Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, nor do I own the main characters in this, or just about anything other than the writing itself. I don't even own most of the plot cause that's just canon…They all belong to the guy that made digimon. Got it memorized?

A/N: Hah! I actually wrote the bottom A/N before this one (what kind of person writes two A/Ns?!) so it's a little messed up…well, this is actually the first half decent fanfic I've written, so I'm proud…But Wizardmon (and kinda Gatomon) change moods and personalities kinda fast…and I wrote the first Wizardmon POV way before the rest of the story so the writing style is a little…worse.

Ah well,
Shadow-Walking-Tactician-VI

A Shade Darker

It was a silent night, and nothing disturbed the air. But despite this, it did not feel peaceful. Nothing really was peaceful during these times anyway.

"I told you already, I don't have anything for you. If you don't stop bothering me, I won't be responsible for what happens to you." A calm, but dangerous voice spoke out. Holding his staff threateningly, a Wizardmon stood in the dim lantern light.

"Ah, but truly, you would gain protection and power! Power, if you join Myoti-argh!" The Bakemon that had been pestering the Wizardmon, wavered dizzily, before dropping to the ground. Clearly unconscious, a small bump appeared on his head.

Still stoically calm, the Wizardmon withdrew his staff, a slight hint of satisfaction in his eyes. He turned around leisurely, leaving the downed Bakemon, and soon continued to pass through the small village. "…oh…she's going to….agh…won't like it…" He lazily looked back at the Bakemon, but it already stopped mumbling; he snorted.

When he had entered the desert earlier, he knew that any villages he found wouldn't be very helpful, but he had still expected better than this. He needed information, and this was the third time a Bakemon bothered him about Myotismon.

While his gait was slow and nondescript, many other things confirmed his wariness. His dark green eyes were restlessly shifting, constantly on the lookout, his gloved hand was tightly gripping his staff to the point that any other staff would have snapped, and his movements were jerky and uneven. The last few villages were either just like this one, or…well, to put it nicely, violent.

The small village he was in was barely populated and mainly consisted of rickety shacks. And it seemed that the few digimon that actually lived in them knew better than to come out after dark. That's when all the viruses come out after all. He smirked. A virus he may not be, but he liked to think he was easily just as good- or bad as it may be.

He idly gazed up at the sky. The moon and lantern light cast deep shadows on him, his already suspicious figure darkened. Covered in a deep purple cape, and a steeple hat with a skull, the Wizardmon didn't look entirely friendly. His dirtied blond hair (literally) was tied by a red band, and his pale blue skin blended in with slivers of moonlight.

The only reason he was even in this small town was because he was sent to find and protect someone. He was just doing it to repay a favor to a long ago friend. In fact, they weren't even really friends anymore. Wizardmon had lived for a long time; he had seen many things and was disillusioned with the world. Now he merely wandered the land and destroyed any digimon that got in his way.

So he was almost happy he had something to do; a temporary purpose so to speak.

He wondered how long it'd last.

A painful cry broke the silence in the castle. Candles flickered and shadows slithered through the halls, none even pausing as more cries reached their ears. It was a common everyday occurrence after all.

"I have a new mission for you, Gatomon. Don't tell me you're too weak for it already."

A young female Gatomon, emotionlessly shook her head, inwardly desperate for a chance to leave the castle. She silently berated herself for her cries; she shouldn't have let her guard down, whether or not Myotismon seemed to be in a good mood.

"Oh really? You may have to prove to me you're good enough to leave the castle, Gatomon." A whip lashed out and Gatomon had to force herself not to cringe or leap away; it would only bring more punishment afterwards. However, she couldn't stop the pain from coming; her eyes fogged up and she struggled not to make a sound.

"Oh?" He sounded disappointed. Bastard. She thought viciously. "Fine; listen carefully. You are to go with some of my minions and recruit more digimon. It won't be long now until the digi-destined arrive here in the digital world. You will go to a chain of small desert outposts not too far from here and return within a month. And you know what will happen if you don't." She couldn't help it; she shivered. She had tried once to run away, it didn't end well.

Gatomon's eyes hardened at the memory and she replied coldly, "Is that all?"

The whip lashed out again, Gatomon didn't even have time to even think of dodging before she was thrown to the ground.

His voice was dark, "Don't forget. I own you." That was all he said.

She silently picked myself up, and left after he dismissed her. Once again, as soon as she was away from his eyes, a cold fury rose and she had the urge to kill something. But she didn't have the time. She was to leave immediately.

After all the supplies were packed and everyone was brought together, they left with Gatomon at the front. They spent two days crossing the desert; Gatomon's orders snappish and spiteful.

They soon arrived at a small town, the first of the sequence of towns she was to visit. She had been hurrying to get to it; one of the native desert digimon they had found earlier warned of an incoming sandstorm.

"Camp outside the town! We'll go in and recruit digimon the next five days!" As the rest of the digimon grumbled and set up tents, Gatomon carefully looked through the camp. Her sharp eyes picked out three Bakemon, and she quickly motioned them over. They looked annoyed, but nonetheless floated over.

Before they could ask, she told them, "There's three more towns not too far from here we need to go to. I want you three to go to one each and start recruiting them. It will make it go faster than if the whole group would have to go to each and start slowly. We don't need two dozen digimon to just recruit a few anyways. It should take about one day to get from each town to the next."

One of them started to protest, but after a murderous glare from her, they left, albeit with mutinous grumbles. Even though their back was turned to her, she still sent one last glare at them.

"Pft. Stupid Bakemon." She tiredly got ready to sleep; dark thoughts disturbing her rest.

She didn't get much sleep that night.

As the storm grew worse, the Wizardmon silently cursed repeatedly. Not only was the town already hours away, but with the sandstorm picking up, he would be lucky to get there tomorrow. His gloved hand reached for his canteen, before he pulled back again; it had been empty since before he left the previous village. Another curse left his mouth; he had forgotten to refill it earlier.

It would normally only take him a day to get to each village along this desert, but the sandstorm…

He coughed into his glove, but it only left more sand in his mouth. His raised collar- more of a mask- didn't even help. He was seriously wishing he had a water spell on handy now.

Hours spent trudging through the sand later, the storm seemed to be slowly subsiding. However, Wizardmon barely took notice of this; he needed water. He had gone at least two days without water or sleep…probably three. He could barely even remember why he was traveling anymore.

His lips were dried, and cracked each time he moved them just to get a little more breath in. His tongue did no good either; there was no moisture left to spare. His baggy clothing felt heavy and gross to him with sweat on his skin. Wizardmon tripped multiple times, and while each time he rose back up almost mechanically, each one was slower than the last. Wizardmon wasn't going to last much longer.

When the town came into view, he vaguely wondered if it was a mirage. No…if I was seeing a mirage, I would be seeing water. In an effort to get there faster, Wizardmon forced himself to float. With the storm subsided, gliding through the air would be quicker. Nevertheless, there were more than one closecalls as he rushed to town.

Minutes later, he was just barely gliding in, wobbling dangerously. The sun was high in the sky, and Wizardmon's breaths were short and heavy. Within seconds, he fell from the air and his vision was filled with dark spots, dizzy from pain. His body stung, and he could barely move his head. He groaned inaudibly.

This time, the digimon in the village weren't exactly fearful of outsiders; it was more of a 'You leave me alone; we'll leave you alone' sort of atmosphere. And because of this, barely a single digimon bothered to even look at the dehydrated Wizardmon, much less help him.

It was becoming harder to breathe, and he feebly coughed. He vaguely saw -heard?- a few Gazimon ride past on scooters, and wondered if he was imagining a set of steps coming towards him. After all, he was an outsider, he thought sardonically.

Pat. Pat. Pat. That definitely wasn't his imagination. He wearily lifted his head, unwilling to truly believe someone was going to help him. But hell, he felt like he was dying, might as well take the chance of hoping.

Looking down on him, its face blurred by the sun directly above it, was a…Gatomon? "Here, drink this." He hazily realized it- she- was a girl, but this realization was buried under the sweet, wonderful water she presented him with. He quickly pulled his mask down and drank the revitalizing water, dimly noticing that he had just shown his stitched face to a stranger. A nice stranger though. He coughed again, his throat stinging from suddenly being rehydrated, but overall, he was relieved.

But with the threat of thirst out of the way, the fatigue he had been putting off for the last few days came back in full force. As inky blackness seeped into his mind, he distantly heard the kind Gatomon comment over his cough "Looks like he passed out…"

After laying the Wizardmon down, Gatomon carefully stoked the fire. It crackled lightly, the glow of the flames brightening slightly. She reveled in the silence for a few seconds, glad she had decided to set up her camp away from the rest. The rest could take care of themselves anyways…and she didn't want anyone to see the Wizardmon.

She didn't know why she suddenly was afraid of what the Wizardmon would think of her if- when- he found out she was a part of Myotismon's army. Although, it was pretty obvious, she thought; despite how she acted, she didn't want anyone to have to go through the same pain she went through…even if she didn't know anything else.

She quietly sat as her thoughts turner towards her ever forgetting memories. Everyday, she seemed to forget more and more of her past life. And despite not recalling anything other than pain and servitude, she knew that this wasn't how life was supposed to be. It stung how it was getting harder to remember where she came from. She could barely remember anything from before Myotismon; only that she was waiting for someone. Who? …She didn't know. But she knew she would wait forever for them.

When she noticed the Wizardmon's eyes starting to open, she gladly took the distraction. "Ahh, you're awake." She was instantly drawn to his deep green eyes; she had only caught a glimpse of them earlier.

Wizardmon, momentarily confused, muttered, "Huh?" He quickly regained his bearings however, and asked, "Did you save me?" Unbeknownst to Gatomon, for the first time in a long while, there was genuine gratitude in his voice.

"I didn't do that much; I just couldn't leave you lying there." Her voice had a distinct accent to her, complementing her feline features. As she looked over Wizardmon once more, she felt a strange connection to him.

Wizardmon, after eyeing their surroundings, awkwardly thanked her; he was terribly unused to company.

"Well, thanks…I guess I'll be going now." He hurriedly leaned on his staff and struggled to stand up; the Gatomon…he wasn't that drained; he saw her studying him, and despite being grateful, it almost felt like she could see right into him…funny, he should be the one doing that.

He grunted tiredly, and his eyes turned to the Gatomon when she reprimanded him, "Don't be silly; you're not strong enough to go." His eyes immediately grew cold, and his voice took on a carefully hidden trace of bitterness,

"I know you helped me, but I don't have anything for you."

"I don't want anything," she almost sounded surprised. "You must be very lonely to say that." Gatomon felt like a hypocrite.

"What do you mean?" Wizardmon questioned with a hint of disbelief.

"When you've been alone for a long time, your heart becomes very hard." At that point, Wizardmon's eyes were very wide. "It happens to everyone, even me."

Wizardmon was silent for a moment. Then maybe…maybe we can help each other soften our hearts again. He didn't realize it, but they were already doing so.

Wizardmon got his chance the next night; apparently, the last night Gatomon would be in this village. She had left him alone during the day, having some business to do, but the vague way she had worded that left him suspicious. He couldn't go with her though, when he was still resting. Thankfully, it seemed his worries were unfounded; when she had come back, she had instantly relaxed and started telling him about a secret; her secret.

"My whole life, I just keep waiting and searching, but… I never find her." Gatomon wasn't exactly sure why she felt so peaceful when she was with Wizardmon, but she didn't really care. It seemed like a small, forgotten part of her was found again after she realized how similar they were.

"Find who? Who are you waiting and searching for?" Part of him was mildly excited; could she be the one he was sent out to find and protect? But another part was honestly concerned and interested.

Gatomon's voice cracked, "I c-can't re-remember. It was too long ago. A-All I know is I'm waiting for someone." She turned around and closed her eyes; she refused to cry. When a hand rested on her shoulder, she jumped in surprise.

Wizardmon's eyes were soft, and she wondered what was that feeling she felt when she saw them. It felt…it felt like someone actually cared about her. Like those stories where friends are people who look after you, and are forever with you. But…are friends…real?

As if reading her mind, he spoke quietly, "I didn't believe in friends. I thought they were just people who happen to be in the right place, at the right time and had the ability to be eloquent. But…everyone also has the ability to be wrong. If you would like to… we could go see once and for all, if friends are real. I can promise I'll never leave you."

Gatomon's eyes were glassy. She lowered her head slightly.

"…I would like that."

A/N: Woo! This is like, the first good fanfic I've finished! I'm so happy! But yet…so sad…this was fun (although kinda sad) writing….I'll probably write a sequel (well…kinda) to this which will inevitably be a little angsty since it'll be set when Gatomon forgets all of this and Wizardmon will probably be a little depressed cuz they'd only be kinda friends… (I've been using that word a lot again, (sweatdrop)) Well, I hope you guys liked it; any constructive criticism is welcomed! …Hmm…I think the ending was a little sappy but, (shrug).

Smile!
Shadow-Walking-Tactician-VI