Digimon Advent

by Kaleidomon

Some time in the year 3000, the world has recovered from a catastrophe that brought the world to it's knees. The digital world is going through it's own turmoil, and digimon, with no where else to flee to, have appeared in the real world. OCs only.

11. Unfinished Business

Seth took a deep breath.

He could still hear his mother, Cassie, fighting endlessly with Skye. Ever since they'd gotten back, Cassie had been in pieces over Skye's injury, and rightfully so. They were lucky that there'd been enough people with the right medical expertise down here that could see to her types of injuries. Three days had passed since the scrape against Ikkakumon and the Agents, and Cassie had still been a nervous wreck.

Skye's head was still sore from the stitches and from the bashing she'd taken from the falling debris. Clefmon had refused to leave her side and had vigilantly kept watch over her, night and day, nary a song or giggle from the song bird as she kept guard over her injured partner.

"Mom...?" Seth called anxiously, after the arguing quietened down. It was silent in there now, and he was worried. Cadmemon, who had been silently sat in his lap, hopped down off of him and stood by the door.

His eyes darted to the door handle as he heard it click softly. With a creak, it swung open, and Seth was greeted by his stern-faced mother. Her thick, wavy-blonde hair covered her face, hiding her dark-rimmed eyes behind her fringe. She had barely slept or eaten since their return, and she hadn't spoken to Seth since then.

The only times she had spoken had been to Skye, first expressing relief on seeing her come around, but then soon falling into anger from how scared she'd been, yelling at Skye for what had happened. Any look she ever gave to Seth was an icy glare that made his blood run cold. He'd felt bad enough as it was, but this cold shoulder treatment was really getting to him, let alone the intense guilt from failing his sister.

"Mom... please, I..." he began, reaching to place his hand on her arm. He felt her tense up, before she brushed him off.

"Don't speak to me, Seth..." she muttered, her voice barely above a whisper, and sounding hoarse and shuddery. "You're in enough trouble as it is..."

"But... we had to... the city was getting buried under the snow, and the digimon were being-" he started, before she cut him off. Turning on her heel, she gripped his shoulders tightly, leaning forward so their eyes met on level. It had been years since he'd seen that burning, fiery glare in her eyes.

"I don't care any more, seth!" She screamed, shaking him hard. Fresh tears were building in her eyes; it was all too painful to see the hurt she was suffering through. "You both could have DIED! My only children... do you think it's a goddamned game?!"

Cadmemon cowered back under the seat, wrapping her tails around herself, her ears pinned back in guilt. Seth's eyes stung with tears as his mother continued to tear into him with all her pent up frustration and bitter sadness.

"Don't you think I've suffered enough, Seth?! First, to lose my job, then your wretched father leaves us with nothing... and then I lose my home... for my children to lose their place in having a good education... and then to be condemned down in this dark, filthy hellhole..." She sobbed, shaking so much that she could barely stand, "and now... my only daughter could have died... what do I care about the digimon?!"

"We... we need digimon to survive..." Seth mumbled, his voice weak and mousey. "E-Even with the f-fire digimon we have, we wouldn't have l-lasted long if the snow had continued... a-and the digimon above were frightened, and on the run... people could have died if we hadn't gone scouting..."

"People?" she spat contemptuously. The same people that had seen them convicted and shipped off down to this living hell. "What do I care about them, when my kids are off, endangering themselves!?"

"Mom..." Seth took a deep breath. Despite his own grief, he had to make her see. "...In a perfect world... we wouldn't even need a Resistance... we wouldn't need to do the things we must... so much depends on it... even without digimon, or Arch Angel, you know what else the group stands for, right?"

She swallowed hard, listening, even if she knew the answer.

He continued, "we're resisting against the government that put us all in this place to begin with... they don't realize there isn't enough to go around, down here, and that there aren't enough resources... you're barely able to run the hospital down here because there's not enough safe wards, not enough equipment... too many sick people, and not enough medicine. There's no funding for people down here, and everything that gets done is from volunteers who barely know what they're doing."

He knew he had won this argument, but pressed on to make sure it sunk in. He had to remind her of the importance that the Resistance saw to these pressing matters.

"The people down here are either too old, too young, or too sick to do anything about this... so that's why we do it. The Resistance... that's our 'job', for the community down here..." Now it was his turn, holding her by her shoulders, his tone full of urgency. "Mom... there's hardly anything left to survive on... you collapsed, last week... if we don't do what we must, things will just get worse... I know that this time, we didn't succeed in saving all the digimon... but everyone is relying on us to get things done..."

There was a moment of silence passed between mother and son, no further words spoken, the only sound being the shuddery, rough breathing from Cassie's mouth. Seth's eyes searched his mother's face, trying to read the grim expression set on her. Everyone down here was running out of the necessities, and the medical supplies were fast running thin.
Inwardly, she knew it rested on those of the Resistance to get things done, as much as she didn't like it... the thought of so much responsibility placed on her own children, and the other young people scattered about the place, just to survive through the dark days down in the Underworld made her stomach churn. It wasn't right.

Cadmemon crawled forward from her hiding place to peer out at the scene before her, saddened at the rift that had slowly been forming between the family.

"Cassie... I'll do everything I can to make sure it never happens again," the black-furred fox spoke up, treading over carefully across the rough, uneven ground of the ruined house they called a home, to place her paw against Cassie's leg.

Cassie said nothing in response; but the look on her face was enough to show she had given in, and realized there was no point in trying to deter them. Seth absolutely hated that they had to put her through so much suffering.

"Please... just... please don't get yourselves into that sort of situation again..." she sighed, her voice weak and full of defeat, as she pulled him into a tight embrace. "I... don't think I could bear any more heartbreak in my life..."

Seth returned her hug, allowing her to bury her face into his chest. He wasn't sure he could bear it, either.

---

Seth and Skye were not the only ones with problems that day, either.

Skyler began hauling more computer parts in for SysOpmon. Stumbling, he cursed as one of the parts, which had been practically hanging over the edge of the trolley finally fell over with a loud clatter.

Despite his assigned task for the day, his mind was elsewhere. He hadn't been allowed to see Stratosmon, let alone hold his D-Drive whilst the giant lizard had been doing error-checking and repairs on it, as well as the afflicted digimon contained within.
Skyler had had enough, and decided the new server could wait; an update on his partner was more important, and he planned to get a look in now.

"SysOpmon!" Skyler called out across the vast, empty hall. Before his eyes could adjust to the gloom, he was hurrying to shield his eyes from the bright beams of light sweeping across the near pitch-black expanse to focus on him.

"Yer late, boy!" the gargantuan digimon called, heaving himself around using the thick cables jutting out of him to turn himself around to face his guest more. "Where's the parts fer the new server?"

"F-Forget that!" Skyler stammered, holding back on his frustration, as he started crossing the room, having weave around debris from the collapsed roofing, "don't you think I've waited enough? I need to see him... let me see Stratosmon!"

"Patience, kid." SysOpmon barked sternly, indicating the hardware needed for the new server. "I've kept him stable. But until that server's up and runnin', there's little else I can do to really get in there an' fix him."

Skyler blinked up in disbelief, his fists clenched in frustration. "...fine."

"There's a good lad," SysOpmon replied, his voice growing much softer. During instructing his young charge, who would need to act as his hands, the atrophied mega made a second request.

"I don't think you ever told me much about yerself and Chasemon, and looking through Stratosmon's data, I feel like I'm missing something..." he began, watching Skyler get to work, "...so, humour an old man. Where'd you get Chasemon from? He's... interestin', I'll give yer that."

Skyler looked up from where he'd been separating the spare parts and lining them up in rows, seemingly startled by the remark. Whenever SysOpmon found something 'interesting', it usually meant something unnatural and it always meant information would be withheld.

"What do you mean by that?" Skyler spat, narrowing his eyes. He was still bitter that it had taken this long to get anywhere near to seeing his digimon again.

"Somethin' doesn't quite add up with his code, see. I was hopin' you givin' me some more background on 'im might provide me with some answers..." SysOpmon sighed in his gruff voice, clacking his claws against the concrete idly, "And I don't plan to tell yer anythin' until I gets information first, kiddo. Geez, though, first that young Laelapmon, and now our very own Chasemon..."

Skyler sighed in defeat, wringing his hands anxiously. It truly looked like he'd have to give SysOpmon what he wanted before he could get what he wanted in return.

"I don't even know if our meeting was unnatural or not, either... I don't know if there's ever a 'normal' way to meet a digimon!" Skyler snorted indignantly, before sitting cross-legged on the ground. "I guess you'll be the judge of that, and if it means anything, huh?"

"Yer darn-tootin', kiddo. So, c'mon, tell an' old man a story."

---

It was the night they'd been waiting for all year.

Young Skyler, who had been around nine or so, and his little brother, Noah, who was around seven, were huddled together around a telescope in the attic of their grandmother's home out in the sticks, a cosy little two-story house about half an hour's drive from Box Canyon in Texas.

Such a peaceful and quiet place far from the cities meant the sky was clear, and starry; perfect viewing for the star shower that was due to be happening any time now.

"Boy, won't Mom an' Dad be excited when we get photos of the shootin' stars, Noah!" Skyler announced excitedly from his stool, adjusting the telescope for the tenth time that night. "Dad said he'll blow the image up real huge and hang it up fer us when he gets time off work!"

Noah shifted a little more in his seat, munching on a cookie. Their dearly beloved granny would be watching the stars from the porch, but she'd made sure her two budding space-enthusiasts would have snacks on hand to enjoy with their photography business.

"Uh-huh!" the dark-haired younger brother nodded enthusiastically, clinging to Skyler's arm a little tighter with excitement. "Skyler, I'll get a turn on the tellyscope too, right?"

"A'course, dummy!" he replied, nudging him in the arm lightly with his elbow, grinning away. "But I wanna get a few shots in first!"

Suddenly, twinkles in the sky signified the arrival of the shooting stars, glittering white tails trailing across the night sky, and gone just as quickly as they had arrived in their entrance into the atmosphere.

"L-Look!" Noah squeaked, tugging Skyler's sleeve in excitement, his mousy-haired elder brother hurriedly getting into position and getting otherwise very trigger-happy on their father's expensive camera.

"Quick, Noah, look!"

A bright burst of light suddenly seemed to tear open across the sky, creating a rift of brilliant brightness, so strong it lit up the entire surrounding area as though it were daytime out.
A cry of surprise from granny downstairs caught their attention, distracting them temporarily from the unearthly spectacle going on outside, and had both of the kids tearing down from the attic to get to her side.

"W-What's happening?!" Granny cried, hugging both boys close with her elderly arms as tight as she could, almost falling backwards from terror.

"I d-don't know!" Noah squeaked, burying his face into her side, fearful of the light that was gradually spreading across the house.

The light engulfed the entire structure as it continued spreading out, and the moment it had hit, all the noise given off from the bursts of static and the deafening boom of electricity were suddenly gone, all made silent in this void of brightness.
Granny was forced to throw herself down on top of the kids, holding them close against her protectively, bolts of lightning shooting past, leaping about randomly, in unnatural ways; the sign of no ordinary electricity.

Skyler had his head down, scared witless by everything going on around him. It felt like the beginning of the end of the world, that they would all perish that night. But death never came; instead, he heard a weak, strained voice, one only he seemed to hear.

"Help me..."

He snapped his head around at the sound, looking around wildly for the source of the noise. Something, a small shape that was nearly as big as his body was violently discharged from the rift, and flung headlong into the earth below, with the impact sending out such a vast shockwave that the three figures still cowering on the porch could feel the shudder reverberate through their very bones.

Without hesitation, Skyler managed to break free from his grandmother's hold and staggered off the porch towards the crash site of the being that had fallen from a hole in the sky. He could hear Granny shrieking after him to come back, as she fought to get to her feet with Noah's help, but it was too late to stop him now.

Approaching the crater, he took in the damage; thick, black scorch marks spread out from the center, something faintly glowing from underneath mounds of dirt and rubble.
Sitting at the edge, he swung his legs over and then slid down, hurrying to the center. Despite the smoke and clouds of dust rising from the debris, the rubble covering the fallen being felt ice-cold to the touch, strange and surreal-looking light particles that flickered like numbers from a computer breaking up from the figure and drifting skywards like bubbles rising through water.

"Skyler!" Granny yelled, appearing just at then at the crater edge, "Don't you touch that thing, come back, now!"

But the small, mousy-haired boy wasn't listening. He began to clear off the rubble, unearthing more and more of the clearly unconscious creature beneath. Granny and Noah were now at his side, and despite Granny's tension, she knew it was already too late to stop the brothers from getting the figure free.

"Thank... you..." the creature groaned softly now resting in Skyler's arms. It seemed to trust him, as it allowed itself to close it's eyes and slip off into an exhausted sleep, missing the anxious glances of Skyler's granny and younger brother. All three had little idea of what the life ahead with their new family member would come to entail.

---

"And that's... how we got him," Skyler sighed, after finishing setting up the server. "I stayed up all night bandaging his wounds, and keeping an eye on him, before I finally fell asleep at his side... when I woke up, there was a D-Drive laying beside us. Its vibrating woke me up. But he remembered nothing before then, and he didn't even know his own name until I went through the D-Drive..."

There seemed to be more Skyler had to say, but ultimately, he kept his mouth shut. Something seemed incredibly off with him, but the great lizard chose not to press him for more information. SysOpmon regarded him in silence, instead thinking over the account his young charge had given him.

"I see..." he replied quietly, watching Skyler connect their new server up to the terminals which were, by extension, connected to the great metal dragon. "What a peculiar entrance to a scene, eh? Yer right that it's unnatural. Damaged, fallin' from the sky, amnesia... no sir, none of it adds up."

"Why is that? And just what on earth is wrong with him, anyway?! What did those idiots do to him?" Skyler snapped, growing impatient.

SysOpmon shook his head, letting out a gruff-voiced sigh.

"The thing is... there's more to this problem than jus' the new weapons havin' an effect on the little feller. I mean, sure, it's... disconcertin', t'say the least, that he's had such a... strange reaction to it..." Using some smaller wires hanging off from his back, the giant lizard hooked the D-Drive up to the new server, which housed plenty of space to store digimon, as the large military screen switched on. "This, well... this is the problem. One I can't find any solution to, or any answers to the questions raised."

Rows and rows of data in foreign characters began scrolling rapidly down the screen, flickering constantly, to the point it hurt to look at.

"That's digimon alphabet, see? But even I, a digimon native to the digital world, can't read it... because it's a damn ol' mess, that's what!" SysOpmon explained, tapping the monitor gently with one of his wires. "It's a glitchy, disorganized mess... completely unreadable. I can't read any o' this data, his statistics, his memories..."

The metal wyrm began to search through Stratosmon's data, scrutinizing every bit of data he came across. Skyler watched in silence, lost in anxiety. Finally, SysOpmon seemed to find something that made him curious, and he stopped.

"Well, boy... I think I found somethin' from before he came through the portal... it's dated a few days before, actually... a memory, hidden deep in the back of his mind."

Minimizing the glitched up scrolling text window, SysOpmon opened another, allowing it to render, as it began playing some form of equally glitchy, and faded, video clip.

"This is that memory... seems he repressed it, or forgot it, after comin' through..." he muttered, leaning forward to get a better look at the screen. Skyler was standing at the console, so focused on this clip that he seemed oblivious to everything else in the room.

Chasemon had been in some kind of shrine, laying on the ground under a vast tree, the leafy boughs glistening and shimmering all over with light that seemed to gradually change colour. The thick canopy blotted out the sky, and seemed to spread far out, the absolute biggest tree Skyler had ever laid hands on.

A digimon literally resembling a knight in white armor, sporting a giant shield and lance stood over him, his eyes looking tired and sad. His vast red cape fluttered out behind him on a gentle breeze. Despite how beautiful the tree looked, the entire scene seemed sorrowful and full of mourning.

At that moment, a shadow fell over Chasemon, signifying the arrival of a second digimon. The knight looked up at the newcomer, who went unseen, as he was too far back for Chasemon to see from his angle; a position he seemed he couldn't move from.

The knight seemed to speak with the second digimon briefly, but the sound was beyond hazy, faded and unintelligible. After their brief conversation finished, the knight reached for Chasemon, and the small gargoyle seemed to black out, with the clip ending and shutting off.

Skyler was too dumbstruck to say a word, his mouth dry from nervousness.

"Well now... seems the royal knight, Gallantmon, played a part in Chasemon's life... curiouser and curiouser..." SysOpmon mused aloud, rubbing his monstrous chin with one of his wires. Skyler held up a hand for silence, the action surprising the old Mega out of his thoughts. "Huh? What's wrong, lad?"

"I... I don't want to know any more. I don't want to dig any deeper. Not without his consent..." Skyler stared up pleadingly, a look of desperation burning in his eyes, "I know it's being ignorant, but ignorance is bliss and... he was happy, not knowing. Just trying to talk about it made him sad, so... for now, can we just drop it, Syssy?"

The great dragon nodded in acceptance, and before he could get any more words in, the rest of the Resistance burst in en masse to start off the day's proceedings. SysOpmon kept his voice as low as he could, giving Skyler one last talk on the subject.

"If you change yer mind, or he consents to a bit o' diggin'... I'm here to help, kiddo."

Skyler nodded gratefully, managing a small smile, as the giant digimon ruffled his hair affectionately with one of his thinnest wires carefully.

---

Miss Frigimon stood outside the doors leading into the vast hall where the Resistance were currently planning their week ahead. She was surrounded by a few SnowAgumon and SnowGoburimon, survivors from Medusamon and Sastrugamon's small army.

"Miss Frigimon... do you think they'll help us...?" one of the SnowAgumon asked up at her quietly. The snowman digimon was trembling, hugging the precious eggs Medusamon had been planning to raise herself, that little bit tighter.

"Lord Sastrugamon is... still alive... I can just feel it..." she sighed sadly. Tears were welling in the corners of her eyes; the surviving members of that party had not yet come to terms with their losses, and were still lost in grief, and as accommodating and kind as the Resistance had been in giving them asylum, they'd had little cheer. "I... can't sleep at night, not knowing if he's alright..."

A weak sob escaped from the gentle snowman, as her tears fell and gently splashed the tops of the two eggs. The other digimon who had come with her bowed their heads miserably, leaning on each other for support, some openly weeping into their neighbour's shoulders.

The soft creak of the door opening, however, was enough to briefly snap them out of their grief. Sayo's face was barely visible from the darkness of the hall as she peered through the jar at the group, which hurriedly crowded around to speak with her. Just as all the smaller digimon piped up at once, Frigimon held up one of her large hands for silence.

Coughing quietly to clear her throat, she began explaining their reason for coming over to the hall, "We're terribly sorry to intrude during your business... but if it's not too much to ask... we have a request..."

By this point, the rest of the Resistance had stopped their chatter from within, having noticed something going on by the doors; with their interest piqued, the whole team had come over to listen to the digimon group's request.

"...We want to find out, if possible, what has become of Lord Sastrugamon... and if there is any chance he could be saved."

---

"Thanks fer letting us in, pal." Yalimon grinned, patting one of the new Agent's digimon, Diebmon, on the shoulder.

All three digimon, (Yalimon, Panthermon and Diebmon) had entered into a huge, circular room filled with all kinds of cages, storage crates and capture devices. Greg, Diebmon's agent partner, waved at them from the door before heading back outside into the corridor to do his rounds around the containment area of Arch Angel.
The room they had currently entered was 'Unit E-1', which, unbeknownst to the innocent Diebmon, was known as 'Death Row' by the veteran digimon of Arch Angel.

"Poor wretch... to think they even allow someone like Diebmon inside... it'll break his heart if he knew where he was," Panthermon whispered to her companion, both of them walking a little further ahead, where their escort had fallen behind, distracted by virtually everything around him.

"Then it's best he doesn't know," Yalimon replied quietly, one of his gold-coloured eyes partially exposed from his wild mass of mane. "We'll have to especially make sure Minkmon doesn't... well... blab. Y'know how morbid she is, especially where 'wrecking innocence' is involved..."

Diebmon suddenly appeared from behind, having managed to will himself away from his distractions. "So, we're going to see the big guy you brought in yesterday? How exciting! Is he a friendly digimon?"

Yalimon and Panthermon stared at each other awkwardly, startled out of their mutterings, with the purple beast-like digimon feeling himself swallowing an uncomfortable lump growing in his throat.

"Ah... ah... yeah... yeah, he is, Diebmon..." He began, wringing his tail with his clawed hands worriedly. "Listen, though, pal... yer a good digimon... but wouldja mind given us a moment alone? He's... poorly."

Diebmon's face fell on hearing this news, and he stopped walking, which in turn made both of his colleagues stop to turn and face him. "Poorly? Is he... sick? Should I tell Greg to get someone from the medical ward?"

"No, see... it's a bit more than that..." Panthermon began explaining. "He, well... the 'sickness' he has isn't treatable... there really isn't medicine to mend a broken heart, see..."

"So we need some time alone to... talk to him. We want to make sure he's okay, but, ah... we're already somethin' of old friends from back in the day, so, it might not be good to bring a stranger into things," Yalimon stated, both he and Panthermon standing side by side in a way that would make it clear they wouldn't be allowing Diebmon to come any further.
"But if you want to help, we have a favour to ask... could you stand guard at the door, and holler if anyone that isn't Greg or another agent comes by?"

Diebmon nodded quietly before giving an enthusiastic salute. "Roger that. Nobody's gonna disturb your chat on my watch! You can rely on me, Yalimon... I mean bro... I mean sir!"

Yalimon managed a small half-hearted grin and patted Diebmon's head, causing the chipper bird digimon to give a rather musical chirp of glee, hurrying off to stand at his post by the doorway. The pair were now left with the grim prospect of seeing to Sastrugamon, the giant reinforced cage holding him ahead serving as his prison.

---

"Sastrugamon...?"

Panthermon and Yalimon approached the snow bird's cage. Yalimon weakly gripped the bars, bowing his head; the cage bars were made of chrome digizoid, the strongest metal of the digital world, and even his super-strength abilities couldn't bend them.

"Sastrugamon... please speak to me..." Yalimon asked again, his ears pinned back sorrowfully. Panthermon placed a paw gently on his shoulder.

Sastrugamon was laid out on his side, his back to them. His wounds were many, and brutal looking; any movement caused him agony. Since coming in, it had been like he had submitted to his fate, so quick in his acceptance that he had lost all hope.
He had shunned any food and drink brought in, and was now hooked up on the equivalent of a special drip that fed data and nutrients to him. He had all but stopped speaking, too... he had become an empty shell of his former self.

Just when they had been so close to escape, everything had fallen apart. The Resistance had reached them, and the remaining troops were ready to move out... but the damned Ikkakumon had chased them to the very ends of the earth, it seemed, to finish off the fight it had started. Their most relentless foe, and now...

Medusamon had been ripped away from him. And in the cruelest twist of irony, Ikkakumon would be kept alive and studied for a possible treatment, and likely once immune, released back to the digital world if he was lucky. And here he lay, dying, wishing his empty existence would just end.

"I'm sorry..." Yalimon muttered, sitting beside the cage. He couldn't tell if Sastrugamon could even hear him, but everything hurt, and he couldn't bare it. "I failed in my duty to protect you... and I failed you as yer friend..."

As weak as the bird was, Sastrugamon's voice cut through him like ice, "I have days left to live... if you care for me at all, you will end it now."

Yalimon and Panther both startled, jumping to their feet. Yalimon gripped the bars tighter, his ears now standing on end.

"No! Don't speak like that! I'll... we will get you out... we'll find a way-" Panthermon pleaded, staring in disbelief. No Digimon she'd ever known had wished to die, and she didn't want to allow it to happen, even if it was futile.

"You and I both know there is no escaping this place..." Sastrugamon sighed, his voice sounding so weak and distant. "Even if it were so... I can not live without her. Medusamon meant everything to me... I just can't live in this world, if she is not there to live with me..."

Both rookies were holding onto each other tearfully, unable to do anything to help. They could neither save him from his impending doom, or from his own misery and suffering. There was nothing they could do to put things right, and they knew it.

Sastrugamon had felt half of him die along with her when she had gone.

"Even in our ravaged lands, she was the one thing that kept me going..." Sastrugamon breathed, his voice softening, "It didn't matter what adversary came after us, we got through it, together... but I failed her... and so many died in vain, in our names... this is a fitting punishment, no? Just what an inadequate failure deserves... a pitiable end for such a pitiable leader..."

"You went above and beyond what most digimon would have done... you tried... I'm so sorry we couldn't..." Panthermon wept, Yalimon holding her tightly in his arms. She buried her face in his chest and cried, as he stroked her back, his chin resting on her head.

"I tried... and failed. My best wasn't good enough... and because of my own ineptitude, I lost the woman I loved... and the friends that had been with us since the beginning..." The ice bird responded. He laid his head back down onto the cold metal base of his cage, his weary eyes slipping closed. "Please, leave me be... if you won't grant me peace in death, then let me dream... it is the only way I can still see her, feel her, now..."

The two rookies forced themselves away from the cage in silence, the only sounds now from Panthermon's muffled sobs, and their tears dripping onto the cold tiled floor below. Neither cared to hold back, even when reaching Diebmon at the door, who let all three out of the wretched room, leaving Sastrugamon to think of things that could have been, and reminisce of happier times when he and Medusamon had not been forced on the run, or fighting for dear life.

Sastrugamon dreamed his dreams, telling Medusamon over and over just how much he loved her, until the aching pain of grief and longing in his heart grew too much. Had anyone been able to see into his cage now, they would have seen the giant bird finally spill the tears he had fought so hard to hold back on, as he cried himself into a heartbroken sleep.

---

At some point later, two men and a single digimon entered into Unit E-1, and like Yalimon and Panthermon, they were also paying a visit to the captive bird.

One man was lanky and thin, with black hair and stubble, wearing a lab coat that was undone. He had an otherwise sickening grin on his face; seeing the empty, hollow eyed stares of the digimon being held in 'death row' were ones that gave him a twisted sense of pleasure. He hid mismatched eyes behind a pair of shades he never removed, mostly to hide the glass eye he'd gained where he had lost the original to a digimon, an ugly scar covering over the same eye. His name was Hideki.

Hideki's digimon, Wingmon, was draped over his shoulders, looking as smug as ever. With a slender body that could rival even Minkmon's, two streamer-like wings sprouted from her back, with a small wing-like pair of ears standing up straight from her head, a fluffy tuft of fur sticking up between said ears. Her long, creamy white tail was draped around her partner's shoulders. The captive digimon stared enviously and bitterly at her pampered, well-groomed glossy self, as she graciously accepted a treat from her human master.

The other human male had blazing red hair and cold, calculating eyes hidden behind thick glasses. He was always burying his hands in his pockets, to prevent himself from fiddling around, his fingers stroking the edge of his D-Drive in one of those said-pockets. Unlike his grinning colleague, his poker-face hid all emotion behind a mask of ice. This was Brian.

The two men approached the cage of the sleeping Sastrugamon, opening it up and entering in, Brian cautiously allowing Hideki to go first. If Sastrugamon still had any fight left in him to strike out, at least Brian had a shield of sorts; he did not care to get hurt himself, but if Hideki was brazen enough to push his luck, it was no skin off of his back if he lost another eye.

"Utterly pathetic, no? I have my doubts if this bastard is even worthy enough to become a part of the project," Hideki mused aloud. He dealt a quick kick to Sastrugamon's chest, causing the bird to give a hideous screech in agony. The horrific noise only made him grin more. "Oh good, just making sure you're still alive. Can't have you dying until we're ready, of course."

"Get on with it," Brian snapped in a voice devoid of emotion, or mercy. "We have three days until the procedure. If this data-beast isn't ready, or dies before then, we're dealing with a set back. So refrain from kicking it anymore."

Hideki smirked and shrugged, spitting off to the side. "Wow, real happy today aren't you, Brian? You're just a big ball of sunshine and smiles, as always."

Brian ignored the remarks and checked Sastrugamon over. The snow bird made no effort to resist, or fight back on his inspection, and made no bid to move or attempt escape. The red-haired scientist seemed dissatisfied and scowled, stepping back.

"Get the medics on hand. The subject needs round the clock care; and step up its diet. It needs to be at it's peak for it to truly benefit Astralmon, or the entire project is compromised, and we start again from scratch," he instructed, retreating from the cage, and making a head for the door. "Hal will penalize us if we're forced to terminate any more test subjects for the project, so make damn well sure the bird lives."

Hideki watched Brian leave before staring back down at Sastrugamon. The injured bird remained still, staring up at him distantly, a weak look of defiance on his face.

"I have already lost everything dear to me... I am not afraid to die," he croaked up weakly, his chest still stinging from the kick, the red, bloody swelling skin showing through empty patches of feathers. He was not going to give these people any satisfaction in allowing them to scare him.

"Don't worry then, birdbrain. We'll give you something to be afraid of soon!" Hideki smirked, sneering down at the imprisoned digimon. Before Sastrugamon could even move, the dark haired man raised his foot and brought it smashing down on Sastrugamon's beak, chipping and cracking it, making the injured bird's shriek ring out over the entire containment area.

"Consider that your house-warming present, birdbrain. Welcome to Arch Angel!"

Unbeknownst to Hideki however, everything had been witnessed on camera from where the Resistance had hacked in to find out what was happening with the captive digimon.

---

Seth and Skye were shaking harder than anyone else from witnessing that entire, horrific spectacle. Frigimon was screaming and wailing, and the rest of the digimon were numb with shock, clinging to each other in tears.

"Noooooo!" Frigimon shrieked brokenly, her large hands pressed against the screen, eyes wide in horror. "Noooo! Lord Sastrugamon!"

Sayo was clinging tearfully to Seth's arm, staring fearfully at the monitor, but he didn't respond. He was on the verge of exploding from fury, Skye virtually mirroring his anger. He felt like he was going to be sick.

"That fucking bastard..." he snarled, his hands balled tightly into fists. Skye was shaking violently beside him. Her head was spinning and pounding so hard she felt as though she would pass out; Seth finally snapped out of it when he heard her beginning to retch and gag on bile.

"God dammit..." he cursed. "Sayo... get Skye back home... There's only a slim hope we can get him out alive... we have only once chance to do this, so we need to start planning as soon as possible..."

Between the sobbing digimon and sickened humans, there was little that could be done in the way of planning. Everyone was too repulsed and grief-stricken and panicky to focus on brainstorming, not when they was hanging over them, replaying in their minds.

But oddly enough, of all of those present, the one to suggest a viable plan was Tanukimon; and it was crazy enough that it might just work.

---

"For goodness sake, Manimon!"

Joey groaned in exasperation as Manimon accidentally knocked over a stack of paperwork for the third time that morning.

The irrepressible little rabbit had also successfully ruined what had been a good start to the day after having knocked Joey's coffee all over his keyboard, accidentally erased the pie chart Joey had been working on showing various sales figures for his boss whilst trying to look up questionable images on the internet, and just generally annoying the exhausted blonde via trying to build a card pyramid and taking up half of his desk space.

"Whaaaaat? It's not my fault there's a surprise inspection from the government and now everyone's panicking trying to make this dump look presentable." Manimon sighed, rolling his eyes. "If you didn't want all this stress you should've kept it tidy before!"

Manimon jumped a mile in the air when Joey smacked his hand down on the table in anger.

"It WAS tidy, that's the thing! But then you went and messed everything up! You're not even sorry for it, either!" He was so frustrated he didn't care who heard him losing his temper. "YOU'RE the reason I have so much stress, Manimon. Why can't you just bugger off for a few hours and give me some peace and quiet to sort all of this mess out?"

Manimon looked downright offended for that remark, and felt his face flare up red with anger, even if Joey was telling the truth, Manimon was too proud to admit to it. Snorting indignantly, the rabbit picked himself off and trounced off in the most dramatic and flamboyant fashion leaving only a loud "HUMPH!" in response.

Everywhere Manimon went, people and digimon were busy. Even Tatzelmon, who Manimon had secretly hoped was available for fun and mischief, was behaving herself and helping Kurumi get everything ship-shape at her desk, too. A man rushing out carrying bags nearly overflowing with trash almost crashed into Manimon and yelled an expletive in anger, causing Manimon to return the feeling with a rude hand gesture.

It was so boring and stressful around the office that the rabbit decided he'd find a nice quiet place he could nap for a few hours to kill time.

The canteen was undergoing a spit and polish so that was no good. The staff room was out of the question too, where he could see Ziva yelling her head off at Jasper and Leo to rearrange the furniture to achieve the "perfect zen" or some other crap he was certain she was being OCD over.

"Huh, Panthermon and Yalimon ain't with them," Manimon noted as he carried on down the corridor, "Can't say I blame 'em wanting to get away from that lot..."

The medical ward was full and there was no way in hell he would get any peace at the nursery, and if he slept in the containment area again they might mistake him for a captive digimon (again). The only other options available were the carpark, which always smelled of oil, the toilets, which smelled even worse, or the boiler room.

Naturally, the boiler room was the obvious pick. Due to how huge Arch Angel was, every sector needed a boiler room and a back-up generator to run all the electricals and security installed. He was fairly certain that even the back-up generators had back-ups, but that was besides the point. He didn't have to go too far to find one to hide out at, but he just hoped the janitors for this floor weren't having an impromptu spring cleaning, because Manimon really wasn't keen on crashing out in a toilet cubicle.

Cracking the door open, he peered inside. It was dark and warm inside, just the right atmosphere for the perfect nap. But at the same time, the hum from the generator would keep him awake; this was a problem fast grating on his nerves.

That's when he saw it. A door at the back of the room. This would be where the janitors went to dump off their cleaning equipment no doubt, surely. The door would be enough to block out the annoying low hum... it was perfect, almost too good to be true.

Hurriedly opening the door, he stepped through into the next room, and closed up behind him before taking in the scene before him.

On the right hand wall there was a huge fan closed off behind grating, an ominous red glow from further behind it casting a sinister light on the wall opposite, the fan blades rotation causing ever-constant shadows to cycle about endlessly. But this wasn't what caught his attention.
It was the wall of scribbles done up in white chalk all over the wall. Surreal, almost childlike doodles plastering every surface. He stood, fixed to the spot, his gaze travelling over each scrawled out image The mass brought to mind a brainstorm map from a scientist trying to work out equations; he couldn't understand the nature of the pictures, but they felt connected somehow.

A giant tree towering over everything went across the top of the wall. Under the tree stood two... humans? It was hard to say, but the figures were wearing hooded robes.

There was some big, shaggy beast being stabbed from behind by a tall, slender figure with a dog's head for one hand and a sword for the other. There was a giant ship with wings sailing through a sea of clouds. There was a giant gorge or canyon with a colossal hand reaching out from the cracked earth. There came a tower encircled with stars and zodiac signs with a fearsome monster sat at the top.

The doodles kept going and going... he was having to walk just to see the rest, straining his eyes in the blood-red lighting.

A city skyline stretched out along the bottom of the wall. A bird in the sky was summoning a blizzard with a snake-like woman laying dead in the snow. Then, a jungle seemed to be overturning the city, trees and vines choking and covering everything in sight with a humanoid-creature covered in thorny vines sat atop a throne.
Then there was what seemed like a storm battering the city, buildings being knocked over by something unseen in the clouds and another in the rising waters flooding through it. The last had what looked like a huge building exploding with fire sweeping the streets, bodies littering the roads.

The entire skyline had made his blood run cold. Manimon hoped there were nicer images in this creepy, confusing mess, backtracking, when he noticed the center.

There was a huge digimon, split down the middle. One half had what looked like screaming ghostly things bursting out of it, surrounded by fire and more dead bodies.
The other half was a giant thing that seemed like it was possibly made of... fire? With a human trapped inside. A second figure, so tiny in comparison, was aiming a bow and arrow at the beast, with the world around them looking crumbling and decayed.

He finally noticed doodles that really shocked him more than anything else on the wall so far. Whilst he was willing to write off everything else as some bored artist's scribbles, creepy and horrific as they were, he saw something that was unmistakable.

There, at one side, were doodles of people. People that looked like Joey, Amy, Marina and Darren, and two more that he didn't recognize, with what looked like himself, Laelapmon, Denimon and Elfinmon beside the respective human partners, as well as two strange digimon at the mysterious human pair's sides too.

Before he could even think about fleeing running and screaming from the room like a giant wuss, he felt a large, clawed hand grab his ears and lift high off the ground into the air. Squealing and kicking and flailing his legs, he was soon silence by a second hand coming and covering his mouth.

"My, my... aren't you a nosey little fellow..."

---

"W-Who are you? W-What the hell is up with this c-crazy room, anyway?"

Those were the first words Manimon managed to splutter after mostly getting his stuff in order, after finally calming down.

He was sat before a tall, slender jester, completely covered from head to toe in his jester costume. The only skin showing at all (which was grey coloured) were his hands, feet and pointy elf-like ears. Blonde hair spilled from under his jester hat, over his mask face... and despite it only being a mask, it behaved like a second skin, the mouth moving exactly as his real one would beneath it, and two red plus-sign shaped "eyes" on the mask regarding him in an ominous silence.

Manimon was unnerved, but also mystified and slightly intrigued. He felt himself getting a tad flustered from staring, and glanced away, his cheeks reddening considerably under the fur on his cheeks.

"My name is Tarockmon, and this 'crazy' room is just the janitor's unused storage space, is all."

Manimon squirmed in his seat, his ears almost twisting around themselves frustratedly, so he ended up grabbing them and tugging them down either side his face to stop them from flapping about.

"You know that's not what I mean, blondie! What's the deal with the drawings, anyway?" He replied, casting another glance over at the wall full of 'crazy'. "Are they... yours? What do they mean, how did you know about-"

Before Manimon could launch into a tidal wave of questions, the jester hurriedly pressed a finger to the babbling rabbit's fuzzy lips, silencing him.

"If you'd allow me the chance to speak, White Rabbit, I could explain the answers to those questions."

Manimon stammered a barely audible apology, feeling his face redden again. He felt shy, and small, as though he were on the verge of something big and scary, that only this strange jester understood, and the mix of nerves and anticipation was getting to him. He allowed himself, just this once, to be picked up and sat in one of Tarockmon's arms. Had this been any other time, he would have fought and resisted every step of the way.

"You want to know what these images are?" Tarockmon asked, as the pair of them stood before the wall of images, "They're special. They're how I keep track of... important events."

Manimon blinked up at the strange, masked digimon and then flushed on noticing the jester glancing down at him in turn and hurriedly looked away once more.

"W-What does that even mean, a-anyway?" Manimon mumbled, fidgeting his paws together anxiously. "You... you're lying. These just look like drawings... nobody can see the future, I know that..."

"You think I'm lying? I foresaw Sastrugamon's blizzard last month, and not a single fool here believed me, bar my... master," Tarockmon stated, wandering further up the wall, towards the images of Manimon and his friends. "You lot seem important. You've never met me before, and I've not met you, personally, but I've dreamed of you a lot. I bet it's not everyday someone tells you they dream of you, eh?"

Manimon squeaked and puffed his cheeks out on catching that comment, and burned up when he caught the jester grinning at him impishly behind one hand.

"O-Oh stop it, you're... you're the worst!" he spluttered, folding his arms, "A-Anyway, I'm still not convinced, even if you did try to butter me up by calling me important, there..."

Tarockmon padded over and knelt down in front of Manimon, smirking cattishly. "What, you want proof? Okay... I'll give you proof. I can tell you why young Joseph is even bothering to hold down a job here, right?"

Manimon swallowed, habitually fiddling with one of his long ears. Tarockmon couldn't possibly know, Joey had only ever told people he trusted, like Amy... how could this guy even know something as personal as that?

"G-Go on, then... guess." Manimon demanded, in the meekest and most quiet way possible. If Joey had been there right now, aside from being equally nervous, he would likely joke that aliens must have invaded and performed some operation that made Manimon quiet, and for the most part, well behaved.

"Young Joseph is here because he's wondering what happened to his grandfather... am I right?"

Tarockmon didn't need to wait for a response from Manimon to know he'd hit the nail on the head. Manimon felt like his heart had gone from trying to pound it's way out of his chest with a sledgehammer to stopping dead.

"How... H-How did you... n-nobody knows..."

"I know, because I foresaw his arrival at Arch Angel," Tarockmon responded, massaging Manimon's ears soothingly. "But why I have these visions... I can't understand their importance, other than they are destined to happen and that, for some reason, all the people that have appeared have been important. So no, I wasn't trying to flatter you, sweet rabbit, I was stating fact. You seem important to the future, somehow... and that's all I can tell you."

"So... these images... you don't even understand them yourself?" Manimon asked, "How could you know Joey's name but not mine, then? Why bother to draw it all down in the first pla-"

Once more, Manimon was silenced by Tarockmon, who held Manimon up gently under his arms so they could meet eye to eye.

"I found out about Joey because I have ways of getting information without even being detected. He wouldn't even know I'm watching, even if I were right behind him. I simply haven't had time to dig up any more information on anyone else, is all."
The sharp-toothed grin on his masked face made Manimon gulp nervously, as he continued, "I draw what I see down to try to make sense of it all, to try to piece the puzzle together... like taking notes. Except, you know, my writing is even more childish and scribbly than my drawings. And it's so much easier to remember scenes and faces in drawings, don't you know?"

"I... I still don't know if I'm convinced..." Manimon stated. Some part of him, despite the drawings and Tarockmon's knowledge of Joey's personal goal, still felt he needed more confirmation on things.

"Well, then... I can try one more time to convince you." Tarockmon sighed, ruffling the rabbit's ears affectionately. "All I'll say is, you did a damn fine job of impaling Centimon with your drills, down in the underground, hmm?"

Manimon swallowed. Without a doubt, this guy just knew. Nobody else had seen, or even been present, for that whole misadventure down in the subway. There was absolutely no other explanation for the jester being able to know all of this without being able to foresee it happening in advance.

"Then... you've been dreaming about these things for..." he started, swallowing a lump down in his throat.

"Years," the jester informed him. "Before you were even a data packet on Arch Angel's servers, I've had these dreams. I don't know why you've been drawn into this, but these events I've forseen... I am certain that you are involved. Without a doubt, you and your friends bare a huge weight to carry, for the sake of the city... perhaps, even the world."

Manimon wished he could run away. So much responsibility was being placed on him, by a digimon he barely knew and only just barely trusted, and the fate of the world was something both mind-blowingly immense, and utterly terrifying.

"The city skyline down the bottom... from what I've pieced together so far, that's the timeline for the city," Tarockmon explained, pointing over at the image spanning the entire width of the wall, "The first has Sastrugamon's blizzard striking the city, with Medusamon's inevitable death. The second... I'm fairly certain it's a jungle. The third involves raging seas and horrific winds, and the last..."

Manimon listened as Tarockmon's voice grew quieter and quieter, as they stared at the last image on the wall.

"That one is a recurring nightmare. I see it, over and over..." the jester rubbed as his temples, his head hurting somewhat from just seeing it. "Endless fire, and so many bodies... an impossible amount of death... and I can't see the cause of it, or an end to it..."

"Is... Is it really set in stone...? Can the future not be changed, or prevented?" Manimon asked, his voice wavering. It was a thought that didn't bear thinking about, and so utterly terrifying. It was so much to process, too, and he felt a panic attack coming on.

"Of course it can. That's another reason why I'm trying to dig much deeper, and find answers. Then I can try to prevent all of it from happening!" Tarockmon stated, rubbing his hands together enthusiastically. "And I am not the only one who sees this future, nor am I the only one that wishes to prevent it from happening."

"T-There's more out there that can s-see it too?!" Manimon shrieked, almost falling over himself in shock, his jaw dropping comically. "That... that makes even less sense! I demand explanation!"

At this moment, Tarockmon seemed to grow tired of the Q&A session, and pulled back one of his sleeves, pretending to check the time on a watch he wasn't wearing.

"Unfortunately, sweetness, time's run out, and I've got to get going. I'm sure one day, when I'm feeling generous, I'll fill you in on more, but for now, I think that's quite enough of that." Grinning, he tickled Manimon's chin, where the little rabbit's jaw had still 'dropped',
"Anyhow, try not to think too deeply on all of this, and If you ever feel like bombarding me in your utterly adorable and confused way, my little carrot cake, you're welcome to drop by anytime. Maybe next time I'll draw you like one of my french girls."

"H-Huh?!" Manimon squeaked, his face almost exploding from how hot his cheeks had grown from the sudden teasing from his strange acquaintance. "D-Don't tease me so, I-I d-don't-"

"You might want to be careful leaving, also, you wouldn't want to give anyone any funny ideas, considering how much time alone we've spent together, sweetness." Tarockmon smirked, waving Manimon goodbye, before vanishing in a burst of purple smoke. "Ciao!"

Manimon was then left to burn up in embarrassment in the privacy of the hidden 'doodle room', giving the wall one last lingering glance before hurrying out to hide in shame in a place far away from the strange jester.

---

"Jasper, for god's sake, straighten your tie!"

Jasper and Leo were standing to attention, with Ziva straightening Jasper's tie up "perfect", constantly chiding he and Leo every step of the way in her paranoia to look presentable for the government officials.
It was the third day since the impromptu phone call had been made informing the higher-ups that the inspectors would be coming, and it was also the day that the digimon they had previously captured, Sastrugamon, would be moved from Unit E-1 to a different location deep within the bowels of Arch Angel.

"Geez, why do we have to have our ties perfect when the rest of the building is a dump?" Jasper groaned, voicing his complaint loudly. Ziva had to refrain from shaking his head off.

"Because, you idiot, Arch Angel is funded by the government. If they think it's a waste of funding, we'll be out of jobs because they'll shut it all down!" Ziva snarled, rounding up on Leo next. "For god's sake, stop snivelling and straighten up, Leo!"

"Y-Yes sir... M-Ma'am...!" Leo sniffed, hurriedly correcting himself and doing his best to stand 'correctly' without looking awkward, a feat he found immensely difficult. Ziva smacked him upside the head irritably and went back to Jasper.

"How does the funding for this place even work? Don't the government know what we even do here?" Jasper mused, ignoring his female companion's further berating of wanting him to remove his ear piercings ASAP.

"Like hell if I know! I'm not Hal's goddamn PA, I only know that if you two mess things up here, we could be finished," she snapped, swiping at his ears, and having to bite her lip to stop herself from shrieking in rage when he kept dodging her, "Stop pussy-footing around and take your damn piercings out, or I'll rip them out myself!"

"Thanks Zee-zee, balance the fate of the company on our shoulders why don't you?" Jasper smirked, poking his tongue out. Fortunately for Ziva, he relented and managed to get his piercings out before she had a chance to get her twitchy hands on them.

At that moment, a young lady with cropped blonde hair and leaf-shaped earrings brushed past Ziva, sauntering up to Jasper.

"Oh, poor baby... you've grazed your ear!" Placing one dainty manicured hand on his chest, she stood slightly tippy-toed to lean up and lick the slight grazing on Jasper's ear, causing him to blush as red as his hair colour in surprise.

"W-WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING, Y-YOU CRAZY BI-" Ziva shrieked, her eyes burning with all a fire so intense it burned brighter than even the hottest depth of hell, launching herself at the strange woman who was all over her 'property'.

The young woman side stepped aside nimbly and giggled in an otherwise cute and tuneful way as Ziva almost went soaring head over heels off balance from missing her target so suddenly.

"Sorry, sweetheart. I had no idea he was your boyfriend. I'm Titania Viverri, by the way, and here's my government card. You've been expecting us, I presume?" the first of the two inspectors crooned, decidedly ignoring Ziva and eyeballing the two male agents with approval.
Leo gulped audibly, whilst Jasper, for once, was at a loss for words, rubbing the back of his head bashfully.

"He is NOT my boyfriend!" Ziva started, hurrying to straighten herself. She had never been so angry and humiliated in all her life, and it was the biggest test of her already running thin patience to try to keep some air of professionalism. "I-I mean, a-anyway... I suppose you want the tour, do you?"

"Oh, of course. I'm sure your not-boyfriend can show me around just fine, right? He looks big, strong and capable... just the sort of man I like." Titania giggled, linking her arm through Jasper's, "I bet that's right, ain't it, handsome?"

Jasper glanced away shyly, still too speechless and embarrassed to even form a coherent reply beyond "I-If you s-say so..."

Ziva was almost reaching her boiling point and was seething behind them so angrily she'd begun grinding her teeth in rage. It was only when Leo gave her arm a meek little tap did she seem to come back to earth and remember there was both Leo and a second inspector present.
At this point, she couldn't be bothered to even make an effort and glared icily at the remaining inspector, waiting for an introduction, one which she hoped would come soon before that horrible hussy made off with Jasper. Who was definitely not her boyfriend, but without a doubt hers.

"Carmelita Vixiena," muttered the remaining woman, introducing herself bluntly enough. She had a glare as icy as Ziva's, and hair as black as the night itself, and Ziva inwardly groaned realizing that she was likely going to be stuck with the 'emo goth' pair for most of the tour.

All Ziva wanted to do now was go up high on the roof of Arch Angel and scream, or shoot herself in the head. Or both.

"So, sweetness, what's it like to work for Arch Angel, hm?" Titania asked, practically smooshed up against poor Jasper, who gulped nervously.
He could feel Ziva's fiery x-ray vision attempting to melt the back of his head right off of his skull, and it was already uncomfortable enough without the inspector hitting on him every single time he so much as blinked.

"I-It's uhh... It's uhh, c-cool, I guess... I uhh... I'm pretty good with a gun, I g-guess..." Jasper stammered, feeling like he'd lost so many IQ points from shame he may as well have been making chimpanzee noises.

"Ooohh myyy... I love a man who knows how to use his gun... I bet your personal gun is quite spectacular too, sweetness!" Titania giggled, reaching around to stroke his hair.
Ziva was breathing so heavily in rage behind them that she almost sounded like she was making the angriest impression of Darth Vader known to mankind, and was mentally imagining an airstrike swooping in and dropping a nuke on this floozy's stupidly-pretty blonde head.

Carmelita thankfully hurried on ahead and tugged Titania off to one side, hissing into her ear irritably, "You're making a fool of yourself, and that Ziva woman is fast planning your funeral for you and readying up for an attempted assassination... for once in your life Tanukim- Titania, can you focus on the mission and not trying to get in the nearest human male's pants?!"

"Oh boo-urns, sweetie! It's just a bit of fun... besides, what's the harm in breaking up the tension? And good god is that man cute... have you been checking out his butt like I have?" 'Titania' giggled shamelessly. Carmelita all but face-palmed and groaned loudly, "Really, Cadmemo- Carmelita, sweetie, relax~!"

"Breaking the tension? If that Ziva woman had a tension meter, you would've blown it to smithereens by now. You're about 20 seconds from getting pulverized into data-mash at this point..." Carmelita growled, "So pull yourself together!"

Ziva on the mean-hand had grabbed Jasper by the back of his shirt and hauled him backwards, her grip on him like iron, "What the hell do you think you're playing at?!"

"Zee, look, I don't like it any more than you do, please believe me!" He pleaded, looking all wibbly and helpless, "But she's all over me like a cat in heat, dammit! What am I supposed to do?"

"W-What are you supposed to do?!" Ziva hissed, looking teary eyed, "You either stay away from that Boob Lady or you can sleep on the couch!"

"Aww, but Zee-zee! I didn't ask for her to latch onto me..." he sniffed miserably, fidgeting sadly with his tie, "a-and you can't do that, i-it's my apartment, r-remember?"

"It won't be for much longer if you don't ditch that overpaid government hooker! I can't stand seeing her get her nasty little claws into you, and the way she stares at your ass when you're not looking makes me want to vomit..." she whimpered, looking deeply upset.

Jasper seemed to perk up at that moment, but in a way that would soon see his eardrums obliterated. "Wait... if she's been checking out my ass, and you've been checking out on her checking out my ass... then that means you've been checking out my ass double!"

"JASPERRRRR!" Ziva screamed, immediately bursting into tears of anger and shame, marching off ahead, huffing and sobbing bitterly, "Forget the couch, you're sleeping on the doorstep toniiiiiiggghhtt!"

Jasper grinned, torn between finding her teary-eyed frustration cute but also feeling guilty for being amused over her jealousy. In the end, he chose to pursue her anyway.

"W-Well..." Leo mumbled to himself, where he'd been all but forgotten at the back, "a-at least nobody's picking on me this time..."

---

Leo was the only one left now,and he was almost on the verge of fleeing from fear.

He was trapped alone with the horrible 'boob-lady' whom was still pining after Jasper, and the 'scary lady' who had an aura even more imposing than 'Drill Sergeant Nasty', the man in charge of training the Agents. It was the worst day of his life, where every day for him was a bad day in general.

Ziva had dragged Jasper into the newly rearranged staff lounge and blocked the door up after her, to 'protect' Jasper from the 'government hooker further tainting him', or so she'd yowled through the door to Leo, and this is why it was now his sole responsibility to get the job done.

He'd been so eager to get the tour over and done with that he'd all but nearly run through the rest of the work place hurriedly mumbling the name of each area in a voice quieter than a mouse's, without elaborating on anything going on around them. As such, Carmelita and Titania (aka, Cadmemon and Tanukimon) did not learn as much as they hoped they could.
It was a disappointing turnout for both parties, it seemed.

"This guy is annoying, now. We need to get him down a place where there aren't many people and get him out of the way." Cadmemon whispered to Tanukimon sharply, "Besides that, I don't know how much longer I can keep this disguise up for... it's really draining, and if we don't act fast we won't have enough energy to get back out with Sastrugamon..."

"I'm aware of that, sweetie-fox..." Tanukimon whispered back. Several times they'd almost lost sight of Leo where he was scurrying on ahead like a jittery squirrel. He was so jumpy and paranoid, it was starting to wear down on them both, and each time he caught them whispering, Tanukimon had felt positive he was growing suspicious. "The next moment we get, we'll do it then, darling."

Eventually, Leo had reached a 4-way split in the corridors. Just as he was about to ask them where they'd like to go next on their whirlwind tour, both ladies had him pinned against the wall, an action that had the poor guy having a sensory overload from them breaching his personal space in such an extreme way. The only sound he could even make was a panicky squeak of fear, with his whole life flashing before his eyes.

"Sorry sweetie, it's been fun, but the tour's come to an end. I think it's time you had a nap!" Tanukimon 'advised' sternly. Leo stared up in panic stricken disbelief as animal-like ears seemed to 'ping' up on top of the 'inspector's heads, a striped tail poofing up from behind Titania and two black fox tails from behind Carmelita, as 'Carmelita' dealt a swift blow to the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

Time was up, and in a burst of smoke, where two 'government inspectors' had once stood now stood Tanukimon and Cadmemon in their true forms.

"A pity, really... in the end, this one turned out to be super cute, too," Tanukimon commented, before squealing where Cadmemon had had enough and decided to punishingly bite her raccoon dog tail to remind her of her priorities. "Eeeeek!"

"You sleazy alcoholic pervert, stick with the program! Yggdrasil be damned, Tanukimon, you're even worse than Clefmon!" the black fox snapped. "Come on, we need to find the-"

"Containment area, right?"

The sudden unexpected voice had both girls jump a foot in the air in surprise, whirling around to find the source.

They were met by Yalimon and Panthermon.

---

"So, ladies, what's the plan now you're inside?" Yalimon asked the two unexpected guests, as he and Panthermon escorted both Resistance digimon inside Unit E-1.

"Well, darling, our friends at the Resistance set us up with a spare modified Arch Angel PDA, so we can digitize Sastruga-sweetie inside and then be on our merry way," Tanukimon explained. Yalimon and Panthermon were both hoping this plan would work.

"So... about you guys, you're...?" Cadmemon began, hurriedly interrupting Tanukimon on a subject she felt she wouldn't get the chance to speak about again. "I mean... why are you even helping us? We were fighting last time, against Ikkakumon..."

"Best way I can put it is that we're spies for the Heraldic Knights. Not sure if you've heard of our work... but we were sent in to keep tabs on Arch Angel, and that means playing the part," Panthermon replied. "That's a story for another time, but regardless, whatever happens right now, our priorities and mission is for the same cause; to bust Sastrugamon out of here."

"We lost all hope, there's just no way we'd be able to get him out ourselves," Yalimon added, "We needed a miracle, today... here's hoping now is the chance we can save him."

All four digimon felt confident that this truce and allying on sides could help them succeed in their 'jailbreak'. Sastrugamon's cage was just in sight, they were so close-

"Heeeeyyy guys!"

Diebmon seemed to materialized out from above, taking all four digimon by surprise. He'd been sitting on top of one of the empty cages when he'd seen them pass. Cadmemon cursed out loud in shock, which alerted Greg, who wasn't too far from them. They were not as alone as they had thought, and this was not going to be an easy victory, to the dismay of the entire party.

"Dammit!" Panthermon hissed. In the blink of an eye, all four had pounced poor Diebmon, holding him still and making sure his beak was held shut to prevent him from alerting Greg.

The poor bewildered magpie stared up in confusion looking utterly betrayed by Panthermon and Yalimon, his own seniors, as Greg passed by on the other side of a storage crate; they'd only just narrowly avoided being caught.

"Diebmon... shhh, shhh... don't panic..." Yalimon whispered, "I'm going to remove my hand from your beak, but I need you to promise not to utter a word... do you understand?"

Diebmon nodded to the best of his ability, his eyes as wide as saucers. Yalimon chose to place trust in the little bird digimon and slowly removed his hand. All four of the digimon quietly backed off and gave him space to sit up.

"This is important, okay? Greg mustn't know we're in here. You have got to get him out of here, I... someone's life depends on it..." Yalimon whispered urgently, Panthermon and Cadmemon constantly peering out in fear. Greg's voice could be heard calling for Diebmon nearby.

"Diebmon? Come on, fella, out you come. This is no time for hide and seek!" Greg called, sounding worried. It was unlike Diebmon to go off like this and be so unresponsive.

Diebmon was torn, and carefully weighing things over in his mind. He loved Greg dearly, Greg was his number one, his best friend and big brother. It felt utterly wrong not to go running out and tackle his leg from behind in a tight hug. But... someone's life seemingly hung in the balance? The little magpie didn't understand, but it sounded horrible. Ultimately, he decided that helping the digimon out held sway this time, and hoped Greg would forgive him if he ever found out the truth.

"I... I can try..." Diebmon muttered, looking pain. Yalimon and Panthermon knew this was a big thing to ask of the little magpie and hoped he knew how appreciative they were.

"We're so close... Sastrugamon's cage is just a little further in the unit, we can do this..." Panthermon muttered, overcome in desperation. A heavy tension had fallen over the entire room, they'd come too far to allow even the slightest mistake now.

Diebmon snuck out from their crates and climbed up on top of the nearest cage, watching Greg. His Agent's back was turned, where he was currently preoccupied with looking inside an empty cargo box for his feathered friend.
He braced himself to ready his plan, his mind working a mile a minute where so much seemed to rest on making sure there were no humans to interfere in whatever the four digimon depending on him needed to do.

Taking a deep breath, Diebmon jumped off the cage and landed was a loud thud on his back, a pained groan escaping from him. The fall hurt a lot less than the feeling in his heart from where he felt he was betraying Greg, and hoped he never had to do something like this again.

"O-Oooohhh..." Diebmon croaked sorely, Greg rushing to his side in an instant, "it hurts... it hurts so much, Greg!"

"Diebmon! Oh no... is it bad? Can you move?" Greg's voice was gentle and full of concern, and just hearing it felt like a knife being twist through Diebmon's heart. "Hold on, I'll get you to the medical ward... it looks like you've sprained your ankle..."

"I'm sorry, Greg..." his partner whimpered, his throat feeling sore and tight. Greg insisted he needn't apologize, but then, Greg didn't know the truth. Diebmon still felt in low spirits even after the apology, and remained so even when safely stored inside Greg's D-Drive.

The four digimon watched guiltily as Greg leaved, each heaving a deep sigh from how tense it had been.

"Come on, we'll need to get to the cage, before anyone else comes... I don't know if we have much time left to get to him, and Frigimon is depending on us to bust him out of here." Cadmemon urged, as the small group began hurrying onwards.

So close, so close... skidding around boxes and crates, the digimon group hurried, before being greeted by a sight that made their blood run cold.

The cage was empty.

"No..." Cadmemon whispered, her eyes wide in shock and disbelief, every hair on her neck standing on end. "No! They can't have taken him, we're before time, aren't we?! Why?!"

Tanukimon held onto Cadmemon tight, as the small black fox began to choke back on her sobbing. Yalimon had dropped to his knees in griefstricken, Panthermon burying her face in his shoulder, her tears dampening his mane.

"Someone must have come early because of the inspection..." Yalimon muttered, his hands shaking, "they must have taken him to prevent him being seen in a bad state by the 'inspectors'..."

"Y-You're saying it's our fault?!" Cadmemon shrieked, her face flaring red from the combination of tears, and now anger, "You... you're saying we condemned him... with the plan to... t-to..."

"This is my fault..." Tanukimon whispered, her voice faint and wavering. As much as she try to wipe tears from her eyes, they kept coming. "I shouldn't have t-tried to... lead a plan... I'm no good at these things, and... and because of me, Sastrugamon is..."

There came a violent vibration and buzzing sound from the Resistance digimon's loaned PDA, making all four of those present jump in shock. It was a message baring a sliver of hope.

"Hi. It's me, SysOpmon.
We lost contact with you a while back, but you didn't seem to notice.
Listen, Cadmemon, Tanukimon, it's not too late. Maybe there is still time.
Seth and I have been scouring the cameras.
A man called Brian came in about thirty minutes ago to take Sastrugamon somewhere, we located him next at the medical ward.
Seems he was doing a last minute check-up, don't know why, but it buys us one last chance.
He's heading down to the bottom level, the restricted zone.
If you can get there before he does, use the PDA, link it up to the door panel down there and I'll get you in.
I can't reach it from here; there's no net access down there.

You can't afford to waste anymore time. Hurry."

---

SysOpmon had marked the fastest route on a map on the spare PDA, and the digimon group were running the hardest marathon in a bid to reach the right place on time. No words were spoken, but all four runners were unified in cold determination to save the life of Sastrugamon.

The elevator ride down felt like a descent into hell. To try to ignore the numbers counting up (despite heading down) like the worst countdown timer, Cadmemon decided to finally break the silence.

"Unit E-1, Death Row... digimon are normally killed on the spot in there, right...?" Her mouth felt like rough sandpaper, and she felt nauseated and faint, trying to lickher dry lips. The action brought little comfort. "Why... if Sastrugamon is needed alive, why keep him in such a place...?"

"He's on the 'hit list'. He was needed alive, but when we were being briefed, our Agents and us, they don't ever fill us in on what. They do it to keep people in the dark, so they don't freak out over the truth..." Yalimon muttered, wringing his tail anxiously in his hands, "This company was built on lies and deceit. But as long as they protect the city for humans, it doesn't matter what happens to digimon, even if they're innocent..."

"We didn't anticipate this when we volunteered to be... placed within the ranks," Panthermon added, in reference to the dark happenings around the building, "We were, and still are, investigating other things. To find out if there's a link between Arch Angel and the virus in the digital world."

"I... wouldn't be surprised, knowing these people..." Cadmemon mumbled. Her legs felt weak, but in another few floors, it'd be crunch time. "Most of them seem so... anti-digimon... I don't like this place, not one bit..."

The group fell into silence again as the elevator shuddered to a halt on the final floor. The final destination.

The elevator doors opened to a long, dark corridor. Strange, almost alien-like marks ran up and down the walls like veins, causing the lighting to look strange. It was like they had stepped into another world entirely.
This floor contained the main laboratories, a testing chamber with enough strength to survive a nuke blast, and maximum security containment, as well as an abandoned section that had been boarded up for years, or so Yalimon explained quietly to the two girls from the Resistance.

"Agents can come down here, but only to patrol the halls. Only people with the high enough clearance can enter the maximum security place, and absolute highest level of clearance is needed for everything else..." Panthermon explained. None of this made a real difference, but at least it assured the other two digimon that they were still on Earth, and not some hellish nightmare.

It was terrifyingly quiet, and so dark, they could have heard the beating from a butterfly's wings. The vein-like patterns on the walls seemed to rhythmically pulse, in a way that disturbingly resembled a beating heart.

Finally, the time came to enter the final destination, the last place left to go. After hooking up the PDA, the four waited in an agonizing silence, surrounded by such a quiet and terror-filled tension, the atmosphere almost felt alive. With a whirr and a clang, the gears and machinery controlling the locks on the thick security doors went into motion, and the door leading into the testing chamber.
They would be the first, and perhaps only, digimon of their standing to enter. They may have felt proud for making 'history' had it not felt like stepping into the arms of death.

The chamber was gigantic, with a huge colosseum like pit in the center, encircled by support pillars. The tell-tale red stains of bloodshed smearing the walls and floor indicated it had been used recently, too. Stairs to one side of the room lead up to a smaller chamber, where terminals and control panels took up an entire wall with a super-resistant reinforced viewing window or screen served as a shield against attacks from on-lookers overlooking the stadium below.

The very sight and nature of this horrible place made the small group feel sickened to the pits of their guts, but they were in no position to dwell on such feelings as it stood now.

"Quick, we need to hide..." Tanukimon urged, after the door slid shut behind them with a loud clang. They could make out voices muttering together in the distance.

Hurrying about, they found a blackened alcove behind a support pillar. Cadmemon used her Shadow Attraction ability to hide all four of them in the darkness of the shadows, the sound of footsteps growing closer.

After what felt like an eternity, the door slid open once more. Three men entered; the dark haired Hideki, grinning away in his sickening way, followed by the red-headed Brian, looking apathetic and unreactive, and lastly, Hal Becker, head of Arch Angel himself.

Cadmemon was about to dive out and attack on sight, but Yalimon held her back by her tails, hauling her hurriedly under cover once more. She stared at him, dumb-founded.

"W-Why? They're right there... Sastrugamon is in that storage transfer device thing...! Let me go, Yalimon!" she hissed, struggling to get free.

The purple-furred beast and his panther colleague hurriedly covered her mouth and fought to keep her restrained. "You don't understand... those two have some of the strongest digimon in the entire company! You'll get butchered for sure trying to rush out blindly!"

"But I don't see any other-" Tanukimon started, before Panthermon pointed her paw out.

"He's hidden, that's why. But... right there..." Panthermon motioned over towards the alcove opposite theirs, where Cadmemon could just make out the tall, humanoid shape of the jester-like Tarockmon. "He's very dangerous... he'll skewer you dead before your heart even gets a second beat in..."

"A-Are you saying we d-do nothing?" Cadmemon whispered tearfully, watching as Brian realized Sastrugamon out onto the floor, and despite the great bird's wounds having been healed, there was nothing reassuring about the sight.

Hal had one hand folded across his chest, resting his chin on the back of his other hand, looking deep in thought. He nodded his silent approval for Brian and Hideki to continue.

Sastrugamon was still too weak to move, but his eyes followed the men around the room wearily. Both were heading towards a control panel loaded with countless buttons. Sastrugamon, though his eyes looked empty, soulless and devoid of emotion, now, was shivering noticeably.
Despite his resolve not to show any fear to his captors, the last emotion left for him now was an increasing sense of anxiety.

The four digimon were too frightened at what happened next that they were rooted to the spot in fear.
All they could do was watch in horror as Sastrugamon was brutally and mercilessly slaughtered before their eyes.

Two thick cables burst out from panels in the floor around Sastrugamon, pinning him down. The sudden attack finally broke the already broken digimon further, and he began to shriek and struggle hopelessly against the far stronger material. The cables pinned him down so tightly, the sound of cracking ribs could be heard before his agonizing shrieks drowned the horrific sounds out.

Panels opened up from the walls, robotic claws shooting out straight for the thrashing digimon, grabbing at him, and beginning to pull him apart from every angle. One of his wings was violently ripped off, causing blood to splash across the cold metal floor, before it dissipated into data.
His talons writhed and twitched, bent into odd angles as the claws continued to pull him apart forcefully.

Hideki grinned, rubbing his hands together in sickening glee at the wretched scene, each bloodcurdling scream giving him intense euphoria. Brian remained steadfastly unemotional, watching with eyes that held no mercy or compassion towards the mutilated creature.

Hal seemed repulsed, stepping backwards and covering his mouth, and Tarockmon winced and cowered backwards, but was unable to take his eyes off of the machine breaking Sastrugamon apart piece by painful piece.

With one last agonized, gut-wrenching scream, Sastrugamon burst apart into blood-red clouds of data, his white feathers fluttering down around the room like snow. His digicore, the last remnant left of him, was all that remain.

Yalimon gagged and retched behind his hands, fighting hard to resist vomiting. Cadmemon's mouth was covered by Panthermon to try to prevent her from screaming; the black fox was fast entering a panic attack from trauma. Tanukimon wept brokenly into her hands, curled up in a fetal position.
They'd witnessed hell within this twisted room, and could barely wrap their minds around or process what happened.

"Was... was that really necessary?" Hal croaked. He was trembling, forced to lean against one of the pillar for support. He looked uneasy and faint, and this had been something even he hadn't anticipated.

"Yes." Brian replied in a blunt, matter-of-fact voice. "The specimen must not be touched or handled by another living thing. It must remain untainted, and pure. The digicore is at risk of being destroyed or tainted had we used one of our own to dispose of it."

"For the perfect integration of this digicore, it can't risk having other people's crap on it, so no fingerprints, blood or anything that could cause our Subject to mix up the DNA, or confuse it." Hideki smirked. He was still jittery and only now just coming out from the high he'd had watching the murder of Sastrugamon.

"Our subject's immune system is very weak. If the subject is tainted, or ill, or suspected of carrying the virus infection, we risk losing it, and jeopardizing the entire project." Brian added, thrusting his arms into his pockets, "it's either these lowly specimens, or your lifelong dream, there can be no grey area in regards to ensuring a 100% success rate."

Hal swallowed, before nodding in repulsed, hesitant acceptance. "Fine... but I refuse to stand audience and attend the next... extraction."

"As you wish," Brian replied. Tapping another set of buttons, one claw remained, which dealt with the digicore. Firmly in place, the claw placed Sastrugamon's glowing digicore into a reinforced glass case for safety, which Brian and Hideki prepared to move, to where, the digimon who bore witness wouldn't know.

After the Arch Angel group had left, the four digimon were now left alone to their misery, unrestrained in their grief. Everything had gone wrong; the entire day had been one long descent into the absolute unthinkable.

And they still had to get back out and bear the tragic news to Sastrugamon's friends.