the noises from the background, Eiji could still tell that it was Yuzuki's voice.

'What are you talking about?' asked Eiji, confused as well as worried. 'Where're you?'

'We're inside,' replied the girl. 'And we need the bombs explode now!'

* * *

Absolute quietness. That's what Yuzuki's group had been hearing since they had set foot in the factory. In fact, the sound of their footsteps was, too, barely audible. The tension was there –a tension that had kept the group from doing anything not relating to their mission, including communicating.

They were, like Eiji's group, at a place near the ceiling, where they could have a good look at the production line of the Chaosdramon. They seemed so tiny from their place, and yet they were still menacing. That's why they're on a mission to blow up the factory, after all.

'I really wouldn't want to meet those things again –not even once.' Mumbled Petermon.

'Well, we're about to destroy them, once and for all.' Answered Yuzuki. Somehow that's the first thing she'd said since many hours. 'How far away are we?'

'Not too far, I guess.' Replied TigerVespamon. 'I don't think Amy would take the risk of having us lost in the building.'

'So, basically, after this, all is over.' Mumbled Kaoru.

'And by then we'll still have to find a way out of the digital world.' Suggested Yuzuki. The group had, not intentionally, run into the digital in such a rush so long ago. Back then, they had thought that they could simply get to Piedmon and had him forced to give them the device that allowed him to travel through the two worlds. None of the, by that time, had any idea of what would happen in the digital world.

'I wonder if we can see BurningGreymon again?' uttered Petermon. 'If Piedmon's dead, then he'll not appear again, right?' said the champion. Despite his known hatred towards the hybrid, there was somehow a trace of kindness and pity in his tone, as though he had given up the idea of revenging and had turned his focus to rebuilding his village, or something like that. 'If things will return to normal soon then I guess I'll have to return home soon, to make a home.'

'That's…I never really thought of that.' Replied Yuzuki. The temporary companionship of Petermon had, at least to her, become a somewhat fixed part in her life, like how she used to think that she could live her live as a normal girl back at her home the first day she returned to Rn, the day when she met Huckmon, when her life became abnormal.

Noticing a slight trace of unease in his partner, SaviorHuckmon switched the primary topic of the conversation back to business. 'We should be focused.' He said, a bit coldly. 'I saw no guards around, which is not something I expected.'

'Well then, let's get the job done before anyone takes notice of us.' Uttered TigerVespamon in response.

They had still a long way to go, and by then none of them had expected that for the next fourteen minutes no one ever found them, as if they were at the wrong place. It was kind of contradicting that they actually wanted to see some sign of guards –whatever digimon Piedmon might use –just to make sure that they were in the right place. Remembering the in-production Chaosdramon, they could be pretty sure that they had just come up with the weirdest idea ever.

Fate was, however, quite playful and, just as they were glad that they had yet to encounter any enemies, enemies were what awaited them. They first found that out by the sound of things colliding with the ground. Looking up at the ceiling they discovered that the Krams –tones of them –were waiting for them, standing upside-down on the ceiling as if their very legs could aloud them to defy gravitational force. The thing that had dropped on the ground was, not surprisingly, a drop of saliva.

Without a word the destined were on act already. TigerVespamon was the first to respond, throwing one of his swords at the Krams just when one of them descended upon the floor and started chasing the destined. That particular Kuwagamon was destroyed instantly, but more were coming. Soon the entire floor seemed to have been filled with them.

'Run!' instructed SaviorHuckmon as he knocked a few of the beetle digimon out of the humans' way. It was already too late for that, however, as the front of the humans was, too, crowded with the Krams. Petermon was fortunate to be there to stab a Kabuterimon to death just when the Krams started to approach the humans. With a few more swings the champion took out more beetle digimon, and that created a small passage for the humans to go throw, barely avoiding being pierced through by the sharp pincers of the Kuwagamon.

They seemed to be everywhere –marching on the ceiling, squeezing through the corridor, flooding the entire path of the destined. TigerVespamon and SaviorHuckmon were kept busy handling those at the behind while only Petermon alone could protect the humans, swinging his blades to and fro, occasionally throwing it like a dart at the beetle digimon. Yuzuki and Kaoru kept down all the time, evading all the conflicts happening up above them as the went –almost crawled –through the narrow passage opened up by Petermon by kicking and stabbing Kuwagamon away.

But soon the circumstance had proved itself that nearly nothing was possible to be achieved even with the dying effort given by the destined. There were simply too many of the Krams that however hard destined digimon endeavored, there were always more, like a tidal wave made of beetle –flesh hungry ones. SavoirHuckmon, using all three blades on his body, could barely survive the Krams without the occasional help from TigerVespamon, who could also be doomed had he been fighting alone. Petermon, on the other hand, showed no sign of exhaustion despite how he had been fighting.

'Watch out!' yelled SaviorHuckmon, warning the champion as a Kuwagamon flew across the ceiling and was about to strike at Petermon. Taking the warning just in time Petermon turned back, not even having the time to toss the body of the Kabuterimon away beside him as he confronted the Kuwagamon. Too late to respond, he couldn't take down the stag beetle at once, giving his potential killer the chance to land on him, opening its liquid-filled mouth as it rubbed its pincers together as thought they were chainsaws, leaning down, ready to take the champion's life.

Petermon struggled; he couldn't get his hand on his knife, nor could his physical strength be enough to knock his foe off. The Kuwagamon struck, jetting his pincers at the champion. Petermon dodged to the right, leaving the pincers of Kuwagamon deep buried in the floor. Unfortunately it didn't take long before Kuwagamon forced his pincers out and struck again, and again. Petermon barely dodged all those, moving left and right every time the beetle struck.

Luckily to him, his assistance came shortly after he had been forced in that kind of situation. Behind the Kuwagamon, SaviorHuckmon raced, stabbing his wrist blade through the torso of Kuwagamon, saving Petermon.

'There are too many of them!' exclaimed SavoirHuckmon. 'We can't get on like this.'

'Find a way out then!' replied TigerVespamon not soon after he slit another Kabuterimon. Not sooner he found out that his single request was actually not hard to fulfill. In the flash of the battle he saw an ectra way out of the Krams –one that was not yet covered by them. The time when the passage could remain clear was uncertain, but it was sure to be short enough. Therefore, regardless of where the path led to, he yelled. 'There!'

With the directions given, the destined, including the digimon, immediately went that way. It was a short-lived escape as the Krams pursued them. Now all of them were at the back of the single-ended corridor, squeezed as tight as ever. They looked no longer terrible, but crazy, as if they were simply hungry beasts chasing their preys, leaping and flying frantically.

Without much resistance in the front the destined could run as rapid as they could, and they did. Behind them were the ever-growing chainsaw-like sounds from the Krams. Even the destined digimon had given up fighting them, simply running nonstop. They could, however, never outrun the furious insects, as the distance between they remained no longer constant. The Krams were drawing nearer and nearer, chasing them like a crowd of living grinder. However feared were they, they dared not look back. In just a few more seconds they would be outrun by the Krams, and by then the most terrible death would meet them for certain.

Just about to give up hope, they saw a turn in front of them, probably just in a few seconds time within reach. They decided, therefore, to accelerate, such that the solid wall of the turn could delay the Krams a bit. Their speed was increasing exponentially, and they could almost see themselves getting rid of the Krams.

That was when the cry of Petermon came.

In shock, they looked back for the first time. What they saw was terrible, perhaps beyond everything they had seen before. Petermon wasn't fast enough; he was caught up by a Kuwagamon, pierced through in the chest by the insect's two murderous pincers, dripping a red liquid now from their already red surface.

'No!' shouted Yuzuki most heartedly as she witnessed the end of Petermon.

It seemed like slow motion, as though time itself, too, had a sense of sorrow for the champion and slowed itself upon the grief. He didn't cry for long. Struggling he forced himself out of the Kuwagamon and drew his knife for one last time, stabbed it into the Kuwagamon and rapidly withdrew it with weariness. A lot more came to him as he swung his blade blindly and exhaustedly at the Krams. He managed to got a few, but then the Krams had overtaken him, burying their sharp pincers in the champion's body and retracting them violently, reaping the champion apart while he was still fighting to the last moment. He yelled, weakly but clear. 'Run!'

And then more and more came by the champion; their bodies hindering sight from the outside but not hiding their savage moves that looked like they were still in the mood of killing.

'No!' yelled Yuzuki, tears coloring the two sides of her cheeks. She watched, fell upon her knees. She kept crying –cries that no one could be alive to respond. Right behind her stood Kaoru, detaining her from doing anything stupid by holding her arm with his grip, which was, too, shaken by the impact of Petermon's death that it wasn't firm.

'Don't waste his life.' Mumbled Kaoru as he pulled Yuzuki back to standing. 'We have to get going.'

The way they went was rather clean, and all the way down there no enemy appeared. Still, they were moving fast despite the sorrow that had been brought upon them. The only sound they could hear now was the echoes of their footsteps, along with a bit weeping.

After several turns they finally found what looked like the place they ought to go in the first place. Though not sure, they opened the door, finding their way into the dark room that was concealed with tanks of materials. Immediately they hoped that the tanks were the explosives Amy had talked about. Even though they could not tell if they were in the right way, they had the feeling that they should just place the bomb there, seeing that they had gone too far.

The interior of the room was, to their surprise, a lot larger than they had expected. It was illuminated, unlike the dark corridors, with a few dim yellow lights shining from the ceiling. At the linings of the room were machines, somewhat like the computers in an airplane's cockpit. In one corner in the room was a glass vase, about the size of a human, with a little crimson liquid and pinkish gel lined on its transparent lumen.

'Are we there?' whispered TigerVespamon. He looked round, noticing that the room seemed to be particularly of importance.

'Just put the bomb here and get out early.' Replied Kaoru as he walked to the corner with the glass vast. Placing the pocket-sized bomb near it he noticed a bit of writing was there at the bottom of the vast. Though he could not made out what the unfamiliar language was talking about, it seemed to him like some kind of number system.

No one noticed that an observer in a dark corner near the ceiling was watching.

'Watch out!' shouted SaviorHuckmon as he sensed the observer striking. Reflexively he turned round a hundred and eighty degrees and countered with his blades. The observer backed away upon contacting the ultimate, landing on a ground far away from the destined in one smooth motion as though he had not been encountered with violence.

Turning round the destined realized who their attacker was. With the alien head and the four holed blood-colored wings and that cobalt armor, they could be certain to say that they had, once again, met perhaps one of the most formidable opponent yet –Cyberdramon.

Without a warning Cyberdramon struck, wielding his lance as the two ends of it extended with a menacing glimmer, charging at the digi-destined. TigerVespamon, being the one nearer to Cyberdramon, responded at once and countered the attack with his two swords. Cyberdramon was, at least to TigerVespamon, unexpectedly strong in physical strength and, with an effortless push, knocked TigerVespamon aside as he turned around rapidly and swung his teethed tail at the mega while responding to SaviorHuckmon, who was about to strike at the back of Cyberdramon.

He fell behind a few feet, but immediately TigerVespamon got back his balance and rushed toward Cyberdramon, who'd just thrown away SavoirHuckmon and kicked him in the stomach. Noticing the incoming TigerVespamon, Cyberdramon drifted round swiftly and caused TigerVespamon to charge overly and crashed into SaviorHuckmon right before Cyberdramon added in a kick from behind and knocked them both off balance.

SaviorHuckmon instantly got back to a fighting position despite the exhaustion. He charged at Cyberdramon as TigerVespamon threw his swords at the cobalt-armored digimon. Cyberdramon first responded by leaping high into the air, escaping the sword. He then swung his lance midair at SaviorHuckmon, who reacted just in time to block it with his two blades. The ultimate then swung his body around, intending to use his tail blade to strike. Cyberdramon, as agile as he'd always been, kicked the ultimate before he could do so and rotated upside-down for three-sixty degrees, landing a second later and charged at TigerVespamon immediately.

Though prepared, TigerVespamon was still a bit not as reflexive as his foe and, owing to that, was struck by Cyberdramon and fell off balance. Seizing the chance, Cyberdramon rushed forward and pulled his lance-holding arm backwards, storing potential energy for his next strike. TigerVespamon, being too late to react, was overcome by the sudden strike of Cyberdramon and was knocked off to the ground. Cyberdramon was directly on top of TigerVespamon, launching his lance-holding arm at the mega frequently, each time leaving a hole with the depth of at least half a meter on the floor as the mega dodged the attacks.

SaviorHuckmon was available this time and rushed forward, positioning his blades into a cross shape as he charged at Cyberdrqamon, shouting to draw the attention of the cobalt-armored digimon as if he feared that Cyberdramon wasn't sensitive enough already to notice him. Cyberdramon, much to SaviorHuckmon's disappointment, didn't leave TigerVespamon unattended while responding to the ultimate. He swung his tail, which had a mouth-like structure as it opened its jaws and began to bite frantically at SaviorHuckmon. It was as though the tail could act on its own, and correctly predicted every move of the white-armored ultimate, slithering up and down midair like a sneak. Every time it struck with a great acceleration, leaving SavoirHuckmon no way to get close to Cyberdramon but to shield himself with his blades and back off.

'They can't go on longer!' uttered Yuzuki, impatient.

'And there's nothing we can do to help them.' Replied Kaoru. 'I think it'd be best to call the others by now, and tell them to…' his suggestion, however, could never came as TigerVespamon gripped Cyberdramon's lance and tossed the alien-looking digimon aside. Cyberdramon spread his wings wide and created a wave that knocked both Yuzuki and Kaoru off balance.

SaviorHuckmon, though worried for his partner, couldn't let the chance slip away as he dashed forward with TigerVespamon, both with weapons that could slay Cyberdramon readily. Cyberdramon, however, took yet another unexpected turn and dashed forward, throwing his lance at his enemies, who knocked it out of the way effortlessly and aimed their own weapons at him. As SaviorHuckmon struck once he'd got to Cyberdramon, Cyberdramon's chest burst open; his ribs clutching the ultimate's blade as he tossed him aside and let him hit the glass vast, which shattered at the moment of contact.

'SaviorHuckmon!' yelled Yuzuki, 'we have a plan here. Leave Cyberdramon and help get us out of here!'

'What's the plan?' asked the ultimate.

'We're going to bring him down with the explosion!' once she'd finished that, she turned to her digivice and contacted Eiji, who held the control of the detonator. She didn't even wait for the others to say. 'Detonate the bombs!'

'What?' she could, even in the chaos, tell that the other boy was shocked. It would take him sometime to digest what she'd demanded, but they had no time. 'What are you talking about? Where are you?'

'We're inside.' Answered Yuzuki as clearly as she could, 'and we need the bombs explode now!'

'Get out of there first!' said Eiji. Obviously simple sentence wasn't enough to convince him the desperation of the situation.

'Cyberdramon's here, we can't fight him. Now detonate the bombs!' demanded Yuzuki one last time before she turn off the digivice.

'How're things going now?' asked Kaoru.

'If things go the best way, we might not be able to get out alive.'

That was, however, not true. Just as she finished the grief sentence she could hear sounds of metal cracking, not from the direction where the digimon was battling, but from up top. Soon the sound became much clearer that even Cyberdramon, though devoted in the battle, could notice it, indicated by his looking upwards. There was more, and then a ray of light squeezed though the ceiling into the dimly lit room.

'Get them quick!' she could swear that that was Eiji's sound she was hearing. The next thing she knew, the entire atmosphere was overpowered by the sound of explosion, and she wasn't there anymore. Someone had taken her, and, fortunately, the rest of her group out.


	31. 30 The last digivolution

30 ~The last digivolution ~

How could Eiji be that fast to reach them? She couldn't tell. The only thing she knew was that she, and hopefully along with Kaoru and their partners, was safe for a moment. Everything seemed like they were made of thread, and that the fabric had loosened that no more clear images could be seen anymore. Perhaps she wasn't saved at all, and that's what the dead see in their way to the after life? If that's the case, how could she ever face all Minervamon, Petermon, and all those she knew to be dead?

Luckily such negative a thought was hardly real. In a matter of seconds she was landed, safe on the ground along with the other destined. There she stood, looking at the factory that was now miles away from them. It was on fire, with orange clouds of smokes flaming from everywhere and walls collapsing. The structure had met its end in the sound of violence and the scene of infinite fireworks that lighted up the night, and along with it came the end of Cyberdramon. There's no way anyone could survive that blow.

In just a minute, the approximately five hundred meters tall building was reduced into no more than twenty meters' height.

'It's over, right?' uttered Ryosuke.

'I guess so.' Replied Takumi, exhaustedly. He then stared at the group for a while, and noticed something that he should have noticed a long while ago. 'Where's Petermon?'

No one said a word. Yuzuki, with her head half-buried in Kaoru's chest, could easily be observed sobbing while the blonde boy simply shook his head, indicating the negativity.

'At least now Piedmon can't do whatever he was planning to.' Suggested Lillymon.

'Perhaps we need simply find him now, and ask him nicely to bring us home?' suggested MetalPhantomon.

'Or perhaps we can enjoy the splendid fireworks here for a longer while?' said a voice from far behind. It was mixed with the sound of footsteps and clapping. A shadow emerged in the dark night as the clapping became clearer and clearer. Nobody needed to think twice to say that the voice belonged to Piedmon.

Under the illumination of the exploding factory, Piedmon showed himself to the digi-destined. He looked like himself, wearing the dangerous smirk on his face while sounding just like every sane person in the world. He scanned through the environment quick, and stared at the digi-destined, hoping to get some responses.

'You lost.' Said SaviorHuckmon, his voice mixed with hatred and anger. 'Everything you have has gone with the factory. Surrender now, or we will make you suffer.'

'Don't be like that! I thought you were one of the nicest ones here.' Replied Piedmon, pbviously not caring the threat from the ultimate.

'What can you do on your own? It's six against one, and four here is mega.' Questioned Hououmon.

'You guys seriously hate me.' Muttered Piedmon, ignoring anything from the destined as if he was simply speaking rather than having a conversation. 'So you wanna kill me right now, or talk me to surrender?'

'We will not talk, and you will surrender.' Threatened TigerVespamon.

'I don't really like that, that's kind of mean.' Uttered Piedmon. 'Allow me to offer you my choices instead.' He said, spreading his arms wide. 'You can either fight me now, and become the hero,' he then let out his signature smirk, along with his sharpened eyes, and said, 'or you can save the others, and also be the hero.' He was yelling that line, and as he did so he took a dramatic turn and looked upon the sky as a great shadow flew pass the destined, generating a wind that was enough to knock some of the destined off balance.

'BurningGreymon!' exclaimed Yuzuki.

'Now choose!' shouted Piedmon as though he was playing a Shakespeare play.

The digi-destined looked and one another, exchanged expressions instead of words, and in no time the decision was made.

'We go to the Fortress. That's where BurningGreymon is heading to.'

'Enjoy your trip!' said Piedmon as he stood aside like a waiter, leaving a way for the destined to hurry to the only place they knew digimon lived.

* * *

When they reached the Fortress it was already too late. Everything happening seemed far too familiar, as though they had never Hepia, the village on fire. The Fortress, without its walls protection, had been taken by BurningGreymon and, to a certain degree, been occupied. The villagers, though more skilled in fight, weren't quite ready for the raid and were not strong enough to fight back.

BurningGreymon did his job as efficient as he had always been, bringing down buildings and structures with his two gatling guns on his forearms. Bullets of fire rained down the interior of the Fortress, with the hybrid levitating midair, rotating himself during the shooting. Blocks of concrete carpeted the ground as digimon tried to fight back. None, however, could do the least bit of damage to the scarlet dragon. Their arrows deflected; their projectiles could never reach the hybrid. Some that specialized in close combat couldn't even escape the fate of being incinerated by the inferno brought by the dragon.

'About time to stop!' snarled Hououmon as he jetted across the scorching land and attempted to knock the hybrid off balance with a swing of his wings. He had forgotten, somehow, that BurningGreymon was the best out of the ten hybrids, and could easily detect and respond to his interference. He was countered, but that wasn't unexpected. That, at least, distracted the hybrid from further destroying the Fortress.

'What do we do now?' asked Takumi for instructions. This time, Eiji didn't hesitate. He immediately ordered the destined to get the wounded and weak out of the Fortress, and instructed Amy to check the storage of bombs, knowing that SkullMeramon could protect her from the job. The rest of them followed the orders directly, and rushed into the frying pan without delay. The digimon, in the meantime, were assigned to delay BurningGreymon from further destruction.

The digimon there were a lot more organized than those of Hepia even though they stilled panicked all the same. Takumi escorted a few weaker and smaller digimon with him, dodging the devastation brought by the digimon fight at the same time. It seemed to him almost impossible that he could make it without severely injuring himself.

'Follow me tight.' Instructed the redhead as he brought several in-training digimon with him. A loud bang was what distracted him at the moment, and he decided that he could no longer delay any events, and thus led the in-training trough the burning trail. He looked up, and saw the destined digimon fighting. Right on top of him was his partner, MetalPhantomon, who seemed to be trying to stay close to him to protect him.

BurningGreymon swung his tail at the ultimate, slamming it to a shattered building nearby before he could even raise his scythe to counter the strike. TigerVespamon, seizing the chance when BurningGreymon seemed undefended, charged at him and stung one of his swords at the hybrid, who readily evaded the assault and gripped TigerVespamon's right forearm. Rosemon was behind the hybrid and shot a couple of energized petals at him. The attacks managed to harm the hybrid a bit, yet they also drew his attention. Loosening the grip on TigerVespamon, BurningGreymon drifted about and pointed his arm cannon at Rosemon X, slamming Hououmon, who was intending to approach him, with his flaming feathers and knocked him aside with a kick during his turn, not forgetting to launch his other free arm at SaviorHuckmon, who was trying to strike from his left. Rosemon, using the time bought to her, fired at the hybrid and escaped in the chaos.

* * *

'Let's see how long they're gonna last.' Mumbled Piedmon, watching the Fortress from far away. He stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest, hardly blinking. 'It's kind of boring to watch this all by myself.' Complained the mega. Though he had, as he wished, gotten rid of the Scientist –the one who always ruin his enjoyment over the joy brought by destruction, as planned, he could really use a company at the moment. Too bad everyone he'd met had to force him to kill them.

'Well, at least I got the kids.' Murmured the clown. 'They entertaining enough on their own, fortunately.'

And so the observer remained watching, waiting for the moment when at last the last of his associate's creation was destroyed.

_And what a waste it will be._

* * *

It had happened so many times; they had failed so many times; it had to be stopped, at the singular night.

BurningGreymon never seemed to get tired by fighting. Oppositely, he seemed to be getting stronger and stronger throughout the event as the destined digimon endeavored to hinder him from accomplishing his mission and buy time for their human partners to evacuate the Fortress.

BurningGreymon, with a roar that seemed to shatter buildings purely with its vibration, gilded above the ground just a few meters as he engaged in the combat with the destined digimon. He wasn't really fighting a particular indivaul, but all five at once. For a moment he was shooting and chasing MetalPhantomon, then he would be using his guns as shields against SaviorHcukmon, who was attempting to strike from his back. With a swift swing of his tail he threw the ultimate meters away while escaping numerous blasts from Rosemon, guiding her to unintentionally aim at Hououmon, who was pursing the hybrid.

Another strike of burning bullets, and already the digi-destined seemed to be not able to fight back anymore. Even with three mega and two ultimate, they apparently weren't enough to even just hold the hybrid from further destruction. As soon as BurningGreymon started the next wave of the attack, the destined digimon had to admit that they could no longer keep on fighting. Buildings were collapsing and the walls, even as intact as they were, could be seen scratched, a bit scorched as well as cracked.

'We have to retreat.' Commanded Eiji. 'We've already gotten them all out of there.'

And they did. Knowing that the Fortress was no longer in their ability to save, they backed off, using shielding cards and all kind of weapons they could find to block the blasts from the hybrid. It was only then did Amy return, with the news that all the explosives kept by the digimon in the Fortress were, fortunately, safe and well protected under specifically strong storage.

'So we leave now?' murmured the girl just when she returned, breathing in and out frequently.

'We have to.' Responded the team leader. 'We've gotten everyone safe already, and we cannot beat BurningGreymon.'

'I have a plan.' Suggested Takumi, looking back into where Amy had come from. 'You said the explosives are still there, right?'

'That can't work.' Intruded TigerVespamon. 'We've to get someone inside to set them off.'

'Well…that's true.'

'Anyway, let's get them out of here first.' Mumbled Rosemon as she and the rest of the team escorted the digimon as far away from the Fortress as possible.

'I'll go.' Uttered SaviorHuckmon, much to everyone's surprise.

'You don't have to; we've accomplished our primary goal here, and we don't want anyone dead.' Insisted Eiji. Though it was dark in the night, he didn't need good vision to know that the others were giving questioning looks to the ultimate, as did he.

'He won't stop.' Explained SaviorHuckmon. 'Even if we can escape once, Piedmon would just get him to else where and then we'll have to face him again. I don't want to see anymore of these.'

He couldn't believe it was him, nor could he believe that it wasn't him. For a moment Eiji hesitated, that lasted no more than a millisecond before he said. 'Alright.'

'I will try to be back.' said SaviorHuckmon as he dashed into the Fortress once again.

'Right, let's get them to somewhere safe now.' Muttered Eiji as he turned to lead his team once more before he heard someone say. 'Where's Yuzuki?'

* * *

'What are you doing here?' questioned SaviorHuckmon as soon as he discovered that his partner had been following him. 'It is dangerous.'

'With my help, we might be able to get out.' finding herself a random excuse, Yuzuki proceeded and followed SaviorHuckmon, who no longer question her seeing that it was impossible to get her out again without being noticed by BurningGreymon. In fact, they had already been discovered by the hybrid as they heard a lound bang sound to their left. Turning round desperately they found out that BurningGreymon was, as expected, smashing buildings before turning his attention to aiming at the destined.

'We don't have time to fight, just get to the bombs!' said Yuzuki. Her partner could, however, not easi;y escape once the hybrid started firing his machine guns. The ultimate dodged agilely, not intending to retaliate as he got on his way to the bomb storage instructed by Amy while continuously dodging bullets. His human partner had, due to her being more unnoticeable in a battle, gotten to the stair leading to the basement of the storage.

SaviorHuckmon was forced to combat the hybrid; he did, however, managed to remain relatively unharmed by swiftly drifting left and right, evading the dragon's tail strike and fire shots in an s-shaped trail. It took him a total minute to get to Yuzuki, and even by then he was still just mere meters away from BurningGreymon.

Yuzuki, having already been to the storage, managed to deliver a bit of the bombs out of the basement, thanks to the hand-held design of them. She got just a box out upstairs when SaviorHuckmon reached her. Realizing that they could no longer get on anymore, she recommended her partner to throw the box of bombs, which contained at least a hundred of them, right at the hybrid. The plan had to be taken rapidly, seeing that their only chance was when BurningGreymon gave out another wave of his burning bullets, which was now.

'Quick!'

Without a word in response, SaviorHuckmon took the box and toss it as hard as he could, slamming it right in the face of the hybrid as the ultimate grabbed his partner and ducked into the basement immediately just a second before BurningGreymon fired again, not knowing what's coming to him.

They could hear noise –the deafening sound of a violent explosion –before they saw the opening of the basement covered with orange smoke entirely. It was like one of the silly scenes in the movies, but it did happen –they survived the explosion. It went on for minutes, as least that's how they perceived that. Though she could hardly identify voices anymore, Yuzuki hoped she was right when she thought she heard the scream coming from the outside.

'Is it okay to come back out?' murmured the black-haired girl as she looked up at the orange cloud, which had been surrounding the opening of the basement and was starting to fade.

'I will go check it out.' replied her partner. Without a chance to protest, SaviorHuckmon had already gotten to his feet and leaped skillfully up top. Worried, Yuzuki followed him and climbed the stairs blindly in the lack of illumination while trying not to get in any contact with the explosives, not sure if anything should happen.

When she came out, she felt like she was in one of her nightmares, being surrounded by nothing but clouds of black smoke. She couldn't even see the distinct white color of his partner's armor. She waited, slowed her breath, as the black fog started to dispense. She could finally see SaviorHuckmon, in a distorted image caused by the refraction of the hot air. He seemed to be a steamy figure, like a reflection on water surface.

'Is it done?' she mumbled. But soon she found herself wrong when she heard the sound of footsteps. Still not clear it she could believe her sense of listening, she paid extra attention to that, and could be sure that, unfortunately, she was correct. She looked, as did SaviorHuckmon, to the direction of the source of the noise.

Right there, in the thick black coat of smoke, a humanoid figure walked out. he seemed to her the most terrifying digimon, if he was any, to her, with demon-like white horns covered with scarlet strips, golden yellow hair that seemed almost like flames, and a face that looked crosser than ever, with narrowed eyes and a helmet that exposed only his chin. He looked almost like a dragon in the shape of a human just judging by the head. His torso was almost the same as that of BurningGreymon, only without the flaming wings an with different shoulder packs.

He walked forward, each time making a louder and louder sound as though they were thunder. He walked so slowly that he seemed even more threatening than he already had been; the deadly gaze coming from the cold, dead was a complete contrast to the burning surroundings.

'What's that?' uttered Yuzuki. She had never been that afraid. Somehow she had a feeling that SaviorHuckmon could not stand against that menacing digimon, which had obviously been BurningGreymon previously.

Wordlessly, both digimon charged at each other. SaviorHuckmon held up his arms, positioning his blades into a cross shape; the other digimon also held up his arms; flames appearing from his back as he accelerated.

The two of them collided. SaviorHuckmon struck first, slashing the digimon with his right arm, but didn't get much effect out of it as the digimon gripped the ultimate's right arm the instant he struck and, using his free hand, punched SaviorHuckmon in the stomach.

That wasn't the end, however, as SaviorhUckmon used his other hand to give a punch to the digimon before he was sent flying backwards by the digimon. He stood up, feeling the pain invading his entire body. As soon as he got up to his feet, just before he could resume a clear vision, the digimon had already got to the front of the ultimate, and grabbed him by his head, tossing him away as effortlessly as tossing a sheet of paper.

SaviorHuckmon painfully landed, and this time he reacted fast enough and could caught a fist of the digimon before that fist struck into his torso. The ultimate struck with a punch, followed by a kick, which was easily countered by the left arm of the digimon. The digimon pushed forward, forcing SaviorHuckmon to be squeezed between him and a brick wall. With a struggling pain SaviorHuckmon used both of his legs and managed to keep himself balanced just before the fist of the digimon met his eyes.

He dodged left, and fortunately evaded the attack. What was left on the wall beside him as a crack that looked almost like a convex spider-web, revealing some of the iron frame inside. Using the chance he dodged down as the digimon presented another punch. Feeling the particles of the wall falling upon him, SaviorHuckmon used his only free hand struck as hard as he could, giving the digimon a side punch in his abdomen. The digimon jerked back, but regained balance quickly.

With that chance SaviorHuckmon escaped the hazardous position he'd gotten himself into and struck the digimon at his back. The digimon was not fast enough to react, but the punch did almost nothing to him. In fact, it only made it worse as the digimon turned round rapidly and gave a punch to SaviorHuckmon right in his right check, causing the ultimate to fall.

SaviorHuckmon could only get to his knees when he saw the digimon approaching. Alerted, he dove downward, sliding away from a kick that would have damaged his face badly. Not even a second could be wasted, and he stayed close to that principle and sprang up immediately just before the digimon smacked him with the back of his hand. SaviorHuckmon took the attack regardless of the force and struggled to fight back as he raced up and punched, not even considering using his swords, only to be easily caught by the digimon and be thrown away, into a burning building where tones of rubbles descended upon the ultimate the moment he reached there.

The digimon, however, seemed to have the ability to foresee that his opponent had yet to be defeated and approached the hill of rubbles. And that seemed to be true. Inside the rubbles, SaviorHuckmon used his greatest effort to break himself free, removing the blocks of concretes with nothing but his already weakened physical force and his willpower. That wasn't the only thing happening, though. Just as he could see the outside again, what the could see was that the white-armored ultimate was glowing, with a bright orange light that stood out so distinctly even in the burning night. Emerging from the brilliant illumination was a looked very much alike to SaviorHuckmon, only a lot more streamline and menacing in appearance as well as having seemingly more heavy armor.

'Jesmon, mega, data type.'

The other digimon, neither identified by the Digivice nor recognized by Yuzuki, was Aldamon, a form of the Spirit of Fire even stronger than BurninigGreymon, and one of Piedmon's little modification on Cyberdramon's work.

Before the light faded completely, Jesmon dashed forward, as did Aldamon. The ground seemed to shake every time either one of them set foot on it. Even the dust was raised so high up that the already blurry image of the two mega-class digimon seemed exceptionally furious. It was just a second, yet it seemed like an eternity had passed before the two collided.

They faced off head-to-head as the fists of the two digimon met each other, sending out a shockwave that shook so strong that even the surrounding buildings started to crack out of the force. Both digimon fell back from the strike, landing unwillingly on their back as they got up within a second and, breathing hardly in the orange illumination, charged at each other again. Jesmon took the first opportunity, swinging his fist from right to left; Aldamon dodged downward, responded with an upward punch that hit right below Jesmon's lower jaw as the mega snarled in pain and gave the hybrid a kick from the side, hitting Aldamon's right knee and causing the hybrid to fall upon his knees before Jesmon added another kick and send him hurling back into the Fortress wall.

Aldamon, having crashed into the wall, got back up as if that was only a flesh wound and spread his wings wide open, dashing at the incoming Jesmon with a strike using his left knee, resulting in Jesmon's falling on the sharp-edged stone-filled floor before the hybrid gave him another kick. Jesmon rolled across the earth, decelerating before hitting a house.

The first sight he saw was the giant claws stepping closer and closer to him. The hybrid stopped, lowered his torso and gripped Jesmon by the head, held up the mega and bounced his head against the nearest building –Once, twice, and trice. Jesmon seemed to see a facial expression on the human-like face of Aldamon, and that very expression was the one the showed murder, the one that would only appear on a desperate killer out of plain anger. The pain was like a surge of electricity, passing through the entire body of Jesmon in a matter of milliseconds each time Aldamon violently pressed his head against the building wall that had been cracking due to the force applied on it; each time Aldamon struck harder, and could even make the whole building shake just by doing that.

Jesmon seemed to see only blurs now, but he could still feel. The pain had got to him to such an extent that he was inclined to retaliate without even knowing his doing so. His arms extended forward, grabbing the limb of Aldamon before the hybrid could give the next blow and started hitting it, kicking at the same time so that he could be less readily controllable as the hybrid loosened his grip and fell backward a few meters. Jesmon didn't waste time to resume his breath as he stumbled forth, punching Aldamon in his face just as he stood up and consequentially stumbled back, struggling to retain his balance.

Jesmon, with unsteady pace, walked forth and once again punched the hybrid, who evaded the weak strike and slammed Jesmon with the back of his arm in return. Before Jesmon could fall to the floor, Aldamon gripped his left shoulder and punched him for another time before Jesmon gripped the hybrid's head and struggled to push him forward, resulting in both digimon's stumbling forth and back.

It was Aldamon who first lost grip and was forced to the ground. Supporting himself with either hand, he held himself up weakly before receiving another strike from the mega, falling again and repeating the process but could never get up. All he managed to do was to shield himself with the back of his arms, which was futile as the repeated strike from Jesmon knocked him down again and again.

He thought he heard it –the scream from the human factor inside the hybrid as he was constantly knocked over by him. Jesmon could, however, not stop striking. He had hardened his heart long before, and had done that again right after seeing Piedmon recently, knowing that no hesitation should be allowed if he was to stop the vicious crown. He couldn't even be his old self anymore if he was to defeat his enemy right now, despite how exhausted the hybrid seemed and how it had even been seen to be losing. He thought that he could see the slightest trace of pity in the hybrid's once human eyes, and though, for the first time, that he saw fear in a completely possessed hybrid.

He ignored all that, however, as Aldamon was forced to the wall and could only stand between the concrete and the mega, who was still advancing. Aldamon could only cover himself with the severely damaged shields on his arms now, and that held ono for not much longer, as Jesmon closed his eyes and launched right arm straight at the hybrid.


	32. 31 Break II

31 ~Break II~

The body of Aldamon started to slide down along the wall and decompose into data streams as Jesmon withdrew his blade from the dead hybrid and stumbled back, falling to his knees at the same time as the others arrived, no doubt alerted by the sounds of explosions of the battle.

They were there just in time to see the skeleton of the human component of what they believed to be BurningGreymon leaning against a wall; the digivolved form of SaviorHuckmon lying motionless on the floor and beside it a startled Yuzuki who could not even see the rest of her team coming.

'What happened?' mumbled Takumi. No one said a word, knowing inside what exactly happened.

There was one person who wanted to speak. Before that someone could do that, however, a small, spherical object rolled across the scorched ground and stopped just right before the very feet of the destined. Then, from the top of the sphere came a weak blue light that could almost not be seen in the increasing illumination of the rising sun. Ryosuke had seen it before, long ago, and could still remember what would come next.

The hologram of Piedmon showed up.

* * *

In a narrow alley, LadyDevimon walked forth slowly, raising her clawed hand, which had pointy finger nails that could kill, as she approached Devitamamon, who was, to be honest, shocked when he saw that the ultimate was about to kill him.

'That'd be the last of them.' Muttered the female digimon as she launched her arm forward and retracted instantly like a spring-loaded machine. In front of her was no longer the digimon she knew who had once been the followers of Reapermon, but just a mess of data that flew everywhere, leaving only a digi-egg to be found.

'Well, how's that proof for you?' uttered LadyDevimon in a half-taunting tone as she looked behind, where Katashi and GrapLeomon stood. Both of them were far behind the ultimate, and said nothing, just watched quietly as she cold-bloodedly murdered her ex-teammate. Elsa, who was on the side, said also nothing, but simply looked satisfied.

'If you don't like it you can just go away.' Murmured the blonde, intending to let the other two realize her presence and be annoyed by her attitude. 'You know, I don't actually need your protection anymore.'

'She just turned on her former teammates and killed them all as if nothing actually happened. How could you trust such a person?' replied Katashi. There was irritation in his tone, but there was more concern in his voice, though he really didn't want to care much about the irresponsible girl and quit the entire business.

'You're quite well at that, too, I see.' Said LadyDevimon. 'Didn't you promise that you'll give your trusts to me once I showed my…loyalty?' there was a sarcastic laugh from the ultimate when she said the word "loyalty".

'I didn't promise anything.' Answered Katashi, in an evading tone.

* * *

_He really had to confess that he __didn't quite understand__ what__'__s going on. _

_First, he had gone to Smith__'__s office to report to him his will of helping, but then things started to get complicated. Without any preparation, Elsa, his annoying classmate, showed up and was involved in __the__ entire business about the digimon in Ventrium, and he was thus obliged to protect Elsa on her way home, but that wasn__'__t the worst, not yet. _

_They had been attacked by a digimon known as LadyDevimon on their way, and Leomon managed to defeat her. That was when things started to get messy. Elsa, out of the blue, offered to partner herself with the digimon who was known to have worked for Reapermon, the digimon that had __committed__ mass murder and was one of the reasons the digi-destined weren__'__t at Ventrium when they were needed. _

_Then came the __weirdest__ of them: LadyDevimon agreed with __that__. _

'_I really think you should reconsider the matter__…'__ opposed Katashi as the four of them once again entered Smith__'__s office as soon as the mysterious mayor of Rn had known of the assault. It was really __bothering__ him that Smith could gain the information at such a speed that no longer than ten minutes after LadyDevimon was defeated, a specialized man had come to carry them to the office. _

'_And __I__ think you should hear our voices as well.__'__ Said Elsa, interrupting the __others,__ as she__'__d always liked._

'_Well, I can__'__t just let two humans walk around with that power freely, can I?__'__ replied Smith. Though some __humans__ in Ventrium had been working with digimon, most of them still discriminated the digital creatures and rejected getting close with them. As a result, people who had partnered with digimon would have a power that was hard to control by the officials. __'__Especially when one of them is such dangerous a figure.__'__ He proceeded. _

'_That__'__s __exactly__ why I said that. I have agreed to __cooperate__ with you, but __I__ know Elsa. She won__'__t listen to anyone and letting her with __that__ digimon might cause some serious troubles.__'__ Elaborated the brown-haired boy._

'_Well, that__'__s __extremely__ mean of you to say so.__'__ Said Elsa, in a mockingly pretended __pitiful__ voice. _

'_What else do you say, then?__'__ questioned GrapLeomon._

'_Don__'__t be so rude in front of Mr. Mayor here.__'__Replied__ the blonde. __'__Don__'__t forget I__'__ve known your little plans, too.__'_

'_You do you purpose, then?__'__ inquired Smith._

_LadyDevimon, who__'__d been disturbingly quiet during the conversation, was the one to speak. __'__It shouldn__'__t be that hard to guess, that you__'__re after my fellow associates?__'_

'_What do you mean?__'__ asked Katashi just after Smith showed an expression that indicated his interest in the offer._

'_Well, I assume you won__'__t be comfortable to let them roam about freely out there?__'__ uttered LadyDevimon._

'_What you mean is that,__'__ began Smith, __'__you are offering to __help__ us track down the remaining of Reapermon__'__s force. Do __I__ get that correctly?__'_

'_Absolutely.__'_

'_I still oppose to that.__'__ Declared Katashi and GrapLeomon._

'_You don__'__t make the decision here; he does.__'__ Replied Elsa._

'_So, how do you think of my offer?__'_

'_I__'__d say, yes. __I__ would very much like to have you assistance.__'_

* * *

'Why did you suggest yourself partner with her anyway in the first place?' mumbled Katashi, knowing that he might as well just ask anyone about that. After all, the blonde was a bit unpredictable and very much just behaved her own way. The two, from his perspective, was just so much alike that it could probably be the sole reason they needed to team up. The only thing he needed to make sure was that neither of those must turn on them.

As he expected, none of them answered.

'I suggest we just go home now that the entire business is over, and you can just go out with your girlfriend,' uttered Elsa. 'Oh, I forgot; she's gone.'

'Just leave them.' Suggested GrapLeomon. They had learned to not get annoyed or angered by the blonde's sadistic humor, yet it was just uncomfortable knowing the fact that they'd have to work with her from now on. It had almost been a month since Katashi had last contacted Yuzuki, and thus he had worked with Elsa and LadyDevimon for almost a month, and yet he still wished that they would soon get tired of the partnering and quit the business.

'So, will you keep your promise?' LadyDevimon asked, with a smirk. 'Your distrusting me has hurt me quite badly, and I demand an apology. I have done all this, alone, after all.'

'I promised you nothing!' protested Katashi once again; he had to make it loud and clear enough such that his will could be seen even by the dumbest person on Earth could understand fully its meaning. He didn't even bother continuing the meaningless conversation now that everything was done and he no longer had any reason to be confined to working with Elsa. Without a goodbye, he turned around along with his partner and left the alley.

'Well, that's rude.' Whispered Elsa.

* * *

Most of the time Katashi didn't really pay much attention as to whether his parents were at home or out for work. This was one of the times when he could really use the loneliness, yet this was also one of the rare occasions when his parents –both of them –were at home. Without much preparation the blown-haired boy opened the door a bit violently and stepped in, and found out that both his parents were right at his home sitting on the couch. Though he needn't explain the presence of GrapLeomon, as they had met him once when he was still Liollmon, he could still barely find an appropriate reaction under this circumstance.

'H…hi.' Said Katashi, trying to act causal. 'I didn't know you'd both be here today.'

'Neither did we.' Answered his father. 'We were just here moments ago, so we thought we could just call you later. Well, you're here now.'

'Um… that's very nice of you.' Said Katashi. The prolonged absence of his parents made him somehow uncontrollably formal while talking to them, though he knew he shouldn't. 'I'll be upstairs.' Said him as he ascended the stairs, evading eye contact with his parents.

'I thought you'd like to see us around here more often.' Said his mother.

'I do. I do…of course, like to have you around. It's just…I've got something to do now. I'll see you once I'm free.' Replied Katashi as he ascended the stairs and turned his head back at the same time, causing him to almost trip over and fall. In fact, he'd already slipped over out of clumsiness and had to hold on to the handle to prevent him from falling further.

'Surely you've got something very important.' Commented his father before he disappeared from their sight.

'Is it really good?' asked GrapLeomon, leaning next to the wall where Katashi's bed lay.

'What are you referring to?'

'Not letting Yuzuki know about what you're doing back here.'

'Well,' replied Katashi, getting up from his bed lazily. 'There's really no reason to give her all that to worry about. And we've hunted them all down, nothing to worry about.' He tired to make it sound uncaring, but his tone just wouldn't cooperate with him. Every sane person could sense that he was hiding his worry.

'And she hasn't called for you for a long time.' observed GrapLeomon. 'Could anything have happened to them?'

'They'll be fine.' answered Katashi, though his tone had once again betrayed his feelings. 'They're professional, after all.' Even the joke didn't seem funny.

'We can't just wait here all the time for them to get back.' suggested GrapLeomon.

'There's nothing else we can do, however.'

'Why don't you just go down there and spend some time with your parents? You look like strangers.' Recommended the ultimate.

'Sometimes I really do feel like we're strangers.' Said the brown-haired boy. 'We barely meet each other, two times a month, at most.'

'Then I suggest you spend more time with them when you have the chance. You've got nothing to do anyway.'

'Right.' Mumbled Katashi as he walked out of the door. Before he could reach the stairs, however, his partner detained him for a while and said. 'Before I came up here, I thought I saw something strange about your parents, perhaps they have something they want to tell you.'

'Got it.' replied Katashi as he descended down the staris.

* * *

Smith counted the dates on the calendar in his office after regular working hour was out. He was alone in the office with nothing but his thoughts accompanying him. Even his secretary had gone in this hour.

Exactly six weeks. He couldn't help wonder how much longer could the death of the president be made up. he had, after all, not announced to the public that she had died because of her involvement in Piedmon's plan. He even doubted if anyone really knew about that digimon that was always around the president.

Something was needed to be done. He couldn't help but think that way. He had, in fact, been realty lucky to have Katashi and Elsa to do all the work for him. After having cleansed the remains of Reapermon, nevertheless, there was still one more thing that bothered him.

_If something can get from here to __there__, anything from there can get to here._ He had to admit it was the first time he had that notion. Seriously, if the digi-destined were to fail, what would happen to the city by then?

But then he thought of some other things as well –something he'd long forgotten. In accordance with the video footage he got from the president's office, the president and Piedmon had secretly experimented on digimon that had been meant to be exiled, making them capable of dimensional transport. What if some of them had gotten into the city?

* * *

'Mom, are…are you serious about this?' asked Katashi, shocked. If he'd had the time, he'd have compared this one with the time when he saw Yuzuki and the rest of her group going through the dimensional gate, and the result would've been that perhaps this shock was just slightly not as impacting as the previous.

'Yes, of course we're serious.' Replied his mom. 'We have figured out that we have left you alone for too long ever since you got to eleven and haven't been responsible for taking care of you. The reality is, however, slightly unchangeable. None of us can quit our jobs in Vertiro, yet we want to spend more time with you.'

'Dose that mean…I'm going too?' interrupted GrapLeomon.

'The whole purpose of this plan is to not let anybody left behind.' Explained Katashi's dad. 'Yes, you're coming with us.'

'But that's a bit too, well, sudden.' Uttered Katashi.

'We've wanted to tell you all along, but can only see you today.'

'When will we be moving, then?' asked Katashi. He knew he should've sounded more excited about his parent's plans of moving the entire family to Vertiro. After all, he'd wanted to spend more time with them and they should've known that all the time, and they were now putting it into action. Acting surprised and unwilling would mean certain let down to them, he doubted not. In fact, a part of him was very pleased to hear that. But it had to be in this time, when he couldn't have been more occupied. Most of him wanted to stay, to wait until Yuzuki returned, and to finish whatever Smith was about to task him with next. He could be sure that his parents couldn't have been more excited to tell him the great news, and he didn't want to let their mood down.

'Not immediately, of course.' Answered his mother. 'We're going to move a couple of months later, and are just telling you now such that you can be prepared.'

She was perfectly correct. Now that he knew he still had time left, all the unease that had accumulated on his face was gone and was replaced by his usual smile, only a little bit cheerier.

'I'm glad to see that you're happy with it.' said his father. 'You know, for a moment I felt that you were a bit unsure about this plan.'

Katashi didn't give any responses, knowing how accurate his father had been. Instead he simply sat on the couch along with his parents. And chatted about things normal families would chat about.

It was morning when time seemed to have slowed.

Katashi could remember clearly what happened last night, and felt that he was still in the night, chatting with his parents –the only thing that was so simply yet so rare. But as soon as he figured out that he was lying on his bed, covered by blankets, with Liollmon crouching on the floor sleeping, he realized that morning had come and he had to get moving.

His parents had gone back to work by the time he woke up. The thing that seemed the utmost normality was a bit different today. He could feel a bit of a misery in his heart. Somehow it hurt more knowing that you would eventually rejoin with someone you loved, only an unknown period of waiting had to come across and stand in your way.

'Wake up, Liollmon, Breakfast's ready!' he shouted upstairs.

He'd been living like this for quite a long time, almost one-third of a year had passed since he met Liollmon, and by then he really hadn't thought much of everything taking such a turn. Now everything seemed perfectly normal again, as though he'd been like this forever. Just as he was about to start his daily routine, however, a call from his phone broke the perfect silence of the living room and caught his attention.

'Who's it?' Liollmon was just in time downstairs to see his partner receiving the call. Out of curiosity, Lilollmon asked at once when he saw his partner's expression sank.

Katashi, after a period of silence, replied, 'ok,' and turned round to see Liollmon and said. 'Be quick.'

'What is it?'

'It's Smith.' Answered Katashi. 'He wants us in his office, immediately.'

'So why haven't you started getting going yet?'

'I haven't finished breakfast yet.' Replied Katashi, a bit jokingly. 'Besides, I'm not officially his man; I have to make clear that I can make my own decision, and that I do not follow his orders blindly.'

'So, we're gonna let him wait?' mumbled Liollmon, a bit confused.

'No…just not as fast as he wants.'

'I remember I instructed you to come immediately.' Commented Smith before the door of his office was even fully open, announcing his dissatisfaction.

'And I remember I told you that I'd need time.' responded Katashi as he causally walked into the office with Liollmon following. As he expected, Elsa and LadyDevimon were there, too, and they seemed to be there quite on time. He walked to a side chair and sat down, right opposite to Elsa, before being instructed to do so. 'Why did you call us so early?'

* * *

'There is something I think you might be interested in, or ought to know simply.' Said Smith, still having a trace of dissatisfaction in his tone despite his professional control over his emotion.

'And what might that be?' asked LadyDevimon.

'Mr. Tadokoro, I remember you can contact those in the digital world?'

'Yes, I can.' Replied the brown-haired boy. 'But, that can't do anything. And, I haven't called for quite some time.'

'Then perhaps it's time for you to do so.' Uttered the red-eyed man. 'For I worry that we may need them soon.'

'What's the problem with that?' uttered Elsa, with the ridiculous reason that Katashi hadn't made any move ten seconds after Smith had spoken. 'A nice chance to talk with your girlfriend.'

'Well, I can do that.' Said Katashi. 'But I don't want to push them too hard; they have their own mission. And I have to make it clear first: it might not work every time.' with that said Katashi took out his artificial digivice and clicked a few buttons. Everyone there could judge by his puzzled expression that he had failed to contact with the other side.

'Told you.'

'What's so important that you have to call them back so rush anyway?' questioned Liollmon.

'I don't really care about it that much,' muttered Elsa, 'I have nothing else to do anyway.'

'Whether you like it or not, here is the situation.' Announced Smith solemnly. He clicked a few buttons on his desk and revealed in the center of the room a detailed hologram of Ventrium, with overly accurate labels and keys. It could take one a while to just understand what they were looking at.

'This is where we are.' He pointed at a sector of the giant circular country, close to the center, where Vertiro lay. 'And this is where we get the digimon out of the country.' He pointed at the circumference of the map, just right at the edge of the city, where no civilian hospitality could be seen, at least not on the map. He paused right after having finished that, as if awaiting some kind of reaction.

Seemingly sensing that, Katashi asked. 'What's so wrong about that? The teachers had taught us all about that; even if they didn't, it's almost general knowledge.'

'Obviously you missed the point.' Uttered LadyDevimon uncaringly.

'So what is that?' demanded Liollmon.

'Would you like to see what's really happening there?' said Smith.

'I have a bad feeling about this.' Whispered Katashi.

'And I think it's gonna be quite interesting.' Replied Elsa, also in a whisper.

Without further delay, Smith taped another button on his desk, which projected a two-dimensional image of the reality and retrieved the hologram. On the screen at the back of the offices was the live footage of what's right outside the Walls, with the sandy sky that almost looked like the ground of a desert if it wasn't so high above the horizon. And right beside the rusty and scratched Walls, there stood a dozen of exiled digimon, all crouching and pacing about like starving wolves awaiting their prey.

'There're that many?' exclaimed Katashi upon seeing the remarkable number of digimon.

'They all gathered there just about yesterday.' Explained Smith.

'Why would they do that? I mean, they're a bit murderous; I don't think they'd like the idea of working with one another instead of killing instantly.' Suspected Katashi.

'That's why you want them back.' said Elsa. 'You think they're gonna break in sooner or later?'

'I have every confidence in those Walls.' Said Smith. 'My only concern is what caused them to gather there. Though it might just be me being over-worried, I feared that something much worse is happening than what the current digi-destined are dealing with.'

'So, what are we going to do?' asked Liollmon.

'There's nothing you can do by now.' Answered Smith grimly. 'But when anything happens, make sure nothing gets to the Walls, not even a single rookie digimon.'

* * *

She would have rushed to the hologram and crashed it with her bare hands if she hadn't realized that it was just a hologram, not the real person of Piedmon. As much as she, as well as anyone around, hated the mega, none of them could do anything. They couldn't even destroy the hologram projector, seeing that something vital might be told to them by the crown. After all, he was always unexpected and had always played the game in his own manner. Even if anything given was intended, they might still be of use to the destined.

'What do you want?' demanded Jesmon. 'I know you can hear us!'

The pale blue light that formed the outline of Piedmon shook a little, like something that happens when a signal jam was there. The mega didn't talk, but simply looked around with a make-up face that showed his amazement upon meeting the destined with an inhumanly wide smile hung on his masked face.

'Well say something!' yelled Hououmon, breathing out a tower of fire that went straight through the hologram. 'I'm sick of playing your games!'

He didn't answer, still.

'Let's not even bother wasting time with him.' Uttered Yuzuki. 'Takumi, you can trace the signal of this thing, right?'

'What…I don't know for sure if I can do that.' Muttered the redhead, feeling surprised and unconfident for perhaps the first time since he got into the digital world. 'I'll try.' He said as he leaned down, extended his arms to pick up the transmitter. That's when Piedmon finally spoke.

'So nice to see you all still here.' Said him in a mocking tone. 'Well, not everyone, but he's not there in the beginning, so I guess we can omit that.'

'What do you want!' demanded Yuzuki, frustrated by the mention of Petermon.

'Well,' started the crown. 'I want to tell you a secret.'

Then he said what might be the most wanted sentence of all time.

'I want to meet you in person.'


	33. 32 Final stage

32 ~Final stage~

'If you want to meet us in person, why didn't you just come here on your own?' questioned TigerVespamon.

'So do you want to see me or not?' muttered Piedmon jokingly. 'I can wait, but can you?'

'Where do you want to meet us?' demanded Eiji, surprisingly calm, so calm that he looked almost scary.

'Why are we even wasting time with him?' uttered Yuzuki. 'He's just toying with us.'

'I know he's.' replied the older boy, still in that scarily calm tone. 'But it's the only chance we've got. Miss it, we won't just not be able to defeat him, but might also lose our only chance to go home.'

Piedmon's image stopped for a while, and then disappeared, giving the digi-destined a huge let down just when they'd decided to give a shot and take Piedmon's potential "advise". In the complete darkness that was lit only by the fading firelight, the destined became so hopeless that some of them even shouted in vain for Piedmon to get back, only they could never get what they wanted.

'I told you not to trust him.' Said Yuzuki to Eiji, whose facial expression at the moment resembled nothing but that of a poorly sculpted statue.

'Well, we've got to do everything on our own now.' Muttered MetalPhantomon.

'It seems so.' Mumbled Takumi as he examined the spherical hologram projector with detail. Unfortunately he could hardly find any screw holes on the object, nor could he find any buttons as to re-started the projection and hopefully get the destined to communicate with Piedmon again. The whole group suddenly fell dead silent, so quiet that even the sounds of the tiny sparks tickling could be heard clearly like someone was playing musical instruments nearby.

After a moment or so, Takumi, having a more constructive way of thinking, broke the quietness and said. 'I think we can only crack this thing open to see if there's any clue inside.' He carefully placed it on the ground, backed off a few meters from it, and instructed his partner. 'Well, let's see if you can still have the skills like you were when you're but a Solarmon.'

'Digivolution doesn't make a digimon clumsier,' replied the scythe-welding ultimate, 'at least not to me.' With that said, he approached the sphere with both his hands held tight to the sickle; carefully he examined the distance he needed to be away from the projector and the force he needed so that he wouldn't damage anything inside, doing a few times of estimating motion before he raised both his arm up high, ready to slice the projector open.

'No!' the sound of TigerVespamon came just when he dropped his arms.

In fact, he was, too, shocked when he saw a thin ray of blue light coming out from the projector again. He had forced himself to stop the moment he realized what Piedmon was planning to do, yet his arms wouldn't be convinced by the order too soon that he could only watch as his laser sickle sliced through the destined's only hope.

Fortunately he didn't. Just about a second before any damaged was done to the projector, Jesmon, who was now much recovered from the previous battle, rushed forward and kicked it away, leaving only MetalPhantomon's laser dug deep in the ground. The projector went spinning nonstop straight towards the wall until it was finally stopped by it's hitting the wall as the projection of Piedmon once again appeared.

He had a satisfied look this time, with a sadistic smirk on his face half-revealed under his palm, which was covering most of the lower face of the mega, making him look considered.

'I see you've made your decision.' Said Peidmon, waiting for the destined to give him any answers, which unfortunately didn't happen.

'Well,' said him at last, 'you'll get the coordinates soon enough. Look forward to seeing you!' and with that the image faded again, only this time it never reappeared.

'So, anyone like to suggest anything?' uttered Rosemon X.

Nobody could really come up with any particular idea; all they knew at the moment was that they had already had a rough day, from morning to night, and that they were actually n the middle of the night by now. Without any need of explanation, they decided to rest for the rest of the night.

* * *

Nothing could happen until morning. They had a long night to rest and were able to wake up early, and therefore were able to discuss about future plans for a longer period of time. Once again, they had accepted the fact that Piedmon would not stay true to his words, and none of them was really expecting anything when they checked that nothing was given to them through the digivice or any other media.

It wasn't up till noon did anything happen. When it came to the exact hour, twelve p.m., all of the destined's digivices rang like morning clocks, and the resonation made the noise much louder that none of them could not have missed what was sent to them.

'How do we get these to stop?' uttered Eiji, half covering his ears with one hand while checking on his digivice with the other. It took him, as well as the others, a few seconds before he could return the silence to the atmosphere.

'It has to be Piedmon.' Mumbled Ryosuke. The rest of the group immediately checked on their digivices as well, and could easily find a message, sent by an anonymous. The message itself was clear and plain such that who ever received it would be able to understand what it meant. It contained a map, apparently of the part of the digital world the destined were in, with a beeping red dot on a specific location and a set of coordinates given.

'So we ought to meet him there?' asked Yuzuki.

'I think that's quote obvious,' replied Takumi, 'unless it's just another of his plays, which is more or less very likely to happen.'

'But if that's really the place we have to go, that's quite far away from here.' Commented Rosemon, who'd now degenerated into a Lillymon X. 'It's almost like all the way we walked here had driven us away from there.'

'Well, we've no choice but to go there.' Muttered Pteramon X. 'And if we're there and Piedmon doesn't show up, I'm gonna blast everything around there, see if he feels painful by then.'

'Less talking, more doing.' Declared Eiji finally. 'We've got a long way to go, let's not waste any more time here.'

The further the digi-destined walked, the more familiar they felt. It didn't take a long time for them to recognize that they were repeating the same route they had used to get to the Fortress, only this time it was the reverse. And because of that, they had learned where to walk and where not to in order to achieve the greatest efficiency. It was quite a pleasant walk, and nothing really showed up during the way. After all, they had defeated nearly every threat that land could throw upon them: the Krams were gone, the hybrids all deleted.

And it all happened in the day before, which was mainly the reason why they hadn't had much time to talk until now.

There wasn't much to talk about, though. Every time Yuzuki, as well as the others, tried to come up with some topic without Piedmon, she could only think of asking how much longer they needed to go. Following additional instructions given they had almost finished a week's walk in a day, thanks to the lack of interference of wild digimon, of course. However familiar the road seemed, they avoided getting to Hepia, even that meant they would have to spend some extra hours crossing the road. None of them could really imagine what might happen to their minds by getting to that dreadfully haunted place, where the destined met their first failure. It would also bring up memories of Petermon as well, and would only sadden those who had been looking forward for his return.

'I hope their reconstruction is going fine.' that's all Yuzuki could say as the group passed the rocky path that led them slightly off the route to avoid getting into the tree village.

'Everything is going to be fine when we succeed.' Responded Kaoru.

Before anything more optimistic could be said, MetalPhantomon reminded the team of one thing they had neglected so long that even he himself had thought it unimportant. 'I really couldn't remember much before we got back here. What is the meaning of the prophecy they gave us in the Temple?'

'If we'd decrypted it correctly, none of those things has happened.' Answered Lillymon. 'Piedmon is still here, we're all still here. I should really doubt if that's something to happen with us.'

'Let's not let our guard be lowered by now.' Reinforced Jesmon. 'Piedmon may have more traps awaiting us. After all, I do not think he is just going to turn himself to us without a fight.'

'Surely we'll have a fight, whether he likes it or not.' Muttered Pteramon. 'And this time, I don't think we're gonna lose again.'

'Who knows?' murmured Amy; 'maybe he's got himself a battle suit this time.'

'Then he'd look totally silly.' Laughed Pteramon.

'I really don't like to ruin your mood.' Said Takumi, keeping his voice low, 'but Piedmon; he is extremely dangerous, not just by physical standard but also with his mind. I know he's not the most intelligent being, but who is to say that he hasn't got any wicked plans this time?'

Everyone stayed silent for the moment; the road was dead quiet now with the chatter of the destined, the only source of sound in the wilderness, faded gradually.

* * *

It took them a total of two days to reach their destination. Nothing happened during their walk, and they had prepared on the way to fight anything Piedmon would throw upon them, yet even now, when they had finally reached the rendezvous, nothing was there awaiting them, as if they'd been fooled. Everything they could see was merely ruins of buildings, like that of a city, which was now left with only giant stone pillars that was inclined at different angles. There were also quite an amount of irregularly shaped rubbles and concretes around there, all of which were of a sandy yellow color. The only other color there was the green, provided by the mosses that grew between cracks of inhospitable buildings.

'He must be laughing quite hard now!' grumbled TigerVespamon as he kicked a fairly large-sized concrete away out of frustration. The next thing that came was the expected sound of the "bam!" that was created by the concrete hitting something. Though it wasn't really a matter of any significance, Ryosuke still peeked out at the direction where the concrete was and was a bit –a lot actually –shocked by what he saw there.

'Look over there!' shouted the black-haired boy as he ran toward the direction immediately, not waiting for the others to follow. Upon the sight he could be sure that he wasn't having any illusion, and that he was really back there, at that very place.

'What's that.' Mumbled Yuzuki, being one of the first to come to there; There she, too, could not believe her eyes for quite a moment until all the others arrived and confirmed that what they were seeing was the same thing, and that was real.

They saw the pit they created when they battled Mercurymon, where Pteramon's missiles had been redirected and crashed into.

'I should've noticed that.' Murmured Takumi, looking once again into the map given to the destined.

'So that's why nobody was here when we first came here.' Uttered Kaoru. 'Could it really be that simple?'

'That doesn't change anything, actually.' Suggested Lillymon X. 'Piedmon is still not here; we've still wasted days to travel here while he might have escaped somewhere else.'

'And prepared gifts for you.' Came the most wanted voice at the moment.

Reflexively the digi-destined scanned around, hoping to find the slightest trace of the clown despite knowing well that he wasn't going to appear as himself easily. As he had said, something was there, ready for the destined. That had become another objective in the destined's search, and yet they could not identify anything threatening in particular, unless you took broken pillars into account.

'Given up already?' taunted the voice of Piedmon. 'Look over yonder, below your feet!'

The destined, immediately alerted, jumped back a few yards just before the ground they had been standing on started to crack and revealed a pattern that consisted with two circles, in which each of them had five smaller circles placed on its circumference evenly. A minute later the patterns started to glow with a dim white light, and the cracks became more and more visible, for the light was emitted from within the cracks. Finally there were no more cracks, replaced by ten holes –those little circles –that were perfectly rounded and smooth. Out of the holes jetted some object upwards, so fast that they could hardly be seem before the settled and levitated midair. That was about the same time the light went out.

'Shouldn't have been surprised.' Muttered Ryosuke. 'Knew you'd have backups.'

'What's the use of all these now?' questioned Jesmon. 'You have no more who can be used as your puppets.'

What were in front of them were the Spirits, those who had formed the hybrids the destined had fought earlier. It was so hard at last that they thought they had defeated them all, and had set all those who were controlled free of Piedmon's evil.

'Who says anything about anyone using these?' Piedmon's voice echoed around again.

Then, before any of the destined could react, the Spirits started to light up again, this time with a far greater light intensity. The light grew more and more blinding until nothing but a picture of total whiteness could be seen, and then the light disappeared all in a sudden, neither fading gently nor going in a direction rapidly, it just disappeared.

Replacing the Spirits were two figures. One of them bore the appearance of a fully armed man with a wolf's head. Its blue armor was full of different kinds of launchers –missiles, rockets, laser cannons, machine guns, everything the destined could name. On its back was a pair of blue wings that looked a bit too small for the figure, and under the wings were two weird golden arcs that pointed forward.

The other figure appeared much stronger in terms of body size, with bulky crimson armor that covered most of its body. Its head was of an orange color, and shaped very much like that of a WarGreymon. In its firm grip was a gigantic sword which length was almost the same as the height of the figure.

'May I introduce to you,' said Piedmon. 'EmperorGreymon and MagnaGarurumon.'

That, however, wasn't what caught the most attention of the destined.

Behind the figures, where the two circular patterns once lay, was now a blown up ground that revealed metal panels from the inside. In fact, that was now nothing but a giant hole, which indicated the destined that there was something underground, and most probably Piedmon's hiding place.

'I've a plan.' Whispered Ejij while the two digimon hadn't started to move yet.

'I think I'm thinking the same as you do.' Answered Amy, also in a whisper. Then, before anyone could say anything anymore, the two digimon started to move, and was approaching the destined rapidly. That was when the leader of the team gave out the order.

'Don't fight them, get to the hole as fast as possible!'

But that wasn't quite an easy order to execute. The destined dashed to the hole without any hesitation, yet the digimon got them earlier. Jesmon was engaged in a sword fight with EmperorGreymon just a second after he'd taken his feet off the ground and started running. Using his two blades he was readily able to block the incoming strike from EmperorGreymon, but the force applied by the digimon was far greater than he'd expected, resulting in the mega's falling backward before Lillymon X nearby joined the fight, shooting energized petals at EmperorGreymon, successfully distracting it.

* * *

The other side of the field wasn't doing that great either. Having a seemingly unlimited supply of ammo, MagnaGarurumon fired at once a couple of missiles, which intercepted as those fired by Pteramon X to counter the strike, resulting in a thick layer of smoke. But that didn't seem to have any effect on the robotic digimon. It flew upward and escaped the cloud of smoke swiftly and, using its position in the air, it fired its laser cannon at Pteramon X for a few times without really much of an interval. The champion dodged as fast as he could, and yet he couldn't evade all the strikes, resulting in his falling unwilling toward the ground, where his partner immediately rushed to so as to ensured that Pteramon wasn't severely injured. Both the human and the champion would've been struck if MagnaGarurumon hadn't been interfered by a jetting sword that hit his machine gun arm, thrown by TigerVespamon.

MagnaGarurumon, despite being interfered, didn't hesitate as he once again got his launchers aimed at the destined, and within a second he fired multiple missiles. The missiles flew unsteadily at random directions, causing TigerVespamon and Pteramon's inability to dodge in time and efficiently as the missiles exploded once they contacted everything they could –rocks, building materials, some even exploded midair without contacting anything.

Knowing that close combat was quite impossible against the heavily armed digimon, TigerVespamon could only fall back every time MagnaGarurumon fired its laser cannon and rely on Pteramon to do the attacking for him until BlueMeramon joined the battle, firing tow towers of icy-cold flames from his palms that were instantly recognized by MagnaGarurumon. That, however, didn't help the hybrid to escape as the speed of the flames outran its reaction speed. A thin layer of white smoke was produced immediately as and result and though the image was blurry, the destined could almost be certain that they saw MagnaGarurumon's one arm frozen.

Yet even that didn't stop the metallic-blue-armored digimon from further assault. Discarding the laser cannon on its right arm, MagnaGarurumon made use of its machine gun arm and fired aimlessly at the destined digimon, using bullet numbers to trade for accuracy. BlueMeramon managed to defend the digimon with an ice shield, but not for long before he, too, had to dodge like the others did. Pteramon planned to use his high speed to strike MagnaGarurumon close, but that didn't work out quite well either, owing to the vast amount of bullets given out by the machine gun that almost formed a barrier of bullets around MagnaGarurumon.

BlueMeramon was too busy evading attacks that he, despite being the one who had the most advantages during ranged battle, hadn't had a chance to strike. His objective was still fixed on getting into the hole instead of battling in the meaningless fight, yet somehow every time he and the others tried to get close, MagnaGarurumon would stop all the attack and get back to the hole as soon as possible, which was too obvious a defense to the destined.

'Get to the hole already!' shouted TigerVespamon to his partner, who was, too, busy dodging attacks.

'Well, even if we do get there, what else can we do without you guys?' replied Amy, being one of the dodging groups. 'Just hurry and get rid of them!'

MagnaGarurumon was still staying by the hole, shooting at whoever attempting to get close. It remained Kaoru of some sort of automatic guard they used to see in Ventrium that would just shoot whoever in sight. That led him to consider if MagnaGarurumon had the same function as well. It was already quite obvious that the digimon didn't have a mind of its own, but was simply acting according to a program that was already installed in its mind. This was just some kind of an advanced version, with faster reaction speed and more ammo, as well as a wilder range of attack.

'TigerVespamon!' the blonde yelled to his partner just before he barely avoided being hit by a falling pillar. 'Do you think you're fast and strong enough?'

'Yeah.' The mega had just evaded a blast of missile before he had any attention left to spare. 'Why the question?'

'I think,' said Kaoru, gasping for air as he ran away from another series of bullets, 'you have to get close, and will probably get shot.'

'And then what?'

'Then the others will attack both you and MagnaGarurumon.'

'Doesn't sound good.' Murmured TigerVespamon as he tightened his grip on both of his swords, charged forward recklessly while trying as hard as he could, drifting left and right like a slithering snake, to dodge as much bullets as possible. Yet he couldn't practically evade every single one of them, resulting in several severe damaged on his armor that could be seen readily. Ignoring the pain and the force of the bullets that kept pushing him back, TigerVespamon got himself close enough to MagnaGarurumon and the hole and, using one of his swords, he knocked MagnaGarurumon to its knees and secured the hybrid tightly by wrapping his arms round its neck, providing a clear target for the other destined.

Knowing that it might be their only chance, BlueMeramon and Pteramon, no matter who unwilling, fired their respective attacks, creating missiles that accompanied by swirls of blue flames. It was no longer than a second, yet it seemed that the flames were there forever midair before any of them could reach MagnaGarurumon. Eventually everything was taken out of vision in the blast of the explosion, and by the time things could be seen again, only one figure was there lying on the ground right next to the hole.

'You all right?' asked Kaoru rushing to TigerVespamon.

'Not dead yet.'

* * *

The other side of the battlefield was still not under control. EmperorGreymon, with its overly gigantic sword, demonstrated extensively defensive and offensive performance, using the sword to block almost every attack thrown to him by Lillymon X while readily countering slashes from Jesmon and MetalPhantomon.

'We can't get through him by force.' Mumbled Jesmon as he barely escaped a slash from EmperorGreymon. Immediately he did a smooth back flip and used his tail-blade to strike while evading attack, yet the inability to aim made him miss his target frequently. EmperorGreymon waved his blade energetically every time Jesmon tried to get close, and the result was always that Jesmon had to back off to avoid being crashed by the sheer mass of EmperorGreymon's sword.

The crimson armor of EmperorGreymon always appeared extra shinny as the deflected blasts of Lillymon exploded at the ground near the hybrid and lighted up his armor. In the flickering light the hybrid charged first at MetalPhantomon, one of the enemies it considered more vulnerable. The ultimate used the pole of his laser sickle to held EmperorGreymon's slash, but that couldn't last long. The weight of the blade itself was enough to knock MetalPhantomon down to the floor, not to mention the additional force applied by the hybrid.

MetalPhantomon, however, managed to hold on for a few more seconds, and that just gave Jesmon the moment he needed. Seizing the chance, the mega leaped forward, positioned his blades and slashed EmperorGreymon with one of them while stabbing the hybrid with another one. The thick armor prevented EmperorGreymon from being harm by the slash, but the stab was done fortunately, being located at the neck joint of the hybrid, where no armor was placed for protection. EmperorGreymon groaned in pain, and stumbled back unsteadily before Jesmon could even get away. Within the next few seconds the hybrid was already on the ground with only his hands supporting him. Its sword was located just beside it.

It seemed to Jesmon that for a moment he couldn't even think. The atmosphere of the circumstance appeared to be affecting him, and, weighting Piedmon more heavily, Jesmon walked slowly to the side of the struggling hybrid, picked up its sword, and plugged it straight through the heart of the hybrid. Its own sword was sturdy enough to pierce through its own armor and, by the next moment, EmperorGreymon had already disappeared with only the scream of it left along with the data streams that were slowly reforming into the Spirits.

'We've to hurry.' Said Yuzuki as the group proceeded in getting into the hole, where they could now see the underside of the ruins being an advanced facility, a bit like the Krams' base they'd been. Without much delay, the digimon got their respective human partners, and slid along the wall of the giant hole.

* * *

**As the series is coming to an end, I might as well make my timetable here clear. Recently I've been distracted by something else I've wanted to do for quite a long time and haven't remembered to update this book for some times. Also, I find it kind of hard to write two books at the same time, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up on the sequel. (Though I've only written to the third chapter as for now) Just want to say thanks to all those (which isn't much) who've enjoyed reading this story. I know I haven't been the nicest writer on the net and am sometimes too obsessed with the numbers, but I just want to say thank you again, reading a thirty-chapter story isn't all that easy.**

**As for the timetable, the last two chapters will be uploaded in the next two weeks. Also, I'll hpload a "deleted scene" thing as well as a preview of sequel with the last chapter. As for the sequel, I won't publish taht until I've ten chapters wirtten. I need to have chapters in stock for updates. I hope I can publish it on Augest. Guess I won't be saying anything until than. So please stay tuned for that!**

**By the way I've just started another fanfic. It's a Zoids stuff and I know that's a totally different fandom, but I do suggest you check that out as well; I think that'll turn out great. **


	34. 33 Legion

33 ~Legion~

Pure whiteness –that's the first thing that came into the destined's sight after the approximately ten-minute ride down the hole. The space they were in now was so vattly illuminated that they could hardly see the boundary of things. Everything seemed purely white, and that made the room appear a lot huger than it actually was. For a moment, the destined couldn't even tell the way they had gone in, nor could they tell if any specific floor plan existed.

'We went all the way…to somewhere like this?' Grumbled Ryosuke impatiently. 'I can hardly tell if this is even a place, or just the tunnel with white walls.'

'There's only one way to fins out.' said Pteramon, preparing to take a flight as the sound of his engines became more and more audible.

'Wait,' uttered Amy. 'I have a way in which no morons need to face the potential of getting themselves hit by a wall.' As she said so she instructed BlueMeramon to light up a fire. Initially no one actually saw what was she doing; they could only be amazed when they saw the shadows created by the specific source of light from BlueMeramon.

'Well, it seems that this place is a lot larger than I expected.' Commented Amy as the shadows of the destined continued to lengthen. They just went on without bending upon the arrival of any walls.

'Do we go on?' asked Eiji. 'It seems that we have large room to explore.'

'Of course we do.' Replied Yuzuki immediately. 'We've come all the way here; are we going to just wait until Piedmon sets up his next trap?'

'Well, I don't really think there's gonna be more traps by now. The only question is: where's Piedmon? He was the one that invited us here all along.' Commented TigerVespamon.

'We'll find that out soon enough.' Muttered Yuzuki as she took the first step in the group. 'We're running out of time.'

'Since when did she become like that?' mumbled Takumi.

'Actually, since about a week ago.' Answered Kaoru. 'It's just more noticeable around these few days.'

* * *

It seemed like they had never made any progress. In they went, yet all the way seemed to be the same. There were no walls that could define a specific location, and the bright white light just made everything feel the same. They somehow wondered if they were really walking in, or were just walking around over and over again without recognizing it.

'Show yourself!' Pteramon was the first one to lose patience and shout out loud. Not even the slightest echo could be heard.

'You really think that's gonna work?' questioned Eiji.

'At least we can't just keep going like this. Even if we do find Piedmon eventually, we'll have lost half our energy on the way.' Suggested Takumi.

'So what do we do now?' asked Yuzuki impatiently.

'We do nothing.' Said Takumi. 'If Piedmon does want us here, he'd expect us to go according to his plan, so we do nothing and make he worry. I doubt if he'll still be hiding by then.'

'Would it really work?' doubted Jesmon. 'Somehow I think he is watching us all along. He won't be surprised to see us doing this.'

'Or, maybe we can just go away.' Suggested Amy. 'If he really wants us here that much, he'll surely do something to detain us.'

'So that's the plan.' Announced Eiji. 'We go back.'

As soon as the decision was made, the destined started to look for a way back. Their surroundings were so alike that even if they did want to go back, they were having a bit of a trouble locating the right way where they had used to get there. But it didn't take them too long a while. Amazingly, Piedmon, this time, seemed to listen to them quite obediently under the threat that the destined would just go away. All the light in the overly huge space were turned off except for a roll of lights which shone a straight line that led the destined to the vision of a door-like structure.

'It actually worked.' Mumbled Takumi, surprised.

'We don't have time to waste.' Said Yuzuki. 'Come on.' Before she could get on the road, however, she found herself being detained by Kaoru, who was grabbing at her wrist.

'You need to calm down.' said Kaoru.

'I am calm.' Replied Yuzuki coldly. 'We should get going.'

'I know a lot has happened lately, but you can't keep on being like this.'

'Then what should I be like? Sitting in a little corner crying for those we've lost while letting Piedmon do whatever he likes?'

With that the black-haired girl shook off the grip and turned at the door as she started to walk wordlessly.

'There's always something you can't change.' Whispered Amy to Kaoru as the group proceeded.

* * *

Behind the doorway was a staircase, hardly illuminated as opposed to the outside space. It led the destined a straight way downward for a fifteen-minute journey before they reached complete darkness. The darkness wasn't there for long, however, as clapping sounds appeared, no doubt from Piedmon. The ceiling was immediately revealed as the bright white light appeared on about a kilometer above the destined.

The first thing that came into the sight of the destined, nevertheless, was not Piedmon himself. About a few tens meters in front of the digi-destined was a stair-cased platform with gigantic cylindrical glass vat, very similar to the one Yuzuki and Kaoru had seen back in the factory near the Fortress. Inside the vat was a giant creature that was soaked in some kind of wired bluish-green fluid, with six limbs in which four thinner ones appeared to be its hands. Its head bore a reptilian look, with dark gray, rough leathery skin covering much of its dark blue hair. On its back were two cannons that looked vattly different from the organic look of the digimon, and between the cannons and the actual torso of the digimon was a glowing layer that bore the appearance of a bird.

'I think I don't need to say much.' Mumbled Takumi as his jaws dropped wide. 'That's Millenniummon.'

'You'll need to stay calm before looking around.' Advised MetalPhantomon.

Takumi, of course, let his curiosity overcome the warning and at once looked at his sides, and was regretting that he hadn't listened to his partner.

'What the hell?' muttered Ryosuke as he realized what was beside them.

Right next to the destined on either side of the giant room was a huge glass wall that stood from the ground all the way up to the ceiling. Inside the glass was what actually stunned them. Most of them couldn't believe their eyes, yet they had to realize that they weren't dreaming, and what was happening was very real indeed.

'Chaosdramon.' Mumbled Yuzuki. 'We've tired so hard to destroy them all, yet there're still so many here?'

'Is it me or do they look a bit different?' asked Eiji.

'No it isn't.' murmured Amy. The Chaosdramon they were seeing retained the same blood-red armor, only this time they had a more geometric outline compared to the one they'd seen back then, which had had a more streamline, aerodynamic designed. The cannons on the Chaosdramon's shoulders were also much bigger and longer. The biggest difference was the number of them. They could still make out that the last time in the factory, they'd seen a few hundreds of those destructive artificial digimon, yet this time they were seeing thousands of them, all properly lined up behind the glass walls.

'Marvelous, aren't they?' Came the dramatic tone of Piedmon. The destined looked up, and found the shape of the clown walking out behind the vat.

Immediately the destined held nothing back to show their intention to attack, yet Piedmon's attitude, combined with the vatt amount of Chaosdramon and the presence of Millenniummon, made them think that there's more to it, and that they should probably let Piedmon, who always liked to say a lot, say whatever might be useful to them before they started fighting.

'Don't give me that face, please?' said Piedmon jokingly. 'Doesn't it impress you, all those lovely Chaosdramon lining up here? There're like little babies, cloned from part of Millenniummon, one of the most powerful digimon ever to exist.'

'We blew them up, back in your factory.' Said Jesmon coldly. 'And that cost us a lot.'

'Well then I'm sorry to announce that all your losses were for nothing.' Replied Piedmon. 'Do you really think that I wouldn't have myself any backup, when I allowed you to walk in casually?'

'That's more like you want us all extinguish along with Cyberdramon. No doubt you persuaded him to stay there?' muttered Pteramon X. 'so what's it this time? Get us all here and then what?'

'Be patient, my friend.' Whispered Piedmon. 'Though I'm, too, tired of playing hide-and-seek with you, I'd like to give you a satisfying greeting before I kill you.'

'I see you've failed.' Uttered Yuzuki.

'Well, just allow me to ask you one more question.' Said Piedmon in a mysteriously comical yet calm voice. He paused for like ten seconds, allowing the destined to pay full attention before he said. 'How many more shall die in your name?'

The simple question seemed to have achieved what Piedmon had been planning. There was nothing but dead silence in the room, not even the sound of breathing could be heard. The destined stood still, staring at the pavement without a blink. They could remember all those who'd died so unwillingly clearly –The first village they met, Renais by the name, that got burned up while they were not there; the village Hepia, where they failed to save and caused two-third of its population to be gone; half the village of Mespho when they fought Chaosdramon; the human kid with the name Thomas that was transformed into a hybrid, the digimon in the Fortress…

There was one more specific digimon that would never leave Yuzuki's mind –Petermon. Though everybody knew that Petermon had died in the explosion of the factory, the black-haired girl was one of the few to know the truth. She could never forget –no matter how hard she'd tried –the image of Petermon being tore apart by the Krams.

And so after a few seconds of silence, she was the first to speak. 'You'll be the last one.'

'Surely you'd hope so.' Murmured Piedmon. 'But you have to understand that, I'll not be the one to fight you. In fact, I'll never have to face you by myself when I've got so many to work for me.' As he said so two Chaosdramon X walked out from behind the giant vat, both facing the destined with their shoulder cannons aiming at them.

'You know, Cyberdramon thought that they should be equipped with organic weapons, a virus, to make them more superior. I say differently. Firepower is enough to crush you, as well as to make the rest of the world kneel before me.'

No matter how much the digi-destined wanted to skip the two artificial digimon and get to Piedmon directly, their opponent would not let them do so. Seemingly programmed by Piedmon to target the destined, the two Chaosdramon immediately fired blasts of energy from their cannons, making four blue rings of light crashing at the pure whiter pavement. The digi-destined managed to escape, but were still caught by the wave of the explosion that they could hardly maintain balance and fell just right behind the now coal-black pavement.

'I don't think we've much of a choice now.' Pteramon X could only said that before he was occupied by the battle. One of the Chaosdramon fired multiple blasts of energy from its arm cannon. The glowing orange spheres nearly hit the human before they were taken away by their digimon partners just in time to safety.

'What do we do now?' asked Takumi. 'I don't think we can take on two of that thing at once.'

'Well, we have to.' Answered Lillymon X to the humans. 'Stay here, don't try to get between the crossfire.'

And so the digimon once again went out to face the two crimson dragons. With gear clicking noise and the sounds of engine working, the two Chaosdramon X approached their targets. Jesmon, remembering how the team defeated the one back in Mespho, proposed the same plan, only this time none of them could even get near the machines. Every time Jesmon tried to get near, either the tail or the left arm of Chaosdramon would block his way and strike him mercilessly.

'Cold Flame.' BlueMearmon, despite knowing that his attacks wouldn't do much damage on the Chaosdramon, fired his cold flames, freezing the legs of the Chaosdramon to anchor them to a fixed position. Without much effort, the machine digimon broke free within a second, however, and resumed their hunt for the destined. Noticing the trick done on them, they switched their primary target to BlueMeramon, who kept on delaying their action by freezing their joints.

'Watch out!' hearing the sounds of the cannons charging, TigerVespamon warned the ultimate as he rushed forward and threw one of his swords at the shoulder cannon of one of the Chaosdramon. The sword went straight into the barrel of the cannon, and the heat emitted immediately melted it despite also causing the cannon to malfunction. Yet the Chaosdramon, being mechanical, could hardly feel any pain as it grabbed TigerVespamon by its right arm and charged the cannon on it, throwing the mega away just before it shot precisely at him.

'Well, this is quite entertaining. Though I was hoping more.' Mumbled Piedmon as he watched the battle from aside. 'You know, you've gone through so much, it's almost a pity to see you defeated so easily. Kind of boring, indeed.'

'Soul Predator!' yelled MetalPhantomon as he generated several energy waves from its sickle, all of which being reflected by the sturdy armor of Chaosdramon, resulting in his need to evaded from his own attacks while making sure that he wouldn't get shot by either of the Chaosdramon. Liilymon X nearby was also facing the same problem, having all her energized petals deflected.

'Missile storm!' even solid projectiles that explode didn't do much. The missiles of Pteramon X did hit the Chaosdramon, and they did cause various explosions, yet the metallic red armor of the artificial digimon remained as shinny as they ever were without a single scratch on them.

'We have to do something other than to just watch.' Suggested Yuzuki.

'We don't actually have much to do, except we can get them all to digivolve.' Explained Takumi.

'Well then, let's do it.'

Each digi-destined with digimon partners that were able to digivolve all used their cards to make that happen, but even that didn't help much. Pteramon X digivloved into Hououmon; Lillymon X digivolved into Rosemon X; BlueMeramon digivolved into SkullMeramon. That's all that's happening. The additional mega did nothing more than providing psychological support to themselves owing to the fact that the moment they finished digivolving, the other three that had been covering them were down already.

'Crimson flame!' Still surrounded with the light of digivolution, Hououmon fired a tower of high temperature flame at one of the Chaosdramon. The advantage of having two was that there'd always be one to watch the other's back, and in this case Hououmon forgot that completely and got himself gunned down by the other Chaosdramon before Rosemon X could use her vein to restrict its action for a second or two.

'Metal fireball.' Launching numerous destructive molten metal from its mouth, SkullMeramon wasn't aiming at the Chaosdramon themselves, but rather the ground they were standing on. The heat of the molten metal melted the burnt pavement into a semi-fluid state and caused the Chaosdramon to be stuck for a while. Seizing the chance, Jesmon, who'd been shot by an energy blast directly, charged up and got onto the neck section of a Chaosdramon X, hanging on the moving machine with one arm while aiming at the upper jaw of the artificial digimon with another. When the time came and the digimon opened its mouth, Jesmon reflexively leaped up and stabbed the Chaosdramon's upper jaw from inside its mouth, expecting the non-armored interior would provided him the necessary odds to destroy the digimon. Yet this time it didn't go as smooth.

For a moment Jesmon realized that his blade couldn't penetrate the interior of the Chaosdramon, and by the next moment all he could realize was that a violent shake from the robotic digimon had thrust him onto the ground. The third thing he saw, a giant foot was there right on top of him, about a few feet away, ready to stomp on the mega. With his back on touching the ground, Jesmon flipped over rapidly and avoided being smash into a flat piece, which could have happened just a second ago.

'There's something I have to announce!' shouted the white-armored mega to the chaos battlefield as he got up right next to the giant foot. 'They have that metal lined in the inside as well; we can't get them by the old way!'

'Well, you really think I'd not improve the design and let you blow off my babies? They're, as you can say, clones of the Millenniummon itself, after all. I can't afford losing them so easily.' Taunted Piedmon from far away.

'If you really have the mood to talk, then why don't you just jump down here to fight instead of having your stupid clones to do all the work for you?' snarled Pteramon X while his body was too busy dodging blasts that he couldn't give the target of his speech a proper glance. It might be because of the snarl that he couldn't concentrate enough; a blast of light blue energy struck the jet-like champion right on and soon he, as well as the others and their human partners, was well surrounded by the two Chaosdramon X, in which each of them had their arm and shoulder cannons aimed readily at the destined on either side.

'Oh no…' grumbled Ryosuke, looking at the glowing cannons of the Chaosdramon with mixed feelings of fear and anger.

The Chaosdramon, however, never fired –at least not at that moment; their cannons remained charged and aimed at the destined, yet they weren't making any slightest move, as though they had suddenly come to conscience and had decided to spare the destined for a little while.

The truth was, of course, not that optimistic. Piedmon, who'd been hiding from behind the vat that contained Miilenniummon throughout the battle, walked forth to the digi-destined. His face no longer wore that playful yet threatening smirk, instead it was the expression of one being disappointed, or rather, bored. He approached the kids slowly, with drippy eyelids and his hands placed behind his torso.

'You're right,' said the mega in a rather fed up tone. 'It's really kinda boring watching from far away when eventually you're all gonna die even if I didn't have to get involved. If that actually happened, wouldn't that be a bit…meaningless? To watch you perish, but not in my hands.'

'That's a sick psycho.' Whispered Ryosuke.

'Then be thankful that his being sick saved us.' Muttered Eiji.

The digimon, on the other hand, had a rather different concern.

'What do you want now?' demanded Jesmon regardless of his previous injuries in the battle, knowing that the odd Piedmon must be up to something terrible in his own unapproachable manner.

Piedmon didn't answer. Basically to him, everything's ending a bit too quick that he might not have been able to react properly. This long game with the destined had been fun, and now seeing it end was just a bit touchy to him. Somehow deep inside he wanted it to last longer, just a bit longer.

_Well, I__'__ve lived for quite some time as well; there__'__ll always be another __interesting__ game in the future, just like the last time. _

Without much more hesitation, the clown-like digimon rushed toward the destined. The meaning of the word "rush", however, was a bit different to him. All of a sudden Piedmon disappeared, leaving no trace for the destined digimon, and the next moment he was right behind TigerVespamon, who was a bit farther from the group than the others, with one of his swords at ready. Sensing his presence, TigerVespamon turned around swiftly with his swords pointing at the direction where Piedmon had used to be. But he was already gone by then, and resulted in TigerVespamon's futile attempt to strike, even causing him to fall a bit off balance.

The next thing the destined know, their digimon partners were struck within no more than a second, each being thrown away by an unknown force. SkullMeramon was the first to get up, and was the first to see Piedmon in the face. Reflexively he used his flaming fist to grip the mega, or at least he tired to. The moment he punched Piedmon had already gone, and was by then a few feet on top of SkullMeramon. Striking surprisingly, he kicked the muscular digimon in the face and disappeared at the next moment as the mega fell.

Noticing the teleportation ability of their foe, the digimon became increasingly alerted, and yet that wouldn't do much help to them; Piedmon was always a step faster, stabbing the destined at the back and disappearing so quickly that he seemed to have vanished from the battlefield.

'Just show yourself!' shouted Lillymon as she shot randomly at every direction that she believed Piedmon had been, with the same expected and frustrating result. Nearby Jesmon and TigerVespamon slashed wildly while Pteramon was trying to get a good aim at the clown when he struck MetalPhantomon, knocking the laser sickle off his grip.

'You've got to pay more attention!' taunted the mega with only his voice traceable. Before his next strike, however, Jesmon, being his next target, was reflexive and agile enough that he could guess by the voice where Piedmon was coming from. Trusting his instinct, seeing that things couldn't go worse, he turned swiftly to his right and placed one hand in front of him for protection. Fortunately he'd guessed correctly and held Piedmon's incoming sword successfully. The instant the two's blades contacted, Jesmon immediately noticed something much worse than the continuous disappearances of Piedmon –three of four of his swords were gone.

Despite feeling a slight trace of danger, he couldn't immediately make out what could've happened to the other swords; the others weren't stabbed with them, and it's not likely that Piedmon would place them somewhere else than to have them on his back. That confusion was solved as Piedmon spoke. 'Thinking of somewhere else?'

Losing concentration for just a moment, Jesmon was easily shaken off by Piedmon, who then disappeared and reappeared at the stage near the vat.

'Be careful, he's up to something!' warned Jesmon, but that was already too late. Letting go of the one sword in his hand, Piedmon was now completely out of weaponry, yet he didn't seem bothered at all. In fact, he was just as calm as he'd ever been. The destined digimon, knowing that something wrong's going on, scanned around cautiously, and by the moment they saw the four levitating swords above them the swords had already started moving. First they were moving slowly, accelerating. About a second later the swords had already reached their maximum speed and were jetting across the room at the digimon.

The digimon ducked down just before the swords could get them. Basically the entire aerial section of the battlefield was no longer valid for the destined to use. Most of the time the digimon were either too busy dodging the flying blades or using their own weapons to knock them away into another track, only to make them harder to predict. Everyone was too busy occupied that none of them could notice that Piedmon had gone again.

'Arrr!' with a cry of pain, Pteramon became the first one to get knocked to the ground. And then, one by one, all the destined digimon were lying on the ground without any more strength left to even get up to see what's happening above.

'Well, that ends fast.' Commented Piedmon as he approached the digimon after he'd reappeared, with all four swords now back to him, two in his hands and two in the back. He walked slowly, raising his right arm at the same time as he reached SkullMeramon, the closest digimon to him. Kicking the mega aside with a violently and hatefully, Piedmon was ready to kill his first victim.

'I hope you've already realized that everything has to come to an end.'

And then, the most unexpected voice spoke, booming in the entire underground chamber.

'_It will__, but not in this way._'


	35. 34 Together as one

**About the Epilogue down there, the same thing as before: read only if you are interested in the sequel.**

* * *

34 ~Together as one~

Katashi sat next to the working desk, watching the live footage of the digimon that'd gathered outside the Walls since two days before. Reflexively he'd thought about the possibility that the digimon had been gathering to tear the wall down to get back into Ventrium, but they'd never done so. And neither had then been doing much else aside from waiting –just waiting, with nothing else to do. It had appeared to Katashi that they were there waiting for something, or someone, not from the inside to open up the gate and let them in, but rather from the outside world, where everything was supposed to be as deserted as one could possibly be.

'You know, every time I see this kind of things on TV, something real bad's coming up.' commented Katashi. He hadn't done much else for the past two days aside from keeping watch on the footage.

'Well, let's hope the producers are all wrong.' Uttered Liollmon.

'I've been thinking of that for quite some time.' replied Katashi. That one single moment when he switched his attention from the monitor was, however, the moment when the thing that he'd wished the least come into reality.

'Wait…what?' exclaimed Katashi, frustrating typing various buttons on the keyboard.

'What happened?' asked Liollmon. The answer automatically presented itself to the rookie as he peeked at the screen, where everything he could see was pure blackness, with occasional white vertical lines appearing randomly every once in a while.

'I really hate these signal problems!' uttered Katashi as he did the usual disconnecting-and-reconnecting action on the computer. His actions were, however, disturbed as the ground shook violently and caused him to fall off balance. Making sure that his computer was okay, he and Liollmon immediately rushed out of their apartment to see if anything could be the cause of the shaking.

'Well, this can't be more obvious…' murmured the brown-haired boy the moment he was out of the door. Right on top of him, in the middle of the sky where thick, gray clouds had gathered, there appeared a giant hole-like structure, with a completely dark center and a ring of grayish clouds that was wrapped with occasional lightning forming the circumference. That remained him of something, the one he'd seen back in the mall with Yuzuki, when Liollmon had first digivolved.

'Are they returning?' mumbled Liollmon.

'I never thought they'd do something so…dramatic.' Uttered Katashi. Before he could say another word, all he could see was dark red machines raining down from the hole.

* * *

It was a voice no one in that very chamber had ever heard before.

'Who is that?' uttered the digi-destined and Piedmon simultaneously in fear. Piedmon was the obviously more scared one, having control in theoretically everything in the chamber while a sudden voice appeared just like that. He scanned his surroundings with detail, temporally giving up the fatal hit he was about to give to the destined. Yet he could find nothing –nothing he could come up with a reasonable explanation, except…

He turned shivering to his back, where the giant vat that contained Millenniummon stood.

'That's not possible…' murmured the mega. 'It can't be like that!'

'_Oh, but that__'__s how it is._' Said that voice again. The two Chaosdramon X that had stopped previously now buzzed with the disturbingly weird mechanical noise again as they pointed their cannons at murmuring Piedmon.

'Can someone tell me what's happening?' muttered Eiji.

'I guess, that Millenniummon wasn't so dead as Piedmon had thought.' Replied Takumi.

Piedmon looked at the vat unmoved, frozen by fear. The digimon inside was just as the way it'd been, not making any movement. Yet the closed eyes of the reptilian head now seemed more menacing, and that closely lined-up jaws seemed to be forming into a smirk of satisfaction. Deciding that something had to be done, Piedmon used his teleportation again just in time to avoid being hit by the two blasts of the Chaosdramon. This also gave the destined digimon the time they needed to get away from Piedmon and back to their partners.

Yet this time the clown's trick was easily solved as Piedmon, apparently unwillingly, reappeared in the motion of being thrown down from far above.

'This can't be!' muttered Piedmon as he once again teleported, only to receive the same result, this time being thrown from one end of the corridor to the other, then going straight through the wall and reappearing from the ceiling, falling straight towards where he once was. In vain, the mega tried a couple more of times, but could do nothing other than being played by the unknown force.

'_You think your little __dimensional__ power can hold up against mine?_' said the voice finally as it stopped tossing Piedmon around. Piedmon could merely get up to his knees.

Without another warning, a dimensional vortex appeared behind the mega. This was, unlike those created by Cyberdramon, a lot more stable in terms of its outfit, without all the flashing lightning, but a mere hole with a pitch black center and distorted boundaries. Piedmon, immediately noticing the vortex, started to run away from it, that was when the vortex started to pull the clown towards its opening.

Piedmon ran, performing perhaps the hardest run he'd ever had in his life. Yet it wasn't the fastest. In fact, he hadn't moved an inch from his original position at all. All he could do was to keep up with the attractive force that kept pulling him towards the vortex. Though there wasn't any imminent danger traveling through the gate, it could, in theory, transport him to practically anywhere. Get inside, and the next thing he could see might be an unknown place in the digital world, or perhaps somewhere in the human world, or even into another dimension where no one had been before. Therefore he kept running, keeping his legs moving; so endeavored was he that he even tried to teleport, only to end up on the exact same spot where he'd been while slowly losing to the attractive force.

He couldn't keep the same pace forever; the vortex was pulling him towards it successfully second by second, and the frustrating fact was that there was he could do nothing but to give in. His face had never shown more desperate an expression, and as he ran his arms extended, hoping to grab whatever that could help him escape, which was none but the air. Slowly half of Piedmon was in the gate, still struggling to get out, falling unfortunately. But even as he fell he was still struggling; his fingers scratching the ground frantically, hoping to help him resist the pull. Yet everything was too late; not even a scream would come out as the portal suddenly vanished, leaving only the upper torso of the mega lying on the ground with an extremely misshaped facial expression and the stayed motion of Piedmon reaching out his hands for help. All that terrible stuff didn't last long, though, and turned into pure data bits, without even reforming into a digi-egg due to the hald of the data missing in another dimension.

Before Piedmon disappeared completely, however, the voice howled again, with some lion-like roar mixed in it, so loud that it kept on bouncing in the digi-destined's minds as though the previous screams of Piedmon were just whispers.

'_I AM MILLENNIUMMON!_'

'_Now, where was __I?_' said the voice as the eyes of the Millenniummon suddenly flashed open with a small, concentrated, yet bright glimmer of yellow light. It didn't take long before the legendary monster started to move the rest of its body; not even cracks were formed before the entire glass vat shattered into millions of pieces and the sick, yellowish liquid inside spilled out all at once. And there stood Millenniummon itself, giant and alive, approaching the digi-destined with a slow pace, so slow that it made the legendary beast seem even more threatening than it'd already been.

'Any plans?' whispered Lillymon. The others, on the other hand, were either too shocked or too occupied by the might of Millenniummon that none of them could say a word.

With great body size came the great shadow of Millenniummon; the giant beast had now fully recovered from its previous state of suspended animation, and was standing right in front –perhaps just a few ten meters –of the digi-destined, with the two Chaosdramon X standing beside it motionless. It was quite clear at that moment that the malfunction of the two artificial digimon previously had been caused by Millenniummon itself.

Its mouth moved –not so large a movement, but rather a small, murmuring action –as it spoke. 'Here we all are, at last.' The words didn't seem to come from the digimon's mouth, but rather like a sound that was installed in the destined's mind; its echo filled the chamber.

'Have anything to say before we get started?' uttered Pteramon. Even the arrogant digimon's voice sounded a bit quivering by now.

'We're no match for it; you know that!' whispered Takumi.

Millenniummon continued to speak. 'I suppose you have understood what has been happening around here?' its voice was, unlike how the digi-destined had imagined, very human and unnaturally calm, so calm that it almost made the most rational person the destined had seen nothing but a sentimental person like all others. In the steady pace the digimon proceeded. 'These,' it said, 'are like my children; each one of them derived from me, and I am every single one of them.' As Millenniummon said so the eyes of all the other inactivated Chaosdramon lightened up all at once, forming a tow great rays of red along the ceiling of the chamber.

'Please tell me this is not happening.' Mumbled Amy.

'What's happening?' asked Ryosuke.

'Basically,' explained Takumi, 'they had a digimon that can wipe out an entire village in minutes. Now they have hundreds, all controlled by Millenniummon.'

Before any other actions were taken, the two giant glass walls that held the Chaosdramon shattered into pieces as the two lines of the robotic digimon walked forth.

'I do have to admit, you have been more…endeavoring than that clown.' Said Millenniummon, surprising the destined that it actually knew everything even in the sleep. 'At least, you lasted longer, and I appreciate that.' Said it in that steadily calm, yet convincing tone as the ceiling of the chamber could no longer be seen, replaced by a giant vortex that was doubtlessly created by Millenniummon.

'I am going to offer you with a choice.' The Chaosdramon started to create a weird symphony of engine noise as black smoke slowly found its way into the chamber pavement. 'You can stay here, join me, and watch as the world burns; or you can be part of it when it happens.'

'What's the meaning of this?' demanded Yuzuki, surprising the others. 'You've got whatever you want: the one you hate gone; you're free again, why can't you leave the world alone?'

'It is very foolish of you, young lady.' Said Millenniummon. 'It is only natural of me to do so; or, in other words, I want to do so, for over many ages I have wanted to do so, and I have been doing so, and I will do so!'

'But, why?' questioned Yuzuki. 'What's the point of it? I've seen so many agonies in the digital world; can't you see it? You can put an end to this!'

'You know what the world has done to me for so many times! You know how people always want to kill you! There's nothing but destruction that I can bring in terms of repay.'

'But…'

'Stop now.' Whispered Kaoru, pulling Yuzuki back. 'However calm it seemed, it's not. It's up to us to stop it.'

'Well,' said Millenniummon finally. 'The decision?'

The destined looked at each other. And then, with nods that indicated their common agreement, Eiji announced. 'We'll not join you. And we'll not stand by and let you do whatever you want. We will fight.'

'So be it.' said the giant digimon coldly. Within a second, all the Chaosdramon had taken off, with deafening noise they jetted into the vortex one by one, disappearing speedily as the vortex closed itself, leaving nothing but Millenniummon and the destined in the chamber.

'Well, how do we stop all that?' asked MetalPhantomon, preparing to fight.

'Basically they're all Millenniummon.' Said Takumi. 'Stopping the original one should shut them all down.'

'You have the time to chat?' roared Millenniummon as two giant glowing spheres of orangey yellow flew straight out of the cannons of the legendary digimon. Without much time to spare, the digimon reacted quick, getting their human partners out of the point where the blasts landed at once.

'Stay safe.' Said Jesmon as the digimon were about to get to fight.

'No.' detained Yuzuki. 'You can't do this alone. We're called destined for a reason. We're called partners for a reason.'

'Alright then.' Uttered Jesmon as all twelve of the digi-destined rushed out of the hidden place and faced Millenniummon all together. Their enemy, however, gave them no time to spare and fired another two blasts at them.

'Defense plug-in!' with a blinding flash a force field appeared around MetalPhantomon, extending all the way to cover up the other destined as the ultimate waved its laser sickle, redirecting the blasts to either side of the chamber, leaving only a loud 'bang' and mountains of rubbles at the sides at the destined started their retaliation.

'Digivolution.'

'Acceleration.'

'Strength enhancement.'

Basically, with everything the destined could provide to aid their digimon partners, the final fight began. All the digimon had digivolved into their respective final form, and were ready to face Millenniummon with full force. Still, the battle could never get any harder. Before the digimon had even finished digivolving, the four-armed digimon had already struck them with blasts of energy, leaving them no other choices but to dodge the attack while they were still glowing.

Jesmon was the first to attack, using every single blades he had, the white-armored mega dashed towards Millenniummon, whose size was about ten times his own, and slashed it as the blades glowed with a faint orange light. Near the eye level of Millenniummon was Hououmon, roaring with jets of crimson flame flowing out from his mouth. Next to him was Rosemon, generating energized petals from nowhere and shooting them at Millenniummon while SkullMeramon was busy striking with his hot lava and TigerVespamon, alongside MetalPhantomon, was slashing the mega at different angles.

All of that, however, was simply undone by a gentle shake of the mega. The destined digimon fell back immediately. Even though the physical damage done by Millenniummon didn't feel much the same as the cannon blasts it'd got, they still remember well that Millenniummon was one giant digimon, and that its strength was not to be underestimated. With just a crush of its tail, a section of the pavement had already been reduced into a two-feet deep pit, lined with cracks.

'There is nowhere to hide,' roared Millenniummon, gripping Hououmon and tossing him aside effortlessly, 'not here, not even in your own world!'

'Oh no.' uttered Ryosuke. 'He didn't mean that for real, right?'

It was about the same time when Millenniummon had gotten four destined digimon with all four of his claws and smashed them against the wall or the ground and toss them aside did a call come to the destined. It rang like call in the morning –bringing the destined back to the rest of the world outside of the secret chamber –with the frequent and high-pitched beep sound emitting from Yuzuki's digivice.

The moment she took the call she'd already figured out what was happening and who was calling.

* * *

'Something strange's happening here,' said Katashi with a harsh and exhausted tone, 'there're these…things that keep falling from the sky…'

Before he could even say the complete sentence, Yuzuki had already guessed what he was referring to, and could not help but say. 'Listen, whatever's coming, you can't fight them, get to safety at once!'

'What?' his voice had become disturbed with the messy background noise on either side, mixed with the buzzing noise caused by the poor signal strength.

'You have to…' shouted Yuzuki before she was forced to stop as she dodged a blast from the fight. She didn't even look at the screen as she proceeded, not knowing that the connection had already been cut. 'Just hide, find a place where they…' it was until then did she realize what had happened. Yet there was no time to pay concern to that, at least not now. Several rubbles fell from the ceiling, raining stones upon the destined while their digimon partners could hardly handle both the fight and protecting the humans. With that, all they could do was to leave the unharmed Millenniummon for now and cover their partners as the rain of stones reached the ground.

Katashi watched in amazement as more and more of the red-armored digimon landed from the giant wormhole-like thing in the sky. They hardly did anything for the moment, but were rather like they were awaiting orders. He was too taken by the scene that he needed Liollmon to remain him that someone was calling him.

'Who's that?' the brown-haired boy asked; his voice without much emotion, for most of them had been drawn to the scenery the moment the hole had appeared.

'Mr. Tadokoro,' he didn't need much remainder to know that the only one who'd call him in such formal a fashion was Smith. 'I suppose you have noticed the reason I called you.'

'It's about those dragon…things, right?' answered him uncaringly. 'I think I've got quite an idea of what caused this.'

'And I have much worse news for you.'

'What can probably be worse?'

'The digimon near the walls hadn't gone yet.'

'Oh…' mumbled Katashi. 'Wait for me for a moment, I'm gonna make a call.' Without waiting any responses from Smith he immediately took out his digivice and contacted Yuzuki, knowing that whatever's happening here must be linked to the digital world, and whatever's happening in the digital world could only be known by the girl's team.

Yet the first sound he heard was not the girls, but rather a quite loud explosion. That wasn't too much of a surprise, though, seeing that the mess that would come any sooner indicated that the digital world was undergoing some much worse situation. He asked first.

'Something strange's happening here,' informed him, hoping to get some clues as to how to duel with the crimson dragons. 'There're these…things that keep falling from the sky…'

He'd expected the situation in the digital world to be harsh, which would occupy much of the destined's attention, but what came next really stunned him quite a lot. Never before in his life had he heard such desperate and terrified scream from the girl. 'Listen, whatever's coming, you can't fight them, get to safety at once!'

'What's…' worried, he asked further, only to be cut off by the sudden lost of signal that had allowed him to communicate with the digital world. Before the screen blacked out, though, he did, or though he did, hear these last words from Yuzuki. 'You have to…'

But what came next was a moment of complete silence, so silent that even the wind current could be heard readily. It didn't last long, yet it felt like a long time had passed before the environment was taken over completely by another kind of sound –the kind that involved people's screaming and gun firing, mixed with deafening explosions and probably slight traces of people sobbing.

It came in a sudden. But everything around him had changed in a mere second. The first thing that he could feel was the ground shaking, realizing that the floor was cracked. He probably would have gotten to somewhere safer than in the middle of the air on a concrete plate had he realized that the dragon-looking digimon would all strike at once. It was, however, too late, as he heard the sound of an incoming blast from behind. He couldn't even see the Chaosdramon ruining the city as all he could care about was how to get to somewhere else when he was practically standing on thin air with the floor crumbled into fragments.

* * *

'Schwertgeist!' attacked Jesmon, generating three orange ghost-like energy beings and struck directly at Millenniummon's face. About the same time SkullMeramon used his Metal Fireball, launching tones of molten metal at Millenniummon. Millenniummon itself, however, didn't bother evading the attack at all, and let them all hit it without even a defensive move. Seizing the chance, the rest of the destined attacked at once.

'Crimson Flare!'

'Forbidden Temptation!'

'Soul Predator!'

'Mach Stinger V!'

The consequence of the combined attack was a huge explosion, consisting of whatever might be in all kinds of explosion. Fog hindered the sight as to what had become of Millenniummon. Deep inside the destined know that it couldn't be defeated with just that much of attacks, though pretty much every single one of them hoped that the fight could end soon.

'What's inside?' muttered Ryosuke, impatient.

'Whatever's happening, let's not get off guard.' Replied his partner. The tension was reduced in a matter of seconds by none other than the roar of Millenniummon itself, notifying the digi-destined that it was yet to be defeated. The thick white smoke was, nonetheless, still wrapping round the entire Millenniummon despite how the roar had made it swirl. In the milky white color the smoke layer flickered with dots of bright, neon-orange, and the swirling became much more intense, turning the smoke into a shrink whirlwind as the thunder-like flickering frequented, beeping randomly among the whirlwind with blitzing noises like electric circuits. The next moment, the smoke layer burst into nothing with the orange light intensifying in a rapid rate that everything was outshined and sight hindered.

Millenniummon stood where it had been, with obvious injuries on its leathery skin that leaked data streams. Finally, there was at least the slightest hope in the destined to defeat the beast. Yet the next second the hope perished itself as the wounds on the black skin of the legendary digimon healed themselves, faster than any known medical records. Even the scratches couldn't be seen once the process was done. Millenniummon, looking as if it had never been in a fight before, stood nice and shinny before the destined.

'How did it do that?' mumbled Yuzuki in disbelief. 'I've never read anything about that!'

'I don't think you've much time to think!' uttered Amy, pulling the girl aside as the brand new-looking Millenniummon fired another round of blasts.

'I have a theory,' muttered Takumi, staying low, endeavoring to avoid being hit. The digimon, on the other hand, couldn't quite accept what'd just happened, and decided to strike again.

'Crimson Flare!'

'Forbidden Temptation!'

'Soul Predator!'

'Mach Stinger V!'

'Schwertgeist!'

'Metal Fireball!'

Their effort was, as expected, proved futile as Millenniummon once again healed itself in a matter of seconds. Startled, they struck once more, much harder and more concentrated at a spot. Yet nothing could be done to damage the giant beast. Millenniummon, seemingly satisfied with a grin on its reptilian face, walked forth, slowly approaching the destined. Each step it took shook the ground, causing rubbles to rain down from above.

'Is that all you've got?' taunted the mega, charging its two giant cannons.

'Only if you'll not cheat like that!' snarled Hououmon, frustrated.

'The fact is: you cannot harm me.' Said Millenniummon, firing the cannons at Hououmon. 'And I am enjoying it.'

'How actually does it do that?' grumbled TigerVespamon. 'And how do we stop it?'

'It might not be true,' said Takumi, 'I think, that it's repairing itself with data from around the digital world.'

'What's that suppose to mean?' questioned Eiji.

'If, the Chaosdramon are out there slaughtering, then it should have an unlimited amount of resources.' Explained Takumi briefly. 'It has the ability to transport them to wherever it wants.'

'Well then what are we supposed to do?' asked Jesmon. Losing focus, he got hit by a blast, being sent flying to the far left side of the chamber, crashing into the already crackled wall.

'I…I don't know.'

'Think quickly!' uttered MetalPhantomon, barely escaping a swipe of Millenniummon's tall. 'We can't hold it for long!'

The redhead stood still, frozen in both fear and anxiety. Behind him was their partners fighting, possibly dying, with frequent shouts of pain and bangs of explosions.

'I think…' it was Kaoru who spoke. 'I think I have a way.'

* * *

Katashi could barely se anything once he got his eyes opened. All around him were noises –all kind of them –that had been there since the raid had begun. They seemed, however, muffed and subdued, along with the blurry sight of the brown-haired boy.

'Thank god you're okay.' The first clear voice he heard was from his partner. With his eyesight getting back to normal, he could see GrapLeomon holding him, while lying next to him was a hill of broken concretes that buried half his legs.

'What happened?' asked Katashi, still not feeling well.

'We got hit, and you passed out.' concluded GrapLeomon. Katashi got himself back to standing and checked his digivice –still no signal from the other side. He then checked his cell phone, confirming that Smith had called him a few times, quite frequently. He called back.

'What am I to do now?'

'The red digimon, they're heading to the walls.' Informed Smith.

'What?'

'They are heading towards the wall in Xe. Distract them.'

'One more question.'

'What might that be?'

'Where's Elsa when I need her?' asked Katashi. Though he never really liked the girl, he could really use some help now.

'She is on the way.'

* * *

'Where did you get this?' questioned Yuzuki. The digi-destined had temporarily retreated, not having been able to take on Millenniummon for much longer. They were, nevertheless, still in the underground chamber, just farther away from the outraging Millenniummon. Despite that, they weren't safe yet. The destruction of Millenniummon, though out of sight, could still be heard clearly. Every second was to be used wisely, and having an argument at the moment didn't seem to be a wise thing to do.

Still, the black-haired girl stared straight at the strange card Kaoru had just pulled out from the deck and asked again. 'Where did you get this?' The red writings read exactly what it does, and the color, as perceived by everyone there, seemed to be a kind of warning.

Hesitantly the blonde boy answered. 'It was the time when…_she_, was killed, and I found that in my pocket no sooner after.'

'You do know what you're risking here?' demanded TigerVespamon. 'If the card does exactly what it says, whoever used it would fuse with a digimon, like those hybrids did. How is that someone gonna come out after used? And how does that help us defeat Millenniummon?'

'That's crazy,' interrupted Amy. 'I think, that he wants Millenniummon to be part of the fusion.'

'What are you thinking?' Yuzuki almost yelled if it hadn't been the presence of Millenniummon. Kaoru, as usual, didn't give any suggestive answers, simply glancing down at the pavement.

'Well, perhaps,' suggested MetalPhantomon. 'Will it be possible that the human part can take control of Millenniummon and inhibits its healing…thing?'

'Is that your plan?' asked Yuzuki.

'That's way too risky.' Said Eiji firmly. 'Who knows what might happen by then?'

'I agree,' remarked Takumi, 'remember, the hybrids couldn't act by their own will. How can you be sure that Millenniummon wouldn't take over whoever fuses with it and…'

'Who's to be the one?' remarked Rosemon.

Yuzuki looked at Kaoru, who showed every sign that he was obviously evading every questions he got. A notion formed spontaneously in her mind. 'Don't tell me you're planning to…'

'What else can we do then?' shouted Kaoru.

'Whatever you're planning to do, it's not up to you to decide.' Declared Eiji. 'Not just you.'

'I think we can pull off the conversation for now.' Said Hououmon. Everyone could hear the approaching Millenniummon.

'Maybe we'll use it as a last resort, but don't try to do anything stupid until then.' Said Eiji.

Millenniummon had now appeared in front of them. The digi-destined, despite knowing that everything they could do could at most delay Millenniummon from going up to the surface to join the Chaosdramon in the destruction, fought as hard as they could.

'It's almost time to end this.' Exclaimed Millenniummon, using all four of his arms to struck the destined digimon. As they'd done before, the digimon struck at full force, and as things had turned out before, every single wound on Millenniummon was recovered in an instant. With just one blast, Millenniummon could already clear off everything in its way, sending the destined digimon flying at different directions as the impact shook the ground, producing dirt that flew in all direction in perfect parabolas.

'Time to take off.' Beside Millenniummon there appeared dozens of the dimensional vortexes, all with clear centers that showed whatever was happening on the other sides. It was the time when the destined could finally see what was like up there, when they had been so busy battling down there. The villages, the Fortress, and the human world –everything they'd fought so hard to protect –were crumbling, burning, fading.

It was an emotional strike; the destined all stared at the portals, being forzen in the mass amount of complicated emotions their brains were busy processing. The digimon, on the other hand, was purely enraged, angered. Looking at everything so familiar being destroyed, Jesmon could no longer contain his anger and struck.

'Schwertgeist!'

In just a simple turning motion, Millenniummon deflected the attack effortlessly, causing the energy beings to go off track, striking the ceiling, where a little of the broken glass remained, creating a loud bang that was followed by an explosion.

Yuzuki, too absorbed in the scenes from the vortexes, never seemed to notice the piece of shape-edged glass jetting towards her in constant velocity. The others had already scattered at the explosion, making them too far away to get the girl out of the imminent danger no matter how much they wanted to do so. Still, someone leaped forth and got her.

It was in just a split second, she was taken out of the danger and back into reality, where she could feel her head bouncing hard against the unevenly damaged floor and her body rolling. The strangest of them all was that she could feel someone beside her, with that someone's arms covering her torso. When she could see again all that was there was just a giant black shade. Raising her head up she could see the cause of it –it was Kaoru who'd covered her. Getting focus again she saw the boy lying next to her, motionless for a moment, but then jerked a little.

She quickly rose up to her knees, and checked if Kaoru was all right. For a moment she thought everything was going to be fine –they were both away from her original position, and Kaoru didn't seem to be seriously injured…

Or…did he?

The others hurried to them, and the digimon did the defending. Yuzuki, before the others came, discovered that the blonde boy wasn't as well as she'd thought. Near his chest, a bit left below his right armpit, there was the piece of glass, halfway embedded in his torso, with a pond of brownish red stain around it on his clothes.

'No…'muttered Yuzuki as the others arrived. 'Somebody help him!'

The others stood still, without any means of medical treatment for the boy. All they could do was giving expressions of compassion and concern as Yuzuki once again yelled. 'Help him!'

Kaoru, on the other hand, didn't do much about himself. He tried to get up, but couldn't. Even his mouth could only move with gasps of air without actually forming any sounds. Slowly he shook his hands off Yuzuki's, and took out his digivice as well as the card.

'What are you doing?'

He never answered, simply swiped the card along the digivice.

* * *

GrapLeomon, running out of his breath, had to admit that being a digimon partner of a human was never an easy job. Just moments ago he and Katashi had received instructions from Smith, and had rushed to Xe to ensure that the walls wouldn't be damaged by the Chaosdramon. There, as a contrary from what he'd heard, he couldn't find any one to work with beside himself. Katashi therefore carried out the mission without Elsa, and had had GrapLeomon successfully attended the attention of the robotic digimon.

And now the real deal was there. They were chased by all of them in that district, each flying at full speed. Katashi, being only an ordinary boy, could hardly keep up with the speed he needed, still, under this kind of circumstance, nobody could tell if one had reached one's limit. And in this case he actually found out that he could run a lot faster than he'd thought under the help of dozens of energy blasts shooting at them. Still, they could barely escape being hit, not to mention getting out of the eyesight of the Chaosdramon.

That was when he found out that they had been forced into a dead-end, where behind them was the very wall they had been trying to get the Chasodramon out of.

* * *

Within moments Kaoru was gone. None of the destined could stop this from happening. Like all dying digimon, he was turned into streams of data, which flowed right towards Millenniummon. Taken by surprise, the legendary digimon screamed, roaring and jerking in agony. It looked like as though Millenniummon itself was experiencing some sort of torture, the sort that would make even the well-known destroyer cry out so loud that the entire chamber seemed to be shaking due to it.

And then there was the complete silence. Millenniummon no longer screamed, or jerked. In fact, it was completely motionless, with its four arms down vertically and its giant body leaning forward. There was only dead silence in the chamber now. Even the multiple dimensional gates created by it had vanished.

* * *

The Chaosdramon stopped a few feet in front of Katashi and GrapLeomon, with their arm cannons already charging, aiming at the partners.

'I never thought we'd end like this.' Commented Katashi. It was one of the few times when he actually got afraid in this kind of situation. All of a sudden, his native adventurous attitude was gone, replaced by the thought that this was really not some kid's games, but a real fight, and that he might really die.

As that was going on in his head, the cannons were almost fully charged as the light emitted glowed brighter and the noise grew louder. He closed his eyes, thinking that it was the end of him.

* * *

Every digimon, no matter how unwilling, attacked. The blasts struck Millenniummon, resulting in the emission of gases, forming a thick layer of smoke that completely hindered everything inside. Nothing could be heard, neither could anything be heard. It was just as though nothing was there at all.

'Did it work?' muttered Ryosuke.

'I don't doubt that, but…' murmured Yuzuki, approaching the smoke. 'What will happen to him?'

'Nobody can really tell.' Said Takumi. 'Maybe they'll die together, or maybe the blast will separate them. Either way, it's not up to us to decide.'

'I shouldn't have let him do that.'

'He did what he had to.' Replied Amy coldly. 'Besides, he was dying. This might be the only way to save him. Maybe he'll just pop out alright, without as much a single scratch.'

'Or maybe we've killed him along with Millenniummon.' Sighed TigerVespamon.

'It was the only choice we had.' Said Eiji.

'Why don't we just ask him?' said Ryosuke, pointing at the smoke that was fading. Inside was a shadow, a figure standing, not as gigantic as Millenniummon, but more of a normal human size.

* * *

It was quite a surprise when Katashi realized that the Chaosdramon had all stopped. All four of them in front of him stood motionless, with their cannons still pointing at him, but without any charging action.

'What happened?' uttered GrapLeomon.

'I think…' mumbled Katashi in disbelief. 'I think that they did it.'

'Did what?'

'Whatever they had to do in the digital world.' Said Katashi, looking around at his surroundings. Not only the four that had been pursing him, but every single one of the Chaosdramon was, all at once, simultaneously, stopped. All that were left were the lifeless bodies of the crimson-armored digimon.

'It's all over.' Said Katashi. A notion suddenly came to his mind. 'I think we should go to Vertiro.'

* * *

It was him standing there.

For a moment Yuzuki had thought that she'd lost her mind, seeing illusions that was caused by her desperate strive for the boy's survival. But as the smoke faded she could be certain that it was he, standing there in the same old outfit, only without the fatal wound that he'd taken for her.

The others were, too surprised to see him that they had to ask for each other if they had been dreaming. Everyone eventually came up with the conclusion that what they were seeing was real. Millenniummon had been defeated, and Kaoru had survived.

'Looks like I've made it.' uttered him as he approached the others. 'And the wounds are gone, too.'

'Welcome back.' said Yuzuki, rushing towards Kaoru. They hugged once they were within range.

'Sure glad it's all over.' Said MetalPhantomon. 'Now, how do we get back?'

'I bet Piedmon has left some apparatus here.' Said Takumi. 'Something he intended to send the Chaosdramon to the human world.'

'Well then, I guess it's really over.' Mumbled Kaoru. 'Time to go home.'

* * *

**Epilogue**

They followed the damage tracks back to where they'd confronted Piedmon. Everything was so different by then. The once shinny white chamber was now nothing but a scorched cave, with millions of pieces of shattered glass as well as all the rubbles that was created in the fight. The destined went to the back of the broken vat, where they suspected Piedmon had hide everything, and found the device they needed.

'Let's see if I know how to make it work.' Mumbled Takumi as he got his hands on the keyboard.

Kaoru stayed with Yuzuki the whole time, walking slowly at the back of the team. Even though he had recovered, he was still a bit too weak to keep up with the others.

'It just feel like some kind of sea sick.' Explained Kaoru. 'It's gonna end so.'

Yuzuki, who'd been supporting him by wrapping his arm round her shoulders, said softly. 'Good thing you won't have to experience that for another time.'

They sat down on leveled rubble that was large enough for them. Everything was in perfect harmony. It's kind of hard to believe what they had just been through, as if everything had been but a nightmare. The digi-destined, who hardly knew each other at the very beginning, were there, chatting in a friendly style as though they'd known each other for long. Kaoru stood up, took a step forward to join the others, only to find that he couldn't; without Yuzuki's support, he lost balance for a moment and fell.

Yuzuki, having been by his side, noticed that and rapidly caught him, or at least she tried to. The strangest thing happened.

She couldn't catch him, for he went straight through her arms.

Kaoru hit the ground hard. He endeavored to push himself up, gasping for in the process due to an unknown source of fear. He'd never felt anything like this before, not even when he had been stabbed to near-death, and fused with Millenniummon. The others seemed to have noticed that, too, and rushed to him.

'What happened?' asked Takumi, leaving all the work he was doing.

'I…I don't know.' Muttered Kaoru, exhausted. Yuzuki, standing next to the blonde boy, reached out to him again, holding him by his arm. It was normal for a moment, but then the same thing happened again. Yuzuki's hand went straight through Kaoru's.

By then everyone knew what was happening.

'Tell me, am I…' said Kaoru. Though he wasn't so tired to speak, it was just too hard for him to get the words out.

'I think so.' Said Takumi lightly. He was clearly nervous when he said the next sentence; tears found a way to squeeze to the corner of his eyes. 'I don't know…but…it's too…'

'Is he dying?' it was Yuzuki who made the point.

'How's that possible?' questioned TigerVespamon. 'He's not, right? You said he might die with Millenniummon or survive, and he survived, didn't he?' he said it anxiously.

'I think I didn't.' uttered Kaoru lightly. It didn't sound sad, but was heavier, as though Kaoru had accepted his fate.

'No you can't!' yelled Yuzuki desperately and sadly. Suddenly, every joy in her heart had vanished, replaced by infinite sadness. It was complicated, to have him back, just so she could lose him sooner.

'We can find a way to fix it.' mumbled Takumi. 'There has to be a way.'

'Not this time.' said Kaoru, with a tone mixed with frustration and depression.

'This is how it ends?' asked Amy. 'You just want to cheat on me like that?'

'I guess so.' Said the blonde boy. 'It's just the way it has to be. TigerVespamon, you'll take care of her, right?'

His partner shouted. 'Don't say it like you're about to die!'

'But I am!' he shouted as well. The anger was short-lived, though. Soon he turned to Yuzuki, lifted his hands to the back of his neck, and took out his necklace, handing it to the black-haired girl.

'Promise me you'll keep it safe.'

'I will.' Answered Yuzuki, receiving the necklace. At once she flipped open the pendent that was linked to it, and saw photo inside, where apparently a pair of parents were there standing with a little child, approximately five years old or something, whose smile could just brighten up the entire atmosphere in the chamber.

'Please, don't go.'

'I can't make the call.' Said Kaoru. 'But I can still do this, and I guess this will be the last time I can.' As he said so he leaned forward, and so did Yuzuki. Their lips were pressed together softly, and they kissed for who-knows-how-long with both their eyes closed as they pulled each other together. It ended only when Yuzuki could no longer feel the other's presence. She opened her eyes, and saw only four startled digi-destined, as well as all six of the destined digimon. Containing the grief, she said. 'Let's go home.

* * *

It was like they'd just been there the day before. Everything looked the same –the shattered glass walls, the giant computer put down by Piedmon, and the two cards that contained Reapermon and Magnamon X. The only difference there was the presences of a certain brown-haired boy and a GrapLeomon. Upon seeing the group of digi-destined coming out of nowhere, he rushed forward, apparently with joy.

But what he could see was different from what he'd expected. There were only eleven sad faces. _Eleven!_ He counted once more to make sure that he was correct. Needless to say, the number had suggested the cause of the faces.

Among them a black-haired girl walked forth, while one of the boys from behind said softly. 'She can really use a shoulder now.'

And so they approached each other. The black-haired girl buried her face in his shoulder, soaking the boy's shirt with tears while the brown-haried boy pulled her towards him and wrapped her back with his arms to comfort her as the sun, partially seen through the small glass windows, went down the horizon.

* * *

'I have found it.' a shadowed figure walked slowly in the crumbled world. He was alone, talking to himself, laughing maniacally.

'Let's see how they will be like when they see you.' Said him, swiping the rubbles off the ground. 'Oh! It's coming so soon!'


	36. deleted scenes (contain M rate)

**Besides the first one, which was cut due to being inappropriate for a T-rated fiction, others were just something I "finished writing but then decided not to use" **

* * *

Chapter 17

**Rated: M**

_Mercurymon's 'death'_

They all went forward to see who was that who helped Piedmon. But what they saw was not what that had expected. Not in the way they had imagined.

Yuzuki covered her mouth and noise with a hand immediately after seeing that and turned her face behind. Takumi had a similar reaction, burying his face in Clockmon's torso. The others were stunned as well, though not as much as the two. It took then a bit time too calm down.

In the post of the fallen hybrid lied a shape that no ordinary child could bear watching. A body with the size of an average man was there; only it was made mainly of bones and decomposed body tissue. The bones weren't completely white. In fact, it was a bit pink in color, being wrapped by rotten muscles and exposed veins with the purplish red blood depositing on the surface of the bones. The decomposed meat was like a spider web; only they were linked with dead cells and sticky fluid that was very possibly plasma.

Up in the cranium, the eye sockets were filled with a milky colored gel; no one dared to say allow what they assume that to be. The jaws were off their supposed position, being hanged with one side to the skull and the other side detached. The thoracic cavity was even more unbearable. The lungs weren't gone, and so was the heart. Things would have looked a lot less terrible had they been gone. There were a few holes on the organs, exposing a bit inner structure that look just sick to the children.

'How can someone be that sick and twisted?' mumbled Eiji, avoiding eye contact with the remains as much as possible. The digimon hadn't seen a human remain for real, but they had all guessed from the digi-destined's reaction that it was something terrible.

Yuzuki didn't say anything. She felt sick. Her throat was burning as if he stomach acid had reached her oesophagus. She could hardly breath, either. It felt almost like the wall of her trachea had been swollen that she was experiencing asthma.

Takumi couldn't breath as well. He stuck his face tightly at the clock surface of Clockmon's body with his eyes shut tight. He could feel the tears acuminating inside the closed eyes. It hurt not letting them out, but he couldn't bear seeing that scene again so he just kept them shut anyway.

'So that's why they call them "Sentinels of dead",' muttered Amy, 'cause they're…dead.'

* * *

Chapter 21

**Rated: T**

_Kaoru's night chat._

'You don't have to be the night guard anymore.' A voice broke through the silence Kaoru had been used to at late night. He turned around to see that it was Eiji talking to him. 'You need rest,'

'I had.' The blonde boy replied. 'But they just keep coming, every night.'

'I thought you have gotten over with it.' said the blue-haired boy. He'd heard from Yuzuki Kaoru's back story, and had assumed that with Reapermon's death the boy would be normal again.

'I don't know.' Replied Kaoru, staring at the ceiling. 'Sometimes I just think they might be with me for the rest of my life.'

'Can't you just relax in the comfort when you can?' said Eiji, a bit annoyed. They had had unexpected service, and they had been treated nicely for once, after all the traumatizing incidents. He simply couldn't understand why the younger boy couldn't let himself relax for once. He had his own concerns as well; he'd left too long and too suddenly that he'd started to worry about his family back at home, but he knew that waking up at late night was not a solution. 'At least you didn't have to share a bath with someone.' He said, attempting to lower the tension. 'The water was about to run cold in a few ten minutes and Ryosuke just jumped in without permission. You're probably asleep by then.'

He succeeded, as indicated by the giggle of the blonde boy. 'Glad I wasn't there.' He said.

'Maybe things will go wrong tomorrow, just rest now.' Eiji switched the topic back to the sleeping issue.

'I told you…'

'Maybe it's because you're too lonely to bare the nightmares.' Eiji stopped the younger boy before he could finish. 'I've heard of some authorities saying something like dreams are just some kind of sub-consciousness; I don't really know what that means, but I guess you should be able to get through your dreams, good or bad ones, they're yours, after all.'

'Is that supposed to make me feel better?' responded Kaoru with a laugh of sarcasm.

'No.' said Eiji. 'But I do think you'll feel better if you don't insist on keeping everything your own.'

Seeing that he could never win the older boy in terms of word, Kaoru surrendered, falling back on his bed though he knew exactly what would be waiting for him.

* * *

Chapter 23

**Rated: T**

Yuzuki's dream

_There was light, a __brilliant__ white __light__, all around her. Or maybe there was no light at __all;__ just the surrounding being all white that it seemed like the entire world around her had been illuminated. _

_Yuzuki looked around frantically, and could saw nothing. If her brain was working properly, she should now be at the digital world, about __nighttime__, traveling to seek revenge __for the__ fallen village, not in some sort of white world, with nothing but herself standing, doing __nothing__ at all._

_Another fact that had struck her was that the world seemed all the same wherever she went it seemed that she had not been moving at all, just __turn__ing around and doing all kind of movement that resembled the pattern of walking without actually getting any progress. _

'_Anybody here?__'__ she tried another method to make sure that she was not yet insane. She then concluded that she was not in some kind of confined room owing to the sound that never came back to her. She started to get worried. What if everything happening here were real and this was indeed the digital world? What if Piedmon had made some kind of strike that had turned the world she knew into this whiteness, and everyone she knew into nothing? _

_That was when the blackness started to take over the position of the white. Like ink drips on a paper, clouds of blackness appeared from all over the corners of her eyes, invading the perfectly white world she was standing in. a moment later the world seemed no longer bright at all, and instead darkness took its place. So hardly could she see anything now that she did even really she had had her eyes closed at an unknown period of time._

_Reopening them again she saw one thing __–__a light sight of __greenery__, right next to her foot. Then she looked round again. __Still__ nothing. She focused on the greenery near her foot, when she felt a sudden pain of being pulled from her back. More and more of that green stuff __appeared__ now, and she could now made it clear that they resembled the body parts of Aruraumon. She tried to turn her head again, but __couldn't__ do that this time. __Behind__ her she heard the repeating noise._

'_Help me.__'__'__Help me.__'__'__Help me.__'_

And before she could even give any apologies to the deceased, she sprung up from her disturbed slumber.

* * *

Chapter 34

**Rated: T**

_The digital world burns._

It was quite beneficial sometimes that the Temple was concealed within a mountain, and thus had a less chance to get assaulted. Even with that, Wizardmon, partially due to his duty and partially curiosity, watched the digital as the vast amount of Chaosdramon appeared out of nowhere. Preferably he would stay out of any of this, at most watching by the side, which was what he was doing at the moment.

There was no doubt that the Chaosdramon were out for nothing but killing. The digital world itself had always seemed like a giant painted mat from an up above view, and now all it had was a little red and orange as decorations. Even in broad daylight the firelight was very clearly visible, and every once in a while there would be streams of smoke hovering across the air, hindering the sight.

But that didn't matter to Wizardmon, or the other digimon in the Temple. They had something else to take care of, and currently they hadn't faced any problem doing so. Even if they had foreseen the coming of this day, they could care less. In fact, even if they did want to help, nothing much could be done. That's why all they could do now was to protect the important property within the Temple.


	37. preview

**This is just _a part of_ the first chapter of the sequel. I don't want to spoil the fun of actually reading it.**

* * *

"So, what makes you want us to check the walls of Xe?" asked Katashi, "I don't think anything's wrong here."

"Our tech here reads something unusual." Answered Smith. "I think it is best to have a check."

"With two of us?" asked Katashi. "I meant four."

"Please get to the walls first, and I'll let you know if there's any necessity of taking action."

The four of them, within half an hour, had reached the walls. There everything seemed just fine, with the same old dusty and rusty surface of the weathered concrete walls that stood high enough to block the sight of half of the sky above horizon. Next to it were guards who didn't seem to be enjoying their duty of standing there all day without doing much. Usually, it'd be quite an entertainment to watch murderous Digimon being banished outside the only living city in the world. Yet the number of it had decreased drastically since the rise of the Tamers, probably due to more and more dangerous Digimon being taken care of before the officials could find out.

"Sometimes I wonder," mumbled Yuzuki, "If Digimon can become an egg and rebirth after death, why aren't those Digimon given a chance to live a new life?"

"I don't know," uttered GrapLeomon, "but maybe –just maybe –before the Tamers show up, the police can't do much damage to a Digimon."

"Whatever the case is, it seems that the walls are useless now." Commented Jesmon.

"I still don't see much odd things going on." Muttered Katashi, giving another phone call. "Are you sure there's something wrong here, Mr. Smith?"

"Our readings show that a large number of Digimon is outside the wall, and they are moving towards the wall." Instructed their superior.

"The last time you say that, it ended up thousands of Chaosdramon X landing into the Human World."

"It's just a check."

"Right." Sighed Katashi. He then turned to Yuzuki and said. "Stay here, I'll go check if everything's okay. It's quite quick really, just a peek outside the bullet-proof window."

Yuzuki, on the other hand, felt like she was treated differently, which was partially true in this case, and said. "I can handle this. I have more experience than you, after all."

"Just let him do this," uttered GrapLeomon, "he'll blame himself if you are to join in. you know, he really cares about you, just pretend you need his protection, maybe? That way he'll feel better."

"Finished, Leomon?" asked Katashi, already at the window. The guards didn't really care much about their appearance there, partially because they're VIPs, partially because they just didn't care much if anybody's around there. Thinking that everything's fine, and that nothing could possibly happen with a little check, the brown-haired boy leaned forward, sticking his eye to the glass, with the thought that he would see only the sand and the shady sky, as taught in the lessons.

What he saw, however, surprised him more than anything could. So surprised was he that he jerked back immediately, not believing his own eyes. GrapLeomon just arrived when he did that, and asked if anything weird was out there. Katashi didn't answer immediately; peeking out of the window one more time to ensure that what he'd just seen wasn't just a mirage. So startled was he that he didn't even realize how dramatic his widely opened eyes and hugely dropped jaws were.

"Open the gate," mumbled him to Smith as he once again gained the vision out there.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're right. There's a bunch of Digimon out there, probably Flymon, chasing another Digimon, a green one. And, there's a human on top of the green one. Did I mention how close to the gate are the human and the green one? It seems that they're escaping the Flymon, and the Flymon are trying hard to get them, firing all the way." He didn't realize that he said all that in within ten seconds.

"What's the matter?" asked Yuzuki, arriving at Katashi's spot.

Katashi then explained in a much simpler manner that, outside the walls, he saw a wild chase between two parties in which one of them, the ones being chased, consisted of a Digimon and, much to the girl's surprise as well, a human being, apparently not much older than they were, who seemed to be barely conscious, being held on the Digimon's back without much motion. The other party, being a wild wave of Flymon, was attacking constantly, without much hesitation to withhold any of their strength.

"Mr. Smith?" asked Katashi again, much more anxiously, "there's someone out there being chased, open the gate or I'll make the guards do it!"

"You do understand what you'll have to face if I do?" questioned the middle-aged man.

"Just do it," uttered Katashi impatiently, "I think we can handle a bunch of Champions."

There weren't any further responses, at least not in words. The giant, dull gray wall started to move, with a thin yet tall gap appearing between the mid points of it. The gap then became wider and wider gradually, with noises indicating that giant gears, probably rusted, were functioning to satisfy the Tamers. The next incoming noise was way more annoying, being a buzzing sound so loud that it sounded almost like it was coming from within the Tamers' head, vibrating frequently, so frequently that it probably could've made its way to the ears of a handicapped.

"Bees," muttered GrapLeomon, "They just don't stop making that noise."

"That's very insulting to one of my friends." Commented Jesmon.

Before they could even decide what to do, Katashi said, "Yuzuki, go look after that man there. GrapLeomon and I will hold anyone that tries to come in. Jesmon can be there in case any of them gets through us."

It never really worked, however, at least not as he had expected. The green Digimon, identified as Chirinmon, an Ultimate with a Vaccine attribute, rushed in as soon as the walls were opened wide enough. Not too far behind were the Flymon, all appearing mad, jetting towards the opening.

"Take care of them for now." Half-demanded Katashi as he and GrapLeomon rushed to the opening of the walls. Soon after he'd informed Smith to get the walls closed back up, they were ready to face whatever that was coming in their way.

"Brown Stingers!" roared the swarm of the wasp-like Digimon. So unified were the cries that it was a bit of a hard time withstanding the nosiness as the Flymon started to drop the pointed, yet a bit irregular stings, all flying at the same direction towards GrapLeomon.

"Let's see if it works," muttered GrapLeomon before he raised both his fists into the air and yelled, "The King of Fist!" the turbines on his forearms started rotating, reaching their maximum speed in no time. just before the stings could reach him and his partner, the Ultimate pulled his two forearms together, hitting each other hard, unleashing an energy wave that shocked through the air particles, causing the needles to went into different directions to either poles of the walls and fell gradually.

The Flymon –though affected in a large number –managed to have a few of them left hovering midair to continue the raid. Those that remained escaped the energy wave and soared through the air at top speed, rushing towards the gap between the walls. In no time the Flymon had already gone within the reach of GrapLeomon.

"Cyclonic Kick!" jumping high up in the air, using the two sides of the enclosing walls as leaping platforms, the Ultimate reached the height of the Flymon, with his leg rising above his own head as the turbine on his leg rotated. Accurately aiming he got one Flymon down, sending it plugging towards the sandy ground out there. While still airborne GrapLeomon managed to kick a few more out, but he couldn't be as accurate every time, leaving some of them, which were actually around a dozen, flying into the city unharmed.

Those that managed to get through GrapLeomon, however, had thrown themselves into a much greater adversity. Jesmon stood behind the gates prepared, with his blades extended all the way to the ground. He waited, for the Flymon to come, and when they reached just right above him, he jumped vertically upward, knocking one out of his way and directing it to hit another while slashing another one on his right. In the meantime, he did a three-sixty rotation in the air, allowing his blade on his tail to reach out as far a possible and hit as many targets as he could. With some chain reaction in which the Flymon crashed into one an other and fall spontaneously, the fight was over.

Yuzuki, though wanting to be battling more than the job she was assigned to, reached Chirinmon, who didn't seem to be noticing her approaching until she was a within a few inch of his reach.

"I mean no harm," stated the black-haired girl, reaching out for the emerald-scaled Digimon while putting her hands in the air, "I just want to help."

Chirinmon, being amazing and unexpectedly cooperative, stopped and turned his head slightly round to the girl. The human being on his back could now be seen more clearly, as he struggled to get off the Ultimate's back. His landing was an unsuccessful one as he landed with his stomach facing the ground.

It was astonishment when Yuzuki saw that the boy was literally not much older than her in appearance. But what struck her was the boy's totally unbelievable physical appearance. He was –estimated by the girl, imagining that he were standing –roughly a bit taller than most boy's of that age, with middle-length, messy black hair and a hint of black eyes coming out from the small gap of his closing eyes. His entire upper torso was exposed, showing that he was a bit muscular in terms of body build. It also gave Yuzuki the impression that this boy had –as hard as it was to believe –been strayed out there for quite some time. around his waist was a piece of grayish-green cloth that could've once been his shirt, and on his lower torso was a pair of tan trousers, with about five holes placed randomly on it, and untidy ends that ended when the cloth reached the boy's ankle. His shoes, though not as damaged, were considered by civilian standard as "not usable".

"What happened to him?" asked the black-haired girl. Before she could get any answers, however, Chirinmon started to glow, Degenerating back into a small white Digimon with a long, scarf-like body that wrapped around a roll of some scroll-like material. Without giving out any answers, the Digimon, as identified as Kudamon, disappeared.

"Wait, what about him?" she didn't have much time to still thinking, however, as the others came by. The boy was in clear need for medical attention, and she didn't want to waste much time delaying it.

"What the hell?" uttered Katashi in disbelief as he arrived.

"Can you help me lift him up?" Yuzuki asked her partner. "We need to get him to a hospital, or somewhere like that."

Without a word Jesmon obeyed, and as he got the unconscious boy lifted, something fell off him. It was a strange little metallic object that looked completely opposite to what its supposed owner dressed like. It felt like a device, with a shape that bore the appearance of the Digi-Destined's Digivices, only it didn't have any screens or buttons.

"I know what to do," mumbled Katashi as he got his phone next to his ears again, "Mr., Smith, we're in great need of backups right now. There's a boy who just got here from outside the walls with the need for medical attention, and a strange device carried by him." This time, he gave no time for Smith to say antoher word by cutting the line right off.


End file.

Digimon, Adventure