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 10

When Takeru opened his eyes the first thing he noticed was a throbbing pain in the back of his head. The next thing he noticed was that he was on a hard, cold floor. He sat up, ignoring the pain that pulsed through his head and looked around.

He saw Taichi and Sora, both still unconscious lying a short distance away from him in the dim light provided by windows carved into the wall. Technically, they weren't exactly windows--there was a series of thin slits that allowed a very small amount of sunlight to filter into the odd room they were in. The walls were made of stone--very thick stone. A low pedestal was in the center of the large room and Takeru could see an assortment of different fruits on top of the smooth pedestal surface. Half a loaf of a dark loaf of bread sat next to the fruit. Other than these few simple features the room was devoid of any detail.

Once he had taken it all in he heard a slight moaning and turned back to his fallen friends. He watched as Sora's eyelids fluttered before slowly opening. She sat up and looked about the room, her eyes taking in every bit of it.

"So they got us," she muttered.

"Who? The Aztecs?" a groggy voice from beside her inquired.

"I think so, Taichi," Takeru replied.

There was a pause and Sora wondered aloud: "what are they going to do?"

"This looks like a prison cell," Takeru contemplated. "If that's the case then we're prisoners." He stopped talking for a moment and furrowed his brow. He felt like there was something he should know that he did not. "Wasn't there something the Aztecs did to their prisoners that was…weird?"

After a couple of minutes of quiet thinking, Taichi cried out: "I know what it is! They---they sacrificed them."

"Sacrificed?" Sora repeated, her face paling.

Takeru nodded, knowing what Taichi said to be true. "Sacrificed," he confirmed. "As in heart cut out, dead."

~*~

"I have told thee who I am, now kindly do the same for me," Sir Hackett demanded. "Be thee friend or foe of King Arthur the great?"

"Friend!" Koushiro quickly blurted. He knew it was a bad idea to say he was against this person's king. They had a sword and he did not.

"And what be thy names?"

Koushiro considered making up names for him and Mimi, but decided against it and stated: "I'm Koushiro Izumi and she's Mimi Tachikawa."

"Izumi? Tachikawa? Thou art not of royalty," Sir Hackett said. "Why hast thou traveled so far from King Arthur's Kingdom with this fine maiden? Surely thou must know of the dragons, pray tell?"

"Oh, right… About that…" Koushiro trailed, at a loss for words. The question had caught him off guard. "We were just…coming back from a neighboring kingdom," he lied.

"King Arthur would not send a commoner to a different kingdom."

"We're…his…negotiators," Koushiro slowly explained.

"Who art thou truthfully? Thou cannot be from King Arthur's Kingdom."

Koushiro could think of no way to get out of this predicament and kept silent.

"Thou art a spy," Sir Hackett accused.

"No!"

"Where art thou from if thou come from neither King Arthur's Court or from an enemy?"

"I---" Koushiro trailed off, unable to think of an explanation that would not raise more questions.

Should I take Mimi, get off the horse and run? He wondered. But he's got a horse. Plus, there could be more dragons out there.

The knight was still looking at him accusingly. In fact, he was so busy looking at Koushiro he failed to notice the low-hanging branch. Before Koushiro could say a word the branch had knocked Sir Hackett off the horse. He fell to the ground with a clunk. Koushiro felt as though his body was moving by itself. He didn't really want to steal the horse, but he needed to get away from the knight. The next thing he knew he was holding onto the horse's reins and they were galloping away. After he made sure Mimi wouldn't fall off the horse, he came to a startling realization: he wasn't exactly sure how to use the reins. In fact, he'd never ridden a horse before in his life!

~*~

Miyako looked at Hikari, eyes full of concern. Once they had finally gotten to her, Hikari had quite suddenly gone slack-jawed, her eyes blank, shoulders sagging.

"Hikari? Come on, snap out of it," Yamato muttered, waving his hand in front of her face.

Hikari didn't even blink.

"Come on, not now!" Jyou cried.

Then Hikari's body glowed with a bright white light and she murmured: "your friends are in trouble. The gate to Quewari has been locked and your friends have been scattered through different times. You must find the key to the gate to restore your friends to the correct time. The key to the gate is hidden in a cave in these mountains and the cave itself is within walking distance of where you stand now."

"Whoa…" Miyako muttered. "Uh…is it just me or is Hikari glowing and talking in a totally different voice?"

"What do you mean I'm glowing?" Hikari inquired. She was now completely back to normal.

Jyou told Hikari what had happened--about how she had told them of their friends being scattered throughout time and finding the key to Quewari."

"So where is the cave anyway?" Miyako wondered.

Yamato looked about for the cave that Hikari had mentioned and spotted it only about a half-mile away--but it was across a huge chasm. The only way to get to the cave was to cross a very thin, very narrow and overall unsafe-looking natural bridge between the two cliff edges…

~*~

Taichi didn't bother to struggle against the guard that had led him from the large cell along with Takeru and Sora. He knew that if he managed to escape this guard there would be plenty more awaiting him.

He saw the huge temple looming over the city and his stomach churned thinking what was awaiting him and his friends. People lined the streets, watching them as they were herded by on their walk to death.

After what seemed like only seconds to him they were climbing the steps of the temple, climbing up and up. The further up the climbed the more slippery the stairs became and Taichi felt sick when he realized what was making the steps slippery: blood. Blood from all the past sacrifices.

He felt like just letting himself fall backwards, down the hundreds of stairs. Dying like that had to be better than getting your heart literally torn out. But he knew the guards wouldn't allow that to happen.

I wonder…can you feel it when they cut your heart or are you already dead? Is it quick or do you stay alive until it's all over? I can't believe I'm thinking about this.

Then they were at the top of the steps. A man stood beside a huge stone table, a large, sharp knife in his hand. Taichi guessed this was the guy who would be killing them.

He watched as Takeru was herded over to the table and held down until he was securely tied. Sora was sobbing in fear and in grief of what was happening to her friend.

The man raised the knife high in the air…

~*~

Daisuke and Iori stood untied looking at the long pit of red-hot coals in the ground in front of them.

"So what are we supposed to be doing?" Iori wondered.

"I still say they're cannibals and this is their barbeque pit," Daisuke muttered back.

Iori shook his head and replied: "if they were cannibals they would have killed us by now."

A sharp spear prodded Daisuke in his back and he almost fell into the coals. He turned around to the person who had poked him, gave him a nasty look and turned back to Iori.

"See?" he said.

Iori gasped and said: "they're not cannibals! I know what they want us to do."

"Well what is it?"

"They want us to walk across the coals. It was a test of strength and bravery."

Daisuke looked down at the glowing coals and winced. He could feel the heat from them already and had no desire to burn his feet. But another jab from the spear prompted him to lift his foot.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered…

~*~

Koushiro held onto the reins trying desperately to figure out how to use them. Things weren't getting much better. They were making a beeline for a very large drop and he knew the horse wouldn't be able to jump across.

They were getting closer and closer. "Um…Stop," Koushiro muttered. "No wait, whoa!"

It always worked in the movies, he dejectedly thought as the horse continued to gallop for the cliff.

"Hey! Stop! Horse, stop!"

They were only feet away from the cliff now.

"STOP!"

~*~

"I don't like this. It doesn't look safe," Jyou said, referring to the small bridge between the two cliff faces.

"Well it's the only choice we've got. And if our friends are in trouble we have to hurry," Yamato replied, balancing himself on the narrow walkway and carefully beginning the long walk across.

"Yamato, be careful," Miyako warned. The walkway was so narrow and it was such a long way to the other side.

Hikari waited until Yamato had gone a third of the way across the small rock bridge before climbing on herself.

"Hikari, wait!" Jyou shouted, trying to stop her from putting herself in danger. But she was already on her way across. Jyou sighed and climbed up after her, being careful to keep his footing.

"What happened to 'it's not safe?'" Miyako muttered, also stepping onto the bridge. She shuffled her feet a couple of inches, careful not to allow herself to fall.

I could be a tightrope walker. That's nothing compared to this, she thought. Yamato's already done and I'm halfway there.

Without thinking, Miyako looked down. It was a long drop to the jagged rocks below. A very long drop. She felt a little dizzy and stopped moving, afraid to even breathe, lest she unbalance herself and fall. Finally, she let out the breath she had been holding and continued on her way across. She jumped the last three feet onto the other side of the chasm and looked back to see the bridge collapsing.

"That was close," Jyou muttered.

The four of them walked into the cave. It was pitch black in the cave--nothing was visible at all.

"Let's start looking for the key," Yamato said. "And let's stay together, too."

The four of them joined hands and walked through the darkness, Yamato in the lead. He kept one hand on the cave wall so they wouldn't get lost.

"It's so quiet," Hikari finally commented. "Too quiet."

"Yeah. This place is definitely strange," Jyou agreed.

They went through a maze of passageways in the dark, feeling their way blindly through gaps sometimes no wider than a few feet until they finally turned a corner and were bathed in an extremely bright light.

Once their eyes had adjusted to the light, they saw what was causing the light: a large key that was floating above a small table in the middle of the cavern. A few yards behind the table was an enormous gate made of millions of different kinds of metals intricately formed into exquisite bars. There was a keyhole for the key.

You aren't getting to Quewari until you go through me, a cold voice whistled.

"I knew this was too easy," Miyako mumbled.

"Somebody get the key!" Jyou shouted.

Yamato ran for the table, but a shadow crossed the light and rammed into him, sending him flying back into the cave wall.

The Dark will not allow you to ruin his plans.

Jyou made an attempt to reach the table, but was also thrown back by the light, but instead of hitting the cave wall he hit Yamato who was just getting to his feet from the previous attack.

"Hikari, if we both go separate ways we'll have a better chance at getting the key. You go right I'll go left," Miyako whispered.

Hikari nodded and whispered back: "all right, let's go!"

The two of them raced in the opposite directions for the key.

"Hikari, watch out!" Miyako warned.

Hikari jumped aside as the shadow came at her and Miyako made it to the table. She closed her fingers around the key and felt a warm tingling sensation spread through her.

Then in the same instant Koushiro, Mimi, Sora, Taichi, Takeru, Daisuke and Iori all appeared in the cavern, all looking somewhat frazzled.

"No time to explain! Look out!" Hikari shouted.

The shadow was swooping toward the group of seven former Digidestined. All were able to move out of the way (even Mimi, who had finally regained consciousness) thanks to Hikari's warning.

Miyako raced over to the gate open it, but the shadow was after her now. "Takeru, catch!" she shouted, throwing the key over to him before the shadow reached her.

You're playing monkey in the middle with me and I don't like being a monkey. I won't have you ruining the Dark's plans!

The shadow flew for Takeru, but Takeru passed it off to Jyou who in turn passed the key to Sora.

Make it easy on yourselves and give up the key.

"Never!" Mimi shouted, throwing the key to Yamato--who was standing right next to the locked gates.

Yamato caught the key and put it into the lock.

NO! The shadow screamed, racing across the cavern for Yamato, but Yamato turned the key and the gates swung open.

You will never survive! This is only the beginning! The shadow warned.

The eleven former Digidestined stepped through the gates to Quewari, not hearing a word that the Dark force said…

END

(A/N: Yes, I am writing a sequel. It will be called The Test. I'm writing one more after that, too. Anyways, thank you so much to everyone who was nice enough to review this! You are what keep me going! I hope you enjoyed it.)