Here is Chapter Nine of QueenGatomon's Private Challenge Slavery.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Izzy ran as fast as his legs would carry him. He took the stairs up to Tai's apartment two at a time, and pounded on his door, out of breath.

"Come in, Izzy, what did you find out?" Tai asked the moment he opened the door.

"I got an email from Gennai," Izzy said hurriedly, clutching a paper in his fist. "Tai…Dragomon and Daemon are back…and they've turned all of our Digimon into slaves."

"Agumon…" Tai gasped. No wonder they hadn't heard anything!

"And that's not all. The reason we weren't able to open any ports is…" Izzy paused for breath, reaching inside his shirt and yanking out his crest.

It had faded.

"Our Digimon have lost hope that we would come, and the crests are powerless now," Izzy delivered the verdict and Tai felt as if his head might explode.

With a shaking hand, Tai brought out his own crest, and stared in horror at the lifeless crest of Courage that lay in his palm.

"It can't be—what are we going to do, Izzy?" Tai whispered. It was strange hearing those words from Tai's mouth. He was their leader; but now things had changed and everyone was lost.

"I guess it's all in Jim and his team's hands now," Izzy insisted.


Gatomon stood by Patamon's side. Gently, she wrapped a blanket around his sleeping form. In the days leading up to their escape, he had grown weaker, fighting for every breath. She lifted him as if he were made of glass, and laid him in the sling across Gabumon's back.

The moment had come.

"Ready?" Gabumon asked.

"Yeah; I think Patamon will be okay for the trip," Gatomon smiled. She heard a shrill whistle cut through the air—Agumon's signal.

As the dungeon erupted in chaos, prisoners breaking down cell doors with attacks, and immobilizing startled guards, Gabumon aimed a Blue Blaster attack at their cell wall, and together, he and Gatomon ran for their lives, counting on the Digimon who fought outside to cover their escape.


"I should have known something was wrong."

T.K. looked up when his brother spoke. They were in Matt's hospital room, and it was unusually quiet out in the halls. Visiting Hours hadn't ended yet, and T.K. could see shadows of feet walking from under the closed door.

The nurse had just left from checking on Matt after his dialysis session that day. While he tried to be strong and was hoping to go home soon, T.K. sensed that his brother was also falling into a depression.

Dialysis was hard on him. As the time went by, Matt was becoming more and more tired. On top of his weekly treatments, he had to deal with Gabumon being in trouble. When Tai gave them the news, Matt had gone so pale; T.K. thought he was going to faint.

"What do you mean?" T.K. ventured.

"I've been feeling bad for a while, but I didn't want to tell Dad. Then my crest stopped shining and…" Matt trailed off, crumpling the bed sheets in his fists.

"Wait," T.K. said. "Your crest stopped shining when you got sick?"

"Yeah," Matt leaned his head back against his pillows and closed his eyes. T.K. saw the dark circles smudged under his eyes.

"Don't you think that's kind of a coincidence?" T.K. wondered.

"I don't know," Matt muttered.

Suddenly T.K. understood. Matt's fate and the fate of their Digimon were somehow intersected. If one was destroyed, the other would follow. It had happened once before, when the Dark Masters had took over the Digital World, merging both worlds together. He hadn't realized it could happen to humans and Digimon as well.

T.K. shivered as an image of Matt and Patamon was smashed to smithereens before his eyes.

"Are you cold?" Matt wondered. They always kept the air conditioning too high in these places.

"No, I'm fine," T.K. insisted. They had to save the others…and fast.