Chapter Word Count: 2,130||Story Word Count: 21,438||Chapter Count: 10/30
Challenges: February Secret Multichap Advent Exchange, prompt #25, family

Miyako's tea cup shook in her hands, but she didn't drop it. She considered herself good for that. She took a careful sip, doing all that she could to savor the taste, and tried to bring her mind around to what she'd been told.

"I don't get how, though. I've seen baby pictures of me. My mom and dad don't even know about the Digital World." She wanted answers and the sooner the better.

Sora toyed with her own cup of tea. "You can't be sure about that. I didn't think my mother did until I brought it up."

"What we need to do at the moment is figure out where the Kaiser's fortress is. That's the most likely place for all of them to be: Takeru, Yamato, and Taichi," Koushirou said. "Your D-3s should be able to track them if we're close enough."

"But the problem there is getting close enough," Iori pointed out. "And since we almost never detect the Kaiser, he has some kind of blocking mechanism."

"You're right." Koushirou's eyebrows knitted together in thought. "Anbumon will come out after us. I suspect the Kaiser will too. He has a driving need to see all Digimon as his slaves." His lip curled at that. "He won't want to miss us. And Anbumon will tell him everything he wants to know about us, I'm sure."

Hikari toyed with her camera, more for wanting to give her hands something to do than anything else. "I think we should get Gabumon and Agumon under some kind of protection. Anbumon will want him, too, and he'd probably want Agumon to help with Taichi."

Miyako couldn't remember having seen Hikari so sad. It sort of wasn't surprising, not with her brother having been abducted more or less by his best friend. But she didn't like it, nevertheless. If what she was, if this power she barely even understood could help fix that, then she'd do it, without hesitation.

"Good idea," Sora agreed. "I'll see if I can get in touch with Piyomon and have her pass the word to them."

"It might be a good idea to have them all gather in some safe place," Jou suggested, leaning forward in his chair, hunched over. "Do we have any safe places?"

Quick looks flew between all of the Chosen, and Koushirou's fingers flew over his laptop keys once again.

"Theoretically, a safe place would be anywhere they guard, but with Anbumon around, I wouldn't call any of those safe. They can't evolve without us there, and he could take out any of them anyway. We need somewhere they can get in touch with us as fast as possible, and where he might not think to look."

Sora considered Koushirou's information before she leaned forward herself. "I've got an idea. He might look there sooner or later, but it might last for a while. Maybe long enough to get Yamato back."

With Koushirou's permission, she pulled up a particular corner of the Digital World. "The Village of Beginnings. It's risky, but with everyone there, they could protect Elecmon and the baby Digimon if something happened."

"The Village of Beginnings?" Iori and Miyako asked in near-perfect unison. Hikari let out a tiny laugh.

"We haven't taken you there yet. We haven't needed to. The Kaiser pretty much ignores it. But it's where baby Digimon come from." She glanced from Sora to Jou to Koushirou to Miyako. "Most of them, anyway."

"And it looks like it's not just Elecmon there anymore," Koushirou said, his laptop back with him. "There's a new guardian there. Two of them, in fact."

All of those who'd been to the Village now looked right at him. "Who?"

Koushirou smiled and for the first time since knowing him, Miyako thought he resembled a cat more than anything else.

"One of them is Ogremon. The other one is my father."

Anbumon strolled into the dining area, with Taichi right behind him, too exhausted from their earlier activities to put up a fight, or even the least of protests.

The Kaiser sat at the head of the table, with Akigaramon at his feet, looking as worn out as Taichi, but for different reasons.

At least Anbumon thought the reasons would be different. He didn't really care to question it at the moment.

An empty seat waited at the Kaiser's right hand and Anbumon took it gracefully, motioning for Taichi to kneel beside him. Taichi gave him a very annoyed look and started to draw breath, probably to protest, until Anbumon cut him off, dragging him down by the collar to seal their lips together.

"Do as you're told and you won't be punished. Better still, I won't find Agumon and punish him in your stead," Anbumon murmured. "Can he still evolve to Ultimate? Would you like to see him go up against me?"

He'd never seen Taichi go that pale, nor did he miss the way Taichi's gaze shifted over to the Kaiser for a moment. Then the brunet sank down to his knees, the fight draining out for the moment. It would come back. Anbumon knew Taichi far too well to presume he'd give up after only a few hours under Anbumon's ministrations.

"I captured his Agumon once," the Kaiser said as he started eating, feeding Akigaramon a few bites along the way. The newly discovered Digimon ate greedily, though the fire in his eyes told Anbumon he was no more tamed than Taichi was.

These Children of Courage did take a while to submit, it seemed. But it was a good fight to get them under control and made the results very much worth it.

"Is that so?" Anbumon raised an eyebrow. "What happened there?" Clearly he'd been released somehow. Kaiser wasn't the type to just let a prisoner go, especially not one a powerful as Agumon.

Kaiser waved a hand. "It led to developing my Evil Spirals. But then this one," he tapped Akigaramon on the forehead, "found the Digimental of Friendship and was able to break it."

Anbumon didn't find himself surprised at all to see the quick, shared look of triumph between the two of them. He closed his eyes for a moment or two, scouring the shared depths of memory between himself and Yamato. Finding that particular event wasn't hard; it hadn't happened that long ago, and he could not help but be amused at the pride Yamato had in the younger Chosen for sharing his virtue.

"Here." Kaiser set a goblet in front of Anbumon. "This is your next dose of the serum. You'll need to take it at least twice a day. I still need to research a more permanent version, but that shouldn't take long."

"It won't need to." Anbumon picked up the cup and stared into the murky depths before he drained it dry. "The longer that I'm around, the stronger I get."

He could feel the effects of the serum already, his strength increasing and the few vague flickers of Yamato, mostly stirred up by his encounter with Taichi, easing back down, covered by the folds of shadow that existed in his mind.

"Let him out," Taichi growled. "Get back to where you belong."

Anbumon slapped Taichi without looking at him. "No one told you that you could talk. Stay quiet or I'll find something else for you to do with your mouth that I'll enjoy much more."

He paid attention to his own meal then, declining to feed Taichi until the other stayed quiet for a full quarter of an hour. Some people simply needed training to learn their proper place. Better still, to accept it. Taichi was a long way from accepting his.

"We haven't uncovered his precise abilities as of yet," Kaiser continued, gesturing to Akigaramon. "But the more I train him, the more certain I am they'll show themselves, sooner or later."

Anbumon nodded; the more mortal peril a Digimon, born or hatched, was put in, then the better chances that their power would display itself. Evolution was also a possibility, but with the Spiral around Akigaramon's arm, he wasn't going to rest certain of that.

Bred Digimon changed the rules in so many ways. It was one of the reasons he could stand up to his father, despite Piemon having thousands of years of experience on him.

The old clown certainly hadn't expected that, either. A soft reminiscing smile played over his lips at that.

Another thought slid in at the same moment, a rare time of quiet contemplation between himself and Piemon.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again. Gennai stole both of you when you were little more than babies." The clown did not look his age, at least not how humans would expect him to, but Anbumon knew very well that Piemon held the position of being the oldest Digimon short of the Digital Gods themselves, and he wasn't even properly certain of that.

"Both of us?" Anbumon didn't quite like the idea of there being someone else to possibly rival his power. He'd fought too hard over the last few weeks to attain the position that he had.

"I sired two sons on two different human women, both lured here through small cracks between the worlds." Piemon fiddled with a tiny knife as he spoke. "So far, you're the only one of them who has returned to the Digital World."

Anbumon flexed his fingers. The other might not ever come back. Though given Gennai's trickery, it wasn't a certain and sure thing. He'd already ensured that at least half of the Chosen carried Digimon blood, and what reason for that? Another question to ask him once Anbumon got him underneath his blades.

"And what would his name be?" Anbumon wondered. He wanted to know, so that if he caught word of his 'brother', he would go out of his way to make certain he wasn't being challenged.

If that meant testing to see if born Digimon could be reconfigured or revived into an egg, well, someone had to be the first, didn't they?

"Akogimon." Anbumon did not miss the pride in his father's voice. "I named you both before Gennai got his hands on you." Without warning, he threw the knife toward the nearest wall, burying it halfway to the hilt. "You are a strong son and a worthy heir, Anbumon, but I wanted the raising of you myself." He turned those mad eyes of his upon his son, who stared back without fear. "There would never have been that Gabumon or those humans to distract you from your purpose. I can't even imagine what 'connections' Akogimon will have to deal with."

Anbumon rose to his feet and moved over to wrench the knife out, examining it himself. He knew well that Piemon could fall it back to him at any moment and the fact he didn't pleased Anbumon.

"Those connections mean nothing to me," Anbumon promised. He'd already made his first plans on backstabbing his father once they'd disposed of the Chosen Children. He was the most powerful in all of the Digital World and he deserved the unquestioned throne of the world. "You need fear nothing, father."

Nothing that wasn't Anbumon himself.

But the idea of Akogimon lurked in Anbumon's thoughts, a potential rival, someone who could stand up against him. Would he be a Chosen Child as well, with a partner of his own to increase his strength? Would he desire to fight to defend the Digital World or to claim it for his own? Neither of those could be allowed. Perhaps if he agreed to kneel to Anbumon and serve his elder brother properly, being his left hand as Gabumon would be his right – once his training finished – he would consider sparing Akogimon.

Perhaps.

"Has there been any sign of the Chosen doing anything constructive as of yet?" Anbumon wanted to know, not really caring that much about the answer, but not wanting Kaiser to ask about what was on his mind.

He wanted to know a great deal, much of it starting to involve the Kaiser himself, but he chose not to express that at the moment. If Kaiser was who Anbumon thought he might be, then it would be better to wait until he wasn't on guard and take him out then.

There were more differences between Yamato and Anbumon than many could guess. Yamato would do anything at all for his brother, protecting him to his last breath if the occasion required it and Takeru couldn't protect himself.

Anbumon would gleefully stab his own brother in the back, and if Akogimon wasn't quick enough to defend himself, then so be it.

The strongest ruled in the Digital World. Anbumon would never let himself be anything less.

To Be Continued

Notes: It's not a big secret of who Akogimon is, is it? I haven't really kept it a secret...