Massive AU. There are many different realities, but only one Digital World connecting them. V-Tamer Taichi must gather a team of Chosen:

a hero, a cage fighter, a thief, a spy, a convict and a prophetess. Thrown together by fate, they might be the Digital World's only hope.

Zenjirou clicked shut the safe once the last of the night's earning were inside. More than a decent night, he would have to make sure that the Dancing Floramon Revue's contract was enticing enough to get them to stay.

Nene raced inside, a white robe covering her see-through nightgown. "Zenjirou!"

He leapt to his feet. "What is it?"

"Downstairs, hurry!"

He followed her down his private staircase to the lower floor used for dignitaries and celebrities. She opened the door to the largest suite and his mouth dropped. "Last I heard you guys were taken by the Chosen Masters."

Ruki stood from the small table. "Yeah, we were."

He shook his head. "Well, you can keep on moving. I don't want any trouble."

"Trouble?" Tomas gasped, "You hired me to…"

"And you got caught," he said, "I help revolutionaries who stay under the radar. I won't have the Digital Army storming this place looking for you. Now get out."

"We had nowhere else to go," Ken sighed, "Taichi's…"

The strange, boy with the gravity-defying hair was absent. "Where is Yagami, anyway?"

Nene pushed him into the bedroom. Taichi was lying on the bed with a blood red bandage wrapped around his torso, his eyes closed tight.

"Shit!" Zenjirou gasped, "You really are in trouble."

A young girl he had not seen before appeared in front of him. "Please Mr. Zenjirou, help him."

He sighed. "You're just lucky I can't say no to cute girls." He motioned to Nene, "Call the doctor."

The Dead Princess

Chapter 10

Warriors of Darkness

Nene changed the washcloth on Taichi's forehead. She sighed, "This isn't good. His fever's getting worse."

Ruki did not think Ai's eyes could grow any larger. "W-what does that mean?"

"He has an infection," Tomas frowned.

"The doctor's coming though, right?" Koromon asked from the small chair at the bedside, "He's gonna be fine, right?"

Ruki stared at the unconscious boy in the bed. How was she supposed to feel right now? You were supposed to feel sad when a friend was hurt, right? So how come she was so pissed off that she wanted to order Renamon to destroy everything in sight. Even that was a stark change to only a few weeks ago…few days ago. She would have just look down her nose at Yagami, call him a weakling, but now…

"Damn it, Yagami," she thought, "You called me your friend. You're the first person who ever did. If you die, I'm gonna follow you to the afterlife to kick your ass there!"

The door swung open as Zenjirou's face became visible in the light. "Well?" Ken asked.

The boy smiled and stepped aside to reveal a taller person in a trench coat and top hat. "The best doctor in all of the Digital World, Dr. Jyou Kido."

He removed his hat and trench coat to reveal a fitted dark suit. A Gomamon waddled beside him with a black medical bag in his teeth. "Zenjirou told me there was an emergency," he said as he walked towards the bed. Ruki and Tomas stepped aside and his patient was revealed.

His legs gave out and he grabbed the side of Koromon's chair. "T-taichi?"

Ken caught him before he fell over. "Not the same one."

Jyou blinked. "That voice…" He turned and gave another gasp. "Ichijoji!"

"Yes, good to see you again, Dr. Kido."

"Hold up," Junpei said, his eyes glaring at Ken, "You know him?"

Ken sighed, "We've met."

Ruki heard the tone in his voice, but Renamon spoke first. "I'm guessing it wasn't as friends."

Jyou opened his mouth again, but Ken cut him off. "We can go over our histories later, Taichi needs your help."

The older teenager continued to stare at Ken before turning to Taichi and then back again. His face hardened and he motioned to his partner. Gomamon jumped onto the bed with the medical bag like a cat carrying its favorite toy. "This is heavy," he said.

Jyou zipped open the case and pulled out a stethoscope. He placed it against Taichi's chest. "Heart rate's steady…breathing's a little labored…" He placed a hand on his forehead, "High fever." Yanking on a pair of surgical gloves, he removed the make-shift bandages and gasped: blood continued to ooze out of a baseball-size hole in Taichi's torso.

"How bad is it?" Koromon asked, his eyes quivering.

Jyou fished around inside his bag, "He'll need a skin graft immediately."

"Can we help?" Tomas asked.

The doctor smiled as he pulled a hand-held square device from his bag. "One good thing about being a Chosen is that our bodies become closer to data…"

He pressed the device up against Taichi's bare arm and pressed a button the side with his thumb. The device hummed for a moment and then beeped. Holding the same button, he waved the device over the wound in Taichi's side. Bits of data, not dissimilar to a dying Digimon's data, appeared over the hole, stitching together into new skin. After a few more sweeps, the wound had vanished as if it had never existed.

Jyou then pulled a syringe from his bag, ran his hand over Taichi's arm until a vein pushed slightly through the skin, and rammed the needle into it. "What about your bedside manner?" Gomamon asked.

"Too late, he's already unconscious," Jyou replied. He wiped his forehead. "Hopefully that will take care of the infection."

"So he's okay?" Ai asked.

The doctor smiled. "Yeah, I think he'll be okay."

The others let out a collective sigh of relief. "Thanks doc," Junpei grinned, "We owe you one."

"Don't promise anymore favors," Zenjirou sighed, "His bill's gonna be through the roof as it is!"

Jyou pulled off his gloves and plopped down in one of the chairs. "Well," he said to Junpei, "You can start by explaining what's going on."

The Digital Knights glanced at one another and Ruki growled. "Fine! I'll do it. "She pointed to the boy in the bed, "That's not the Taichi you know. He's from a different world then the world of the Chosen Masters."

Jyou continued to inspect Taichi's injuries while listening to the orange-haired girl. "Parallel universes," he mumbled, "Just when I thought I had seen all the surprises this world had to offer."

"It's not really because of the Digital World," Tomas said, "It's…"

Ken held up his hand, "Koushiro Izumi explained it to us."

Jyou's head twirled. "You've seen Koushiro?"

Ken motioned to Taichi. "Ishida did that to him."

Jyou sighed and plopped into a puffy chair. "I see."

"What's going on?" Junpei demanded, "Someone had better start talking!"

Zenjirou, who had been leaning back against the corner of the room, nodded. "Yeah Doc, I've never seen you like this before."

"You'd better tell 'em, Jyou," Gommamon said, "Or else we might end up in the river with cement shoes."

Jyou gave him a half-hearted smile. "Always good at lightening the mood."

Zenjirou crossed his arms. "I've never done that," he muttered.

Jyou took a breath, "I came to the Digital World with Koushiro and the others…"

Ruki grabbed her digivice with Renamon leaping behind her, teeth barred. "You're a Chosen Masters?"

"No," Jyou said, "I fought with them a long time ago, but I was never a Chosen Master. Along with Taichi, Yamato, Koushiro, Mimi and Takeru, there was myself and another girl, Sora Takenouchi."

"We've met," Ruki sneered, "And we know about the Dead Princess."

He cocked his head to the side. "You've got quite a story to tell, I see. Anyway, I was with the others for a long time…" He sighed, "Then we came back here to find Hikari, then Sora was taken, then Taichi was…." He turned away for a moment. When he turned back, he suddenly looked far older than his years; dark wrinkles appeared beneath his eyes and the furrows deepened in his forehead.

"When we were fighting the Dark Masters we quickly found out how outclassed we were. Gennai, who used to be our guide, explained that a prophecy…"

"The one about the savior?" Ai asked.

Jyou shook his head. "Another prophecy, the Prophecy of the Arrows. It stated that Angels would shoot Arrows of Hope and Light at loved ones of those they were sent to protect. We worked out that it meant Takeru's Angemon would shoot an arrow at Yamato, but sadly it also meant Hikari's partner, Tailmon, would have evolved to an angel digimon as well and shot an Arrow of Light at Taichi. That prophecy couldn't be fulfilled if Hikari was Myotismon's prisoner. So Taichi left us to search out another source of power."

Ai nodded. "He came to us, to my brother and the Sage."

Jyou stared at her. "That's right." He tapped his forehead. "You're….Ai?"

She nodded again. "Yup," she grinned.

"When Taichi came back, he told us all about you and your brother." Jyou's smile faded, "But while that was happening, we were hunting down our own power source. We found the digitamas of the Sovereigns, but there was only four, and five of us left. We debated for a long time until I…" He sighed again, "I walked away."

Ruki's eyes narrowed. "You ran, you mean!"

"Hey!" Gomamon snapped, "Don't talk about Jyou like that! He's just…" He turned to him, "…just not that kind of guy, that's all."

"My father's a doctor, a healer," Jyou continued, "And he instilled that into my brothers and myself. The rest of the Chosen were fighting both Hikari and Ke-"

He cut himself off and stared at Ken. The other boy nodded. "They know all about me. Go on."

Jyou nodded. "We were fighting both Hikari and Ke…" He cleared his throat, "…the Kaiser and more Chosen were arriving at this point. They were either joining sides or getting caught in the crossfire. I knew I could help out so much more if I focused on healing. So…that's what I did."

Silence filled the room until Gaomon said to Tomas. "That explains it."

"Explains what?" Junpei asked.

"Why there are more Crests then Chosen Masters."

Gomamon's ears perked. "Crests?"

"What do you know about the crests?" Jyou questioned.

The humans pulled out from beneath their shirts the pendants taken from the treasure room of the Chosen Masters. "One of these is yours?" Tomas questioned.

Jyou nodded. "I left it with Yamato when I…" He glanced at the boy lying unconscious in the bed. "Did he…?"

"Right here," Koromon said from his seat, pointing with his ear to the nightstand, "Taichi used it to make me evolve to Fully Evolved."

Jyou ran his hand over the orange crest. "Courage," he said, "It's the Crest of Courage, and it belonged to our Taichi." His eyes focused on the orange-tinged digivice resting beside it. "Is that the Solar Digivice?"

Koromon nodded.

"Can he use it?"

The Baby digimon paled. "Um…he evolved me with his own digivice."

Jyou nodded and turned back to the others. "But let's talk about your crests."

"You know what they mean?" Tomas asked.

"I do, but I shouldn't tell you."

"What?" they gasped in unison.

"The Crests activates upon you discovering that certain trait within yourself, so if I told you, you wouldn't truly discover it."

Jyou studied Ruki's crest and smiled. "History repeats itself.

He nodded at Tomas. "A good fit."

His eyebrows lifted at Junpei's. "That's…interesting."

He stared at Ken's crest, up at the boy's face and then back again. "I guess so."

He grinned at Ai. "I think that fits you perfectly."

Junpei frowned. "Yeah, thanks for the help."

Ai stared at Taichi. "His crest is Courage? So that's why he got powerful when he stood up to Lord Ishida."

Ruki dropped hers back behind her shirt. If it was a challenge, she would figure it out. Yagami was not going to have the only Full Evolved digimon on the team. "Is he going to be okay?"

Jyou placed his hand on Taichi's forehead again. "The fever is going down, but I'll keep my eye on him over night."

Nene smiled at Zenjirou's side, "Yes, you all must be exhausted. Please follow me to your rooms."

"We don't have any money," Ken pointed out.

"No problem," Zenjirou grinned, "The best we have to offer."

Nene nodded. "And after a nice bath we'll head down to the dining hall."

Ruki hesitated at the door. She glanced over her shoulder at Jyou and Taichi. "You can trust him," Zenjirou said, "You have my word."

"Yeah, that's real comforting," she thought.

Ruki and Ai, along with their partners, were shoved into a two-bed hotel room with barely enough room for the television. "Best he had to offer, my ass!" Ruki grumbled.

"It's not so bad," Ai said as he jumped onto her bed, "It's better than our room at the Kernala Palace, right, Impmon?"

Her partner nodded. "Yeah, the Chosen Masters were actually pretty cheap."

Ruki had to conclude that, "It's better than the guys room, all six of them in there."

Ai wrinkled her nose. "Probably smells better too."

"I don't know," Renamon chuckled, "Ruki can sure…"

"That's enough," she said, eyeing her partner. Her sarcasm level sure increased since meeting Agumon and the others.

Ai shrugged. "I had a brother, remember? I guess I'm kind of use to it. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

Ruki shook her head. "Nope, only child."

"Just you and your parents?"

"Just me…" she sighed, "It doesn't matter."

Ai frowned. "Are you parents divorced?"

How did she guess that? The kid was more with it then she thought. "Yeah. Dad left 'cause Mom…" She shook her head, "It doesn't matter."

Ai did not flinch from the outburst. "How's Taichi?"

"He's still out," Ruki sighed, "But the doc's in there."

"Do you think we can trust him?"

"If he was going to betray us," Renamon said, "why heal Taichi?"

"I hope we can," Ai said, "He kind of reminds me a little of my grandpa." She pulled her knees to her chest, "Is Taichi really going to be okay?"

What was Ruki supposed to tell her? She was not this kid's mother, big sister or babysitter. She should not have to hide the truth from her. Ai wanted to be treated as a 'big kid,' then she needed to hear the unhappy truths too.

Ruki sat on the bed next to her. "Look, kid, sometimes people…"

Ai rested her head against Ruki's side. The older teenager found her arm wrapping around Ai's shoulder, and for a moment, the years in the Digital World vanished, the years fighting, the years in captivity, just melted away. Ruki had never expected any younger siblings since both her parents could not stand to be near each other, but neither had she wanted any.

Maybe it would not have been so bad after all.

And then she found herself saying, "My mother's a fashion model. She would go on photo shoots all over the place. Dad got annoyed about that and one day when I got home from school, he was gone."

She frowned, "And then Mom somehow got it into her head that I was going to follow her into the fashion business, which was the last thing in the world I wanted." A sigh escaped her lips, "She got so obsessed with that, forcing me to do my hair and wear makeup and all that crap, and then she started doing it for me."

An image filled her mind of her mother holding her down in the chair while her free hand brushed mascara on her eyelashes.

Ruki continued. "There was a photo shoot one day and…"

Another image came to her mind, a fallen cameraman, broken glass on the ground and her mother screaming.

Ai swallowed. "And…"

The orange-haired girl growled. "And I came here, nothing more to it."

Ruki stood. "I'm hitting the shower."

Ai nodded and watched the older girl grab clothes from her bag before stomping into the bathroom. Renamon stirred from her spot at the wall. "I think I'll take a look around." She vanished in a whoosh of air.

"I'm getting a chill from both of them," Impmon said.

"Be nice," Ai scolded, "If it wasn't for them, we'd still be in…"

Impmon blinked. "In what?"

The tween girl leapt across the room and stared out the window. "What?" her partner demanded.

"There's a Wizarmon out there!"

The small devil digimon leapt onto her shoulder. The figure of a digimon with a cape flowing from his neck and a staff in his hand was silhouetted against the moon. He hovered for a brief moment before darting towards the western section of Mainframe.

"That could be any Wizarmon," Impmon protested.

Ai shook her head. "No, that Wizarmon saved us from General Motomiya's attack, and now he's looking for us!"

She twirled on her heels and darted out the door. "Wait!" Impmon cried.

Once outside the casino, Ai and Impmon continued without pause into the industrial area of the city. "Wizarmon landed here," she huffed, "I'm sure of it."

"Ai," Impmon said, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…"

The girl studied her surroundings and a chill went up her spine. She had been so focused on the spot where the Wizarmon landed, that she had not realized they had enter the run-down area, filled with darkened alleys and decaying buildings. In her imagination, she saw hideous digimon leaping out at them from the shadows.

She swallowed. "L…let's get out of here."

"Don't go."

Both human and digimon spun around as the Wizarmon appeared in the moonlight. "Ai, Impmon, it's so good to see you two again."

Impmon gasped while Ai's eyes grew wide. "It is you! Then that means…"

"Right here," another voice said. Ai followed it to the space between a steelworks and textile building. A preteen boy stepped into the light. "Hey."

"Makoto!" she screamed, "Y-you're alive!"

He nodded. "Yeah. Wizarmon and I made it to an island after the storm. We survived for a few days until a Whamon swam by."

The girl was trying to process the information while her heart was trying to jump through her chest. "Why didn't you try to find me?"

"Why didn't you try to find me?"

"I was a prisoner of the Chosen Masters."

He frowned. "So you told them the prophecy then?"

She nodded. "And I think I figured it out. Remember the Taichi that came and saw us when we were still living with the Sage? Well, he's the Savior! He died, um, but another Taichi from another Earth came here instead. That's what the prophecy has to mean when it says the Savior would return…."

She trailed off upon seeing Makoto's frown. "W-what's wrong?"

He sighed. "Were is he now? This other Taichi?"

Ai smiled. "Come on, I'll go introduce you. We're staying at the…"

"Ai!" her Impmon hissed.

She blinked. "What?"

"Something's different," she whispered, "I can't explain it, but…"

"Don't be stupid," Ai sighed. She shrugged at her brother. "You know how she can be. Come on." She took hold of his hand, but a sharp cold pierced her fingers. She yanked back. "Y-you're freezing!"

"Am I?" he asked, "Sorry about that, I haven't eaten yet, so not enough's in my system."

She swallowed at stared him in the eyes. "Enough what?"

"Blood." He pulled back his lips to reveal two sharp, unmistakable fangs.

The world spun around her. "No…no!"

Then another voice echoed through the night. "What's this Makoto? Feasting alone again?"

Impmon jumped to Ai's side as figures emerged from the shadows, both human and digimon. The girl stared at her brother. "Y-you're not my brother!"

"I am," he grinned.

"My brother wouldn't lead me into a trap!"

He sighed. "They're not supposed to be here," he said, eying a tall boy with a long scarf.

"And you were told not to bother with her!" the boy snapped back. He smiled, a set of fangs in his own mouth, "But no sense letting a good meal go to waste…"

"Hold it!"

Ai and Impmon grinned as the Digital Knights charged onto the street, Ruki and Kyuubimon, Jupei and Tankmon, Tomas and Gaogamon and Ken and Stingmon. "You're lucky Kyuubimon's could follow your scent!" Ruki snapped, "What the hell were you thinking?"

Kyuubimon whispered, "Grill her later. I think we've got big problems."

Ai hoisted Impmon into her arms and they ran to their friends' side.

"Now who the hell are you?" Ruki demanded.

The pain of what felt like a reverberating drill brought Taichi back to consciousness. He opened his eyes and upon finding himself in an unfamiliar location, sat up in the bed. Pain shot through his side and he thought he might pass out again.

"Taichi, you're awake!"

He blinked at the pink blob in the chair at his side. "K-koromon?" He stared, "Is that you Agumon?"

Koromon nodded. "Yup. I used up too much energy when I evolved to Aero V-dramon."

Flashes of the battle with Yamato Ishida shot through his mind. "Oh yeah, that thing, heh…"

An older teenager stepped into the room. "Ah, you're awake I see."

"Who are you?"

"This is the guy that saved you, Taichi," Koromon said, "Dr. Jyou Kido."

After Ai's Impmon evolved to Witchmon, the Digital Knights stared down Makoto's group. "Who are you?" Ruki asked again.

"Hello Ruki," a familiar voice said.

The orange-haired girl focused on a familiar young woman emerging from the shadows. "Takenouchi," she sneered.

Sora nodded. "H-how's Taichi?"

"Recovering," she spat, "From both Ishida's attack and your backstabbing!"

The redhead winced, but the boy with the scarf laughed at a joke only he had heard. "Betrayal's so much fun, isn't it? Heh heh. Well, since we're here sooner than expected, let's introduce ourselves. The one at the end is Makoto and his Wizarmon partner."

"Ai," Ken said, "Is that your brother."

The girl stared at him. "I…I don't know…"

Makoto held up his digivice. "I'm more then I was when you knew me." The digivice glowed an eerie black and the wizard Digimon at his side glowed in unison.

"Wizarmon evolve to Mistymon!"

The boy with the scarf chuckled again, "And I think you already know Hirokazu and Guardromon."

The boy gave a slight wave of his fingers. "We meet again, heh."

The boy with the scarf continued, "And I think the rest you'll be meeting for the first time. Mari and Lillymon!"

A teenage girl in a strapless black mini dress giggled and twirled her hair, while the dirty-pink colored Lillymon at her side hissed a demonic smile.

"Sigma and Wisemon."

A boy with a face mask gave a short bow. Behind him hovered a digimon wrapped in robes.

The boy with the scarf threw his arms open. "And of course let me introduce myself. Neo Saiba, and my own partner, Arkadimon."

A pink, humanoid digimon with bladed hands appeared at his side, snapping and screeching like a mindless beast.

Taichi nodded as Jyou finished his tale. "So you knew Hikari, the Chosen Masters and…and everyone before…"

"I did," he frowned, "Yeah, even though we were fighting like guerilla soldiers, it seems like happier times now."

"What was he like? Your Taichi, I mean."

Jyou sighed, his brows furrowed in thought. "Brave, brave and courageous. He was also headstrong and a little stubborn." He quieted again and then said, "When we first received our digivices and partners, when we were first told we would have to fight evil, the rest of us were all a little hesitant, but not Taichi. He just jumped right into it." He gave a quick smile, "It was like the role he was destined to play."

Taichi stared at his lap and Jyou gave him a slight pat on the shoulder. "I'll let you get some rest."

Jyou shut the door and Taichi grabbed the Solar Digivice from the nightstand. "The role he was destined to play?" he said to himself, "To be betrayed and killed by his sister, to have his friends turn their backs on their mission?" His fingers tightened around the device, "To have me show up and replace him? What does that say about him…about me? Someone's just playing us like characters in a video game? Is that what destiny is?"

He flung the device against the wall. "Destiny can go fuck itself."

"So tell me," Neo grinned, "How's Taichi doing? It's been a while since I last saw him."

Ruki sighed. "I'm getting tired of telling this." She took a breath, "He's not the same Taichi that you remember…"

Neo continued talking, "And what about that glitch of a Digimon of his?"

Ruki gasped. "Glitch?" Kyuubimon questioned, "Isn't that what Taichi called Agumon?"

The orange haired girl's eyes narrowed. "You're from his world, aren't you?"

"That's right," he chuckled, "And I've descended to the Digital World to deliver it from the chaos that surrounds it! I am the Savior of the Digital World!"

"The Savior?" Stingmon asked.

Tankmon shook his head. "I thought Taichi…"

"Hey, what gives?" Junpei asked, "I thought Taichi was the Savior?"

"He is!" Ai protested, "In order for you to be the savior, you'd have to be in the Digital World before and have a partner that's never been seen before!"

"Ai," her Witchmon whispered, "I've never heard of an 'Arkadimon' before."

She paled. "W-what?"

"It's true," Gaogamon sighed.

Neo seemed as if his maniacal cackling was barely being contained. "And as to the other point, I've been here before!"

The Digital Knights all exhaled a collective gasp.

"Oh yes," he cackled, "I came here a long time ago with my pathetic first partner, Greymon and some kid named Ryo." He threw his open arms into the air, "But now I have returned! And once I claim my Holy Digivice, I will fulfill my destiny by freeing Lady Hikari from the Dark Ocean!"

Ai twirled to Makoto. "No! You can't take him to Kami's Relic!"

"But I will!" her brother snapped, "After I was shipwrecked I found my way to the Dark Ocean! There Princess Hikari showed me the true horrors of the Digital World!"

Ai cowed. "And that's when you became a…"

He smiled again, moonlight reflecting off his fangs. "When we all did."

Ken frowned. "The Savior would choose either light or darkness. Maybe it wasn't a choice, but there were two saviors, one light…"

"One dark," Ruki finished, eyes locking with Neo.

Ai continued pleading with her brother, "Makoto, you can't believe that he's the Savior."

He only smirked. "There's more than one way to save the Digital World."

Neo continued laughing. "Just a weak Savior and his pathetic followers. You couldn't even defeat a Child digimon."

Ruki's eyes turned red. How dare he call her that! "I've had enough! Kyuubimon, blow them away!"

"Ruki," Tomas said, "They have Perfects…"

Her hands clenched around her digivice. "I don't care! Do it!"

"We've got no choice," Ken said, "Help her."

Kyuubimon rushed at the enemy while her tails blasted balls of fire. "Demon Fireball!"

Tankmon blasted missiles from his launchers. "Hyper Cannon!"

Gaogamon blasted out a vortex of energy from his mouth. "Spiral Blow!"

Stingmon launched large needles from his armor. "Moon Moon Shooter!"

Witchmon unleashed a blast of wind from her hands. "Baluluna Gale!"

Neo smirked and motioned to Hirokazu. "Let them see our power."

Makoto's Mistymon, "Blast Fire!"

Mari's Lillymon. "Flower Cannon!"

Sigma's Wisemon. "Eternal Nirvana!"

Hirokazu's Andromon. "Spiral Sword!"

Sora's Karatenmon. "Ballistic Feathers!"

Neo's Arkadimon. "Prison Fist!"

The Industrial Section lit as a bright as day for the briefest of moments. When the second sun faded, the Digital Knights lay sprawled on the ground, moaning and unmoving. "I'll let you live for now," Neo snickered, "But only because I want to see you suffer later."

He made a motion with his hand. "Let's go."

The Dead Kingdom soldiers departed from the battle. Ai kept her eyes on Makoto as he vanished back into the darkness.

Sergeant Chiaki Daimon of the Digital Army watched the Digital Knights until she was certain they were alive before darting back down the side street.

"Are we just going to leave them there?" her partner asked.

She smiled at her Piyomon. "You wouldn't be able to take on all of them."

"No, I mean, we're not following them back to wherever they've got Yagami?"

The tween girl frowned. "General Motomiya needs to know about this. If the Dead Army is heading to Modem, things just got a lot worse."

To be continued…

Next: The Dead Kingdom has its sights set on Modem, and the Digital Knights and Digital Army make plans to follow them. Will they be able to stop this evil or will they be too focused on fighting each other? Chapter 11: Journey to the Land of Modem.

And please remember to review.

Author's Note:

Well, I just my first rejection letter for my original manuscript, feel like a real writer now, heh.

The first chapter of The Fall of Light, detailing Hikari's corruption, should come out by the next chapter update.

Mari and Sigma are part of Neo's team, but why no Hideto? Because his partners are Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon. The Adventure Taichi had a Wargreymon, and, of course, Yamato's Metalgarurumon is still here, so it would have just gotten too confusing.

Neo's partner is Arkadimon because it fits better with his belief that he's the Savior, that is, a digimon never seen before. When I thought of the prophecy, it was with the 'Neo or Taichi,' plot point in mind, but Neo's first partner WAS a Greymon, so could Black Wargreymon show up, somehow connected to Neo? Hmm, maybe…