Darkness.
The presences had grown so strong, that he thought he could touch them if he just reached out.

They were scary.
And evil. And wrong. He hugged his legs.

Why didn´t the light come?

In the beginning Kari thought she was lucky they decided to take flashlights along, but now she wondered if the bit of light provided made a difference.

Tai and Takuya on WarGreymon´s shoulders were few feet further down than she was on Nefertimon´s back and yet the flashlight hardly reached them anymore. Dark fog was floating around, dimming all kinds of light. Kari looked back up, to where the blue sky should have been. It wasn´t there. The fog had already swallowed the sunlight. Had it not been for gravity, Kari wouldn´t have been able to tell up and down apart. She swallowed hard. It had been only about 10 minutes since they had entered the whirlpool.

She tightened her grip on Nefretimon´s fur. How much deeper did they have to descend?
What could possibly be down there that made even the sun avoid it?

A few minutes later her flashlight lost even more of its effect. If WarGreymon hadn´t been within arm's reach she would have lost sight of her brother. And that possibility scared her.

Kari didn´t like this place. Not at all. She felt Nefertimon´s fur stand to its ends. It reeked of darkness and evil down here. No one should ever enter this place. Especially not light, like her.
Kari felt something press against her consciousness, demanding her retreat. Weak like it was now, Kari had nothing to fear, but if it got stronger it was different. She glanced over to Takuya, her brother and WarGreymon, wondering if they felt the same. Nefertimon did, she was sure, but compared to Kari Nefretimon was a complete light type digimon, she wouldn´t give in to darkness.
Kari was nothing but a human with the crest of light; she was perfectly able to crumble under the pressure.

And as Kari feared the pressure did increase. Once again she glanced over to her companions, entertaining the thought of voicing her concerns and, depending on the answer, turn back.

But as Kari watched, her brother and WarGreymon were starting to radiate in a strange orange light. Kari watched I awe as Tai –equally surprised- pulled his crest out. It was the source. Kari was about to check her own when she noticed, that she and Nefertimon too were glowing. In white.
Were the crests protecting them? Realizing something she looked over at Takuya. It was so dark she couldn´t see him.

"Takuya, are you all right?"

"…"

"Takuya?" Tai turned to face him too.

"Huh? Yeah. I´m fine." Kari couldn´t see him, but guessed that he smiled in that carefree manner again. She wasn´t convinced. If Takuya was anything like her brother he would say that until he collapsed from who-knows-what. And that worried her. They were supposed to protect him. But stuck in the darkness there wasn´t anything she could do.

The thick fog cleared further down. It was still dark, but at least using a flashlight made sense again. Kari directed it downwards, hoping to see anything that might indicate that the goal –whatever that might be- was close. She didn´t spot anything.

"Takuya!" Tai´s surprised yelp made her jump.

A blur of color crossed the light of her flashlight, and Kari understood only later, when she pointed the light to Wargeymon`s now empty shoulder that Takuya had fallen. Both Digimon sped up, hoping to catch him, before he collided with possible ground. They didn´t get far. Dark soil appeared only few feet below. Kari took a relived deep breath. Takuya should have survived a fall from that high. But she didn´t get down from Nefertimon´s back to search. The ground gave her a bad feeling.

"Do you see him over there?" She heard Tai ask, his voice slightly shaken. Kari didn´t answer, instead she called out his name. If he was still conscious Takuya should answer.

"Wrong." A strong, yet slightly familiar voice said. Nefertiomon tensed beneath her. As did WarGreymon. Something moved in the darkness.
Kari narrowed her eyes, tying to see further in it. A shadow stepped into the light, revealing a completely healthy Takuya. His expression was kind of different, though. He smiled, but it was a stern smile, not Takuya´s usual – not that she knew him long enough to call it usual- carefree one. But the thing that ticked her off the most was blue eyes. Was that Takuyas natural eye color? She could swear she would have noticed.

"I am Agnimon." After a blink of confusion Kari prepared for the worst. If there was something down here able to posses someone it was bound to be strong. And what had happened to Takuya? Was he still in there?

"You are Takuya´s partner?" Tai asked the Digimon. Agnimon nodded.

"Where is he?" Kari asked. Shuddering as memories of her own disappearance and time of being possessed surfaced. She pushed the memories out; that wasn´t important right now, she reminded herself.

"Gone." Agnimon gazed into the darkness his smile disappearing. "Taken by the nightmare that is filling this place." He turned around and headed back into the darkness. Tai attempted to climb of WarGreymon´s shoulder to follow Agnimon before he was swallowed by darkness again, Kari was about to do the same despite her uneasiness, when Agnimon stopped and faced them once again.

"I wouldn´t do that." Agnimon warned. Kari immediately stopped dismounting. As did Tai after a second of hesitation.
"What did you mean by 'taken by the nightmare'?" Kari asked when Nefertimon had caught up to Agnimon.

He didn´t answer.

"Shouldn´t we go look for him?"

Still no answer. Agnimon just continued walking and scanning his surroundings. Was he ignoring her?

But, fine, if he didn´t want to talk she wouldn't ask. She didn´t want to test her patience on him in this place.
Tai apparently thought differently.

"Where are we going?" Tai looked around as well, not knowing what to search for.

"Obviously I am searching for Koichi. He is the reason we are down in this hell´s hole."

"Uh…yeah…. I kind of forgot about that." Tai said putting a hand behind his head embarrassed. Kari had forgotten, too.
After a few minutes of unpleasant silence Tai asked the next question.

"What about Takuya? Don´t we need to look for him, too? This nightmare business sounded pretty bad."

Kari saw a small grin lift Agnimon´s lips. A surprising act; considering his grim attitude. His grin was different from Takuya´s as well, she noted.

"No need. As my 'partner' he must burn a puny little nightmare like this to ashes." That might have sounded cold, but Kari heard nothing but absolute trust in Agnimon´s voice.

Kari was so busy admiring that she didn´t notice that Agnimon had just answered pretty much the same question he had ignored from her.

Fading.
Disappearing.
Did it matter if he would just leave? It wouldn´t. Everyone else was disappearing, too. So why would he matter? Maybe, if he faded away the strong presence would be there.

But what if not? What if nothing would change from now?

He decided to wait a bit longer.
What if the presence returned here and he was gone? Would it be alone? He didn´t want that.
So he waited.

What now?
One moment he fell from WarGreymon´s shoulder and the next he stood in some place…dark.
Yep, that was how he would describe it. There wasn´t much of a choice, though. Takuya couldn´t even see his hands in front of his eyes. To top it all that wasn´t the biggest dilemma.

Agnimon and Vitramon were gone.
Takuya clenched his chest. The hole there was something he had to get used to again. The past two weeks– even though he had been unconscious- he had been whole. It would take time to adapt to being alone again. When he had returned from the Digital World four years ago it had taken him a few months. That hadn´t exactly been the best time of his life. He sighed.

But more pressing than that was to find out where he was…..once again. It was turning into a habit. A bad one at that. Takuya just hoped that this time he wouldn´t get beaten within an inch of his life.

Takuya would have liked to check his surroundings out, but seeing the darkness he scratched that from his to-do list. He took a step and smiled. He could move just fine. By just staying in place nothing would happen, hence he decided to search for... anything not dark.

The boy –Koichi, she guessed- had unruly black medium long hair. He wore a uniform; a white shirt and green pants.
He was just lying on the ground a few feet away from Agnimon, WarGreymon, Nefertimon, Tai and her. Unconscious, Kari assumed.

Agnimon was about to take a step towards him when the ground began wobbling and blubbering. Growling furiously Nefertimon took off. But remained floating a few feet above the ground. She didn´t exactly have much space to evade to without losing sight of WarGreymon and Agnimon.

"Who dares to enter our realm? Be gone, you worms." A voice demanded from all around. This was bad. Really bad. They had to get out of here. it was dangerous. Her eyes hushed over to Tai hoping to see her thoughts mirrored, but they weren´t. She followed his line of sight only to find Agnimon at the end. Deciding to trust her brothers judgment she stayed in place. Even if everything in her screamed otherwise.

"Look at what we have here….not quite what I expected, but well…. " Agnimon mused and took a step forward, right into the swaying mass. "I have no business with you cowards. I´m only here to pick my friend up." The swaying grew more violent at his words.

"You shall not have him." A face appeared out of the waves, but Agnimon was unfazed. Very much unlike Kari. Her bones still shook from the voice.

"Disappear!" To Kari the face resembled what she always imagined the devil to look like. Two curved horns growing out of the forehead, a third eye between them, narrow evil eyes and a huge mouth with fangs filling it´s face. Nefertimon hissed at it.

"Try and stop me." Agnimon challenged and cowered down to it. "That is if you can." He smiled wildly. "But I doubt it. With six of you down here I bet not even one is has enough strength to kill a fly."

At his comments five different faces appeared and loud grumbling made the air vibrate. Agnimon smiled even more. But it was a cruel smile. Kari would never have thought that Takuya´s face could be so scary.
He stood up and rammed his foot into the first face. Flames sparking at contact.

"I know that fire-", said one face.
"You brat-", another. Agnimon proceeded to stamping each face into the ground all while grinning.
"You cannot kill us, brat. You cannot take the darkness. We have his soul. He cannot leave. And neither shall your precious boy."
"Like I said; try and stop him." Agnimon sat down next to Koichi. Closing his eyes and –Kari seriously doubted his sanity- he seemed to be dozing off.

"Who was that, Nefertimon?" She inquired of her partner after she snapped back to the present.

She hissed again. "Demon." Kari saw WarGreymon stiffen at the name. It didn´t ring a bell for her.

"One of the seven great demon lords." Kari swallowed. That did ring a bell. Blood drained from her face. That was impossible. How could she still be alive then?
"As were the others." Kari tightened her grip on Nefertimon´s fur.

"…Six of the seven Demonlords? But…. Isn´t it dangerous to even be here then?" Even she heard her voice shake.

"No. Like Agnimon demonstrated, they are nothing but powerless shadows." She landed on the ground. "I suspect they were feeding of this boy´s powers."
"Anyway, with this we have even more bad news to deliver," Tai pointed out, watching the ground grimly.

"What are we doing now? "He asked Agnimon.

"Nothing. Just wait for them to return." Kari guessed he was talking about Takuya and Koichi, but she had no idea from where Koichi had to return. He was right in front of her.

It hurt.
It was hot. Too hot.
And dark.
And he couldn´t move.
Everyone was disappearing.

A sudden pain made him want to shriek. But he couldn´t move.

Takuya was hurrying through the darkness. Something was happening in front of him. He heard angry screams and the sound of combat. It was the voices that made him hurry. He knew all of them.
Takuya had no idea how far he had run or how much he still had to, but he had to hurry, the others could need him. Even if he could see nothing.
The darkness let up, a light made it vanish. For some reason the light made Takuya shiver, though.
He came to a slithering stop when he stepped out of the darkness in a space with almost normal lighting conditions.

Fear and fright froze his soul. A rare emotion to him.
An angel with 5 angel´s and 5´devils wings light the area up. He had blond hair and a cruel smile. Lucemon.
Takuya didn´t stand a chance. Not without Agnimon, not without all the other spirits.
But Takuya´s rationality was swallowed by anger. Lucemon threw two shadows through the air. One was a female with blond hair and purple clothes; Zoe. The other had black hair tied to a ponytail and a bandana; Koji.

"Shit!" he cursed as he rose to his feet after brutally crashing into the ground. His twin hurried to his side, supporting him. JP and Tommy did the same with Zoe. Takuya was about to step to his friend sides when he felt something restraining him.
The darkness he had just stepped out of had taken some kind of form tying him in place.

"Even without our Spirits and Takuya we have to defeat him!" Koji shook Koichi´s hand of, barely managing to stand on his own. "We have to defeat him!"

"What are you saying? I´m right here!" Takuya yelled, thinking Koji either hadn´t seen him yet or chose to ignore him. The timing wasn´t the best for an argument, but Takuya wouldn´t put it past Koji. He didn´t react, neither did the others. What was going on? He was just nailed in place. Not invisible and mute. Was he? Takuya looked down at himself. No, he definitely wasn´t invisible.

"We know that!" Zoe screamed at the edge of panic. She too stood again. Blood dripping from her hand. "It just isn´t easy!"

Takuya had forgotten about Lucemon for a second, but now he painfully remembered said Fallen Angel. Fear clutched his chest. Not for himself, but for his friends. Anger made his blood boil.
Lucemon snickered and stared right at him.

"Enjoy the show." He said amused in the very same voice that Takuya had thought dead for four years. The very same voice that killed Koichi. The very same voice that destroyed the Digiworld. The voice that he would always hate and fear more than anything else.

"Never!" Takuya and Koji cursed in unison. Takuya knew the words were meant for him, but Koji didn´t.
Koji hadn´t been this angry since they left the Digiworld. But neither had Takuya... He struggled against the dark chains that held him in place. Hurting his own skin in the processes.

Lucemon had to die.

He mustn´t be allowed to exist.

"Lets go!" koji yelled and the Warriors charged. Takuya watched in horror as his friends attacked Lucemon. Without their Spirits. Not even with a weapon. And were brutally hurt in the one sided massacrer.

It hurt so much.
The pain stopped from time to time only to be replaced by a new wave of pain and unbearable heat.
It hurt so much.
But he couldn´t move.
Tears couldn´t leave his eyes.
He couldn´t scream.
But it hurt so much.
Maybe it was just better if he just faded away. Maybe on the other side it wouldn´t hurt. But he wouldn´t go for now.

She wouldn´t give up.
Never.
Not from this pain.
It couldn´t defeat her. No matter how much it hurt, she wouldn´t give up.
Not here in this darkness, not when she couldn´t move, not when she didn´t know what was going on.
But even if she did know, she wouldn´t give up.
She was no going to lose this fight.

Who he was he didn´t know, where he was he didn´t know, what he was he didn´t know, but one thing he knew for sure.
Just existing hurt.
He wondered if he had ever existed without this pain.
Was that even possible? He didn´t know, but he didn´t want to go away yet again.

"STOP IT!"

"I won´t stop." Lucemon casually took a step towards Takuya. He clenched his fists struggling against the shackles.
Lucemon took another step.
He felt his senses slip; wrath swallowing his mind. The shackles had already cut in his flesh minutes ago, but Takuya didn´t stop. He didn't need his limps if he couldn´t protect his friends with them.

"Don´t you dare touch them!"

"This is nothing compared to what you put me through." Lucemon came another step forward. Koji gasped for air. His eyes closed in pain and collapsed at Takuya´s feet. Everyone else was in a similar state shattered across the ground. Takuya tasted blood. His nails had long pierced his skin.
His friends were dying. And he was just watching. He knew he couldn´t make a difference, but that bastard was hurting his friends. Unforgivable! He would pay for that. Lucemon stood in front of him and Koji now.
A sword materialized in Lucemon´s hand.
A sword that Takuya recognized as Susanoomon´s.

"Don´t you dare." Takuya whispered. Lucemon could hear him. He knew. Lucemon glanced at him before focusing on Koji to his feet; Lucemon preparing to deliver a strike.

Rage was burning Takuya´s sanity.
He doubted it was the finishing one. Lucemon wanted to make them all suffer for killing him.

Blood splattered on Takuya´s shoes.
Koji´s blood. The blood of the stupid idiot. The blood of his best friend.
Death.
Takuya looked at Lucemon. Lucemon grinned at him. Not paying Koji attention any more, just enjoying the pain he had just caused Takuya.
Takuya returned to look at Koji. The sword had pierced his stomach. Not enough for immediate death. Lucemon pulled the sword out slowly.
Koji grunted; feeling the pain even uncouncious. More blood tainted Takuya red.
A puddle of blood colored the dark soil even darker.

"Who shall be next? Take your pick." That did it. He was going to pay!
Takuya had lost every sense of self-preservation.
The only thing that mattered was that Lucemon was going to die. Takuya doubled his efforts against the shackles, not caring anymore.

"You want to be next?" Lucemon slashed at his chest. Ripping his clothes and flesh apart, but Takuya didn´t care. He didn´t care that once his own sword scratched his bones.
He didn´t even feel it.
He only cared about Lucemon.
So what if his body got damaged?

His own blood mixed with Koji´s on the ground. Doubling the size of the puddle.
He didn´t care.

The loss of blood made Takuya feel hot.
But it didn´t matter.

Kill!

Swaying he stepped over Koji. Closing the distance between him and Lucemon.
Lucemon prepared for the next strike. Amused at Takuya´s efforts. He didn´t care.
He stabbed him the same place as Koji. But it didn´t matter. Instead he grabbed the swords blade. Not allowing Lucemon to pull it back and put distance between them again.
He made a fist.
It couldn´t hurt Lucemon, but that didn´t matter.
He´d make him pay.
Koichi last time. Koji and everyone else this time.
Takuya´s wouldn´t rest before his anger disappeared. And his anger wouldn´t disappear before Lucemon was dead.
He rammed his fist in Lucemon´s still smiling face. Lucemon didn´t bother to dodge or block, knowing tht Takuy could do no more damage then an insect.

His fist erupted in flames at impact.

That shouldn´t be possible, but Takuya didn´t care.
He took hold of Lucemon´s wrist with his other hand. Stetting him on fire.
By now Lucemon didn´t smile anymore. His faces showed pain, hatred and surprise, but it didn´t matter.
Takuya just enjoyed watching Lucemon burn to a crisp by his flames.
Delivering the long deserved justice.

When Takuya stared down at the pile of ashes that had once been one of the most powerful Digimon his rationality slowly returned.

He stared at the ashes.

That shouldn´t have been possible.

Without Agnimon or Vitramon he had no control about fire or to mention that his little firework shouldn´t have been able to put as much as a scratch on Lucemon.

Agnimon smiled.

"And here I thought you geezers knew my fire´s characteristics." Tai, WarGreymon, Nefertimon and Kari shot him a questioning glare. Agnimon still had his eyes closed.

"Or maybe you have just gone senile and this was the best you could come up with." Agnimon still sat beside Koichi on the ground. "Otherwise what made you think you should fuel him with emotions.
What did Takuya call this? Adding oil to the fire?"

Kari had no idea what he was talking about, but she assumed it was nothing bad.
Agnimon smiled after all.

This situation was just odd. No, odd just didn´t cut it. It was down right wrong. Impossible. Sure, Takuya didn´t mind making the impossible possible, but something told him that wasn´t it. Lucemon died way to easily. Like he died ´cause Takuya wanted him to.

Something clicked.

Takuya looked around at his fallen comrades. They shouldn´t have been here. No… they weren´t here. He closed his eyes. He was alone here. He was alone here. Takuya recited until he believed it.
He opened his eyes and smiled.

Well, duh… he knew he was not all that smart, but this had been just stupid.

First of all he was supposed to be inside a huge whirlpool looking for Koichi and Koichi alone. There was no way Koji would have ended up in that evil hole in the first place, not to mention the others who had no connection to darkness.
Secondly he still vividly remembered how he had scanned Lucemon´s data.
And at least but not last there was no way he should be able to control fire without his Spirits. And yet he did.

Takuya still didn´t know where he was, but he guessed this place was influenced by his thoughts and emotions. As prove his friends had all but disappeared. They had never been here; it was only made up by his imagination. Takuya looked down at his supposed-to-be–wounds and was not surprised to see nothing. He was completely fine.

Well then…. If this place reacted to his thoughts then he should be able to find Koichi, right?
Takuya closed his eyes again. Koichi, Koichi…no wait…. Real Koichi, real Koichi, real Koichi….. he repeated this time and thought about his friend. His character, his appearance, his presence…..
Takuya felt a sudden drop in temperature. He opened his eyes again. Now he could see, because he didn´t believe that it was dark around him. He looked where he had landed and couldn´t help but sigh.

Gezz, this was just typical.
Not fair, but typical. Koichi was darkness after all. But seriously, couldn´t darkness get a hold of itself?

Well here you got a glimpse of Agnimons personality. In the anime we didn´t get to know him like that, after all. At first I thought about making him similar to Takuya, but he kind of ended up this way and I think that he has much more possibilities now.

Please comment.

And thanks again for the reviews.:)