CHAPTER ONE

SACRIFICE

The bell rang signaling the end of another boring school day; slowly a red headed girl stood up from her seat, gathered her things and walked out of her classroom and towards her home. Her mind fills with dread when she thinks about what is awaiting her, despite looking as strong and confident as she always does she is any thing but those things, she has been trough so much in the last past couple of months, that it has began to take its toll on her, and even tough she has renamon she couldn't help but feel alone and filled with guilt.

Behind her a girl watched her friend with a frown on her face, she couldn't stand to see her friend suffer like this, rika had changed from being the strong confident of the group to the brooding and loner of the group, what worried her was that despite there attempts at cheering her up rika refused to be around them. She hardly spoke to ryo and henry, looking at her friend she couldn't help but be reminded of what had happened and of what they had lost, rushing to catch up to her she slowly taps her shoulder and smiles when the red head turns to face her.

"Hey rika"

Turning around a small smiled played on rika is face, her cheerful friend jeri had apparently decided to walk home with her, or at least accompany her, which was fine with her since she hated walking home alone. With no one to talk to her, her mind would always race with millions of thoughts and question, on how that day could have been prevented how she should be the one too…, So many things could have gone different and yet they hadn't, and now she was paying for it, they were all paying for it.

"Hey Jeri what's up?"

The gloomy feel that rika gave made jeri frown, despite knowing that the her friend was not the social type she refused to let her dwell in self pity, she knew from first hand experience how well those train of thoughts could lead her.

"Nothing much, just Henry and I going out tonight"

Right on time, it never failed every Friday Henry would take the girl out and every Friday jeri would ask her the same thing, despite enjoying the distraction that jeri offered to her mind she really had no time for going out and having fun, not when she had him at home. Jeri noticing the change in Rika is face frowned and took a deep breath, she knew that she should just stop pestering the girl but she couldn't do it, not when she saw how depressed rika was.

"You know me and henry were wondering"

"No"

They did this dance every day and yet jeri refused to give up, she would always pester her or tell her to go out with ryo or to at least hang out with them, that was a subject that had caused her and jeri to grow distant from one another. The girl would always tell her how good a couple she and the digimon king would make, all the while annoying her with the damn subject. But what was worse was the fact that when ever jeri hung out with her, henry always tagged along, ever since the incident she hadn't been able to look at henry with out some form of glare accompanying her glanced, she couldn't never forgive him or ryo for what they had taken from her.

"Rika come on, it will do you some good to get out of your home once in a while"

"We have been trough this how many times?"

"Several, but I refuse to let you suffer over his death, you need to move on"

"With ryo?"

The anger was radiation off of the read head and jeri took a deep breath, she had to make rika understand that it was better to move forwards and not get stuck in the past, she had done it and in the end it had caused nothing but pain.

"With who ever you chose, just let takato go"

"Leave him out of this"

"I won't, you're not the only one who was hurt after what happened, but we all moved on, when are you going to stop living in the past and join us here in the present?"

"Just leave me alone!"

Rika turned around to leave but jeri grabbed her by the arm, rika glared at her and pushed her away, she didn't need this right, she knew that the others were worried about her but if they knew what she knew.

"Rika!"

It was to late, she had pushed her friend and she had pushed back, now she might pulled back from them all together, closing her eyes jeri shock her head and walked over to her boyfriends Is home, it was time they all had a chat about rika and how they could be helping her. Rika arrived home and closed her eyes, she had been rude and right down stubborn with jeri, that meant that she could go and talk to henry about it, which meant that she would have to deal with all of them once they figured out a plan to deal with her.

"Are you ok?"

Renamon looked at her tamer who nodded, she wasn't all right the digimon could tell but she also knew when not to push a subject, rika would talk to her when the time was right.

"Yeah, just….i just wish they would give me some space you know"

"I do"

Rika smiled and took a deep breath, calming down she walks towards her room and then looks at the little shed on her back yard, frowning she turns towards renamon, the digimon is eyes are fixed on the shed as well.

"Shall i feed him?"

"No. I'll do it, he might wonder were I am or something"

Renamon nodded and banished leaving rika to walk towards the kitchen, silently a routine starts, she fills a dish with some water and another with some food and bread, carefully she maneuvers herself on to the back yard and over to the old shed. Renamon appears silently behind rika and slowly opens the shed is doors for her tamer, placing a hand over rika shoulder she smiles at her tamer.

"Are you ok?"

"No"

Rika smiles and steps trough the doors; inside a figure looks up at her and smiles, stepping out of the shadows rika can see two red glowing eyes looking at her; piercing her very soul, she freezes in place when the long bat like wings coming from underneath his brown hair poke out into the light. He takes a step forward to greet her, and rika smiles slightly and tries to be strong but fails miserably, he reminds her so much of the goggle head, the pain comes back at not having him with her, at having him instead.

"R…rika"

The creature speaks and she smiles a faint smiled, his voice is mixed with this being, the goggle head is eyes are also visible, but he is not him.

"I-I brought you some food and water so eat up ok"

The creature nods and sniffs the food that is placed in front of him, he smiles up at rika and the girl takes a step back, adverting her gaze from his, she is unable to look at him, not when he is outside of the shadows.

"T-thank you ...rika, but why the...look of...Sadness"

The creature tried to move but was held back by the chains on both his hands and tail, a low growl made rika shiver. She didn't want to go trough this but she knew that if she didn't face him he would have gone looking for her, the part that was still takato care for her that is why he was here, because he was still her goggle head, deep down he was still takato as much as he was guimon.

"I had a tough day merger"

The digimon/human hybrid walks a feet towards rika but once again he is held back by the chains, frowning he glares at them and then turns to face rika who in turn looks away from him. He still has the face of a human but he also has guimon is marks on his face along with those cursed feral eyes, his body remained that of a human but his hands and feet had changed, looking like those of guimon. It was her fault he was like that, it was her fault that he had ended up merged with guimon, and it was her fault he didn't remember any thing.

The silence made merger frown, slowly he bent down and began to lick some water from his bowl, the slurping and lapping sounds made rika frown and turned her face away from him, she couldn't look at him, not while he was like this.

"Why do you look away?"

She could see the anger behind his eyes and knew what was coming, another one of his temper tantrums.

"It's disgusting to see you drink"

He knew it was a lie, she attacked him first because he was going to attack her, they played this game often enough to know what was coming.

"Then why keep me here if I am so repulsive to you, is it because of the way my face makes you remember the goggle head tamer? Is it because you feel guilty?"

"He made his choice!"

"Because you were in danger and you, you broke him"

"SHUT UP!"

Rushing out of the small shed rika slammed the door behind her, and falls to the ground tear falling from her face, it was hard so damn hard to deal with him, but she had to do this, she knew that she could save him. Renamon looking on wanted to kill merger, but she remembered; that it was not rika is fault but her own because she wasn't there to protect rika, she wasn't strong enough to save her tamer.

"Rika…"

"Renamon...j-just ...I don't think I can do this"

"Let me take care of him for now you need to go and rest"

"...j-just don't hurt him"

"...Never"

Rika nodded and walked back inside her house. Leaving renamon to deal with merge, renamon looks inside the shed and sees the hybrid chewing on the food, she hates to see them like this, she didn't like to see a once great warrior and a good friend so badly hurt, the mere thought hurt her perhaps more than it hurt rika. Once they had merged takato is personality had all but vanished, but for guimon it had been different, only basic instincts remained, his consciousness was no were to be found and that was what worried her so much.

FLASH BACK

A digital field had appeared in Shinjuku park, but this digital field was unlike any thing they had ever seen, the cloud was pitched dark and red energy was emerging from within it. A growl pierced the night is silence and from within a digimon appeared. One unlike any thing they had seen before, spikes came out of its body and red eyes looked at each one of them, they knew whom he was the moment his body emerged from the digital field.

"I-it can't be"

Henry looked in horror as the beast emitted a low menacing growl, they knew who this digimon was, he was a corrupt form of a great digimon, a digimon who is power was unlike any thing they had seen before.

"How is this possible, how did he reach our world?"

Ryo clenched his fist in anger, he had battle him once a long time ago, but back then he had been in the digital world and he had been the stronger, this time how ever the bone digimon looked to be twice as strong as last time.

"Skullgraymon"

Rika had seen the card once before, but it was a dangerous one, she had never used it on a card game because its benefits were far out weight by the risks, it killed any thing in sight, and there were only a hand full of digimon that could stop it, its powers were not normal, he was a berserker and killed any thing on sight.

"MOVE!"

Gargomon is scream made them react, but it was to late his hands move faster than they could move and it had managed to slash at renamon, throwing her to the ground it went in for the kill only to be held off by both Henry and ryo is partners, the two digimon in there champion forms had managed to held him off with there attacks, but there attacks had only served as a distraction.

"That's impossible!"

The two tamers looked at there digimon and frowned, it was time to up the ante on this little game. Slashing a couple of cards trough there d-arc there digimon began to glow and soon were replaced by there ultimate forms, Rapidmon frowned and looked at the spot were his attack had connected, looking at his tamer he could see the surprised in Henry is face too.

"Not even a scratch? How is that possible?"

Ryo frowned and slashed a card trough his D-arc, there was little time to act when one of those things showed up so it was time to get the big guns out.

"Digimodify goliath activate!"

In an instant cyberdramon tripled its size and attacked skullgraymon, but the result was the same, the monstrous digimon made a swipe with his hand and sent cyberdramon to the ground, the card is effects died down and ryo is digimon turned back to normal.

"Damn it!"

Ryo looked at the massive digimon and frowned, that was impossible he couldn't be defeated so easily, looking at skullgraymon he could see the digimon take another swipe at renamon and rika. Henry frowned and ordered his digimon to attack but it was doing little to no damage to the bone digimon is body.

"Ryo we have to get rika and renamon out of here"

"He does seem to be targeting them"

Two massive swipe of his hands and all directed at either rika or renamon? That was no coincidence, this digimon was not lost in rage or anger, no, it had a purpose, it was thinking and it had chosen its target.

"Rika its after you!"

"I KNOW!"

Renamon had managed to digivolved into kyuubimon and was dodging as best she could the attacks of the massive skullgraymon, then it happened they had been to slow in there movements and just before the attack connected they were pulled away to safety by a massive clawed hand.

"w-what?"

The claw hand belong to a red digimon, one they were all familiar with, on top of him takato smiled at her and gave her a thumps up, they had seen the digital field and had rushed towards the area as fast as they could, fortunately they had gotten there just in time.

"What took you so long?"

"Sorry but guimon was not on his shed, something about looking for a present"

Rika looked at the red digimon who simply cleared his throat, renamon seeing the uncomfortable look on growlmon she decided to speak up and point out that this was not the time to be discussing such matters, focusing back on the battle takato looked at the digimon and frowned, this digimon was in another level one he was all to familiar with.

"We have other problems at the moment"

Takato nodded and turned back to the digimon that had emerged on he real world, there was no way he was an ordinary digimon, no ordinary mega could with stand the attack of two ultimate's with out having any damaged. Since that was the case they needed to become stronger but the power of biomerger was limited, they could no longer reach the mega level and the massive bone digimon didn't give them time to implement a strategy. Ryo and cyberdramon were doing there best but failing miserably.

Then it happen, the massive digimon turned towards them and growled out a warning, guimon growled back and takato knew what had happened, the two had communicated some how.

"What's wrong guimon?"

"He wants rika and kyuubimon"

They knew that skullgraymon was going to attack. they knew they had to do something. takato is heart skipped and guimon knew what was going to happen, summoning all of there strength they began to biomerge. They knew that there options had ran out, if two ultimate level digimon did little to no damage to skullgraymon there attacks would be no different, they needed to become one to stand a chance at defeating the corrupt digimon. Allowing the power of bio-merging to surround there bodies the two immediately knew that something was wrong, they were forcing the evolution, pushing the boundaries in order to reach the mega level.

The other digimon had sensed it too, they could see and feel that things were wrong, this was no ordinary bio-merger, this was different, guimon had used the power of megidramon to merged them, in order for them to become gallantmon they had used the power of the hazard, Takato could feel the rage and the anger coming from within himself and his partner. Soon the dark red energy began to surround the two and then a tower of pure energy engulfed there forms, as the column of energy vanished it left a dark knight standing in there place.

Gallantmon is armor was dark red, his cape a pure shade of black, his eyes no longer yellow but red with anger and hate, all of it directed towards the skullgraymon, his shield now red and yellow began to glow black and then a massive energy beam shoot out. With one hit the battle had ended, skullgraymon was now floating as bits of data, the dark knight turned towards rika and kyuubimon. rika looked at the red and black gallantmon who is red eyes were focused on her, but she was not afraid, something about the knight before her brought a sense of peace and calm within her, she knew that she was safe as long as the being before her were alive.

"W-who is that…?"

Rika heard herself whisper and from beside her she heard renamon is reply, a low whisper just as hers only renamon was more awed struck than her.

"Hazard-gallantmon"

Gallantmon looked at her and knelt down, just as he was about two speak rika saw two of her friend running towards her, she knew that they had mistaken the situation and when she saw there two digimon high up in there sky with there attacks ready to strike she knew that she was right, they were going to attack him and looking closely at the dark knight before her she could see that he was in no shape to withstand the attacks, something had gone haywire, something was weakening him.

" R-rika ...."

The knight spoke her voice and she could hear takato is strain voice coming from the armor knight, something was wrong, it was as if he was in pain or struggling within himself, she wanted to ask him what it was, if she could help but she couldn't they others were to fast, there attacks collided with the knight before she had time to warn him or do any thing.

"CRIMSON CLAWS!"

"TRI-BEAM!"

Both rapidmon and cyberdramon is attacks rang out, they collided with her knight and all then an explosion rocked the earth, the attacks had collided with the knight; the crimson and dark knight screamed as his armor cracked with the force of both the attacks then every thing went dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~END FLASH BACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rika opened her eyes and rushed towards the bathroom to splash some water on her face, the memories and the dream, it was all to much on her. it was taking its toll but she had to stay by its side, he had sacrifice himself for her he knew that the skullgraymon was going to attack and he merged just to save her, he knew that merging was almost impossible ever since the return of the digimon but he had done it, he had merged to save her and he had paid the price.

"Rika?"

Renamon peered inside the bathroom and saw her tamer, she was a mess, looking at the mirror with worn eyes and a tired expression on her face it made the digimon wonder if keeping merger a secret was such a good idea, rika turned to look at her digimon and smiled, a faint glow of determination showed in her eyes.

"No matter what renamon I will not abandon him"

"Yes we will"

Renamon smiled and nodded, maybe there was still some hope left.

CONTINUED

NOTE : Here is the first chapter re-post, not a lot of changes but some changes I always wanted to do to it, now I am happy with it so yeah.