Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. Thanks and enjoy!

Second Cry--Chapter 8

Mimi looked up at the towering structure in front of her in awe. She had never seen anything like it. It was made entirely out of stone. Hundreds of arched windows stared from the walls and it was extremely tall.

"What is it, Koushiro?" she breathlessly queried of the redhead.

"It appears to be some sort of temple, but I've never seen anything quite like it."

"Should--should we--go in?"

"I'm not sure."

The two stood staring at the temple silently for a few moments before Mimi shivered and said: "it's cold. I'm going in."

She walked through the door of the temple, Koushiro close behind her.

The inside of the temple wasn't much to look at, as there was no decoration whatsoever. The only feature inside the temple was a set of stone steps.

Mimi began climbing the stairs, going up flight after flight until she reached the top.

She could see out of one of the windows and the view took her breath away.

Mountains rose and fell, looking black against a clear sky. At the bottom of every mountain was an abundance of lush vegetation that climbed part of the way up the rocky slopes.

"It's very pretty," she murmured.

Koushiro agreed and the two admired the beautiful landscape until a loud crash from beneath alerted them of the presence of someone other than themselves.

Mimi jumped and grabbed Koushiro's hand, eyes wide with fear.

"Who else could be here?" she whispered, squeezing his hand tightly.

"It may be one of our friends," Koushiro suggested.

Mimi turned this over in her mind before looking down at their still clasped hands. She blushed lightly and let go of Koushiro's hand quickly.

The sound of somebody mounting the stairs come to their ears and Mimi felt another stab of fear.

Whoever is here is going to find us, she thought, thoroughly hoping this would be a good thing.

~*~

Daisuke slowly got to his feet. He felt stiff all over, but that was definitely an improvement from being unable to move. He looked around and realized that Iori was the only one with him and they were near the edge of a huge canyon. The other canyon wall was visible hundreds of yards away. The only thing that connected the two drop-offs was a small rope bridge. It reminded Daisuke of a tightrope except with two ropes to hold on to as you inched across.

"Iori, what happened?" he inquired.

"Daisuke! You're up," Iori exclaimed.

"Yeah, can you tell me what happened to everyone else?"

Iori took a deep breath and said: "we're supposed to get to Quewari but some black light separated us all."

Daisuke was very confused by all this. "Quewari?" he repeated. "Black light? What?"

Iori told Daisuke of the tear in time, the war between Dark and Light, the messenger--everything that had happened to them from the point the demon had left Yamato and entered him.

"So the messenger didn't say anything about where Quewari is?"

Iori shook his head. "Hey! What are you doing?" he shouted. Daisuke was beginning to walk closer to the edge of the cliff.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going across the bridge."

"But maybe we should stay here," Iori argued. "What if the others are looking for us?"

"And what if they aren't? What if they can't?"

Iori thought about this for a second and realized that there was a good chance that one of their friends was hurt.

"Lets go."

The two set off for the rope bridge.

~*~

Koushiro didn't want to say it aloud, but he seriously doubted whoever was on the stairs was one of their friends. The footfall was too heavy for anyone they knew and with every step he heard a scraping noise he couldn't quite place.

He looked at Mimi and from the look on her face he could tell she heard it, too.

"Koushiro, what is that?" she whispered.

Koushiro listened, straining his ears to hear the scraping sound a bit better.

There it was again--a thump and then a loud scrape. It sounded like a sharp rock scraping against the stone stairs. Then he knew exactly what it was--a claw. Whatever was coming up the stairs wasn't human.

"Come on," he whispered, taking hold of Mimi's hand and leading her away from the window.

"Where are we going?"

Koushiro signaled for her to be quiet and led her behind the stairs where they both knelt.

When whatever that thing is gets up here we'll make a run for it, he thought. It won't be able to see us right away unless it comes up the stairs backwards.

The scraping noise was growing louder. Whatever was coming after them was drawing nearer.

Mimi was squeezing his hand so tightly it was cutting off his circulation, but he didn't care.

And then it came into view. Koushiro saw it, but he didn't believe it--until he saw the embers raining out of its mouth. It had extremely long claws at the end of each of its feet. Long, brownish-green scales covered its body and serpentine neck and head like thick armor. As he watched it spread enormous leathery wings that had hooked claws at the tips. It had spikes all down its back and long tail--which disappeared from sight as it was still mostly in the hole in the ground that led to the stairs. It was a dragon.

Mimi drew in her breath to scream and Koushiro clamped his free hand over her mouth to prevent her from alerting the dragon of their presence.

The dragon flicked its long tail out of the way of the stairs and Koushiro got to his feet. Mimi also got to her feet and Koushiro noticed that her face was white.

No, Mimi. Don't, he silently pleaded. Please not now.

But Mimi's knees went weak and she fainted. Koushiro caught her and picked her up. He inched past the dragon's tail, being careful to avoid stepping on it and began silently going down the stairs. Before he got to the next floor he chanced a glance up at the dragon. His heart nearly stopped--he was looking right into its eyes.

The eyes alone seemed to burn holes into him. Embers were flitting down the steps and one of them hit the hand he was holding Mimi with. He almost dropped her, but he forced himself to hold on.

And then he was out of his trance and running down the stairs.

Almost there, he thought as he saw the first floor. But he felt something hot behind him. He looked up to see a huge fireball hurtling toward him and Mimi.

Koushiro ran faster, but the fireball was moving at an incredible speed. In his haste he tripped and fell off the stairs for the final five feet. The fireball hit the ground where he would have been and exploded.

He was still holding on to Mimi and he raced out of the temple.

We made it, he thought.

His stomach lurched when he heard a crash behind them. He turned and saw the dragon exploding forth out of the top of the building. Huge pieces of stone from the roof flew outward and the dragon spread its huge wings. Now that it was in the open it looked ten times bigger than it had when it was when it had been inside. The dragon bolted after them and Koushiro ran as fast as he possibly could while still holding on to Mimi.

He could see a small cave, but it was so far away and the dragon was getting nearer and nearer to the every second.

With a final burst of speed, he made it to the cave. Moments later the dragon was at the entrance, ramming the opening violently.

Koushiro backed as far away as he could from the opening and pressed his back against the cave wall, only able to watch as the dragon inhaled, gathering itself to blow its fire into the cave, readying itself to fry them both to a crisp…

~*~

Iori looked down into the canyon. That's a long drop, he thought. I hope that bridge is safe.

"Iori, come on!" Daisuke shouted. He was already making his way across the rope bridge.

Iori grabbed hold of one of the support ropes and balanced both feet on the single rope stretched between him and a very long drop.

He resisted the urge to look down and held onto the safety rope tightly as he slowly walked across the bridge.

The two of them made it all the way across with no mishaps only to see that they were in the middle of a desert.

"Do you hear something?" Iori inquired, furrowing his brow. He could swear he heard a thundering noise from far off in the distance.

Daisuke listened for a moment and replied: "yeah. It sounds like--like--horses."

"Horses?" Iori repeated.

"Iori, have you ever watched one of those old westerns where there are a whole bunch of people on horses? It sounds exactly like that."

Iori listened more carefully. It did sound like horses. He looked up and saw hundreds of horses from far off approaching them.

"Should we run?" Iori questioned.

"Not yet. I want to see who they are," Daisuke answered.

The thundering noise of the horse's hooves became louder and louder. The people were much closer now.

After a couple of minutes the horses finally reached them. The man who seemed to be the leader was shirtless and his face, neck and chest were a dark tan partly from the sun and partly from heritage.

His hair was dark and his eyes were wild. And he was holding a spear--pointed directly at Daisuke and Iori along with all the other members of his group…