A/N: Well, this was fun. Enjoy! The plot is quickening.

Chapter Ten: Into the Valley Dark

"So, where should I start breaking your heads?"

I sweatdropped, but made sure not to look. I was waiting for the devil horns and the whip, personally. Julia sounded steamed. Instead I kept my eyes out for Newton. Dorothy had come back around two minutes after I unceremoniously shoved Gutts onto the teleportation pad. She kept looking between me and Julia, one of those careless "I like seeing people get in trouble that aren't me" grins on her face.

"Where?" Gutts repeated. He sounded somewhere between pissed and self-loathing and god, wasn't that annoying? "We don't have much left in here that's repaired."

"Good," Julia said with a sweet, venomous smile. "Then you won't be surprised if it's sharp."

Ponch elbowed him.

I winced, seeing Barone duck her head. The whole room knew this was unprofessional and on a good day, one of us could write her up if we wanted to. These weren't normal times, though, and Julia had been a mother bear from day one. Not even her cubs escaped her wrath.

Newton skidded to a halt beside me. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing yet," I muttered in his ear. "Flick Gutts with a tranq for me."

"He'll vomit."

"Well, it'll be an improvement. Least he'll stop getting his thumb up his butt."

Dorothy giggled over the pair of us as Duke loomed over them like a tottering skyscraper. "You willingly endangered your comrades," he began in the soft, genial voice he only reserved for scolding Tamers. Have you ever heard an Ultimate level speak softly? It's scary as fuck. "You disobeyed direct orders. You two abandoned" He shot Ponch and Gutts a look that could melt steel. "One of your own teammates in a bout of emotional ineptitude."

They quailed, and Barone looked mildly sympathetic. I caught her eye and shook my head at her. No need to dig a deeper ditch.

Julia raised a hand and Duke stepped back. "The three of you are on standby until further notice." She paused and I winced. She was gonna say it. She was gonna say the thing. "Please relinquish all but your standard self-defense partner to the Farms. Your Digivice passwords will be temporarily altered and Soul use is restricted to CITY or emergency missions. Are we clear?"

All three of them sagged in unison. Partner restriction, Soul restriction, it was lower than being a trainee. It was the equivalent of house arrest and near execution. They couldn't earn money, couldn't use any teleport pad other than the one between here and home, and their computers were locked out for anything except homework. Worst yet, the soul connection between human and Digimon was put on freeze, meaning good luck fighting shit.

I am proud to say I have somehow never gotten that punishment. Running through CITY twelve times with a cinderblock to my back and salt on two shoulder cuts? Yeah, I'd taken that. But cabin fever was too fucking weird for me to risk that.

"Y-Yes ma'am." Barone spoke up after a minute. She looked resigned, but no more. She got the idea. "We apologize."

"Sorry!" Ponch added, shuffling his feet. Gutts looked briefly mutinous before he murmured his own apology.

Newton groaned. "I swear, the idiot and his pride."

"Don't worry," I muttered. "I got footage of him nearly shitting himself against a Raremon. We're covered on getting his bitching down to a minimum."

Newton covered his mouth to avoid snorting. "God damn it, Sayo."

"God has nothing to do with it," Dorothy chirped. I rolled my eyes, watching Julia give Ponch and the others their new orders. "They're going to have fun with repairs, huh?"

"Limited soul to finish tedious repairs?" Newton let out a snort. "Praise be god that we did our jobs."

"How did it go on your end?" I asked, deciding now would be a good time to start talking about it. Julia wouldn't interrupt until she was done or heard something important.

Newton shrugged. "It was all right until I got closer to the mansion part. The Vilemon were freaking the hell out. I was lucky I kept a GateDisk." He shook his head. "The place did look like a tornado ran through it. I heard some screaming and crying under some rubble." He flushed. "Got a Tsukaimon out of it."

"As if that place wasn't batty enough." I gestured to Dorothy, who smiled a bit and tilted her head.

"I'm pretty sure I got the easy job," she admitted. "Chip Forest was fine. There were some aggressive Digimon, but after quakes like that, that's not a shocker. The only problem..." She paused, and I reflected that if she wore that sober look on her face, I'd take her more seriously. "Could you guys call your Soul?"

"Barely," I admitted. "Hurt like a bitch when I did."

Newton grimaced. "Same here. Thought my hands were gonna fall off. Or burn from the inside out or something."

"No lasting effects?" Julia's voice interrupted us and we turned to her. The other three were watching us with worried or puzzled looks. What, did we catch a case of chicken pox?

I shook my head. "I could sleep for a month but that's it." The other two agreed. "The Digimon were pissed as hell though, but if you knocked 'em around enough, they had no clue what they were doing."

"Probably a good thing I stayed the hell out of the haunted mansion," Newton muttered.

Julia glanced at Duke, who shook his head. "You can't be drained from the repairs, but it's possible the lingering effects of that intruder simply haven't gone away. Take it easy when you go on your quests, all right?"

We saluted. Grunt work time. Ah well, I had some new cannon fodder to play with.

"All right, Dori, sniff it out."

The Dorimon gave me a look that probably meant something like: I don't have a nose, but didn't argue. Trees were hard enough to find on Login Mountain, but Paint Oil? How the hell did he get this stuff?

Ah well, it was good training for my future weapons of mass destruction.

Dori bounced forward, occasionally sniffing about. For the most part however, she seemed to be wandering into walls. I picked her up and redirected her. She bared her teeth at me (playfully of course, there's never been a baby Digimon who didn't like me, for some reason) and kept looking around. I waved for Gaomon to follow from his perch on the higher cliff. Apparently, he'd already found it. That was good, but the kid needed tracking training.

Dori let out a sudden yowl and I rolled. A Monodramon had almost clocked me in the brain. Aw hell no.

"Dori, Gao, go!" I couldn't risk using the Soul. It would hurt like a bitch, and Dori was a baby. They weren't good with Soul until they jumped a level, at least not consciously. Gao's punch was more effective than the tackle, but the kid would learn. I had to hope for that, since if I didn't it was a bad ending.

I dodged the Monodramon and my Soul crackled. "All righty," I cheered. "Hey, Monoboy. Gettin' your data right now!" I charged, fists glowing. It kicked me in the stomach. I swore in pain and Gaomon lunged, kicking it in the face. It skidded backwards.

"Dori, head on to the Paint Oil!" Dori made a yelping noise and skirted away. "Good girl," I muttered and dodged another claw. "Gao, move your ass!"

"Right, right..." He swung and clocked him in the jaw and I took a moment to grab the Monodramon by the neck. The area burst purple and I grimaced. Digimon exploding was not pretty on the eyes. Or for the skin. Ew. I wiped my face just as Dori came back with the vial of paint oil clamped in her jaws. "Atta girl." I patted her head and she crooned. I glanced at my Digivice and winced. "Mission complete."

"Can we get going?" Gaomon sighed. "The heat here is ridiculous."

"Yeah, yeah..." I kicked up a GateDisk. Have to go drop off the goods, get my five bucks, try my fucking Skype call again…

I made it back and dropped off the paint oil and bark. Dori fell asleep in my arms and I sighed. Okay, I have to go home. I was gonna sleep for a few hours, then check on the Skype. Maybe it was up. Maybe I could hear Dad and Yuki's voices.

At least the jail hadn't been fucked over. Mom leaning over me with one of her god damn chains ready to wrap around my neck.

"Sayo!"

Fuck.

I turned, returning Dori to the Digivice. Luna glowered at him from the screen. "What's up, Piemon?"

"The circus tent," he said dryly. "You've been requested by Union."

I groaned on the inside. "For what?"

"Murder, arson, investigation, the usual."

I swore. "Can I get a nap first?"

"Hell no."

I swore again, this time covering the speaker on my Digivice. "I'm on it."