Chapter 3

"Hi, Kari!" Kona said, dropping her backpack on the ground and plopping down on the blanket Kari had spread out on the grass of Shiokaze Park. Gatomon peeked an eye open from her sunny spot in the grass, smiling slightly.

"Oh, hi Gatomon. I didn't know you would be here," Kona continued, cradling her Styrofoam cup of Caramel Latte.

"I told her you had questions, and... given their past, Gatomon thought she could help," Kari said, sipping her iced coffee from her green straw.

Kona nodded. She had occasionally spoken with Gatomon, but the cat Digimon was still very bitter about Myotismon's presence. She was trying to be less combative toward him, and indeed her evolved form Angewomon seemed more level-headed about it. Kona knew it had something to do with M's past, but he refused to revisit those memories, so Kona knew very little about it.

"How's school going?" Kona asked, seeing Kari's textbook next to her on the blanket.

"It's good!" Kari said, leaning forward and scratching Gatomon's ear. The Digimon smiled, rearranging in the green grass.

"I'm really enjoying this Communications class I'm in," she said, sipping her coffee again. "We're learning all these different customs in different countries, and I love it. They're all so interesting."

Kona smiled, enjoying listening to Kari. Kona had bounced around for so long, been on the run for so long, that she had never found the time for friends. It was nice to have someone; someone whose life she could take interest in, who she could always call for help.

"How about you? Still thinking of getting your degree?" Kari asked, a breeze blowing her hair into her face. She smiled, wiping it away.

"Yeah," Kona said, fidgeting. "I decided to wait for a year. I know how I get; stress can make me crazy, and with the new job, and moving in with the Seuhlos... I just want to settle a bit."

"I get that," Kari said.

They sat quietly for a moment, Kona looking off at the fountain absently.

"What did you want to ask?" Kari said.

"Oh, right," Kona said with a smile. Sometimes it was easy to forget the Digital World, and just enjoy hanging with Kari.

"Well... we keep getting attacked by these Digimon. M thinks it's vengeance... for his past," Kona started, and Gatomon opened an eye.

"Good," she said, to which Kari gave her a scolding glare.

"But none of them have expressed that... none of them really even talk. They just attack."

"There are feral Digimon," Kari said. "In the beginning, we were attacked by a lot of those. They don't speak, and a lot of the time, they're just rampaging around. I think it's just rogue data."

Kona sighed, puzzled. "I guess. It just seems like they're targeting us."

"As they should," Gatomon grumbled.

"Gatomon, don't be rude," Kari said. Gatomon stood, walking to the blanket and sitting next to Kari.

"Sorry, Kona," she said, one of her long ears twitching. "It's just... going to take me a while to get used to this."

"It's okay, Gatomon," Kona said.

M's past was rife with wrongdoings, and she couldn't ignore them. "It just seems odd... if they're feral, why do they have targets? Wouldn't they just mindlessly attack anything?"

"That's a good question... I don't know. Have you tried to talk to them?" Kari asked.

"Yeah, I've tried every time. They never respond. In fact they rarely acknowledge me. They just go after him. That, and... he seems weaker than he was."

Kona reached into her backpack, retrieving her laptop and opening it.

The Digital World's code was still scrolling across her screen, and she navigated through it to find M's.

"Yesterday, we were attacked by five Sentrimon, and we barely held them off. See? He took a lot of damage," Kona said, pointing to his code.

Gatomon leapt onto Kari's shoulder to look at the computer with her.

Before Kari could speak, Gatomon did.

"Well I can point out the problem right now," Gatomon said, pointing to a line of text with her long black claw. "It says there that he's now a Champion level Digimon."

"Huh?" Kona said, looking at Gatomon with confusion.

"Digimon have power levels," Kari said. "That's what you witnessed when he Digivolved the day we met. There are typically six: baby, in-training, rookie, champion, ultimate, and mega. Digimon need a lot of power to get to mega, and can usually only do it if they have a human partner. In fact, Myotismon is one of only a few, that I know of, to ever do it without. But in this form, Myotismon used to be an ultimate-level, making him almost completely Digivolved. When he bonded with you, he must have been bumped down, since he changed data types. He doesn't consume data anymore, which was a huge part of what made him so strong," Kari said, furrowing her brows.

"What does that mean? For me, anyway?" Kona asked.

"Several things: it means Dandimon isn't his mega form, it's his ultimate. So good news: he can Digivolve again. But on the flip-side, that also means that Myotismon is much weaker than he used to be. He's a champion, not an ultimate," Kari said.

"Which would explain why it was difficult for him to fight the Sentrimon," Gatomon added. "Sentrimon are also champion-level. One or two would be fine, but five... that's cutting it close."

"That, and he's distracted as hell," Kona mumbled.

"Why?" Kari asked as Gatomon jumped from her shoulder.

"It's just... he's beating himself up over... everything. He feels so guilty... he's letting it distract him."

Gatomon smiled. "Good," she said again, and Kari nudged her.

Kona turned her attention to Gatomon. "So... what's the story with you two?" she asked.

Please don't ask that question.

His voice was loud and monotonous in her head.

Well, you won't tell me, she thought back.

Yes, that's because I would prefer you didn't know.

That's really not your decision to make, is it? And keeping me in the dark won't change any of it. It'll just make me oblivious about how to help you.

But it may keep you from hating me.

I could never hate you, M.

You say that now…

"I was his... servant," Gatomon said, sadness in her voice. "Slave is more like it. He found me wandering, when I was Salomon. I was looking for Kari..."

Gatomon sighed, looking off toward the fountain. "I became very loyal, but only because I was so afraid of him. He had a... way with enforcing loyalty."

"How?" Kona asked, to which she felt a stabbing, headache-like pain behind her eyes. She yelped, rubbing her temple.

"Ow, knock it off," she accidentally said aloud.

"He doesn't want you to know. Typical," Gatomon huffed. Kona felt a wave come over her, like a sudden chill.

"Come say that to my face, Garfield."

The words came from her lips, but she hadn't spoken them. With the same chill, the feeling was gone, replaced with her own boiling rage.

"M, you can't just use me like that, we've talked about this," Kona growled.

"What's Garfield?" Gatomon asked, perturbed.

Kona smiled, unable to stay mad through her amusement.

"It's a... character. A very fat cat," she said, to which Gatomon visibly fumed.

"Ignore him," Kona said, receiving a growl in her head that felt like it reverberated around her skull. "Just go on."

With newfound anger, Gatomon continued. "I could handle the torture," she said, pulling her clawed glove from her left paw to reveal a red scar in the shape of an X. "I had grown accustomed to pain, so that never really got to me. It was his temper... he would kill any Digimon who failed him. He was a monster, and didn't have an ounce of pity in him. I was so scared he would kill me, and then just enslave me again once I was reborn. And the years had made me forget what I was searching for. And I thought, deep down, if I helped him find the prophesied eighth child, maybe he would release me."

"Then when I found her, I... I remembered. I remembered what I was looking for. And I had a friend. Wizardmon. He was really only serving Myotismon to keep an eye on me. And Myotismon... killed him. Killed him as he protected me."

Tears fell down Gatomon's face, and Kari wiped them away. Kona couldn't deny the initial anger she felt. She had to remind herself that he wasn't the same Digimon anymore. She felt something flash in her mind, something akin to rampant fear.

"But... Digimon can't die, right? They just get reborn?" Kona asked.

"We were here," Gatomon said in a shaky voice. "In this world. If we'd been in the Digital World, yes. But if we are destroyed here, we die for good. There's nowhere for our data to go."

Unless you possess a human, Kona thought to herself.

She yelped as she felt another blinding pain strike her.

Anger boiled, and she yanked her Digivice from her belt.

"One second," she snapped at Kari, extending the USB inside the Digivice and slamming it into her computer. She took a deep breath as she was yanked into data.