The blonde man couldn't help but smile to himself as he stared down at the young child in his arms. Tears were forming in his eyes as he rocked the baby gently. The longer he looked at her, the happier he got. Years ago, he never would have expected this. He and his high school sweetheart had gotten married, and now, had a child.

The baby didn't have a name quite yet, but that was alright with him. He was too excited. She had the same hair color as her mother, a honey blonde color that was darker than his. There wasn't much of it, but the few strands on her head made the color clear. As for her eyes, they were bright blue. This was the blonde man showing in her. She was asleep at the moment, so her sapphire orbs were hidden, but he didn't mind. The fact that she was in his arms was enough.

"You sure do look happy."

The blonde man looked up to see the woman walking towards him. She had a small smile on her face as she looked down at the baby girl. "She looks lovely. I can tell that she's your daughter. It's the eyes that really give it away," she told him. The woman gently stroked the face of the child with one finger. The baby didn't wake up, but she seemed to relax ever so slightly at the touch.

"I already love her," the man smiled, giddy with excitement.

"Do you have a name yet? I can't just call her your daughter forever," the woman said.

"No, not yet. I'm planning on talking to Isara once she wakes up. She's still tired since she just finished giving birth an hour ago. Maybe she'll have some ideas," the man replied.

The woman couldn't hide her frown. "Isara... Isara isn't the best person, you know. I'm worried about the two of you. Well... I'm worried about what she does to you."

"What she does to me?" the man echoed, shock written on his face. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."

"The meeting was last week where we all met up. You tried to hide it, but I saw the bruise on the side of your face. I know that you told me it was from running into a dresser, but... I don't believe you. Are you sure that you're really okay?" the woman asked. "Please talk to me. All our lives, we were best friends, but ever since you two got married last year, you've changed. You're so closed off these days... Nobody can get anything out of you. Please. I'm worried about you."

"Everything is alright. I mean it," the man insisted. "You don't need to worry about me. I'm feeling fine now."

"Now? But what about in the future? And were you okay before? Please, I need you to talk to me. I can't take you hiding things from us anymore. I just want to keep you safe. I'm begging you," the woman pleaded.

"I-I should go... Isara is going to need me..." the man said, turning over his shoulder to look at the hospital room his wife was staying in. "I'll see you later."

The man disappeared from view, leaving the woman standing alone. She stared down at the ground, tears brimming over from her eyes. She rubbed at them with the back of her hand and headed for the door. She needed to go see the only other person she could talk to about this. Her brother would have something to say for sure.

Everleigh was feeling rather relaxed when she first woke up. A week had passed since the assault involving Mikio where Tsukaimon reached the Champion level. Things were almost peaceful these days with the lack of Digimon attacks. Everleigh was fine with this. She hated violence, so she wanted it all to stop. While she doubted it was going to happen, she still enjoyed the quiet while it lasted.

Everleigh clambered out of bed and reached for her hairbrush. She began to stroke it through her waves of hair to convince the tangles to relax. She loved having long hair, but at the same time, it was a bit of a pain to go through every morning. She was fine with it, however, as it made her look more like her adoptive mother. She had always loved the long hair that Mimi sported, so she was glad to imitate it in her own way.

Gomamon was still asleep when Everleigh was finished with getting ready for the day. Since it was Sunday, it was a day that Everleigh could spend how she pleased. School was tomorrow, but she wasn't focused on Monday quite yet. Gomamon was always telling her to live in the present, so she was taking his advice for the time being. She wasn't sure how long her internal peace would last due to her terrible anxiety, but she was going to enjoy it the best she could.

"Hey!"

Everleigh let out a shriek when she heard a voice from behind her. She turned to see Gomamon had awakened. Everleigh was breathing heavily when she spoke. "I-I thought you were asleep..." the girl stuttered, holding her chest. She had grown incredibly pale due to the fright.

"I just woke up. How long have you been awake?" asked Gomamon, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"J-Just a few m-minutes... I-It's our day off, so we should do what we want. Is there anything you want to do?" Everleigh asked of her partner.

"Not really. What about you?" Gomamon replied.

"There's a store that has a book I've been wanting to get... The bookstore is a bit far away, so we'll have to take a train," Everleigh said.

"I guess that's what we're doing then!" Gomamon chirped.

"Are you sure you really want to do that? I mean, today is our day off. Is there something else you'd rather do instead? We don't get this sort of freedom often," Everleigh frowned.

"Nah! You want to go to the bookstore, so we can do that! I just want you happy! Plus, my day will be made if you can get me some rice balls while we're out. I don't get to eat them very much," Gomamon said.

"Well, I suppose we could drop into the bookstore's café after we pick up the book... It's nice and convenient, plus you really like their treats," Everleigh noted. She nodded afterwards. "Okay. It's a plan. Let's get going now so we can be back before lunchtime. I know that Dad will panic if I'm not back on time... You know how he is. He's always been a bit jumpy, especially when it comes to me."

"Yeah. The other Gomamon is always saying how he's freaking out when something even slightly goes wrong. I guess that's just how he is," Gomamon shrugged.

Everleigh crouched down and picked up the messenger bag of hers that was sitting on the floor, propped up against one of the bottom legs of the bed. "I've emptied this out since you were complaining about not having enough space. Just so long as you can fit in there with my wallet and phone, we should be alright. Is that okay with you?" Everleigh asked.

"Just so long as you don't have that big math textbook of yours in here, I'll be fine," Gomamon replied. He let himself be picked up by Everleigh, who set him in the bag. Gomamon moved around for a moment or two before finally settling into a comfortable position. "Okay. I'm good."

Everleigh crossed the room to her desk and picked up her small coin purse. She set it in the bag next to Gomamon before picking up her phone and unplugging it. She put it into the bag next as she opened the door to her room and left, Gomamon staring out of her bag all the while.

Finally, after years of waiting, the day had come.

Hinoka was in the neighborhood that the man in black had pointed her to when the subject of her former husband was brought up. She had a small address written on a slip of paper, which was resting between her index finger and thumb. She looked down at it and glanced up, searching for some sort of indicator that she was going in the right direction.

Her former husband's newer home was near the house they had lived in before all this, but Hinoka had never been to this area before. She had quite a bit of looking around to do if she wanted to find the right place, but she didn't care. At long last, revenge was within her reach.

She didn't know what she would say to him once she found his house. It was a possibility that someone else would answer the door. Maybe it would be their daughter, who was now a teenager and had aged many years since being ripped from Hinoka's side. Maybe it would be his new wife, the one that had meddled so much in Hinoka and her husband's relationship when they were still together. Maybe it would be her husband himself, who would turn pale in the blink of an eye upon seeing Hinoka return.

She knew exactly what she would say to him if he was the one to answer the door. She would say that it had been a long time. She would try to be friendly before asking the one question that she needed an answer to desperately. Where was her daughter? It was time for Hinoka to take back what was rightfully hers, a child that had been torn from her arms before they could even be together for six months. If that meant having to barge past her husband to take her back kicking and screaming, she would do it, because no cowardly husband like hers deserved to have a daughter with the blood of Hinoka.

It was about an hour before Everleigh was stepping off the train and onto the platform. The bookstore was only a few minutes away, so it wouldn't be much longer until she would have her book and Gomamon would have his rice balls.

Everleigh had heard about the book before and all the good reviews it had gotten. It was a courtroom drama regarding a small law agency in California and the cases its lawyers solved as they tried to unravel a larger mystery. The book had originally been written in America and was only recently translated to Japanese. Everleigh had liked the author for many years, specifically their work on a medieval series regarding a continental war between the nations of Akaria and Thotia. It had been one of Everleigh's favorite series for quite some time, so she figured it would be a good idea to look into the other works of the author since she needed something to read.

The bookstore was a good place to read as well. It had a small room with couches and bean bag chairs in it on the top floor of the building. There were large windows that overlooked the sea, making it a nice and peaceful location for one to get homework done or enjoy the scenery and read a new novel. Everleigh considered staying there for a while after Gomamon had gotten his treat and she had bought her book. She deserved a little bit of a break after all the craziness that had been going down recently.

Everleigh walked up to the second floor of the building, which had three floors. The bottom one had novels and the café. The second floor had foreign stories and books for children. The third and final floor contained manga and the reading room. There were cash registers on each floor, so she could check out without going down a flight of stairs.

Everleigh quickly found her novel in the section for books written in America. It wasn't particularly expensive, which was shocking considering how thick it was. The author was known for lengthy tales, but Everleigh was still surprised with its size. She approached the cashier next to pay for her book.

After she was done, she felt something poking her leg. She looked down to see Gomamon was tapping her with his paw from inside the bag. She opened it up as she neared the elevator. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

Gomamon nodded. "I smell a Digimon around here somewhere. I don't know where, but they're nearby," he told her quietly to avoid rousing any suspicion.

"Let's go and get your rice balls first and then head up to the reading room. It'll give us a pretty good view of the area. Plus, you're going to need energy if something does go wrong," Everleigh told him as she stepped into the elevator. There was nobody else with her, so she was able to raise her voice ever so slightly.

"You don't want to fight though, am I right?" Gomamon questioned.

Everleigh sighed and nodded. "Yeah... I was hoping that the attacks had stopped... I mean, there hasn't been anything in a week. I'm hoping that the Digimon you're smelling is just from another one of us DigiDestined nearby..." she murmured.

Gomamon sniffed the air again. "There might be someone like that nearby... I smell a Patamon!" he exclaimed. "It must be Chris or her dad. But I also smell something else. There's another Digimon around here too. We'll have to be careful."

Everleigh nodded and shut her bag, folding the lid of the satchel over the opening. She walked to the café, where she purchased three rice balls, two of them for Gomamon and the last for her. After receiving her treats in a bag, she returned to the elevator and ascended to the reading room.

It was empty, that was for sure. There was only one other person in there, Everleigh noticed. It was a girl with lengthy light brown hair and a flying hamster perched peacefully atop her head, watching her read...

"Patamon!" Gomamon exclaimed. He opened the top of the bag as the orange Digimon looked up. Everleigh dashed over to where Chris and Patamon were sitting on their bean bag chair in the corner and let Gomamon out of the bag. He hopped down to the ground and waved with his large paw.

"Everleigh!" Chris gasped. "I didn't expect to see you here today. Is something wrong? You look slightly on edge..."

"G-Gomamon said he smelled a D-Digimon when we were picking u-up a book..." Everleigh explained, her stutter returning now that she was around people besides just Gomamon. It was a habit of hers since she was a bit tense and anxious around other people besides her partner and family members.

"I see... Maybe that Digimon is around here somewhere. I haven't seen anything suspicious in the bookstore yet, but there might be something outside," Chris suggested. "We should probably go look around."

"We came up here thinking we'd have a good view of the area since we're high up and surrounded by windows," Gomamon explained. "If anything happens, we'll be able to see it immediately. That means that we can go out there and beat somebody up for it."

"If this Digimon is powerful, maybe one of our partners will go to the next level. That's been happening a lot lately. About a third of our partners have reached the next level so far," Chris said.

"M-Maybe..." Everleigh whispered. She wasn't too keen on the whole fighting Digimon deal. After all, she had lived a regular life up until a few years ago, back when she was taken in by Joe and Mimi. She and Gomamon had met straight away, which thrust her into a destiny that hadn't originally been hers. It was unsettling to her, knowing that she had just ended up in this situation by chance without any experience. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do, but she could learn... At the very least, that was what she was hoping for.

"I see something!" Patamon suddenly cried out. He was flying in between Chris and Everleigh's faces now. He was staring out at the ocean. A fiery man had appeared on the shore, sending people scattering. He was large enough to be seen from the bookstore's window even if it was about a quarter of a mile away. Men and women ran in all directions to try and escape him and his reign of terror.

Chris had her Digivice out in an instant. "Meramon. A flame Digimon," she remarked, reading from the screen of her device. "Maybe we can use the water to our advantage. He's got fire, so we can use water to get rid of him easily."

"B-But won't we need a-a Digimon with water a-attacks to do it? H-He's too big and p-powerful for us to just p-pour water on him a-and get rid of him..." Everleigh stammered, looking down at the ground nervously.

"No matter what we do, we should get going. I don't think the general population will be very happy if he gets to the city and starts attacking people," Gomamon cut in. Everleigh nodded in response and dashed to the elevator. The other three followed after her in a hurry as well.

"Wait... I-I don't have my D-Digivice!" Everleigh cried out, her eyes widening as the elevator began its descent.

"Don't worry. It's in your bag. You forgot to take it out when you emptied it," Gomamon told her. He watched as she put her book into her satchel and fished out her Digivice, which made Everleigh sigh in relief.

"Here's to hoping they'll come in handy. My Digivice says that Meramon is a Champion, so I doubt that two Rookies will be able to defeat him. Plus, he looks angry," Chris said next, still looking down at the small device.

Once the elevator had reached the bottom floor, the doors opened slowly. Everleigh and Chris ran out, Patamon in his partner's arms and Gomamon in Everleigh's bag. Everleigh didn't have a response for what Chris had said regarding the inevitable impending evolution. She hated that they had to fight at all. She didn't want Gomamon to potentially get hurt in the fight. If he reached the Champion level, then he'd have to fight Meramon, which would only put him at risk. Couldn't somebody else handle the violent part of being a DigiDestined?

Before Everleigh knew it, she and Chris had arrived at the beach. It wasn't long before they spotted Meramon. Everleigh was still gripping her Digivice tightly when Meramon turned to face them. Patamon took flight as Gomamon hopped from Everleigh's bag. She wanted nothing more than to take him and squeeze him tight, to protect him from Meramon's fiery wrath, but she knew that wasn't going to be happening so long as the flame Digimon was able to fight.

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon shouted as he inhaled a large amount of air before shooting it out in a puff at Meramon.

Meramon didn't have anything to say in response to this. He just groaned and swatted the air away, glaring at the flying hamster. He reached out and grabbed Patamon with one hand. He cried out in pain. Everleigh saw a small amount of smoke fly up from Patamon's back. His fur was being burned because of the fire that made up Meramon's skin.

"Patamon!" Chris yelled. Her grip on her Digivice tightened as she went paler.

Everleigh stared down at her Digivice. She had to do something about this. Nobody could touch Meramon. Gomamon's primary attack involved hurling fish at the target, but that would only kill the fish on contact and would do nothing to Meramon. Patamon couldn't do anything while he was trapped as he was right then. That meant that it was up to Gomamon potentially reaching the next level of power.

Gomamon was approaching Meramon while Everleigh looked at her device for an answer. "Hey there, big guy," he said, looking up at Meramon. Everleigh let out a gasp. He was going to try and either distract Meramon to free Patamon or fight Meramon himself. He was surely going to get hurt.

Meramon responded with a swift kick to Gomamon's chest. The small Digimon was sent flying through the air and into the water nearby. Everleigh screamed in surprise and started to run to him, praying and hoping with all she had that he was okay.

Everleigh found him a few feet into the water. She ignored the waves that were splashing up to her knees and picked him up. "Gomamon... It's going to be okay!" she exclaimed, hugging him tighter.

And suddenly, she understood.

In order to keep Gomamon from getting hurt further, she had to let him reach the Champion level and defeat Meramon. If she didn't, he'd end up getting more hurt than he would have if she had let him Digivolve.

A small flash of light appeared in front of her. It was a small patch of gray data. It sort of reminded her of what she had seen the day Salamon had become Mikemon... This had to be to help Gomamon Digivolve!

She held up her Digivice with one hand and set Gomamon down with the other. The data was absorbed into the device before an electronic voice spoke. "Data Scan complete."

Gomamon began to glow from his place inside the water below. Everleigh watched in awe. Even Meramon turned to look, dropping Patamon into the sand in the process. Chris ran towards Patamon and picked him up. Meramon whirled to face her and looked ready to punch her, but he backed off and instead ran towards where Gomamon was glowing in the water.

"Gomamon, Digivolve to... Tylomon!"

Gomamon, now in the form of Tylomon, burst through the surface of the waves not long after. He was surrounded by a sphere of water as he floated up into the air. Everleigh's eyes went wide as she watched him. He looked amazing!

Meramon wasn't having any of this. "Fireball!" he shouted. Fire crackled on his arms as he thrust them forwards. Flames burst forth and danced through the air to hit the sphere of water that Tylomon was inside.

However, his attacks never hit Tylomon himself. Instead, the flames died away the second they hit the watery orb. Steam rose up into the air before disappearing entirely. Everleigh watched, clutching her Digivice to her chest as Tylomon flew deeper into the water, prompting Meramon to follow after him.

Meramon chased Tylomon deeper into the water. Everleigh dashed away when Meramon grew close, going over to where Chris and Patamon were sitting on the beach to watch from a safer vantage point.

Tylomon did a small flip from his place in the water. He looked sort of like a blue torpedo to Everleigh. There was no way that Everleigh could look at him and not think that he was at least a little bit cool. She couldn't believe that her goofy little Gomamon was really the same Digimon as this epic newcomer, Tylomon, as he seemed to be called.

Everleigh watched as Meramon continued to go deeper into the water. She got the impression that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, or even in the whole world for that matter. He was a flame Digimon that was going further into an ocean. If he kept going, he was going to end up being more and more damaged until he turned into data. Well, that was if Tylomon didn't burst out an attack and eliminate him before the water could get rid of him. It depended on what Tylomon decided to do.

"Looks like you're not the brightest bulb out there, eh?" Tylomon asked. He looked at Meramon as the fiery Digimon realized that he was standing knee deep in water. Steam delicately floated upwards around him as Meramon's eyes went wide in fear and shock that he had willingly done something so stupid.

"Well, I'm going to finish you off before you have the chance to hurt anyone else. Hydro Wave!" Tylomon shouted. Water burst forth in a geyser coming from his sphere of water. It slammed right into Meramon's chest. He fell backwards into the water before exploding into a puff of data and disappearing.

Tylomon approached Everleigh before returning back to normal. Gomamon flopped down into Everleigh's arms and sighed dramatically. "I'm tired after all that. Do you think maybe we could get some more rice balls before heading back home? I could use a little pick-me-up," Gomamon said, looking up into Everleigh's eyes. His gaze was pleading with her.

"Well, you d-did pretty well a minute a-ago... I guess it wouldn't h-hurt!" Everleigh exclaimed, smiling at him. She pulled him in close for a hug.

"I should probably go home... I'm sure my parents have something to help Patamon out with this patch of burned skin on his back... Poor thing," Chris whispered. Patamon had fallen asleep in her arms, likely due to the pain of the burn. She stroked her partner gently and looked down on him lovingly.

"M-My father probably has something t-to help... You know, s-since he's a doctor and a-all..." Everleigh stammered.

"I might just take you up on that offer. He'll probably have something a bit better. Thank you, Everleigh," Chris said.

Everleigh nodded as Chris's phone emitted a beeping sound to indicate that she had gotten a text. The girl opened her purse and fished out her phone before turning it on.

Everleigh could see by looking over her shoulder that it was a text from her father. Its words sent a shiver of fear up and down her spine.

'DON'T COME HOME'

Hinoka had finally found the right house after having been searching for so long. She stood in front of it, a smirk on her face. This all didn't even seem real. After years upon years of being lonely since her no good former husband had taken her daughter and her marriage when he left her in the night, she was finally at the time of her revenge. It felt so sweet. Many had told her during her childhood that revenge was something one shouldn't get involved in. Hinoka couldn't see what was so bad about it. She felt great, magical even. How could someone not want to feel this sort of happiness?

Hinoka's fingers gently brushed upon the surface of the door as she knocked. There wasn't any sort of hole on the door for the people inside to see who it was. Even if there had been one, it wouldn't have mattered. They still would have known that she was there and wasn't planning on giving up until she had gotten what she wanted.

It wasn't long before the door opened to reveal a woman. Kari Kamiya. Well, these days it was Kari Takaishi. She was the woman who had taken her husband from her after he had run away and left her alone. Hinoka had spoken with her many times over her relationship with her husband, most of the conversations ending in sour looks from Hinoka.

"What... What are you doing here?!" Kari exclaimed in shock, her face having gone pale.

"I'm here to claim what is rightfully mine," Hinoka told her. "I'm here for my daughter, Chisane Takaishi. Where is she?"

"TK!" Kari cried in fear. She was gripping the door handle and trembling by this point. Hinoka couldn't help but feel powerful. How could she not? After all those years of feeling spiteful and full of anger and a need for revenge, seeing one of the people who had hurt her so much shake in terror was all too satisfying for her. She couldn't help but feel a bit of euphoria over it.

Hinoka's former husband appeared not long after. As soon as his eyes met Hinoka's, he went pale. "I... Isara..." he whispered in fear.

"It's nice to see you're not dead yet, but I really wish you were," Hinoka said to him in anger. She let a sadistic smile appear on her lips as a question formed. "I will ask one more time. Where is my daughter?"

TK had the door shut in the blink of an eye. He locked it as quickly as he could before taking Kari's hand and dashing to the living room. He was visibly shaking when he pulled out his phone and began to text Chris. She was still out looking for a book at the bookstore. He couldn't let her come home so long as Isara Hinoka was still around. He didn't even want to know what was going to happen if Isara got her hands on her.

"What... What are we going to do?" Kari asked, sitting down next to him on the couch.

"I... I have no idea," TK whispered.

I finally did the update thing! Yes!

Also, we have a bit of self-promo with the book Everleigh went to buy. That's about Quiet after the Hurricane because Quiet after the Hurricane. Why not? Speaking of, an update for that is coming later on today. Nice.

Oh yeah. The obvious part. Plot twist! Everybody likes those. I hope that it wasn't too obvious or anything.

I don't have much else to say here. I think I'm going to go and leave any reviewers to wonder about the plot twist and stuff in the review section. I'll answer anything next chapter.

Next week, we'll have a double QATH update! After that, we'll have Demon of Desire and QATH. As of now, QATH is a thing every week which is cool.

I'm off now. I hope you enjoyed!

-Digital