Digital War (First Draft)

by XDragon2688

First Draft...will be taken down

Digital War

Ace Chambers leaned against the door to the subway car as the train rocked back and forth. He reached into his messenger back hanging over his side and raised the volume on his Ipod as Always by Bon Jovi drowned out the sounds of the train and the people talking around him. Ace closed his eyes, slipping his hands into the pockets in his gray suit pants.

'Another great day at work, and another lovely commute. God this sucks.' Ace thought as he opened his brown eyes to look at the sign as the train came to a stop at one of the stations. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't his stop. He sighed heavily as Bon Jovi belted out the lyrics, "When he holds you close, when he pulls you near, when he says the words you've been needing to hear, I'll wish I was him 'cause those words are mine to say to you till the end of time…"

Ace pulled his headphones off, draping them around his neck. He could still here the muffled sounds of the song, but thankfully could no longer make it out. This is what his life had become…it wasn't that long ago, just three years that he was on top of the world. In fact after he and Kaze defeated Piedmon, things really started to settle down. There was no Digimon activity and they graduated college. Kaze moved back home to Redemption to work at his family's company and Ace decided to stay local and took a job offer at Schopf Health. As for Renee, well Ace shook his head, dispelling the thoughts as the train pulled into the Madison Street station. He placed his headphones back onto his ear before running his hand through his messy brown hair. Once the doors opened, Ace hustled out of the train, through the turnstile, up the stairs and onto the street where the setting sun bathed the city streets in a nice orange glow. He cut through crowds, bobbing and weaving his way down the sidewalk and across the street. From where he was standing, Ace could clearly see the construction on Loudon Tower, which was still being repaired after it was blasted to apart by a rampaging Machinedramon three years ago. Ace smirked at the sight. At least the city was moving on…

The sun had set by the time Ace entered his apartment. He wasn't surprised to see most of the lights off, save for the glow of the television. "Damnit Demi, at least you could turn on a light every once in a while." Ace grumbled, as he flipped on the light in the living room.

"Yeah yeah…well what did you bring home for dinner huh?" the reptilian Digimon asked.

"Why don't you stop playing Halo 4 and come see for yourself?" Ace asked.

"But I'm killing noobs! DemiTyrannomon whined. "Fine, fine…don't get your panties in a twist, I'll be right there."

Ace walked into his bedroom, changing out of his suit and into his trademark navy blue t-shirt and cargo jeans. It was only seven o'clock, and a Friday night, but there was no way Ace was going to go out. He hardly left his apartment in the past few months except for trips to work and the grocery store.

"Oh by the way, Renee came by while you were at work." DemiTyrannomon said from the doorway to Ace's bedroom.

"What? Why? What did she want?"

"I 'unno…to talk to you I guess."

Ace sighed, sitting down on his bed. "Well, maybe I don't want to talk to her."

"Ace, come on…she's worried about you." DemiTyrannomon replied, walking over and putting a claw on his partner's knee.

"Bull shit. If she was so worried about me…" Ace hesitated, looking down and clenching his eyes tightly. "Fuck it! I don't want to talk about this! Here's twenty bucks…get us pizza Ace quickly rose to his feet, tossed his Digimon some cash and briskly walked towards the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" DemiTyrannomon asked, holding the money between his claws.

"To get a drink," Ace snapped before slamming the door behind him. Out in the hall, Ace slumped down against the door, pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.

"Of course this would happen today, why shouldn't it be today? It was only two months ago Renee left and on top of that, it was just a shitty day. What does she want anyway? Hasn't she done enough? Fuck you universe...seriously, fuck you," Ace said, bringing his knees up. He folded his arms across them and buried his head, trying to hide from the world. Maybe it wasn't the best idea for him to head on down to the liquor store in this state, but it was the only thing he could think of to take the sting away. At that moment, he didn't care that his parents were alcoholics, or that he hated drinking to get drunk...

Slowly, Ace pushed himself off of the floor. At the very least, he didn't want to be sitting out in the hall like some bum if any of his neighbors were to come out.

"You know, usually people like to have their emotional breakdowns inside their apartments." A female voice called out.

Ace looked over to his left, noticing a girl about his age standing there with an arm behind her back. She was a few inches shorter than him, with long flowing red hair that reached down to her butt. As much as Ace would hate to admit it, her eyes were an alluring emerald green, which were framed by a thin pair of glasses. She seemed to be in a lounging mood since she had a pair of athletic gray sweatpants, and a light pink t-shirt that ended just above the waist, showing off a bit of skin.

"Oh hey 7G," Ace said with a small smile. "You been standing there long?"

"Only enough to hear how the universe screws you over 7E," she grinned, leaning against the door frame to her apartment. The girl looked Ace over slowly, smirking a bit as her eyes met his own. "You know, we've been neighbors for two months now and I don't even know your name, which isn't very neighborly of you."

"Me? I…" Ace paused, quickly closing his mouth. "My mistake. Name's Ace, and you are?" Ace asked, extending his hand to her. The girl smiled and pushed his hand away.

"Celeste. So, you're drinking tonight? Sorry, I overheard a few things. Look, I hate to see someone drink the night away alone, that never ends well, so how about I come over and we split this bottle of tequila together?" she asked, showing Ace the full bottle.

Ace blinked slowly at the girl, a bit taken back by her offer. As much as he wanted to be alone and sulk in his misery, she did seem nice. Hell, maybe this was what he needed to get his mind off of Renee, if only for an hour or so. "Okay, yeah sure, come on in." and with that, Ace opened the door back to the apartment, letting Celeste in.

"That was fast, what happened?" DemiTyrannomon asked, walking out of the kitchen. He paused in his tracks as his gold eyes fell on Celeste. DemiTyrannomon gulped lightly, waving a claw slowly at Celeste. "Uh…hi!"

"Celeste, I can explain," Ace started to say, but the female held up her hand to silence him. Ace closed his mouth and stood there waiting for the freak out. Maybe he could convince her she was hallucinating...

Celeste stared at the Digimon, then looked back at Ace. "Oh my god! You're the creature from the news! Yeah three years ago, I saw you on the news when those creatures were attacking the city." She exclaimed, "And Ace," she looked back at him smirking playfully, "that means you were there… geeze, and to think I was living next to a hero." Celeste grinned, walking over to the counter, swaying her hips with each step towards the counter. She set the bottle down and started to open a few cabinets. "Got any mix?" She looking back at the two.

Ace shook his head, trying to process what just happened. So she was okay with this? In fact she was excited to meet DemiTyrannomon. It looked like the two of them were getting along too. The dinosaur Digimon was helping Celeste make some margaritas, and they were engaged in conversation. He was dumbfounded, and a bit upset at himself for getting into this potentially dangerous situations. If she wasn't ok with the Digimon he could have been in trouble. The government was still looking for him and Kaze, or rather X-Omnidramon and Gaioumon.

"So, how did you two meet?" Celeste asked, pouring the tequila into the blender.

"He kinda came to my rescue." Ace replied, taking a seat at the kitchen table. "My old room-mate had a Digimon partner and when he left to go somewhere with them, this evil ogre like monster came out to fight me and that spunky little guy came to my rescue. After that, well the rest is history as they say."

Celeste sat down next to Ace and handed him a drink. "Does he drink?" she asked looking over at DemiTyrannomon.

"Do I drink? Man, I know you're new here but I can easily drink you under the table." DemiTyrannomon gloated. "And I'll kick your butt in video games," he added.

"He, doesn't get out much anymore…he's found new hobbies," Ace explained, sliding his glass to DemiTyrannomon then poured himself a new glass.

A few hours and a few pitchers later, Ace was slumped in his spot on the couch, looking over at Celeste who seemed to have a pretty good buzz going on. "So, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but why did you come out into the hall to check on me?"

"Oh I was feeling generous tonight. Besides, it worked out well didn't it?" She asked, leaning up a bit from her spot on the couch, placing her empty glass onto the table.

Ace smiled, nodding his head slowly. He never noticed it before, but the girl was actually cute. Maybe he was too hung up Renee to notice any other females, or anything. Then again it was most likely the alcohol giving him this thought. Still, it couldn't hurt to act right? What's one more rejection in the grand scheme of things? Then again, if he tried to kiss her right now, he knew it was just to get his mind off of things, and his heart wouldn't be in it. Besides, it wasn't nice to hit on a girl who just spent her Friday with some downtrodden loser.

"You're a sweet guy Ace. Whatever got you down, don't let it bug you anymore ok?" Celeste sand quietly, patting him on the shoulder. She leaned over and placed a kiss on his forehead. "It was a nice evening Mr. Chambers, just don't expect it to end that way again. Listen, shoot me a text tomorrow, I wouldn't mind getting to know you and DemiTyrannomon, no booze this time." With that said, Celeste rose gracefully to her feet, hardly showing any sign she was intoxicated. "Go sleep the drunk off, I'll see you later sparky," she said with a smile as she left the apartment and closed the door behind her.

Ace stared at the door for a minute as he tried to process just what happened. He couldn't make heads or tails of that girl and her motives, but at least she helped him get through the night, and that was rather important for him. Taking her suggestion into consideration, Ace got up off the couch, staggering forward a few paces before he managed to catch his balance. He was a lot more drunk than he thought he was. Bed sounded like a great escape, a perfect end to this day. So, without waking the snoring DemiTyrannomon, Ace walked into his bedroom, kicked off his jeans and collapsed face first onto his bed. Thankfully in his drunken state he didn't think at all and promptly slipped into a deep sleep.

It seemed like Ace had slept for a second, or maybe even less than that when he heard a frantic beep coming from his dresser.

"Stupid Alarm clock" Ace grumbled, smacking the machine next to his bed, but the beeping didn't stop. He opened his eyes part way and focused on the digital clock. The numbers four-thirty illuminated the dark with their sky blue color. There was no way his alarm should be going off now. The combination of his drunken state and the fact he was suddenly woken up from his sleep didn't help him comprehend anything at the moment. Ace rolled over and stared at his dresser. The sound was coming from inside it, but the only thing there was …

"My digivice!" Ace yelled, scrambling to get out of his bed. He caught his foot in his sheet and fell face first against the hardwood floor. Ace groaned in agony before pushing himself up. He used to bed to help get back on his feet, and eventually he was at the dresser. The D-Omega he had received almost four years ago was going nuts, it was beeping frantically, and the screen on the face was flashing on and off.

"Okay, what do you want you stupid thing? I'm trying to sleep. Do you have any idea what time it is?" he asked, slipping the watch-like device onto his left wrist. It took him a moment to remember what button did what, but he got it. The screen projected a holographic 3D map of the town, with a red dot flashing in the middle of Main Street. Ace stared at the dot as it moved map. That meant something, but he was more focused on the fact that the dot was blinking. With his right hand, Ace slowly reached through the holographic buildings and tried to poke the light. Of course nothing happened, but that didn't keep the drunken male from trying again and again.

"It's almost like this is warning me of something," Ace muttered. "Wait! It's a bad Digimon!" he exclaimed. "Holy shit! I can't believe it, it's been three years and finally someone shows up to get their ass kicked. I mean DemiTyrannomon and I might be smashed, but we can totally kick any Digimon's ass, cause we're heroes and stuff. Wait! I gotta wake up Demi, and I need pants. Where are my pants? Oh there they are. Silly little pants hiding from me. Psh, I got you now," Ace slurred out, bending over to get his pants. Unfortunately, he started to lose his balance but somehow managed to catch it as he stumbled face first towards the wall. He managed to get his hands out in time to brace himself before he could do some serious damage to himself. Ace shook his head, doing his best to regain his composure. He lowered himself to the floor, slipped his pants on and then his shoes.

"Demi, get up," Ace called out. The dinosaur Digimon stirred lightly in his sleep, groaning.

"Five more minutes," DemiTyrannomon whined, waving his claw to dismiss Ace.

"No, we gotta go now! Get up," Ace replied, walking over to DemiTyrannomon. He leaned over and whacked the dinosaur in the head. In an instant, the Digimon flailed, leaping up from where he was sleeping. His golden eyes focused on Ace standing over him. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Ok okay!" DemiTyrannomon whined, scratching his arm. "Let's go so I can get back to sleep."

It took a few minutes for Ace and DemiTyrannomon to arrive at Main Street. The gray SUV came to a stop about a block away from the red dot on his holographic map of the city. It might not have been the best idea to drive, with Ace still be slightly drunk, but it was one of the fastest ways for them to get where they needed to go, and it helped DemiTyrannomon conserve his energy. The two stepped out of the vehicle and looked around their surroundings.

"I don't see anything, do you?" Ace asked.

As if on cue, balls of fire streaked across the sky over Ace and DemiTyrannomon, impacting the buildings across the street from where they were standing. The flame balls exploded, raining fire down onto the street and igniting some rooms in the building. Ace looked back to see the source of the fire balls. His brown eyes locked onto a figure standing on top of a building a few yards behind them. From what he could see the creature's shape was rather humanoid, with a large horn protruding from his head and large claws on his hands and feet. Once it noticed Ace and DemiTyrannomon looking at it, it leapt into the air, encasing it's body in sphere of flames. As it neared the ground, it expanded the flames, sending them off in all directions, setting trees, telephone poles and buildings ablaze. The Digimon landed in a crouch before slowly rising to its height. Bathed in the light of so many fires burning, Ace could clearly see the Digimon's features. It had a blue body, with orange and red armor covering its head, chest, hands and feet. It had three claws on each hand, and foot, and one large prominent horn on its forehead.

"They said you'd come," the Digimon said, grinning slightly. "I'm disappointed, you don't look that dangerous."

"Well, you know what they say, looks can be deceiving." Ace replied, as he pulled up the Digimon's information on his D-Omega. According to the data he had, this Digimon's name was Flamedramon.

"So I've been informed. Don't worry, I won't take this lightly, as I'm sure you won't either," Flamedramon replied, moving his left leg back and adjusting his stance into a more aggressive one. Slowly, flames began to form around him until he was almost completely encased in a fiery aura. "Fire Rocket!" he bellowed, blasting off from the ground and flying straight at Ace.

DemiTyrannomon leapt into Ace, knocking him to the ground and avoiding the attack. "Bastard didn't even wait. Come on Ace, let's show this punk who's he messing with," DemiTyrannomon said, crawling to his feet.

Ace nodded, pushing himself off of the ground. "Right, DemiTyrannomon, evolve!" he yelled, as his D-Omega emitted a bright white light. His Digimon partner was encased in a cocoon of light for a few seconds and then exploded revealing a new, larger form.

"Dragonmon…" the creature snarled. Dragonmon resembled a four legged black dragon, standing at about eleven feet tall from the ground to his back. The dragon Digimon had a long slender neck and powerful tail which ended as a cannon with a scythe over it. Dragonmon had two large wings on either side of his body as well as two horns foot long came out of the side of his head and swept back towards his tail. Along his back were twin sets of spines green spines which ran down the side of the back and ended before his tail. Part of his body is shielded in silver armor that covered the top of his head, his shoulders and knees adding protection and giving him an intimidating look.

"Well, isn't this more interesting," Flamedramon scoffed.

Dragonmon snarled, spewing flames from his nostrils. A holographic reticle appeared over his left eye, locking onto Flamedramon. "You'll regret coming here. I'll send you back to the hole you climbed out of," Dragonmon's wings started to beat, lifting the dragon off of the ground. He hovered in the air, focusing on the blue Digimon. "Dragon Inferno!" he bellowed, spewing a stream of flames at Flamedramon.

The flame suddenly dispersed as Flamedramon came rocketing towards Dragonmon. He lowered his head just before slamming into Dragonmon's chest and carrying the larger Digimon with him and through Ace's car and into a building. Flamedramon landed outside of the hole the dragon Digimon created. He turned his head back towards Ace and smirked again. "Poor dumb bastard..."

Dragonmon groaned in pain as he struggled to right himself and get back to his feet. His eyes narrowed as he struggled to regain his senses. The targeting system over his left eye glitched on and off momentarily before locking onto Flamedramon. He may have been caught off guard once, but not again. If fire wasn't going to work on him, then he'd have to use his size and other abilities. "Alright you cocky little freak, try this one on for size," Dragonmon growled as his targeting system diagnosed and locked onto Flamedramon. His tail swayed behind him slowly with the cannon-like tip facing Flamedramon. Once the reticle turned green, the dragon smirked. "Giga Impact!" he yelled, firing a golden ball of energy from his tail. The attack caught Flamedramon off guard, and sent him careening across the street and against a parked car. Dragonmon opened his mouth, and let loose a stream of fire at the parked car. Within moments the car exploded around Flamedramon. With the coast clear, Dragonmon lumbered out of the building, nodding over at Ace. "Now, what the hell do you want?"

Flamedramon pushed himself up off of the pavement. He was visibly wounded from the force of the attack, bruises and burned marks covered his unexposed flesh and the armor like material was lightly cracked. "Consider me an emissary of your death."

"From who? We killed Piedmon three years ago." Ace asked, stepping forward a bit. Dragonmon put his left arm out to keep his partner at bay.

"That's right we blasted him to dust."

Flamedramon laughed. "Piedmon was an overzealous fool, but his death showed my kings the threat you all pose. The great saviors have been gracious enough to allow me to warn you of your impending doom in any way I see fit. You should consider your selves lucky, it's not everyday fortune smiles upon you."

"Fortune? You coming here and burning the neighborhood is fortunate? You know, some people write letters and not destroy the neighborhood." Ace replied as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Consider this a warning shot. This is just the start, and you know you stand no chance. Surrender now and maybe your lives will be spared," Flamedramon taunted.

In the distance the sound of sirens from the fire department pierced the silence of the night. Ace didn't want to get caught here with his Digimon, but he couldn't just leave Flamedramon to cause some actual death and destruction.

"Dragonmon, they're coming."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear them," Dragonmon replied as his cannon tipped tail began to collect energy in preparation for one last strike. He whipped his tail to fire the blast at Flamedramon. The fire Digimon stood there with his arms outstretched, taking the full force of the blast.

"This will be your final victory. Glory to the saviors!" Flamedramon yelled as he faded into the golden light.

"Let's get out of here before we get caught," Ace suggested. Dragonmon nodded in agreement and lowered his neck for Ace to climb up. Once Ace was seated on Dragonmon, the Digimon took off into the night sky mere moments before the first fire engine arrived on the scene.

A few hours later, Ace stirred lightly in his bed. With all the commotion last night, he had forgotten to close his blinds, which allowed the sun to shine on his face. He whined loudly, and pulled the blanket up over his head to shield him from the light. Of course with his luck, now that he was awake, all he could focus on was the sunlight in his room. Somehow Ace was able to push Flamedramon's last words from his mind after he got home, but now it was all he could think about. So because he and Kaze had defended themselves from a crazed killer clown, their entire world was now a target? Not to mention the way that Digimon was speaking, it was almost as if he were in a cult, or brain washed. Ace sat up in his bed and looked over at the clock, then snatched his cell phone. He scrolled through his contact list, selected Kaze's cellphone and placed the call.

"Ace? Do you have any idea what time it is?" Kaze asked.

"Yeah, it's 9:25, you're usually up this early," Ace replied as he rose out of his bed and walked slowly around his room.

"Oh, I am, but I was more questioning you. You're not usually alive at this time. So, what's up? Why the sudden and random call?"

"Funny. Look, there was an incident last night…"

"What kind of incident?" Kaze interrupted.

Ace paused and glanced down at his D-Omega on his wrist. What other kind would he be calling him about? "A Digimon kind."

"Were you able to take care of it? Were you caught?"

Ace smirked slightly. There may have been a hint of doubt in Kaze's voice, but he knew Kaze was just being paranoid. "That's what I need to talk to you about. Can you get here today? Oh and bring your digivices."

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone before Kaze spoke up. "Yeah, I'll see you at noon."

"Ok see you later," Ace replied and then hung up the phone. He placed the cell down on his bed, tossed his shirt aside and headed into the bathroom to take a shower.

Ace stepped out of the shower, drying his hair and then himself. He wrapped a towel around himself and moved out of the bathroom just in time to hear a knock at his front door. With a groan Ace walked to the door.

"Coming," he opened the door part way and peered around the corner. "Oh hey Celeste, what's up?" he asked a bit surprised to see the girl here again so soon. The red-head smiled at him as Ace stepped back and opened the door.

"Oh my…" she giggled.

Ace glanced down and then back at her. "Uhm…I'll be right back," he yelped and took off running into his bedroom.

A minute later, Ace strolled out of his room and into the living room dressed in a white t-shirt with navy blue trim on the sleeves and collar and a pair of jeans with white and black sneakers on. Celeste looked up at him as he entered and just smirked at him.

"Sorry about that, I wasn't thinking. Anyway, what's up?" Ace asked as he took a seat on the couch near her.

"Well, I saw somethings on the news and wanted to check up on you and DemiTyrannomon. It all seemed like what happened a few years ago so..."

"So you wanted to see if we were ok?" DemiTyrannomon asked. "Well, of course we are! We kicked that psycho Digimon's butt from here to kingdom come. There's no stopping us!"

Ace shifted in his seat, leaning back against the cushion. They may have taken out Flamedramon rather easily, but his message and attitude just didn't sit well with him. He rubbed his hands together, and turned back to Celeste. "Still, maybe you should get out of town for a few days. I just got a bad feeling about this."

Celeste arched an eyebrow. "I thought you took care of it."

"We did, but I don't think it's the end of it."

Celeste frowned a bit, wrinkling her nose and rose to her feet. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair to get some knots out. "I'll think about it. I got some errands to run today, I'll see you around. Glad you two are ok, and thanks."

She walked across the room and out the door closing it behind her leave Ace sitting on the couch. "Well, Kaze will be here in a bit. What do you want to do while we wait?"

DemiTyrannomon shrugged and picked up an Xbox controller in his claws. He tossed one to his partner and turned the system on.

"You play that way too much Demi," Ace said with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, yeah. You're just upset I kick your ass in any game we play…except that guitar music game."

Ace laughed and pat the dinosaur Digimon on the head as DemiTyrannomon booted up some Xbox game. "Hey, do you know what Flamedramon was talking about? His so called savors that want to wage war on us?"

"No, it's been three years since I left the Digital world. When I came to find you, there was something going on in the western sectors and our village was under attack by Ogremon when that portal opened up and sucked him away. Our guardian, Dukemon, sent me after him with that D-Omega for you. He said you humans were the key or something like that. I wasn't really paying attention. But I have no idea what that flaming psycho was babbling on about. Now, quit tryin to distract me and meet your maker," DemiTyrannomon laughed and focused on the T.V.

"Interesting…" Ace trailed off as the game started. He knew the barrier between their worlds was weak, it had been three years ago, but he assumed with Piedmon's death that was the end of it. If what Flamedramon was saying was true, then everything they had done was only the tip of the iceberg, and he didn't want to know just how big it actually was.

Cain's was a local 50's themed diner just a few blocks from where Ace lived. It was a fairly plain looking establishment on the outside set on the ground floor of a high-rise, but they were well known for their burgers and as such was a very popular place. Booths lined the windows with a few tables against the wall. In the middle was an silver and red counter top with stools and even and old jukebox in the back corner. Ace sat at a table with his hands folded over on the table. Across from him sat another man. Kaze was of Japanese descent and in the past three years had cut his hair short so it reached the top of his ears on the side. Ace had to admit, he looked very professional even in a red t-shirt with a faded eagle on it and a pair of jeans.

"This isn't good Ace," Kaze said after he was fully caught up. He picked up his glass and took a sip of the iced tea.

"Yeah well, I figured that much out on my own. Do you know anything about this? Betamon and BlackAgumon seemed to always know more about the Digital World than DemiTyrannomon ever did," Ace replied taking his hand off the table and rubbed it against his forehead. "Have you been able to go back since Piedmon?"

Kaze shook his head. "No, we haven't been able to open a portal. It's like we're cut off."

"Apparently not, since Flamedramon was able to come here last night. I think we're in serious trouble man."

Kaze was about to respond when their waitress returned. "Okay, I got the bacon, ranch and bacon cheeseburger for you, and a buffalo chicken wrap for you. Can I get you boys anything else?"

Ace looked over at the girl, dressed in the white button down short-sleeve shirt, apron and knee length skirt. She had blond hair tied back into a bun that sat just behind her hat, blue eyes and a little freckle under her left eye.

"I think we're okay Lynn. Thanks," Kaze said with a smile

"Okay, let me know if you two need anything else ok?" she replied before walking away.

Ace tilted his head to the side and stared at Kaze with his wrap in his hands. "You're flirting with the waitress? Really?"

"What? It's just a little flirting, don't judge me. Listen, I think you're right. I'll stick around for a while. I have some vacation time anyway." Kaze replied and took a rather large bite out of his burger.

Ace shook his head and grinned. Well Kaze was coming out of his shell after all these years. That was good to see and really surprising. He looked over at Lynn as she leaned on the counter talking to another waitress. They both looked back at him and Kaze and then went back to talking. "Well, don't look now lover boy, but I think they're talking about you."

Kaze looked over at the counter and smirked. "I just play it cool right?" he asked, looking back at his buddy for confirmation.

"Yes Kaze. Keep eating your burger and stop looking over there," Ace instructed. Kaze nodded and the two kept eating in peace for a few minutes.

"So uhm, how are you doing anyway?" Kaze asked, breaking the silence.

"Fine, why?" Ace asked, arching an eyebrow at his friend.

"Well," Kaze started to say.

"If you're asking about Renee, don't. I just want to forget it and her," Ace interrupted. "Let's just enjoy our lunch, go flirt with the waitress and figure out what we're going to do about this."

"Okay. Whatever you want man," Kaze smiled and finished off his burger.

"Will that be all guys?" Lynn asked as she walked over. Kaze and Ace looked up at her, surprised she was there so quickly.

"No, just the check when you can…" Ace replied.

Lynn smiled and too the bill out, placing it in the middle of the table. She lingered there for an extra second facing Kaze and then walked away with the plates in her hands. Kaze reached for the check, studied it and smiled slightly.

"What? Why are you smiling?"

Kaze slipped the check across the table. Ace picked it up and looked it over. His eyes danced over the page, and landed on the hand written note. "Oh you sly dog, you got her number! Oh look, she gets off at four…" Ace teased. "Ok let's get going. And give her a call later. You don't want to disappoint the lady do ya Kaze?"

"Shut up Ace," Kaze laughed nervously and punched his friend in the arm once they both stood up from the table.

A silver BMW came to a stop just in front of Ace's apartment building. Kaze had gotten a new car which was great since Ace had lost his own to a Digimon attack yet again. It was really an unfortunate turn of events that led him to question if it was even a good idea to keep a car, since one-hundred percent of the vehicles Ace had owned met a nice fate at the hands of some murderous other worldly creature. Ace shrugged those thoughts out of his mind and pushed the car door open and stepped out onto the sidewalk. He glanced back to make sure Kaze was following him out of habit before he walked over to the front door to the apartment building and pulled it open. Kaze stepped in first and Ace followed closely, using his key to get into the lobby.

"So, are you going to call her?" Ace asked as they waited for the elevator.

Kaze shifted as he stood there and shrugged. "I dunno, I guess I could. You don't mind?"

Ace laughed and pat Kaze on the back. "No, why would I mind? Go, have fun. She was a hot lil number after all. It'd be a crime to not call her. Sir, it is your duty as a man to take that woman out for a night she'll never forget."

The elevator doors opened up and Kaze walked and stood against the back wall. "You know, you really know how to put pressure on me. I mean, I dunno if I can set up something that would impress her."

"Pfft," Ace scoffed as he pushed the button for the seventh floor. "Just turn on that old Tenchi charm you're infamous for!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Just go with it Kaze. Relax, loosen up. She's obviously into you and there's no pressure. It's just a first date thing."

"But you said…"

"Forget what I said. Don't be such a baby. Just go and be yourself sheesh! But I'd suggest you shower first, you kinda stink."

"You confuse and scare me," Kaze sighed and stepped out of the elevator.

Ace smiled proudly and strolled past his friend and towards his apartment. The door swung open and Ace stepped in. As he figured, DemiTyrannomon was sitting by the T.V. with an X-Box controller in his hands. BlackAgumon and Betamon, Kaze's Digimon sat next to Demi and watched him go through a level in Left 4 Dead. Ace just shook his head and decided not to disturb them. How his Digimon became so good at video games was beyond him, especially with only three claws on each had. He had no idea how DemiTyrannomon even managed to hold the controller, let alone dominate.

"They'll do that for hours if we let them," Ace explained to Kaze. "Why don't you go call Lynn? I'm going to go wash up. Let me know what the news is." Ace walked away from Kaze and to his bedroom. He reached for the knob and turned to make sure the call was being made. Ace nodded in approval as Kaze paced in the kitchen with the phone to his ear. Satisfied, Ace opened his bedroom door and stepped inside.

"Wh-What are you doing here?" he asked, practically tripping over his own two feet. Before him sat Renee. Her brown hair with blond highlights hung over the shoulders of her olive corduroy jacket as her hands rested on her navy jeans. Her hazel eyes lit up at the sight of him.

"Sorry, Demi let me in. He said you'd freak if you saw me in the living room so I came in here."

Ace stood there dumbfounded. In the last two months he had done his best to get over this girl. She ripped his heart out, stepped on it and set it on fire. He was emotionally drained and it took a month for him to even muster the strength to shave or even care about his appearance or wellbeing. There was even one night he considered taking the cowards way out with a bottle of sleeping pills and a bottle of rum… but that was so long ago it seemed. He was finally almost over her, and here she was for the second day in a row trying to talk to him, and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, he didn't know what to do. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out, so he nodded and kept his eyes locked on her.

"Anyway, I've been worried about you. No one has seen you and from what Demi told me, you haven't been okay.

"Well, how was I supposta be Renee?" Ace asked as he regained some of his composure. "You left me in the middle of dinner, throwing three years away without so much as an explanation."

"I don't know. Like I said, I was worried about you. I don't know why I did it, I still care about you though…" Renee replied as she shrank down on the bed.

"What do you want me to say Renee? I forgive you? I understand? Well I don't, I can't…I loved…no, I love you, and always have," he replied as he paced around the bedroom. His heart was pounding in his chest, and Ace could swear if he didn't put his hand over it, it was going to burst through his ribcage. He staggered to his dresser and pulled open the top drawer "Why do you think we were out at that restaurant? I'll tell you why… I had this in my pocket!" he yelled tossing a small velvet box at her.

She caught it and opened it. Her mouth dropped open as she stared back at Ace. "You were going to propose?" Renee asked, almost dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I was," Ace said softly. He walked slowly over to Renee and plopped down on the bed next to her. "I'm sorry, that was too much. I…" he shook his head and rubbed his hand against his eyes.

"Shut up…" Renee whispered, taking Ace's face in her hands and pulled him into a kiss. Renee pulled him down onto the bed, continuing to kiss him as she wrapped her arms around him to keep him close. Ace could feel tears streaming down her face as they made out. He pulled away slowly, keeping his eyes closed. They two rested their foreheads on one another and panted quietly. Ace reached to her face and gently wiped a tear off her cheek.

"What was that?"

"I…I know I messed up. I'm so sorry Ace." Renee sniffled and hugged him tightly.

Ace didn't know what to do other than to put his arms around her and hold her. Renee started to cry on his shoulder and he could feel her shudder every few minutes. He wasn't sure what this meant right now, where they stood but he knew this was what he wanted.. It didn't seem appropriate to say anything, and to be honest, Ace didn't want to ruin the moment. He closed his eyes, resting his chin against her shoulder and rubbed her back slowly, whispering in her ear for her to relax.

"Ace," Renee managed to say in between sniffles. She pulled back and looked at him with her tear stained face. "Can you ever forgive me?"

Ace nodded slowly. "What does this all mean though?"

"I want you back Ace, I've missed you so much and everything reminds me of you," she said as she regained her composure. Renee wiped her sleeve against her eyes to get rid of a few remaining tears. "I was wrong."

Ace grabbed Renee's hand. He had dreamt of this moment, fantasized about it since she crushed him, and now that it was happening, he couldn't decide what he should do. He was in love with her, but she had crushed him once, who's to say she wouldn't do that again? His thumb rubbed against the back of her hand slowly. "I missed you too, and I want you back more than anything, but how do I know you won't just break my heart again?"

Renee bit her lower lip and squeezed Ace's hand. "I won't. I promise you with everything I have, I'll never hurt you again Ace. Please, give me a chance."

"Yeah give her a chance. It's what you wanted all this time!" DemiTyrannomon chimed in.

Ace and Renee both turned their heads to the bedroom door. DemiTyrannomon was standing there waving innocently as BlackAgumon, Betamon and even Kaze all peered into the room. Renee blushed and moved behind Ace, trying to hide from the peering eyes.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ace exclaimed.

"Well, you never closed the door and when the yelling stopped we got worried so we came to see. Really dude, you should close your door if you're going to make out with a chick," DemiTyrannomon lectured with his arms crossed over his chest.

"An open door isn't an invitation to come spy on me. Kaze, don't you have a date to go on or something? Why are you still here?"

Kaze shrugged and adjusted his glasses. "Well, I thought I'd see if you two would like to come. You know I'm not that good at first dates."

"I guess. What do you say Renee, want to go on a date with me?" Ace asked feeling a bit silly for even asking. He was pretty sure he knew the answer before the words even left his mouth.

The sun had set hours ago and the city was bathed in the orange glow from the numerous street lights. Downtown by the waterfront the glow was less intense, save for the lights of various restaurants at the pier. Ace, Renee, Kaze and Lynn strolled through one of the various shops outside on the pier. In front of them stood the Franklin Bridge, an old suspension bridge built out of granite and cables. It was one of Loudon's great landmarks dating back to the turn of the last century and connected Loudon's waterfront to the rest of the city. This area was once a fishing and trading sector, but when overland shipping became big, the harbor died and many of the buildings fell into disrepair until some politician had the idea to turn this area into a cultural center. The warehouses were turned into shops, restaurants, clubs and museums and the whole area was made to attract tourists and locals. There were even old ships strung up with lights at various piers.

They had finished dinner and a few drinks half an hour ago and were now killing time. Kaze and Lynn seemed to be getting along well, despite her original hesitation. She was not too happy to see Ace and Renee show up along with Kaze, but Ace and Renee kept to themselves and allowed the two to get to know one another. Ace and Renee were dressed in the same clothes as earlier, but Kaze and Lynn had dressed up for the occasion. Kaze had a sporting black short sleeve button down tucked into a nice pair of jeans. Lynn had let her hair down and wore a red blouse top, and skinny jeans, a vast improvement over her work attire. Ace couldn't help notice the fact that this girl was rather well endowed, and Kaze seemed very interested by that little fact.

"They seem to be getting along pretty well," Renee noticed as they walked along the sea wall. She had her arm around Ace's waist and he had his arm around her shoulder.

Ace stopped and turned Renee so they both stared out into the moon-lit darkness that covered the water. There was nothing but miles of ocean before them and with the city lights at their back, they could enjoy the natural beauty.

"Yeah. Did you see the look she gave us when we walked in? You know, I never figured Kaze would be doing as well as he is. I mean, he was worried about this and look at him!" Ace motioned towards the other couple. Kaze and Lynn were also standing against the sea wall a few feet away, and were talking up a storm. "Come on."

Ace walked over to Kaze and Lynn and smiled. "So Lynn, are you having fun?" he asked and gave Kaze a nod.

"Yeah, Kaze is really sweet and you and your girlfriend are great company," Lynn replied with a large smile. She moved closer to Kaze and put her arm around his waist. "My horoscope told me I'd be surprised today, but I never figured it would be because I'd meet such an awesome guy."

Kaze smiled and looked down at Lynn. "Well, how about we head over to the beer garden and get some drinks?"

"Sounds great," Lynn smiled and kissed Kaze on the cheek. "You two are coming right?" she asked, looking back at Ace and Renee.

"Yeah of course," Renee replied.

Lynn smiled again and took hold of Kaze's hand, and pulled him towards the beer garden, which sat under the Franklin Bridge. Ace and Renee followed after for a few paces, and then stopped as Ace's D-Omega started to beep. Kaze looked back, and stopped Lynn in her tracks. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his two digivices, which were also going wild.

"What's that? Did you guys set an alarm for something? You guys got something else going on?" Lynn asked with her hands on her hips.

"Shit, it's big." Ace called out to Kaze as a holographic map projected out from his D-Omega. "We have to move, now!" he yelled just as the ground shook violently. Everyone turned to look at the bridge. A swirling black and neon green portal appeared and expanded the full height of the first tower. Lumbering out of the portal appeared a metallic monstrosity. The silver mechanical dragon stood as tall as the inside arches of the towers on the bridge with skulls on his knee caps, two large cannons on his back, a short stubby tail and two claws for arms.

"That's Machinedramon!" Kaze yelled, stepping back from the sight of the Digimon. Lynn screamed in horror and clung to Kaze for protection.

"What do we do now?" Ace asked, looking around frantically.

"So, this is the human world." Machinedramon spoke in a deep, ominous, robotic voice. His eyes lit up red as the cannons collected energy in front of them. "Infinity Cannon!" Machinedramon roared, sending the twin blasts of energy into the heart of the city, creating a massive explosion. The ground shook, knocking Ace down to the ground.

"I don't know but we have to stop him somehow. Could we try sending him back to the digital world?" Kaze asked as he helped Ace back to his feet.

Ace shook his head. "No, he'll just come back again. I bet you he was sent here, so sending him back won't stop the threat. God, I wish DemiTyrannomon was here…We need to get out of here before he notices us."

Ace took off running towards the bridge. Machinedramon couldn't see what was beneath him and if they could get close enough, they might have a chance to make it back to the apartment and get their partners. The T.V. outside the beer garden were showing the events unfolding above them.

"Guys, look," Lynn said. Everyone stopped and looked at the before them.

Machinedramon roared again and turned around towards the waterfront. The city behind Machinedramon was covered in flames for blocks backing the metallic Digimon in a hellish scene. Flames danced high into the sky, and the sound of sirens echoed all around him. Whatever news company was broadcasting this was putting their crew in harm's way. On the bridge, numerous police cars and SWAT vehicles blockaded the Digimon's path. Cops poured out of their vehicles armed to the teeth with whatever they could carry.

"Shit, what is that thing?" once of the police yelled in horror. "Fire! Fire!" The sirens were drowned out by the sounds of gunfire, small arms, automatics and shot guns, all which seemed to have no effect on Machinedramon. Bullets harmlessly bounced off him drawing the digimon's attention. He roared and took a step forward, cracking the pavement on the bridge and exploding one of squad cars underfoot. The cops scattered, running for their lives as Machinedramon raised his right arm, opening a small hole in the middle of it before slamming it down against the bridge. Flames flew out, engulfing whatever was close to by. The screams of the poor unfortunate souls who couldn't escape the flames filled the area. The TV signal changed to an aerial shot as Renee cringed and buried her head into Ace's chest.

Machinedramon roared out again. The bridge shook beneath him as he lumbered off of it and stopped at the base of the roadway. He looked up at the news chopper capturing him and turned his body to face it. The cannons started to glow with golden energy and then released the energy at the chopper. Camera caught the final seconds as the blasts impacted on it and the screen suddenly went black. Debris from the helicopter rained down around the bridge splashing into the water.

"We're screwed, there's nothing we can do here," Kaze said, pacing back and forth. Lynn collapsed to the ground, hugging her knees into her chest while Renee just continued to hide from the world in Ace's chest.

"I wouldn't say that," a voice called out to them. Celeste climbed up and over the railing separating the path and the rocky shore. She smiled proudly and looked at Ace. "You're giving up that easily? Well I'm here to help, isn't that right?"

"Let's send this tin can back where he came from!" DemiTyrannomon cheered as he hopped over the rail.

"Yeah! He can't keep this up. This is our world to protect," Betamon said, as BlackAgumon tossed him over the rail and onto the pavement.

"What they said." BlackAgumon muttered, clearly not as spunky as his companions.

"Celeste, how?" Ace asked. He gently disengaged Renee from himself and rubbed DemiTyrannomon on the head.

"I'll explain later. Go save the city will ya?" She replied with a grin. Celeste put her hands on her hips and nodded to Ace as he and Kaze ran off to face Machinedramon. She looked at Renee and tilted her head to the side. "Let me guess, you must be Renee. I've heard so much about you."

"Well this is awkward, I never heard of you. And you are?" Renee sneered.

"Celeste, Ace's neighbor. Relax yourself honey, I don't want him."

"Could someone please tell me what's going on?" Lynn asked, looking up at the two girls.

Ace led the charge at Machinedramon. He slid over the hood of a parked car and kept running, closing the gap between him and the lumbering behemoth. Now the tables were turned, and this monstrosity was about to meet its end before it could cause anymore destruction.

"Hey ugly!" Ace yelled.

Machinedramon turned slowly, noticing Ace, Kaze and their Digimon partners. "Primary target located," he growled and adjusted his body to fully face his challengers.

"You're about to be scrap metal!" Ace yelled again.

"That's right. You're assault is over. Ready Ace?" Kaze asked.

"Let's do this."

"Bio-Merge Activate!" They both yelled in unison.

Nothing happened. Ace looked at Kaze, then back at DemiTyrannomon. "Why isn't it working? Shit what do we do now?"

"Something, he's about to attack!" Kaze replied in a panicked tone.

Ace looked down at his D-Omega, and then back at his partner. "DemiTyrannomon, Super Evolve!"

DemiTyrannomon was bathed in a cocoon of light which flashed the form of Dragonmon quickly before growing in size again and shattered revealing a new creature. A bipedal dragon stood where DemiTyrannomon once stood. The Digimon's body was covered in black armor with silver, white and red highlights covering his head, chest and knees. The left arm was replaced with a cannon while wings on his back folded out in sections, keeping a mechanical appearance to them all.

"PanzerDragonmon!" The Digimon announced. He stood half the height of Machinedramon and just as imposing.

Joining him were two other Digimon, MegaSeadramon, a large red and white underbelly sea serpent Digimon similar in appearance to Seadramon with a harder exoskeleton covering its head and a lightning-shaped blade protruding from the forehead, and MetalGreymon, a larger version of the blue Greymon with a large cybernetic helm and left arm, missile ports covering his chest and a pair of blue wings from his back.

"Giga Destroyer!" MetalGreymon called out and fired two large black missiles from his chest.

"Thunder Javelin!" MegaSeadramon snarled and discharged a blast of electricity from the horn on his head.

"Dragon Destroyer!" PanzerDragonmon leveled his cannon arm at Machinedramon's head and fired a concentrated blast. The three attacks hit their mark and exploded on the mechanical Digimon, covering him in a veil of smoke.

"Did we get him?" Kaze asked.

"Is it ever that easy?" Ace retorted.

"Infinity Cannon," Machinedramon bellowed, and blasted MetalGreymon. The cyborg Digimon roared in pain as the blast sent him careening through one of the buildings across the street.

"Infinity Cannon," Machinedramon bellowed again, and targeted MegaSeadramon and PanzerDragonmon in one shot. The two Perfect level Digimon didn't have any better luck and crashed onto the street fifty feet from where they were. Machinedramon didn't stop firing though, the cannons kept blasting in various directions causing explosions all over the city.

"This can't be happening!" Ace dropped to his knees and punched the cracked street. "How can we be so outmatched? Why can't we Bio-Merge?"

"I don't know, but you have to get up Ace. PanzerDragonmon needs you. It's not over yet. We can take him, we just have to be less direct." Kaze grabbed Ace's arm and pulled him up. "Come on, we have to keep fighting. You don't want Renee to die do you? We're the only hope this city has. If we lose now, we're done."

"Our attacks aren't even damaging him though."

"Look, he's huge. I bet you he can't move that quickly," Kaze explained.

"Yeah so? How does that help us? He can take anything we can throw at him and send it back one hundred times stronger."

"Not if we knock him over," Kaze grinned. "PanzerDragonmon, MegaSeadramon, MetalGreymon, are you all ok?"

"Yeah, I've felt worse…" PanzerDragonmon groaned and pushed MegaSeadramon off of him.

"I'm good Kaze, it'll take more than that to stop me," MegaSeadramon replied.

"Yeah, you got a plan Kaze?" MetalGreymon asked as he staggered out from the rubble.

"I do. PanzerDragonmon, do you think you can knock him over?" Kaze asked as he looked at Machinedramon.

"I'll give it a shot. Okay, let's try this again you recycled piece of garbage," PanzerDragonmon spread his mechanical wings as two rocket engines appeared underneath each wing. He blasted off and climbed high into the sky. Once he was at a good elevation, PanzerDragonmon turned and dove for Machinedramon. "Panzer Blitz!" he yelled as the sound barrier exploded around him. "Aaaaah!" PanzerDragonmon yelled as he slammed into Machinedramon hard, sending shockwaves out in all directions. The cannon fired a blast of energy at point blank range into Machinedramon's stomach, sending PanzerDragonmon back to where MetalGreymon stood. The force of the attack, combined with the impact of the hit knocked the mechanical dragon off his feet onto his side.

"Now!" Kaze commanded MetalGreymon and MegaSeadramon.

"Thunder Javelin!"

"Giga Destroyer"

"Dragon Destroyer!" The three attacks combined into one. The missiles became encased in the energy as the electricity circled around both. The attack impacted and exploded on Machinedramon.

The flames died down, revealing Machinedramon standing again. He laughed in a taunting manner. "I didn't even feel that. My turn. "Booster Claw!" Machinedramon's right hand started to spin like a drill as boosted across the street. He brought the claw down on PanzerDragonmon and held it there. The armored dragon roared in pain before he reverted to his DemiTyrannomon form. "You're not even worth my time," he mocked. "As for you two, Infinity Cannon!" Machinedramon quickly blasted both MetalGreymon and MegaSeadramon. The two Digimon reverted to BlackAgumon and Betamon and collapsed on the ground. "Now, you humans are next."

Ace gulped and closed his eyes. "Well, it's been one hell of a run huh buddy?"

"Don't talk like that…" Kaze grumbled.

Machinedramon seemed to grin and took a step towards them. "Let's not rush this. Your deaths were inevitable. I want to enjoy killing you both."

"S-stop!" Betamon cried. The aquatic Digimon pushed himself up slowly and winced in pain. "I won't let you hurt them."

"And what can you do to stop me runt? If you want to be so noble, I'll make sure to end your existence now."

"Betamon, what are you doing? You can't win against him," Kaze cried, trying to change his partner's mind.

"Kaze, it's been great being your partner. I can't let him hurt you… I will defend you!" Betamon closed his eyes as a bright light surrounded him. His digivice began to glow aqua blue in Kaze's hand as Betamon was encased.

"Betamon, warp-evolve!" The cocoon flashed images of Seadramon and MegaSeadramon before it exploded and revealed a new Digimon. It was much larger than MegaSeadramon, and was completely covered in a metallic armor. The tail of the Digimon was split into two smaller tails at the tip and the head had a cannon like hole on the nose with a large blade sticking up on the top of the Digimon's head.

"MetalSeadramon!" the Digimon announced. "Kaze, Ace, get your partners and get to safety. Leave this guy to me."

"You think you're a match for me sea snake? Now you're finished." Machinedramon taunted.

"Be careful MetalSeadramon," Kaze said with BlackAgumon in his arms. He and Ace raced away from the battlefield back towards the safety under the bridge.

MetalSeadramon nodded. "Forgive me Kaze, I'm sorry." MetalSeadramon wrapped his body around Machinedramon's and held the mechanical Digimon tightly.

"What do you think you're doing MetalSeadramon? Is this your best shot? I'll send you back to the hole you crawled out of!" Machinedramon's eyes lit up red once again and energy started to collect in front of his cannons.

Kaze paused in his tracks and turned back to see the battle unfold. His eyes widened in horror as he realized what his partner was about to do. Kaze dropped BlackAgumon and started back towards the battle.

"Betamon! Don't do this!" he yelled as Ace tackled him to the sidewalk. "Ugh get off of me!" Kaze grunted and tried to roll over to get Ace off of him.

"Kaze, you'll die if you go there. We have to go, Betamon knows what he's doing…if you get closer than his sacrifice will be for nothing!" Ace stood up, grabbed Kaze and pulled him away.

"This ends now! For Ace, for Kaze and for the human race. You will not win! ULTIMATE STREAM!" MetalSeadramon screamed, collecting energy into his nose cannon and firing it just as Machinedramon unleashed his own attack. The two attacks collided at point blank range and exploded, taking out the block.

"Betamon!" Kaze cried, dropping to his knees. "No!"

The dust from the explosion settled, and to Kaze's despair there was nothing left, no sign of either Digimon. Kaze looked at Betamon's digivice as it cracked down the middle, then shattered into a million little pieces right in his hand. "Betamon…"

"Kaze, we have to go. It's not safe here." Ace encouraged, as he tried to pull his friend up. Ace grunted as the digital portal opened up once again.

"Kaze, please!" Renee pleaded from Kaze's other side. "Think about Betamon."

"Guys, whatever you're going to do, do it quick please," Celeste called out.

"Help me Renee," Ace grunted as he put Kaze's arm over his shoulder. Renee did the same and the two of them managed to drag Kaze up.

"Now what do we do?" Lynn asked, frantically looking around. Digimon started to stream out of the portal. There were flying Digimon, walking Digimon…it looked like an invading army.

"We get out of here. We're ready." Celeste looked up at the night sky. A flash of light appeared, like a shooting star. From the night sky a cloaked figure slowly descended. The creature stood around ten feet tall with two bat like wings, two horns on the side of his head and wore a red robe with a pentagram on the hood that covered his head, except for his two red eyes.

"Greetings chosen humans. I am Daemon, and I am here to save you. I'll explain all once we leave this place. It is not safe here and I cannot protect you from all of these creatures."

"Uh, you don't look very good, you have a demonic symbol on you." Lynn said. "How do we know we can trust you and you won't be like that mechanical thingy and kill us?"

"My dear, if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have brought Celeste and the Digimon here. Now, time is of the essence and my companions are waiting for you."

Ace studied Daemon, looking him over. It was either leave with the creepy demonic like guy, or face an infinite wave of Digimon. "Well Kaze, what do you say? Do we trust this guy?"

"Whatever…"

"Okay, let's go," Ace said, leading Kaze and Renee to Daemon. He took hold of the Digimon's cloak and watched as Celeste and Lynn did the same. The demonic Digimon nodded and in an instant, teleported the six of them away.

An instant later they were someplace very dark. The sirens could still be heard, but they were much fainter, almost miles away. Ace could make out the outlines of boxes, and crates so they were probably in a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. A soft glow emitted from Daemon's hand to light the area where they all stood.

"We're a few miles outside the city, so we should be safe for a while," Daemon explained.

"So now what do we do? I don't know if you saw but an army was pouring out of that Digital Gate," Ace asked and stepped back from Daemon. He couldn't figure a way out of this, or a way to win. DemiTyrannomon and BlackAgumon were down for the count and Betamon was gone. Kaze was in no condition to battle, and the girls couldn't even help. They were outmatched on almost every level possible.

"We organize a counter-attack of course," another voice spoke from behind the group. The Digimon stepped into the light and stood around sixteen feet tall. He was a blue dragon-knight like Digimon with a golden V on his chest and two large wings on either side. He held his hand out and waved at the group of humans before him. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am UlforceVeedramon, ranking member of the Royal Knights. We are the sworn protectors of the Digital world and beings of justice. It's an honor to meet you all."

"Or what's left of us anyway…" another Digimon muttered and stepped into the light. He was shorter than UlforceVeedramon and stood around ten feet tall with brown and white armor, a leopard like helmet and two eagle wings which came out from his shoulders.

"Duftmon, don't be so snappy," UlforceVeedramon scolded. "Forgive him, he's a younger member of our group and does not know how to present himself. Unfortunately what he says is true, we are the last of our kind, just like Daemon is the last Demon Lord."

"Demon Lord?" Renee asked backing away from Daemon. "How can we trust a demon?"

"Because my child, I am not allied with those mindless drones out there. My kind was slaughtered just like the Royal Knights were. As such we have entered a formal alliance. I swear no harm shall befall you under our protection. You are the last hope after all."

"You might want to rethink that. I don't know if you saw, but we got our asses kicked out there. Betamon died because I wasn't strong enough to save him," Kaze snapped.

"So? There were eleven of us before this all started. You lost one of your numbers, we lost nine. Suck it up!" Duftmon snarled. "Why are we wasting our time with these creatures anyway? You heard it from one of their lips. They can't do this. Let me fight Ulforce, I will restore honor to our ranks. The Royal Knights shall not go quietly into the night!"

"Duftmon! Silence!" UlforceVeedramon said and moved towards Duftmon. "You will not question my authority or the decisions put forth three years ago by the order. Omegamon and Dukemon had a plan, and we're here to see it through. Now, Renee, Celeste and Lynn, please step forward."

"How does he know our names?" Lynn asked.

"I don't know, I don't think we're really in a place to question that right now," Renee replied and did as she was asked.

"Well, this is an interesting turn of events," Celeste smirked and stepped forth.

Lynn gulped and followed suit. UlforceVeedramon closed his eyes and crossed his arms in a X in front of his chest. The two bracelets on his wrists emitted a soft golden light and released three beams of light, one for each girl.

"Whoa, a D-Omega?" Renee asked in surprise as a green digivice with white accents formed on her left wrist.

"How is this even possible? Light doesn't turn solid. What is going on? Ugh, I should never have listened to that stupid fortune cookie," Lynn grumbled and looked down at her white digivice with pink accents.

"Wow, this must be my lucky day," Celeste grinned and held up her right arm to study the blue digivice with red accents.

"Allow me to introduce you to your Digimon partners," Daemon said and threw a ball of fire at the warehouse floor. The flames flared and then vanished to reveal three new figures.

"Renee, I'm Coltmon!" The first one announced and stepped forward. Coltmon resembled a brown baby horse around four feet tall with white on his nose and on his front two legs and right rear leg. On his face was a blue halter and had leather leg guards and a breast plate.

"Celeste, please call me Ryudamon," a beige dragon Digimon standing around three feet tall said. He had two short arms, and wore black Japanese inspired armor with purple spines that covered his back, tail, head and forearms.

The last Digimon to step forward looked more like a small child in an large kendo sparring uniform. He carried a large kendo stick in his hands which were inside sleeves that were clearly too long for him. He had a pair of golden eyes and bowed before Lynn. "I am Kotemon, pleasure to meet you miss Lynn."

"Wait, they're all getting Digimon? Is that a good idea?" Ace stepped forward and looked up at UlforceVeedramon. "With all due respect, Kaze and I have been with our partners for years and have fought together most of the time and we couldn't even defeat one Machinedramon. They don't have time to practice, to get to know one another as well as I know Demi, or Kaze knows… either way, I don't want them to get hurt just because you suddenly decided to give pair them up with Digimon."

"I admire your concern Ace Chambers. That is a quality any leader should have. I have the utmost confidence in their abilities though, you can't win without them." UlforceVeedramon replied.

Ace looked back at Renee. She was petting Coltmon and talking to her new partner, probably trying to find out everything she could about him. Celeste and Lynn were doing the same. They seemed to get along better than he and DemiTyrannomon did at first, none of those Digimon were kicking the humans.

"Duftmon, could you please tend to DemiTyrannomon and BlackAgumon? The rest of you please come, gather around. There is much you need to know." Daemon held his arms out and waved for everyone to come and sit.

Kaze dragged his feet and sat down next to Ace. "This had better be worth it, I've lost so much already."

"Kaze and his sister Mizu were the first humans we were able to contact many years ago," UlforceVeedramon said as he looked down at Kaze. "His partner, Betamon and Mizu's BlackAgumon were the first Digimon to bond successfully with a human. Because of their bond, they were able to evolve into stronger more powerful forms, as you're all aware of. Unfortunately, Mizu's life was cut short thanks to a rogue Digimon, Gesomon and Kaze became the sole partner for two Digimon. As time went on, a war broke out in the west. A mysterious cult, known as Apocalyptica was born and started to take over vast quantities of the digital world. At the same time the barrier between our worlds was suddenly weakened by an unknown force and BlackAgumon and Betamon were sent to retrieve Kaze. It was during that time we Royal Knights decided to enlist more aid. DemiTyrannomon, one of Dukemon's greatest students was selected and became partners with Ace."

Duftmon shifted uncomfortably as he listened to UlforceVeedramon talk. DemiTyrannomon and BlackAgumon slowly sat up and looked around the room, but once they noticed UlforceVeedramon they simply sat there.

"After that, things started to take a turn for the worse. Apocalyptica gained more ground and the three angels, Seraphimon, Ophanimon and Cherubimon were killed and the cause for the cult was revealed. They sought to revive the ancient evil, Arkadimon. Realizing this, an alliance was formed between the Royal Knights, Demon Lords and the four Guardians to destroy Arkadimon before he could become too powerful. It was at that time that Piedmon was destroyed over here in this world. It became apparent that the two of you," UlforceVeedramon motioned to Ace and Kaze, "would not be enough on your own. We set forth seeking other potential human partners but we were too late. A new enemy appeared out of nowhere, Millenniumon and with his powers added, we were on the defensive. We held them to a stalemate for over a year but during one battle, we lost half of our numbers. Arkadimon gained more power and his forces consumed more of the world. They hunted us down one by one and slaughtered us, bringing us to the brink…"

"So we hid for, found these three and waited for them to make their move," Duftmon spoke up. He stepped past UlforceVeedramon and looked down at the humans. "When Flamedramon was sent in, we followed him to remain undetected and here we are now."

Ace felt Renee place her head on his shoulder. He turned to looked at her and smiled as her hazel eyes met his own. "You ok?"

"Yeah, it's just, this is a lot to take in all at once. I can't believe I have a digivice like you. I don't know if I am strong enough."

"Are you kidding? You stood up to Piedmon! You saved me in the restaurant and didn't even question what was going on. If anything, I want to be as strong as you."

Renee giggled and shook her head. "Listen Ace, if we don't get out of this…"

Ace placed his finger on her lips. "None of that. We will be fine. I've got you back in my life and I'll be damned if I am going to let some evil Digimon hell bent on ruling the world stop that. I've got you and Kaze, and Celeste and Lynn now."

Kaze rolled his eyes and walked away from Ace and Renee. Daemon looked over at the human and followed after.

"Kaze, you need to be strong. You lost Betamon and your sister, but you still have BlackAgumon, and your friends. It may be difficult, but you have incredible resolve," Daemon said.

Kaze looked up at the demonic Digimon. "BlackAgumon was Mizu's partner. But he's been with me for so long, always by my side…I owe it to him don't I?"

"You do," Daemon replied and held his hand over Kaze's digivice. It changed shape and morphed into a blue D-Omega with white accents on it. "I can only offer you this bit of advice Kaze, don't forget you're never alone in this world. You have a group, use them, trust in them…we didn't and we paid the price."

Kaze nodded and looked back at the others. Ace was staring at him and when they made eye contact, he gave Kaze a thumbs up.

"I suggest you all rest for the night. DemiTyrannomon and BlackAgumon may be awake now but they are still tired from their earlier battle. It may be hard, but you can't do much good if you're all exhausted and wit you gone, your world will be doomed," UlforceVeedramon said, attracting everyone's attention.

"He's got a good point. Let's try and get some sleep, even it's only for a few hours," Ace added.

"Sounds good to me! Once I get my energy back I'll be able to take anything that's thrown at me. I'll be all like Hi-yah! And they'll be all like 'nooooo' and die, cause I'm that awesome!" DemiTyrannomon hopped across the floor doing some fake karate moves.

"Is he always like that?" Coltmon asked, looking over at Kotemon and Ryudamon.

"How should I know, I've never seen him before," Ryudamon replied.

"I think I shall spar with him. He seems to know the art of karate," Kotemon muttered and stepped forth to challenge DemiTyrannomon.

"Yes, he's always like that," BlackAgumon answered as he walked up to the other child level Digimon. "He's full of energy, but he means well," he added as a loud thwack echoed around the warehouse from the kendo stick whacking DemiTyrannomon on the head.

"I may have been mistaken," Kotemon said as he walked back to the others. "I fear I might have broken him though."

"I doubt we're that lucky," BlackAgumon said with a sigh.

Ace sat down on a cot and sighed. Duftmon had located five cots for them to sleep on in one of the crates stored in the warehouse. At least they didn't have to sleep on the floor tonight, not that he was sure he could sleep. The other four cots were arranged in a circle, with Renee's being connected to Ace's and surprisingly enough, Lynn's was to Kaze's.

"I gotta say, you two are taking this all really well," Ace admitted as Renee sat down next to him.

Celeste grinned back at Ace. "Well, what can I say? Ever since I saw you and Kaze on the news three years ago, I wanted to be just like you guys, only more of a hero and less of a potential tabloid story. Don't get me wrong, I think you and Kaze are great heroes, and I hope to be just as great…"

"I don't know why I was chosen, but this all just feels right to me. I can't explain it really, but there was just something about Kaze when I saw him at the diner, and even seeing that thing, Machinedramon, I admit I was scared but something told me I shouldn't be. I don't know, it's hard to explain. "

"Well, do you think you can fight and take a life?" Kaze asked, looking at Lynn first, then Celeste and finally Renee.

"This isn't some fantasy, those Digimon are as much alive as you or me, and they feel pain. Do you think you have it in you to order the finishing blow when it comes down to it?" Ace added.

"They're not going to hold back," Renee said she brushed some of her hair behind her ear. "so why should we?"

"She's right. They're pure evil. It won't be that hard," Celeste replied and laid back on her cot.

Lynn nodded in agreement and also laid down. "Let's get some sleep."

Renee tugged on Ace's arm to pull him down as well but he didn't move. Ace leaned down and kissed the girl on the forehead. "I have to ask UlforceVeedramon something. Get some sleep, I'll be right back," he whispered and stood up. The small fires that Daemon had unleashed emitted just enough light to see what was around them but not enough to advertise their location to the outside world. Ace walked out of the cot circle and over to where the three Ultimate level Digimon were. He paused for a moment and collected his thoughts. They explained a lot earlier but there still were some questions in his mind that he'd rather have answered.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if you knew why Kaze and I couldn't Bio-Merge during the battle with Machinedramon?"

UlforceVeedramon looked up at Ace and seemed to smile back at the human. "Yes, it's because of us. You see, DemiTyrannomon was chosen by Dukemon, and Betamon and BlackAgumon were chosen by Dynsasmon and Examon respectively. You gained your power of evolution from them and while you were able to access it with the death of Kaze's sister, that power was lost in the last three years. I don't know if you will ever be able to bio-merge again."

Ace shook his head. "How do you expect us to do anything if our Digimon can't evolve past the Perfect level?"

"Have you considered that you humans hold a special power? You can facilitate evolution in Digimon, or have you not noticed that?" Daemon asked.

"Yes, you and your partners are capable of great things. We are here to protect you and to fight alongside you," UlforceVeedramon affirmed. He rose to his feet and nodded down at Ace. "You'll be needing your rest for the coming day. I'm sorry the answer you got was not the one you wanted, but don't lose faith. Tomorrow is a new day."

Ace starred up at he the towering figure. His confidence was shaken, but the way these Digimon had fought and died for their cause inspired him and relaxed him. "Ok, see you in the morning," he replied and went back to the cots. Ace quietly climbed into the bed next to Renee and closed his eyes.

After a few hours, Ace stirred from his sleep. A faint thump in the distance had penetrated his dreams, and the fact that the his cot moved with each thud was enough to bring him slowly back to consciousness. He rubbed his eyes and opened them, letting his sight adjust to the darkness. The flames that Daemon had set were no longer lit and everything before him was an endless sea of black.

"Renee, you awake?" Ace whispered as he placed his light hand on the girl's shoulder. The only response he got was a small whimper. Ace stood up and took a step forward. Something wasn't right here. He didn't hear UlforceVeedramon, Daemon or Duftmon, and the shaking was getting worse.

"You sense it too, don't you?" Coltmon asked out of the darkness.

Ace jumped back in shock, not sure where the voice came from and flailed wildly trying to attack who ever had scared him. "Who's there?" he yelped, and tripped over a sleeping DemiTyrannomon. He landed hard on his butt on the cold concrete floor. "Ugh…pain."

"Sorry, it's Coltmon. I couldn't sleep, there's something wrong out there."

"Like my head. Watch where you're going Ace!" DemiTyrannomon growled. "Why is it so dark here?"

"I don't know," Are replied and slowly stood up again. He held his arms out in front of him and felt through the darkness until he felt something warm and fuzzy. "Coltmon?"

"Yes….why are you probing my nose?"

"Just getting my bearings. Ok, well I can't sleep right now, and I was wondering if you two would come with."

Coltmon nodded and DemiTyrannomon grunted something, so Ace took that as two yes responses. Carefully they made their way away from the others.

"I can pick up their scent," DemiTyrannomon announced after a few minutes of wandering in the dark. "Take my hand, I'll lead us."

Ace took hold of Demi's hand and grabbed Coltmon's halter. After walking a few more paces, DemiTyrannomon stopped.

"What is it? Why did we stop?" Ace asked as DemiTyrannomon let go of his hand.

The roof of the warehouse suddenly collapsed as Daemon's body slammed against the concrete. With the hole, a ray of moon light illuminated where they stood.

"Daemon!" Ace cried and ran over to the demonic Digimon's side. "Holy crap, you look horrible, what's happening?" he asked. Daemon's cloak was torn in numerous places, some of it was singed and burned. He seemed hurt, and hurt bad.

"They're coming. You must get out of here…" Daemon started to say as UlforceVeedramon crashed a few feet away. His armor was cracked in all over, he had bruises on him and didn't seem like he was going to get up anytime soon.

"Oh god no!" Lynn cried. Ace turned to look behind him. Standing at the edge of the light was Lynn, Kaze, Renee, Celeste and their partners.

"Ulforce!" Duftmon yelled from above them. The leopard warrior was hovering in the air and looking down at his mentor with concern. "Please get up, Daemon…I need help here."

"Du…Duftmon, leave Chaosdramon to us," UlforceVeedramon grunted. He slowly sat up, taking a great deal of effort to even move.

"No, you're in no condition to fight," Duftmon protested.

"You need to protect them. Don't fail the Royal Knights Duftmon," UlforceVeedramon replied and stood up. He clutched his stomach and breathed heavily as his eyes caught Ace knelling next to Daemon. "We'll stop him…there is no justice without honor. Daemon, can you move?"

"Like I would let you hog the glory you stupid knight…" the demonic Digimon replied, laughing weakly.

"I can't leave you Ulforce. If you go down, I'm joining you." Duftmon stated as he landed next to his companions.

UlforceVeedramon placed his hand on the smaller knight's shoulder and nodded. Suddenly the concrete beneath him sprouted arms and grabbed Duftmon and held him in place. "Protect them Duftmon. They are the key to saving the Digital World, and their own. As a Royal Knight, you are duty bound to them. I look forward to see you again."

"No! Let me go! I can fight damnit! I can fight!" Duftmon struggled to get free as UlforceVeedramon and Daemon slowly rose out of the holes they made. "No! Don't leave me like this! UlforceVeedramon!"

The far walls of the warehouse suddenly were ripped from the ground, taking the roof with them. Standing there was a Digimon that resembled Machinedramon almost to the T, except his body was red and his head was more rounded and less mechanical looking. The Digimon, Chaosdramon was suddenly hit in the face by a massive ball of fire and staggered back.

In the air above him UlforceVeedramon hovered with a blue energy blade extended from his right wrist pointed down at Chaosdramon. "Servant of darkness, you will no longer harm this or any other world. I, UlforceVeedramon of the Royal Knights condemn you to death."

"I will drag you to hell with me where you belong," Daemon added.

Chaosdramon seemed unphased by the threats of the two Digimon before him. His only response was to collect energy in front of his twin cannons on his back.

"Shining V-Force!" UlforceVeedramon crossed his arms in an X over his chest as the V-shaped armor started to glow. He uncrossed his arms outwards and a powerful beam fired down at Chaosdramon.

"Chaos Flare!" Daemon held his arms out and unleashed a blast of dark, unholy energy just as Chaosdramon fired his twin cannons.

The three attacks collided in midair and seemed to meet in a stalemate. UlforceVeedramon grunted in frustration as Chaosdramon seemed to overpower him and Daemon and their beams were pushed back slowly. "Daemon, I can end this, but I need you to take over for me!"

"Just do it knight. I can hold back this slave."

UlforceVeedramon ceased his beam, and Daemon's got even larger, taking up the slack,

"What is he doing?" Kaze asked as he watched the battle unfold before them. Duftmon continued to struggle against the concrete hands that held him in place to no avail. "Look! Daemon is starting to break up!" Kaze pointed to the lower part of Daemon's cloak which was being converted into data and vanish.

"They're using all their power to save us," Celeste said.

In the air, UlforceVeedramon stared down at Chaosdramon, then over at Duftmon and the humans. His body began to glow white as a giant ethereal dragon covered his body. "For the glory of the Royal Knights, I end you with this! DRAGON IMPULSE!" he yelled and vanished as the ethereal dragon dove down at Chaosdramon and flew threw him, dropping UlforceVeedramon on the ground. Daemon ceased his attack as did Chaosdramon and the demonic Digimon fell to the earth below, landing next to UlforceVeedramon.

Chaosdramon roared and moved to take a step towards the imprisoned Duftmon, and then suddenly stopped. A large diagonal slice appeared in the Digimon's stomach, and head and piece by piece he fell apart and vanished into a golden light.

Duftmon was freed and took off running to where UlforceVeedramon landed, followed by Ace, Kaze, Renee, Celeste, Lynn and their Digimon.

"Lord UlforceVeedramon," DemiTyrannomon gasped at the sight before them. Both he and Daemon were half creatures. Their lower halves had faded away leaving only their chest and heads.

"Duftmon…protect them," Daemon instructed, his voice faint and weak.

"Hallowed Ascension!" a voice echoed across the night sky as bolts of lightning suddenly rained down on Daemon, striking the Digimon multiple times before killing him.

"What? Who did that?" Ace clenched his fists as Daemon vanished before his eyes. "Who's chicken enough to attack a dying Digimon huh?"

From the heavens a celestial figure slowly descended. Ace glared and held up his D-Omega to scan the coward. An image appeared on the screen of an angelic warrior with ten wings clad in blue and silver armor, and a helm that covered his entire face. A gold star rested in the center of the face plate.

"That can't be right," Duftmon gasped. "That's Seraphimon, one of the three angels. He was killed during the war…"

"If he was killed, how is he here right now? And why did he attack Daemon?" Kaze asked.

"Wh-what? Seraphimon…" UlforceVeedramon groaned.

The angelic Digimon landed and casually walked over to the injured UlforceVeedramon. He knelt down next to him. "Surprised to see me? Don't worry, you won't have to question this for long. Allow me to end your suffering."

"No! Sword of Destruction; Ernste Welle" Duftmon yelled, holding his sword handle in his right hand and the blade in his left so the face was aimed at Seraphimon. A blast of pink and dark purple energy flew out of the blade and into Seraphimon, crashing into him and sending him across the ground.

"You must leave and get to safety. Humans, hold out your digivices." UlforceVeedramon instructed. One by one the five held up their D-Omegas. "I give you my strength, may it help keep you safe." UlforceVeedramon's body turned into a golden beam of light and shot into the five digivices.

"I can feel energy surging through me!" DemiTyrannomon announced. Ace, let me fight."

"Kaze, it would be an honor to fight alongside you as your partner." BlackAgumon said and placed his claw on Kaze's hand. Suddenly an orb of light exploded next to Duftmon sending the Royal Knight flying back and debris everywhere.

"That was most unpleasant. I suppose I underestimated you Duftmon. I won't make that mistake again however." Seraphimon sneered as he hovered above everyone again. "I'd like to introduce you to a companion of mine, or maybe it's more of a re-introduction. DexDorugoramon, come forth!"

A twisted, tortured roar filled the night sky as a digital gate appeared above Seraphimon. A creature the size of Machinedramon and Chaosdramon plummeted to the earth below and landed in a crater. The Digimon resembled a dragon like beast in purple armor standing on two legs with massive red and black wings and a tail that ended in a mace like fashion. DexDorugoramon roared and slammed its tail against the ground.

"Do you recognize him Duftmon? No? Well it seems Alphamon has seen the light and revealed his true nature. Don't you see, you're on the wrong side. This is the order of the digital world now, we are the law, we are the guardians!"

"No, you're a traitor and a coward!" Duftmon snarled. "You had Ophanimon and Cherubimon killed and faked your own death. You were a servant of God! How could you?"

"Arkadimon is God!" Seraphimon shot back. "I give you one last chance, surrender and join us Duftmon, or die like the humans and that sacrificial lamb UlforceVeedramon."

Duftmon looked from Seraphimon to Ace, then back at Seraphimon. "I made a vow, don't make me regret it Ace."

"Don't Duftmon. Are you guys ready?" Ace asked.

Kaze, Renee, Lynn and Celeste all nodded in agreement. Ace held his left arm into the air, showing off his D-Omega and the others followed suit.

"Ready? DemiTyrannomon, let's kick some ass!"

"DemiTyrannomon, warp-evolve to…" DemiTyrannomon leapt into the air and was encased in a cocoon of light. Images of Dragonmon and PanzerDragonmon flashed before the cocoon exploded, revealing a dragon-man warrior Digimon standing about ten feet high. His skin was deep red like DemiTyrannomon's and wore black armor resembling Dragonmon's scales with leg guards that ended at the knee and a chest piece that looked like the dragon's head around it. He held a large claymore sword with dragon claws making the hilt up in his left hand and over his right hand was a large gauntlet with three long claws sticking out. Out from his back appeared two translucent green wings and a strong powerful tail behind him. "Dragoonmon!"

"Let's do this, in memory of all those who died protecting us. For Mizu!" Kaze announced, holding his arm down low. BlackAgumon put his claw ontop of Kaze's hand and nodded.

"BlackAgumon, warp-evolve to…" BlackAgumon was encased in cocoon of light. Images of Greymon and MetalGreymon flashed before the cocoon exploded revealing a dragon-man warrior Digimon standing around the same height as Dragoonmon. His skin was black and had a grey helm covering the top of his head with two horns coming out of the sides of the head and one more on top of the nose. He had a grey chest piece with three gold straps down the center, grey leg guards and two black gauntlets that covered his hands with three bladed claws coming from them. On his back was a black shield that split down the middle. "BlackWarGreymon!"

"Coltmon, let's go!" Renee yelled, holding her D-Omega high above her head.

"Coltmon, warp-evolve to…" Coltmon reared back on his hind legs and was encased in a cocoon of light which exploded revealing a much larger equine Digimon covered in chrome armor like an old medieval war horse that covered his neck, chest, legs, hind quarters and face, revealing two electric blue eyes. The mane was made of electricity and his tail consisted of sharp razor like material. On the horse's back sat ornate elegant saddle. "Antaresmon!"

"Ok, Ryudamon, let's make a name for our self huh?" Celeste asked.

The dragon nodded. "We will be great heroes! Ryudamon, warp-evolve to…" Ryudamon flashed white and a moment later was replaced by a Digimon that resembled a Chinese dragon with two small legs and two arms holding middle eastern inspired swords. He was covered in a brown armor and his wings resembled axe blades. "Owryumon!"

"Kotemon, I guess it's our turn," Lynn smiled. "Let's give it all we got huh?"

"Kotemon warp-evolve to…" Kotemon flashed white and a moment later was replaced by a centaur-esq Digimon resembling a samurai coming out of an black undead horse's back. Both the rider and horse had golden armor on with the rider holding two blades, a katana in his left hand and a European sword in his right. "Zanbamon!"

Dragoonmon pointed his sword up at Seraphimon. "You're evil will not extend past this day. We'll take you down, right BlackWarGreymon?"

"Right! Let's do this!" he growled and rocked up off of the ground towards the angelic Digimon and slashed at him with his claws. Seraphimon moved back to avoid the attack.

Dragoonmon was right behind him and when the angel moved to avoid BlackWarGreymon's attack… "Ice Dragon Claw!" Dragoonmon yelled as his gauntlet became encased in ice. It caught Seraphimon's foot and encased it in ice.

Seraphimon growled in frustration. "Heaven's Knuckle!" he yelled, firing the spinning orb of light at his foot to shatter the ice.

"Hey, wait for me!" Duftmon called and flew up into the air.

"I guess the big boy is ours then," Antaresmon stated. "Shall we?" he asked as a knight appeared on his saddle. The knight wore white armor with blue X's on his shoulders and a Mobius on his chest. A lance appeared in his left hand as Antaresmon took off running towards DexDorugoramon. Zanbamon and Owryumon followed the war-horse's lead.

"It's a six on two, I like these odds!" Celeste grinned. She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded proudly.

"Yeah, don't get cocky. This isn't going to be an easy fight," Kaze replied, dismissing her comment.

"Whatever."

Owryumon circled DexDorugoramon, flying above the dragon beast's head as it screeched out a battle cry directed at the advancing Antaresmon and Zanbamon. " Immortal Dragon King Blade!" he cried out and spun his twin swords in a circle and sent a shockwave down at DexDorugoramon. The attack nailed the large beast on the wings, cutting some of them off. In an instant, DexDorugoramon turned and slammed his tail into Owryumon, knocking the Digimon down as Zanbamon and Antaresmon got closer.

"Cross Slash!" Zanbamon yelled with a horizontal slash of his katana. A shockwave flew out from the blade, growing in size and impacting DexDorugoramon on the leg, leaving a large cut in his armor.

The creature screeched and jumped into the air, landing nearly on top of Zanbamon, but the samurai Digimon dove out of the way at the last second. DexDorugoramon looked at Zanbamon to his left and Antaresmon to his right, roared again and brought his tail around, dragging the mace like end across the ground, kicking up debris as it neared Antaresmon.

"It's like it has no soul," Renee noticed as the massive dragon's tail sent Antaresmon flying into another warehouse. "It's not using any attacks, just brute strength."

"Then we have an advantage, right?" Lynn asked.

DexDorugoramon screeched in pain suddenly as Owryumon managed to cut off another set of wings from the soul-less beast. He snarled and snatched Owryumon by the tail just before he could escape and hurled it into Antaresmon and Zanbamon, who was helping the struggling Antaresmon to get up.

"This isn't working…" Antaresmon grunted and dismissed the rider on his back.

"We should attack him all at once, maybe hit the head," Owryumon suggested and took off into the air. He moved his body in a figure-eight in an attempt to distract DexDorugoramon while his companions got up themselves.

"Let's try this again," Antaresmon bowed his head as the rider re-materialized with the lance in his hand again. "Divine Retribution!" the equine Digimon yelled as holy energy collected into the lance and fired out in a beam.

"Immortal Dragon King Blade!"

"Cross Slash!"

The two shockwaves combined into a larger one before mixing with the bolt of holy energy. The attack impacted on DexDorugoramon chest, knocking the massive beast back a few paces. The creature screeched and charged at the three of them, swatting harmlessly at Owryumon with its left hand while snatching Zanbamon up in its right hand.

Zanbamon screamed out in pain as DexDorugoramon squeezed him tightly. A blast of electricity struck him in his hand causing him to Zanbamon to the ground below.

"Whatever attacks we do, it damages him but he just doesn't feel it," Owryumon commented as he avoided another attempt by the beast to grab him.

"We need to end this in one move, before he kills us," Antaresmon replied and raced away as DexDorugoramon brought his tail around again. "I have an idea, but I can't pull the attack off by myself, I need you to lend me your strength.

"Anything to get rid of this thing. There is no honor in fighting a puppet," Zanbamon panted and stepped next to Antaresmon. He released a deep purple aura around his body that flowed into Antaresmon.

"I hope this works," Owryumon was surrounded by a golden aura before it started to flow into Antaresmon.

The equine Digimon dismissed the rider from his back and closed his electric blue eyes as his own white aura started to circle around his body." By the order of the heavens, come forth fallen hero of the past. There is on final battle which you must fight, for the fate of the future, and retribution for the past. Come forth of great warrior…Miracle Assault!" Antaresmon opened his eyes and the three aura's flew into the ground. Ryudamon fell from the sky and landed on Kotemon as Antaresmon dropped to his knees and reverted back to Coltmon.

A stone doorway rose out from the ground and opened revealing a blinding white light that kept DexDorugoramon at bay. A figure emerged from the doorway, which faded behind him. A black Digimon stood there with a flowing white cape and two feathery wings at his back.

"So, my body was brought back to serve the demons?" he asked as he studied the monstrosity before him.

"Who's that? How do I do that thing that Ace does all the time?" Lynn asked as she pressed random buttons on her D-Omega.

"I don't know, keep trying!" Renee encouraged and pressed the buttons on her own digivice.

"Alphamon, the wandering seat of the Royal Knights…." Ace said. "Whoa…"

"Your Digimon brought him back from the dead?" Celeste gasped as she studied Coltmon.

"I guess, that's a very strong attack huh?"

"I'll say…" Ace said, almost in awe.

Ace watched as Alphamon held out his left palm towards DexDorugoramon. "Be gone, monstrosity. Digitalize of Soul!" Suddenly hundreds of neon green energy bolts flew from his hand and took DexDorugoramon apart piece by piece, until there was nothing left. The Royal Knight turned away from where the creature once stood and faced the humans.

"Keep fighting for us. I'm sorry we never got the chance to meet," Alphamon said with a nod before vanishing from sight.

"Kaze, did you see that?" Ace asked as he hit his friend in the arm to get his attention.

"No, maybe you should be paying attention to what's going on up there…"

In the sky, the three warrior Digimon faced off against Seraphimon. The angel seemed almost amused by the turn of events that had led him to this battle. Things were not going as well as Ace and Kaze had hoped they would.

Duftmon grunted in frustration as his own sword crossed with Seraphimon's translucent blade. The Digimon traded blows, countering each stroke of the blade no matter where the sword came from. They were caught in a stalemate.

"How could you…how could you betray the Digital World?" Duftmon grunted as he pulled back from Seraphimon.

"I did no such thing. You're misguided Duftmon, I simply joined the winning side, the ruling side. Haven't you realized that the world is at peace now and our only aggressors are on the outside? " Seraphimon asked and dissipated his sword. "Duftmon, what was your creed again? Justice is power, was it not?"

Duftmon looked aside and nodded. "Yes…"

"Then by your logic, I am justice, Arkadimon is justice, and as a Royal Knight, you are sworn to fight for that."

Duftmon clenched his sword in his hand so tightly, the blade began to shake. "You murdered my friends, you betrayed your own kind! That's not just, that's not power. You bastard! How dare you speak to me about justice. What do you know of it Seraphimon? Nothing! You're a snake, a coward and an opportunist, and I will avenge the deaths of my fellow knights tonight! Ernste Welle!" The leopard knight pointed his sword at Seraphimon and fired a beam of energy.

Seraphimon held out his left hand and fired off a spinning ball of light that cut apart Duftmon's attack as it traveled. "You're a fool Duftmon," Seraphimon said as the ball slammed into Duftmon's face and knocked him down towards the ground below.

"I got you!" BlackWarGreymon yelled and dove after the falling Royal Knight. He grabbed hold of the digimon's arm and stopped him in mid-air. "You can't fight him on your own. Swallow whatever pride you have and let us fight with you."

"We're a team Duftmon, and the three of us can take that bastard down," Dragoonmon added.

"How touching, a pep talk to get the old gang back together. I dare say I'm touched by this, really. Come on, have at me then"

Dragoonmon narrowed his eyes. His wings beat once and he was off, racing across the sky. "Ice Dragon Claw!" he yelled, slashing at the angel with his gauntlet.

Seraphimon avoided the attack and kicked Dragoonmon straight in the back, knocking him down a few feet.

"He's toying with us," BlackWarGreymon grunted.

"We can't keep this up. The bastard isn't even Dragoonmon replied as he floated back up next to BlackWarGreymon.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me one Digimon is too tough for you three?" Seraphimon taunted from above them. "If that's the case, Allow me to put you out of your misery! Hallowed Knuckle!" he yelled, punching a spinning orb of light down at Dragoonmon.

"That's it!" Dragoonmon roared in frustration as BlackWarGreymon flew in front of him with the shield off of his back and held it in front of his body He deflected the orb of light down towards the ground and moved aside as Dragoonmon charged forward with his sword. He slashed it at Seraphimon who countered with his own translucent energy blade.

"You expect to win against Excalibur?" Seraphimon taunted as he struggled against Dragoonmon.

"No," the dragon warrior admitted. "I don't have to"

"Black Tornado!" BlackWarGreymon yelled from above Seraphimon. Dragoonmon kicked the angel away as BlackWarGreymon spun down, creating a black vortex around him.

"Nice try, but not good enough. Seven Heavens!" Seraphimon pulled back his arms as seven balls of light formed in front of him. He pushed his arms forward and sent the attack up right into BlackWarGreymon.

BlackWarGreymon yelled in pain and flew back across the sky. Duftmon flew back as well and caught the dragon-man Digimon.

"You ok?" Duftmon asked.

"Yeah, thanks for that…"

"Consider us even." Duftmon replied and let BlackWarGreymon go.

"Inferno Dragon!" Dragoonmon yelled, spinning his sword above his head. Flames shot out of the blade and up into the sky, illuminating the night in an orange glow. The flames collected into the form of a dragon much larger than any of them. "Now, you burn Seraphimon!" Dragoonmon snarled and pointed his sword at the angelic Digimon. The fire dragon beat its wings and flew through the angel.

Seraphimon screamed in pain as the flames passed over his body and turned around for a second attack.

"Not this time you foul creature," Seraphimon extended Excalibur and brought his holy blade across the fire dragon's neck, ending the attack. "I see, I guess playtime is over then is it not? I am getting bored with this. Hallowed Assencion!"

Lightening shot down from the heavens all around the three warriors. BlackWarGreymon looked up at the bolts, and danced around the sky trying to avoid getting hit. He moved left, missed one to the right, but then got nailed by one, then two, and three in a row and vanished in a cloud of smoke. Dragoonmon didn't even have time to dodge, he was nailed by the first strike directed at him. Duftmon narrowed his eyes at Seraphimon and held his sword out in a threatening manner.

"I will kill you! Die you traito-ugh!" he yelled in pain as a bolt hit him in back and knocked him towards the ground.

The smoke cleared from around the three Digimon, revealing them to be in really bad shape. BlackWarGreymon armor was completely cracked, parts of his shoulder armor was gone, he lost both gauntlets and even the left horn from his helmet. Dragoonmon had dropped his sword in the attack, and had his armor almost destroyed in the process. Duftmon regained himself and floated back up.

"And yet you come back for more. Admirable, but it won't save you. You know, you three should feel honored. You've lasted longer than Ophanimon. Duftmon, if Omegamon were alive, I'm sure he'd be impressed by your resilience to survive. Though this is going to end the same way for you as it did for him. Pity, you would have all made fine additions to our ranks. Oh well, instead you'll all be just another causality of war." Seraphimon was suddenly struck by a small bolt of electricity. He looked down as Coltmon sent another bolt of electricity. Ryudamon opened his mouth as a dagger shot out of his mouth and at Seraphimon.

"How priceless, they've come to your aid. I guess you all just want to die today. I will be more than happy to help you with that," Seraphimon moved his arms back, ready to attack again.

"I…have a plan…" BlackWarGreymon coughed and looked at Dragoonmon. "We need to take him out in one shot…you'll see," he gasped and closed his eyes. "Black Tornado!" BlackWarGreymon spun again creating a vortex and flew across the sky at Seraphimon.

He canceled his attack and flew left, avoiding BlackWarGreymon's desperation attack "That didn't work once, why would it again?" Seraphimon asked smacked the Digimon with his sword. BlackWarGreymon grunted in pain and fell.

Dragoonmon elbowed Duftmon and nodded. "Follow my lead."

"Okay, this better work…"

Dragoonmon raised his arms over his head as air started to spin in a spherical pattern, growing larger and larger until the sphere was twice the size of Dragoonmon. "Strato Destroyer!" he yelled, and ignited the oxygen into a flaming ball before throwing it.

"Ernste Welle" Duftmon yelled, holding his blade as it shot out a powerful blast of pink and purple energy.

Both attacks flew above Seraphimon. "That's it? That's your final attack? You missed. With aim that bad, how did you think you had a chance at beating me?"

"We didn't miss," Dragoonmon replied with a smirk.

"You're finished, traitor." Duftmon panted.

"TERRA DESTROYER!" BlackWarGreymon screamed from behind Seraphimon. The angelic Digimon turned around to see a huge ball of red energy held between the claws just as BlackWarGreymon hurled the attack down Seraphimon.

"Im-impossible!" Seraphimon yelled as the attack hit him. He struggled the hold it at bay, but the combination of the three attacks into one was just too much for him. "Glory to Arkadimon!"

The attack exploded, obliterating Seraphimon.

Duftmon landed gently next to Ace and Kaze, with Dragoonmon and BlackWarGreymon behind him.

"Thank you for your help," Duftmon said as he dropped to one knee and bowed his head. "I was wrong about you all. Forgive me."

"Aw it's okay big guy!" DemiTyrannomon patted the Royal Knight on the back. "Suck it up, you're one of us now."

Ace held his hand out to Duftmon and smiled. He looked back at the human and grabbed hold of his hand. "Demi's right. Your stuck with us."

"I wouldn't consider an alternative," Duftmon replied and shook Ace's hand. "Your Digimon surprised me. They were able to kill two very powerful Digimon. Dukemon and UlforceVeedramon were right, you humans do give Digimon great power…"

"Well, we're pretty much awesome," Lynn chimed in with Kotemon in tow. "What's going to happen next?"

"Who knows. At least we won the battle," Celeste replied, looking back at the blonde.

Ace walked over to the cliff that over looked the city and closed his eyes as a breeze blew against him. Renee wrapped her arms around Ace's waist and rested her face against his shoulder. "Look, the sun's coming up."

"Yeah," Kaze said, stepping up next to them.

Ace opened his eyes and smiled at Kaze before he looked out at the city below. In the morning light the true destruction could be seen. Half of the high-rises were collapsed, the bridge lay in the harbor and the smoke from hundreds of fires polluted the air. Above the city, a large digital gate spun around, spewing out countless Digimon by the minute.

"Oh my god, that's horrible," Lynn gasped as she stepped up next to Kaze.

Celeste didn't say a thing. She just stood there alongside the others as Duftmon put his hand on her shoulder.

"It gets worse," he admitted. "Study the city, do you see anything off about it?"

Ace squinted his eyes, trying to find something wrong with his home, other than the apparent signs of destruction.

"There's some buildings that don't belong there," Celeste said, pointing to this large black obelisk.

"Yes, with so many gates open, our world have begun to merge into one."

"But that means… can we stop it?" Kaze asked.

"You could, but that won't happen," a voice bellowed from behind them. Ace was the first to spin around and gazed at the source of the voice. The Digimon floating behind them dwarfed anything they had seen before. It's body was a dark gray, almost black color and seemed to be a composite of various Digimon, with an insect like head, Greymon torso, wolf legs, and four arms, two looked demonic in nature while the others were an skeleton arm and a red insect arm. Above that body was a glowing golden being who looked to be Machinedramon's head, cannons and arms.

"What's wrong Ace, Kaze, don't you recognize me? I must thank you for sending me back to the digital world three years ago. You've allowed me to gain infinite power."

Ace arched an eyebrow at the creature. "Wait," he declared and stepped back, "You're that Machinedramon that blew up the tower. But you're different…"

"Millenniumon!" Duftmon gasped and raised his sword. He stepped in front of the humans and lowered his head ready to strike.

"Don't waste your strength Duftmon. You can not harm me," Millenniumon sneered as his cannons fired off a small blast that exploded just behind everyone. "Consider this a thank you present. When we next meet, you won't be so lucky."

The explosion opened up a hole in the air, resembling a digital gate. A powerful wind began to pull against Ace and everyone, slowly dragging them across the dirt.

"Don't let it win!" Duftmon grunted and slammed his sword into the dirt. "Give me your hand!" he yelled, reaching back to Celeste. She grabbed on and took hold of Kaze, then Lynn and finally Renee and Ace. Their partners clung to Duftmon's legs.

"It's getting stronger!" Ryudamon yelled as he was suddenly ripped away and vanished into the spinning vortex.

"I…can't…hold….on" Duftmon grunted as his sword faltered in the dirt.

"So long chosen," Millenniumon laughed and reached out with his demonic hand. He pinched the base of the sword in his fingers and pulled it out of the ground, sending everyone into the vortex.

Ace moaned in pain as he opened his eyes. The sun was shining brightly in the sky and everything took a minute or two to come into focus for him. He rubbed his head and sat up. "God that hurt. What the hell happened?" he asked and looked around. He was in a clearing below the ridge where the warehouse was.

"Oh good, you're up. I was afraid I'd have to poke you with this really sharp stick I made while waiting for you to get up," DemiTyrannomon laughed and swung the stick through the air like a sword.

"Demi! I'm glad to see you're ok. Any idea where everyone else is?" Ace asked.

"Nope, but I haven't really gone too far just in case you got attacked while you decided to sleep on the job," DemiTyrannomon replied and dropped the stick.

Ace frowned. That wasn't good. How could the others not be close to him. They all were blown off the ridge at the same time and entered that vortex together. What happened after that was a blur. Images of Renee screaming and Kaze grabbing for her flashed in his mind, then a calming white light, and finally he was awake and looking around. None of it made any sense. The land around him didn't seem damaged by battle and the air didn't smell like ash. He was standing in the middle of a clearing surrounded by oak trees, pine trees and… Ace stared at the palm tree a few yards away from him.

"This shouldn't be here. This doesn't make any sense," he said and ran over to the plant. Ace knocked on the trunk, feeling the texture of the plant. It was real.

"Hey Ace, come look at this," DemiTyrannomon called out and waved his claw back and forth.

Ace jogged over to his partner. "What? Whoa! What the hell?" Ace asked. On the ground was a white exoskeleton of an enormous stag beetle.

"It looks like a Kuwagamon shell. But why would that be here?" DemiTyrannomon mused and rubbed his chin.

"I don't know, but we need to find the others," Ace replied. He looked at his digivice and pressed a few buttons, bringing up the holographic map. "There," he exclaimed, pointing to four dots on the map. "Hey that's just up the ridge," he laughed and dismissed the map.

"Guess it's time for Dragonmon huh?" DemiTyrannomon asked. "Man, I was looking forward to a little r and r after that fight last night."

"Suck it up," Ace replied.

DemiTyrannomon was encased in a white cocoon which quickly exploded, revealing Dragonmon. Ace climbed onto the dragon's back, and Dragonmon took up, climbing the thirty feet in a matter of seconds. Ace leapt off of his partner's back as Dragonmon reverted to DemiTyrannomon.

"Guys, you're ok!" he grinned.

"Ace!" Renee smiled and ran at him and practically tackled him in a hug.

Kaze nodded with a smirk at the sight of his best friend. "I knew you were ok."

Celeste, Lynn and Duftmon nodded as well. "We were worried since you weren't here with the rest of us," Duftmon said.

DemiTyrannomon was having a small reunion of his own, with BlackAgumon tackling him, probably for something he said.

"You're all ok. This is great! I guess Millennium's vortex didn't do anything," Ace said as he manage to slip from Renee's grasp.

"Hey guys… you better come look at his!" Ryudamon yelled.

Ace led the group to where Ryudamon was and looked at the scenery. His mouth hung open as Ace took in the sights before him. The city was there, sort of. Most of the buildings had been replaced by a giant castle. Where the ocean was, mountains extended thousands of feet out of the water. The entire landscape had changed.

"Twenty years must have passed," Duftmon spoke quietly. "I can't believe this. He sent us forward in time."

"Oh god, we lost," Renee gasped and collapsed to her knees. "Everyone's dead.." she whispered in between sobs.

Kaze looked aside while Celeste put her hand on Ace's shoulder. Lynn just kept repeating no, over and over again.

Ace looked at the hand on his shoulder, then back out at the scene before him. He was at a loss of words. What could he possibly say to make this situation seem any better than it was? Renee was right, they lost all because that bastard sent them through time. No, it wasn't over. Maybe their time was, but they were still alive and they could still fight…

"If he sent us here, he can send us back…" Ace said under his breath. His eyes lit up suddenly and he turned to look at the others. "Millenniumon brought us here, he can send us back. We're going to find him, and we're going to go home and prevent this from happening!" he yelled.

"Millenniumon uses to magic to send beings through time. If he dies, the spell will break and we can go back to our original time," Duftmon added, confirming Ace's belief.

"This isn't over! We're not the chosen for nothing and I'll be damned if some time traveling bastard is going to cheat his way to a victory. We're going to take back our time, and our world. Who's with me?" Ace asked, looking around. A few half-hearted hands raised into the air. "Damnit, I said who's with me?" he yelled raising his own fist into the sky.

"We are!" a chorus of voices yelled back.

"Good! Because Arkadimon and Millenniumon have no idea what they're in for…" Ace grinned and turned back to face the city. Renee slipped her hand in his and stood next to him as Celeste stood on his other side. Kaze joined next to Celeste and Lynn next to Renee.

"You're all either brave or crazy, but I'm with you all the way," Duftmon chuckled and stood behind Ace.

The group surveyed the landscape before them, taking in the sights and learning the land. They weren't going to back down, not to anyone or anything. The war was just beginning….

END