"Let me go! Stop it!" A small red headed girl screamed as she was pinned down onto the floor on her stomach. Her sleeve was pulled down and a fire cracked not too far from her.

"Shhh struggling will only make it hurt more." A voice warned her. Allison's younger self only kicked and screamed as loud as she could, causing the man holding her to cringe.

"You may want to make her a singer or somethin', she's got quite the set of lungs." A digimon piped up next to Piedmon who was watching the process. The clown digimon only shook his head. "No..i've got a perfect place for her.."

The child squirmed in the man's grasp as a needle was brought close to the child.

"Daddy! Help!" She screamed as loudly as she could, tears streaming down her face. The man above her gave her a sympathetic look and closed his eyes as the needle was brought close to the child's flesh.

"On her shoulder." Instructed Piedmon. The digimon holding the black ink filled needle nodded and once her arm was pinned down the sharp metal was pressed to her shoulder, tattooing a barcode into her shoulder with a buzzing noise.

"Ahh!" Allison sat up, panting. Her mismatched opened wide as she placed a hand over the mark on her shoulder. She paused for a moment when she caught her breath, realizing it was all a dream. "I'm fine..its okay.." She whispered, out of breath, running a hand through her messy red hair. Once she caughter her breath she dropped her hands into her lap, gazing down at the different dried paints smeared on her hands. Allison forced the bad dream out of her mind, taking a moment to recall everything that had happen the night before. She remembered her father's voice, throwing her painting and paints everywhere. But how she got into bed she couldn't remember. It was all a dense fog in her mind.

She rubbed her cheeks clear of tear streaks, shoving the blankets off of her legs and swinging them over the bed.

Thud.

Her bare feet hit the floor and she pushed herself up off the bed, letting out a slight groan as her shoulder and back made a cracking noise. Her entire body felt like lead and every move she made felt like pain. Of course it didn't help that she had her own emotional cloud of turmoil lingering over her like death, waiting to rain down and drown her in her own sorrows.

After being on her feet for a few minutes and hearing her stomach let out a grumbled she figured that she had better eat breakfast before doing anything else. "Maybe food will make me feel better?"

The red head made her way over to the small kitchen on the other side of her trailer. Blue and green eyes scanned over the small kitchen but to her dismay she didn't find anything all that appetizing. Knowing it was a bad idea to go on without eating she settled with snatching an apple out of the woven basket that rested on her counter, sinking her teeth into it.

Allison opened up her door, flinching when the suns rays shined in her eyes. Instinctively her arm was brought up to block it out and dropped it once she sat down on her stairs. Her mismatched eyes glanced around as she tore another piece out of the apple's flesh. The sun was just above the horizon, the air was still cool from the night, causing her skin to prickle with goosebumps. She hugged herself a little, the tank top and shorts she was wearing not nearly enough to keep her warm against the cold air.

She took a deep breath and glanced around at the damp grass with a frown. Orange, red, and pink were splattered all over the grass like a crime scene. The painting she had been working on had a tear right through it and the wooden framed the white canvas had been stretched across was broken. There was no way she could possibly save it. At this point it would just be better off to burn it and splash water on the grass before anyone came by and questioned why she got into a fight with her painting.

Crunch.

She finished off her apple and stood up, deciding that should be the first step to her day. With that she went on, gathering up rocks to make a fire pit and sticks and leaves for kindling. After gathering a good amount and pouring some of the lighter fluid she had she threw a lit match onto the pile, watching as it lit up instantly. The red head took a step back, observing the flames before picking up the half finished painting and tossing it into the flames.

Eagerly the flames turned the white canvas black, some of the paints causing the flames to turn blue or green as it hungrily ate up the rare treat. As her work went up in flames her mismatched eyes watched, her mind not in tune with the world around her.

Why? That question always lingered in her mind. Why did this happen? Wha did she do to deserve this? What did any of them do to be treated like property? To be taken away from their loved ones.

She rubed both her eyes with the palms of her hads, letting out a heavy sigh.

"Stop it." She told herself. "Don't think of the why. Think of the how and what you'll do when you see dad."

Allison shook her head and decided she needed to get motivated. Tomorrow she would have to perform again and if she wasn't going to paint or go help out the other performers she might as well practice her routine.

Poking at the fire with a stick one last time she stood up and vanished inside of her trailor, only to return a few minutes later, dressed in her casual clothes. Hastily she pulled her hair back into a messy bun, the strings of her poi, hanging from her mouth.

Finally, putting her hair up she took the fire toy out of her mouth, heading over to the now dying fire. Gently she put set the poi down and retrieved the bottle of lighter fluid, pouring its foul smelling contents over the kevlar wicks, carelessly capping the half filled bottle and tossing it towards the stairs of her trailer.

The strings were pulled and the wicks were lifted up off the ground and dropped into the fire. Instantly they caughter fire and were yanked out. With that the routine began. The toy was spun, creating a ring of bright light around the young woman.

The imaginary music started up and she began to dance, losing herself to the thoughts plauging her mind.

How would she get back home? Max was right when she said that going out into the digital world was suicide. Despite she grew up in this world, Allison knew very little about it still. The digital world was huge and not to mention much much more dangerous than Earth. There were deadly creatures everywhere. Perhaps thats why Piedmon took humans? They couldn't fight back in this world, they had no power here.

Aside from the dangers, she didn't even know where she was half the time. They traveled so many places that she no longer bothered to keep track. One week they were in a forested area and the next they were in a place so cold spit would freeze as soon as it left someone's mouth. Where she was right now, she couldn't be sure. Just another forested area.

As for getting back to Earth. Allison wasn't sure. She honestly didn't even know how she got here. Piedmon had kidnapped here and when she woke up, she was in the digital world, her father far away. She figured she could ask someone, most likely a Digimon that wasn't going to bite her face off. Maybe Agunimon could help her? No, she couldn't get him involved. He was a great guy and he seemed trustworthy. But if she told him, he could end up getting hurt.

Hours had passed and none other than the flame warrior, Agunimon himself was heading to Allison's home. He wore a happy smile, his bright blue eyes shining with excitement. It wasn't that long ago he had seen the mistress of fire, but he couldn't help but be eager to see her smiling face again.

Sadly as he approached the girl, he didn't get to see her sweet smile. Instead he was greeted with Allison sitting right beside burning hot embers from a fire, her long red hair pouring over her shoulders, a frown on her face, and a distant look in her eyes as she stared into the dying remains of the fire.

"Allison?" He asked softly, not wanting to startle her. He was given no response, so he took a step closer to her. What was wrong with her?

The warrior made his way over to her and knelt down beside her. "Allison? Whats the matter?"

She blinked suddenly and she looked over at him and jumped slightly, shocked to see him there. "Agunimon? S-sorry I was spacing out.."

"I could tell..are you okay?" He asked her, his eyes filled with worry. Did someone hurt her? Did someone upset her? If anyone hurt her they would be sure to be facing an angry ch-

"I'm fine. Really. I just..I..nevermind." Responded Allison as she ran a hand through her hair, looking away. Was that really suppose to convince him she was okay?

"..Allison..I know thats not true. Somethings wrong. I know it may be hard to talk about but if you don't tell me whats wrong, I won't be able to fix it."

The girl looked at him, her mismatched eyes filled with sadness and pain. He looked so worried about her. So determined to help her. She would be lying if she said she wasn't touched by his kindness towards her.

She opened her mouth, very tempted to let him hear everything..but she closed her mouth and looked down at the ground. "I don't think you can really fix it."

A black gloved hand encircled her chin and pushed it up so his blue eyes could stare into her mismatched ones.

"Maybe I can. If you'll let me try.."

Allison was hiding something. She was keeping so much of herself locked up away from him. The human girl was hurting, he could see that as plain as day. It wasn't for the fact that he found her beautiful but the fact that his job was to help those in need. At the moment it looked as if she needed a lot of help.

"No." She gently pushed his hand down, shaking her head. "I can take care of it. I just need time to think everything over."

The male sighed. She wasn't going to open up to him. She looked like she was about to, but decided against it. Surely she didn't think he was going to let it go this time. Maybe she didn't trust him yet? Or maybe she was scared of saying something to him?

"Alright, then how about we go do something? I know you have things to think over, but I think its time for you to take a break and have some fun. " He insisted, standing up with his hand held out for her to take.

Blue and green eyes stared up at him. Agunimon wasn't going to give up was he? Despite not really wanting to do anything, she reached up and grabbed his hand, allowing him to help pull her up to her feet. Perhaps she just needed some time to smile, to get her out of this horrible fog? He managed to make things okay the last time she was upset. So maybe he could help her feel a bit better now as well.

With a happy smile he lead the way and their day began. Althroughout the day they wandered the forests surrounding the circus. He showed her every beautiful spot he could think of that he had discovered during his stay there. From large caves to small fields filled with all sorts of uniquely colored flowers. Stories of how he had saved many Digimon and towns all over the world were told, making Allison smile and make her laugh occasionally. They stayed clear of the circus itself upon the girl's request only to stop there when both of them had gotten hungry.

And as quick as their adventure seemed to start it came to an end.

The sun had vanished and darkness was washing over the sky like a curtain. Stars were dotted along the sky, sparkling above the two as they sat on a hill, overlooking the circus.

Allison gazed up at the sky and Agunimon watched the circus down below. Not a word passed between the two until a light shot up into the sky only to explode a few moments later into a shower of red.

"Whoa! Look like the fireworks show is about to start." Agunimon leaned forward, his eyes widening with curiousity. She glanced over at him and giggled slightly. His mouth hung open slightly. He looked like a child who was watching fireworks for the first time.

"That one was purple!" Allison glanced at the sky just as a green firework exploded.

"And that was green.." She answered, not as impressed witht he fireworks as she once was.

Agunimon looked at her with a smile and rubbed the back of his head. The bright flashes of light, illuminating her figure."You probably get to see this all the time huh?"

She could only shrug, hugging her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them.

"You see one firework show you've seen them all. It just becomes noise after so many years of watching it."

Agunimon tilted his head. "I'm sure that gets boring after awhile. Heh, but at least everything else is fun right? All the new Digimon you get to see? All the new places, performing?"

Allison then shook her head, closing her eyes.

"No. Its not fun at all. Cirque Du Horror isn't all its cracked up to be."

The red armored Digimon raised a brow, looking at her confused. "What do you mean..?"

The 19-year-old swallowed hard, hiding her face into her knees.

"Agunimon..don't you find it weird that all of the performers are humans?"

"..Yeah I guess now that you mention it. It is a bit strange since humans don't really come into the digital world.."

"Thats because we were kidnapped and dragged here against out will."

Agunimon paused, shocked by what he had just heard. Did she say they were all kidnapped?

"Wait, what?"

Allison shook her head, her shoulders shaking a bit.

"Piedmon..he..goes into the human world, lures freaks to his circus and takes them away from their home, from everyone they loved." She told him, her voice starting to crack. It was coming apart..originally she didn't want to tell him everything. But after everything that day, his concern about her, she believed she could break down her walls.

"He's done it to everything except Max. Everyone else..he took us away. He brought us here, beat us down into nothing..and we become-..his freakshows. Nothing but mere entertainment for everyone here." The girl's shoulders shook harder and tears started to flow down her cheeks.

"He..took me away when I was little. H-He took me away from my home, my dad..everything."

Agunimon was speechless, listening to the girls story. Sympathy and sorrow rose into his chest, along with hatred.

"That day we met, I t-tried to run away..a-and the day you saw me crying?..H..He confronted me trying to run.." She swallowed hard.

"..He..he thinks we belong to him..w-we're nothing but property. He..-He marks u-" She stopped when she felt Agunimon pull her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her in a protective manner. She trembled and bit her lip before she let it go. She allowed herself to cry against him. To let him hold her and rub her back.

"Ssshh..its gonna be okay.." He told her, trying to comfort the weeping girl in his arms. Allison only buried her face into his chest, holding onto him.

"..I'm sorry.."

"Don't be..I just wish I would have known sooner." He rested his chin on top of her head, gazing down with the circus with a new formed hatred in his eyes. Piedmon wouldn't get away with this. He hurt Allison. He hurt everyone there..he was going to pay for what he has done.

"I..c-can't go back..I want to go back home.."

Agunimon rocked her gently, closing his eyes.

"I know..I know..I won't let him hurt you anymore. I won't let him hurt anyone ever again.."

Allison's sobs died down and she just stayed there, resting in his arms. He believed her..he was going to help her. The weight on her chest had lifted slightly. She now had someone who knew what was going on. She could trust him, feel safe around him now..

She stopped crying but his comforting did not. He didn't let her go, he continued to rub her back in gentle soothing way. He felt so warm to her. Agunimon made her feel safe, something she hadn't felt it such a long time. Mis-matched eyes closed shut and she began to drift off, the fireworks show now coming to an end.