Episode 1: Light of Fate

"Diamond Storm!" Ryan heard a voice in the distance. He saw a bright silver light, along with shattering ice crystals. It was the deep of night, so the light seemed to call him. He ran over in its direction. At the source of the light, a small bear Digimon stood, not effected by the Renamon's attack.

"Renamon!" a girl, seeming to be Renamon's partner, called. "Do something already!" Since special attacks seemed to have no effect all night, she ran at the Digimon. She swung her fist, but it was easily blocked and she was flipped on her back.

"Argh..!" She flipped back up.

"Bear Claw!!" The small Digimon flew at Renamon, its burning fist hitting her in the stomach. She flew backwards and hit the ground, coughing.

"Renamon! Aah..!" The girl looked at a slightly cracked device. "If only this worked...! Crap!" Then Ryan ran up, and the girl looked at him. "Hey! Get outta here!"

"H-huh?" Ryan was a little surprised.

"If you're not a Tamer, you're in danger, so GO!"

"W-.. Tamer?!" Ryan knew what that was. "What, and you ARE?!"

"That's not- Ah, shoot! Move!"

"Wha-" Ryan looked behind him to see an Ultimate-level Digimon - a DinoBeemon - swooping down at him. "Whoa!!" Out of seemingly nowhere, the girl dove on top of him, throwing them both out of the way. She jumped back up, the Renamon now slightly rested and on her feet.

"Ruki.. Your orders?"

"Take that DinoBeemon out!"

"I'll do as good as I can... But Taomon would do better..." She leaped into the air. "Diamond Storm!" The crystals flew once again. This time, though, they just... fell off of the target. She landed and took a step back as the DinoBeemon circled around towards her. "Ruki... It isn't working..!"

Ryan slowly stood up and noticed the bear Digimon standing near him, just... staring. "Hey, little dude..." He slowly stepped over towards it. It just.. stood there. As he reached out very slowly to touch it, it growled and emitted a huge silver beam of light. "Whaa!!!" Ryan flew backwards into the air.

"Whoa, what the-?!" The girl looked back at him and the light. "R-Renamon, let's move! Come on!"

Ryan hit the ground finally. He felt all of his body lose strength, and his mind was slipping from his control. "W-whoa.. I.... Should've...... ... ... ..."

..... "Aaah..." Ryan slowly opened his eyes to see a ceiling, just like the one in his room, meaning he must've been home. "Just a dream, I guess..." THen he rolled over on his side to see that the room was definately not his. "Whoa, where the heck am I?!" He slowly sat up as the Renamon walked in.

"You're up. Good. How are you feeling?"

"Uh... I don't know... Alright, I guess. Where am I?"

"You're at Ruki's house. She wanted to leave you there, but I sense high ability of a Tamer in you."

"A Tamer?" He looked down at himself. "Me?"

"Yes. I'm not quite sure yet, but I sense a quiet strength and courage. One you don't know of yet."

"That's weird... But if you say so."

"You can go in the kitchen and get something to eat, if you wish."

"Nah... I'll just stay here."

"Very well. Ruki should be in in a minute to check on you. Rest well." Renamon left the room, leaving Ryan to sigh and lay back down. The bear Digimon was just outside the window, peeking in. He looked down at the watch he was carrying curiously as it beeped and brought an arrow up pointing in Ryan's direction. He looked back at Ryan and cocked his head a little.

"Hey," the girl greeted calmly as she walked in. "Feeling any better?"

"A little.." Ryan responded with a slight yawn. "Hey... Ruki, was it?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks for helping me out back there."

"Hey, no problem."

"So... You're a Tamer, then?"

"Yeah. But there's a little problem..." Ruki trailed off.

"What's that?" Ryan was starting to enjoy Ruki's company. Her voice was really calming to him.

"See..." She took out her cracked computerized device that she looked at the night before. "This is my D-Arc. It's what 'makes' me a Tamer."

"Yeah... So?"

"Well... See that crack?" she asked, and pointed to it.

"Yeah..."

"See, that means that it's been disabled. It won't work. All of the D-Arcs did that after the D-Reaper."

"Wait a minute..." Ryan interrupted. "D-Reaper? Does that mean that... You're the famous Ruki MAKINO?" Ruki sighed.

"Yeah, yeah.. That's me. I hate it, though."

"Who'd hate being famous?"

"I guess you were never popular at school, huh?"

"... No, not really. Nope."

"Well, from the time I became the card battle queen until now, even more now sicne the D-Reaper, I've been stalked, all the ugly and popular guys in school were all over me, I've been treated like some kind of animal that everyone watches for fun... Sure, Takato and the others like it, but I'm sick of it. I just wanna be treated like you - a normal, lower-class student in a no-name school."

"... I go to Hammond Baptist."

"Well, no-name to Japanese people, anyway."

"Wow, so you don't like fame?"

"Not at all."

"Well then... I could treat you like a normal, lower-class friend of mine if you want." Ruki smirked a little.

"I guess that'd be okay." Ryan held his hand out and Ruki took it.

"Ryan Stacey. Unknown, unpopular student of Hammond Baptist."

"Ruki Makino. Popular transfer student from Japan." They both smiled a little at eachothers' jokes. "Hey, you said you went to Hammond Baptist?"

"Yeah."

"I'll see if my mom'll enroll me there. We're still looking."

"Are you two saved?"

"Yeah... That's a Christian school, right?"

"Yeah it is."

"Good, so I'll ask her later."

"It costs a lot... Over two hundred a month," Ryan mumbled as he rolled his eyes. Ruki laughed a litle.

"Hey, don't worry about it, my mom's a model. She's got more money than she knows what to do with."

"Man, are you lucky..."

"Yeah, yeah..." Ruki laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow I guess. Oh, uh.. Here's my number." Ruki wrote down her phone number on a piece of pape and gave it to him. "Call me sometime when you get bored, huh?"

"Yeah, will do. Later." Ryan jumped up and walked out.

"Yeah... Later... Hey, America's not so bad, after all." She shrugged, then walked out to find Renamon.

Ryan was wandering along the sidewalk back to his house, looking at the number. He finally put it away. All of a sudden, a jolt happened in his brain. "Aah... What the...?!" He dropped to his knees and had a flashback, darkness covering the area, unlike he remembered the real thing.

***FLASHBACK***

"Oh, oh harder..!" The girl that was screaming was about 24, married, and had two children. Ryan had no idea why he was doing what he was, but he was doing it anyway. He felt a burst come out of him into her 'lower areas'.

"Ah, man, Jenny... I-.. I love-...." Then, suddenly, he felt darkness surround him and begin to pull at his heart. "Argh..! Crap...!!" (What'd I just DO?!) he thought. The darkness in the room flooded everything out. It didn't happen when he actually DID it, however.

***END FLASHBACK***

("Don't you see...?") A deep, dark voice echoed in his mind. ("You've now lost all remaining innocence you had. You may be weak, but if you let go and allow me to manifest your darkness, you can have more power than even me one day.")

"You..." Ryan mumbled. "... You did this..." He stood up suddenly and swung his fist. "What do you WANT from me?!" This voice had been bothering Ryan for months. He didn't know why, either.

"Your heart..." Ryan quickly turned to see a back, transparent shadow in the shape of a being. He slowly looked up much higher to see to top, and slanted red eyes. Ryan backed up a few steps.

"Screw you! Lay off!" The shadow slowly reached its hand out. Then out of nowhere came the little bear Digimon. It flew into the shadow's hand and that silver light came again, burning the shadow's hand.

"Aagh!!" it cried out in pain, and pulled its hand back.

"Bear Fist!" The Digimon flew at the shadow and attacked with a flaming fist, doing very little damage.

"The silver plug... No! Don't take it! Ryan, if you take the plug, I'll...! Eer...!!!" The angry scream of the shadow trailed off as it faded, and the frozen image around Ryan and the bear Digimon that was traced in black went back to normal.

"You..! You're the Digimon from last night!" Ryan backed up a little.

"W-wait!" The Digimon shouted at him. "I won't hurt ya! I'm here to give you this." He held the watch up. "The Silver D-Plug! And I'm also here to tell you that you're my partner! The D-Plug reads your presence like a book!"

"Me...?"

"A Tamer! A 'NEO-Tamer'!" He thought back to what Renamon said earlier.

(Maybe... She was right...?) Ryan stared at the D-Plug, then slowly reached his hand out for it.