(Note: I don't own Digimon it belongs to Bandai blah blah blah blah blah.... Oh, and this Jader ain't me)

Phoenix Guardians
Part 1: Jader

*TIME: Just after the defeat of Myotismon before Dark Masters saga*

Sora was once again having the dream that had haunted her for the past week. She was in a field of darkness barely illuminated by the ghostly white light of the moon. Then, out from the shadows, materialized a boy about her age, maybe a year younger, she was terrified of him. He had raven black hair, and wore light armor over a black jumpsuit, at his side dangled a saber, its black hilt had a ruby in it. He was starring into the sky when he made his entrance, and then he fixed his dark eyes on her. Terror over took her, and she tried to run but she was paralyzed with fear. He tore his saber free of its sheath and rushed her...

Sora woke up in a cold sweat barely suppressing a scream. Panting for air, she sat up and shook her head, this dream was always so vivid yet tonight it seemed somehow more realistic. Getting up, she looked at the others sleeping peacefully on the forest floor, she smiled and decided to take a short walk to a stream she had noticed earlier. The night had a slight chill to it; she rubbed her arms lightly to warm them up as she went away from the camp not bothering to wake up Biyomon. As she got to the stream, a bright fiery flash illuminated the night, and a deep rumbling voice spoke.

"Ah, Digidestined, my master has commanded me, Infernamon, to claim your life tonight!"

"Huh?" Said Sora as she saw the speaker. It was a huge and terrible beast, its hands and feet were tipped with terrible claws that appeared to be razor sharp, and its eyes were set deep in its slightly wolfish face.
Snarling, it hurled a fireball at Sora with amazing speed. Sora could feel the heat from it as she barely dodged; suddenly wishing she'd brought Biyomon. The creature hurled another one straight at her, but before it hit she felt some one shoving her and an unknown voice shout "Move it!"

She hit the ground hard and looked back in time to see the person who had saved her dodge gracefully away from the ball. Her mouth dropped, it was the guy from her dream! Right down to the saber. The guy smirked at the creature just before it fired three fireballs at him, the kid dodged the first two but was hit by the third which knocked him flat on is back. He leapt to his feet, glared at the creature and shouted out "YO Huntramon! WHERE ARE YA?!" Out from one of the trees leapt a small horned purple creature with a doggish face and glowing yellow eyes. "'Bout time," muttered the guy as he pulled a digivice from his belt and pointed it at the new creature.

The creature was bathed in an iridescent light, as it shouted "Huntramon digivolve to... Cursemon ."
From the light a new creature was born, it looked like the skeleton of a hunched over, mouth less, human. It was the color of ivory, ripping talons adorned its hands and feet and the tip of it's long tail ended in a sharp blade.

It starred at the enemy and growled out the word "Insanity Edge." its tail blade glew eerily in the dark night. Charging Infernamon, it used the shining blade to slice it clean in half. As Infernamon disentigrated, Cursemon returned to its Huntramon stage. The kid smirked and turned to return to wherever he had emerged from.

"Wait!" called Sora.

"What do you want?" the boy snarled back turning around.

Taken aback Sora stammered out "N-Nothing its, its just that you're the first human we've seen here other than us."

"Just who are you and these 'people' you're with?"

"The name's Sora and the group I'm with are digidestined!" she nearly shouted her patience wearing thin.

"Oh, really?" the boy chuckled to himself, "Why don't you just go back to them then?"

"Look, I don't know who you are but I appreciate what you did for me back there and was wondering if well... if you would want to come with us."

"My name is Jader, you'll want to remember that, and no, I won't join your little group. Trust me when I say that if you allowed me to, you would regret it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing now if you'll leave me alone," he turned away from her and resumed heading back into the shadows, but after traveling a couple of feet he dropped to one knee letting out a gasp of pain simultaneously.
Sora ran up to him as he collapsed fully onto the ground unconscious. It was then that she realized that his digimon was standing directly behind her, in a perfect position to strike her down in a second.

"Look," she said to the creature "I just want to help by...."

The digimon seemed to smile at her "I know, please hurry."

Jader woke up and saw an angel , then he cleared his head and saw it was actually one of the kids that girl Sora had been talking about. This girl was wearing a big pink hat and a pink dress, her long brown hair framed her beautiful face. Jader noticed his surroundings for the first time, he was lying on a bed of leaves in the middle of a forest, and his armor had been removed.

"Oh, your awake," said the girl. Jader got up as fast as he could and pushed her up against a tree and held her there by her neck.

"Where's my stuff?" growled Jader. As he throttled the girl's neck.

"Ov-Over there." she choked out shifting her eyes to a point behind Jader's back. Jader dropped the girl and turned to gather his stuff. Calmly he put his armor in to place and replaced his saber on his belt. All the while, the girl screamed profanities at him. Jader turned around an expression of true regret on his face.

"I'm-I'm sorry for that," he said his voice filled with remorse "but how would you feel waking up to the face of a complete stranger? It was just natural for me to react the way I did. Please allow me to properly introduce myself, my name is Jader a guardian of the digital world." He took her hand in his and kissed it lightly. He cursed himself mentally, the idea of acting so chivalrous made him sick, and with the added effect of kissing her hand, he was sure he would vomit soon.

Mimi's face quickly flushed as the boy kissed her hand and she decided that maybe she had been a little too quick to judge him. Now he seemed like one of the southern gentlemen she loved hearing about.

"Look," he continued, "Are you and that other girl the only members of your group or are there others?"

"Yeah, there are others come on I'll take you to them."

She led him through the forest on a well-worn path, in less than a minute Jader could hear the sounds of laughter and children. Coming through the stand of trees Jader saw seven other children including that girl, Sora, all but two looked barely older than Jader himself. A boy with a set of goggles wrapped around his head turned towards where Jader and Mimi stood and smiled.

"Hey! So you finally decided to wake up huh?"

Jader was about to say something back when he noticed the Digimon. They didn't look so special, just an ordinary bunch of Rookie stage Digimon, then he saw one that made his eyes grow wide and his heart begin to pound. Gatomon! She knew the truth about who Jader really was and something told him that she wouldn't sit idly by and watch him do his work in peace.

One by one he was introduced to each of the digidestined, Tai the guy with goggle sand unofficial leader, his sister Kari, Matt who seemed to be a bit standoffish, his younger brother T.K., Izzy who for some reason was wearing a computer on his back, Joe who looked like a total nerd, Mimi who was the girl in pink, and he had already met Sora.

"So who are you? I mean, how'd you get here?" Joe asked him.

"Huh?" said Jader caught off guard, "Well, you see, about a month ago I found a strange device near my computer." He held up his digivice "And as soon as I touched I arrived here." he gestured with his hand.

"What were you saying earlier about being a guardian?" asked Mimi.

"Oh that's just a self appointed title I gave myself since I got here."

Apparently that was enough to win the trust of the digidestined, because they seemed to instantly take a liking to him. "Good," thought Jader, "The more they trust, the easier my mission will be." After an hour of formalities Jader broke away from the group and met up with Huntramon who had been watching from the shadows.

"Well?" asked Jader, "What's the scoop on their precious digimon?"

"Not much, as far as I know they have all hit the ultimate stage and the agumon and gabumon have achieved Mega level digivolutions."

"Hmmmmmmm.... well that's a bit worse than I feared so I say we strike tonight and remove the angels."

"Right, see you then."

Huntramon returned to the shadows and Jader went back to the digidestined and once again began to play the ultimate gentleman. After a strange dinner which Matt concocted Jader was sure that if he were to fail their cooking would do them in. That night, Jader layed awake mentally preparing to strike when he felt a weight land on his stomach, before he could look up, Gatomon had her claws pressed up against Jader's neck.

"Why are you here?" hissed Gatomon her eyes glittering with a dangerous rage.

"So you do remember, why haven't you told the digidestined about me yet?"

"I decided that it might be smarter to interogate you alone before making any rash judgements on you."

"Yeah, I really have changed since when we worked for Myotismon."

"Really?"

Jader looked past the cat and saw Huntramon stealthily approaching from behind. "Yeah," in a fluid movement Huntramon lunged and grabbed Gatomon around the shoulders pinning her arms and with the other hand muffled her. "I've grown much more clever than you."
Jader looked up at Huntramon, "Take her to the caverns and bind her. Oh, and make sure she understands the predicament she's in." the beast nodded and left as quietly as he'd come. Jader smiled and lay back down and in a few minutes was asleep.

The next morning he was awoken by a Kari's heart-wrenching wail, "Gatomon! She, she's gone!" As he leapt up from his resting-place, an expression of concern on his face, he grinned inwardly. The rest of the group had already assembled around Kari as she explained worriedly that her precious digimon had disappeared.

"Ok," said Tai taking command of the situation, "We will split up in to groups of two to look for her," he turned to Kari "Don't worry, I'm sure she just went to go sharpen her claws."

Jader spoke up an idea occurring to him, "Hey Tai, why don't I stay behind in case she does come back?"

"Ok, that will even everything out perfectly."

The digidestined left splitting into their separate parties, Tai and Kari, Matt and T.K., Sora and Mimi, Joe and Izzy each with their corresponding digimon. After a minute, Jader noticed Huntramon approaching from behind, "Ready?" The beast nodded. Jader smiled Tai and Kari, that would be his first target.