Happy Sunday everyone! So just a couple of announcements and then we'll dive right into it. First off, I have a poll up on my profile that will determine an added perspective for this story, so go and vote! Please! Otherwise I'll have to choose, and that can only end poorly. Second announcement (and this is mostly just ego stroking for me) but this story officially marks over 200,000 words published for me. I know none of you really care…but I had to brag to somebody! =)

Last Time: The Digidestined discovered the general location of the first Harmonious One, Azulongmon, and started searching for his exact location. The gang all split up to try and speed up the search, at which point Doumon and Astamon made a reappearance. During the battle that ensued Kari and T.K., who's Crests were held by Azulongmon, split off to retrieve their Crests. They eventually found a large temple, guarded by three Ultimate Level digimon who let them inside and to their Crests. Soon after that the digidestined were able to drive off Astamon and Doumon.

Chapter 12 Vermillion Bird of the South

Davis

"Pass here!" I shouted towards Kazuki, who was dashing up the field with the ball. He gave me a glance, and then kicked the ball right at me. I stopped the pass, but then the pair of defenders I hadn't noticed were all over me, and managed to steal the ball away from me. I chased after them as they passed the ball up the field.

That's how practice went, back and forth with a lot of running around. Right now our coach was putting us through a lot of scrimmages against one another rather than drills so it was more enjoyable. That's not to say it was less work, just more fun than running back and forth with no real goal in mind.

I'd been putting a lot of time into soccer in the weeks since we returned from the digital world with Kari and T.K.'s Crests. Izzy's program still hadn't given us another location yet, so everyone was just going through the days like everything was normal. Pretty much every day a few of us digidestined, actually it was all of us unless there was something preventing someone from going, would travel to the digital world and help search for survivors in destroyed villages.

So far we had no luck in catching Piedmon or his lackeys before they destroyed a village, but we were getting closer. I don't think I'd ever wanted to destroy something more in my entire life. Even MaloMyotismon hadn't angered me this much. You had to see what he was doing to the digital world to really understand why that was.

It wasn't just destroying villages, but the way he did it. More than once we had found ourselves picking through the wreckage looking for something that wasn't there, and that rebuilding was more than useless since the village had been wiped out to the last mon. And these digimon wouldn't be reborn, not until Piedmon was gone at least. I had gone with Tai and Matt back to Primary Village to check for survivors that Tai and Sora might have missed, and I was utterly sickened by the sights there. Why any digimon would want to do that to any other digimon, and then prevent the others from being reborn I just didn't know.

Of course everything wasn't terrible. Tai was healing faster than the doctors had expected. The cast on his arm was already off, and he no longer had to use the wheelchair, instead using crutches to get around. He was always out at practice yelling with coach at all of us, and encouraging us even though he couldn't play with us yet.

Unfortunately his leg was going to take even longer to heal, maybe even a few more months, though Tai was determined to get moving before then. I don't think he would actually be able to, though it definitely wouldn't be for lack of trying, I just didn't know if his body would respond how his brain wanted it to.

Luckily that didn't prevent him from helping us in the digital world. While we had never actually caught up with Piedmon, yet, we had caught up with several of his minions, all of whom were at the Mega-Level somehow, and watching WarGreymon tear into those minions was a sight to see. He fought even better than Imperialdramon had before Doumon had interrupted mine and Ken's DNA digivolution ability. I guess the one time he was actually fought to a standstill by BlackWarGreymon was because he hadn't fought in that form in years, because he handled his opponents even better than that fearsome fighter had.

Coach blew his whistle a few seconds later, and gestured for all of us to huddle up. I jogged over, lagging just behind Kazuki, and that was yet another thing to worry about. Kazuki was filling in at Tai's position while Tai was gone, and was a really nice guy. Unfortunately his sister and I were…well dating. It wasn't even my fault. She was new this semester, and I decided to introduce myself, and she'd latched onto me, literally by the end of the day. She was a nice enough girl, so I didn't think there'd be any problem with the two of us dating, unfortunately Kazuki had found us making out, and things had gotten worse from there.

He was fine on the soccer field, but would only glare at me off of the field, and I honestly was starting to get a little concerned. He wasn't really still going to try and hurt me was he? I hoped not.

I should ask Tai about that… I thought to myself as he started glaring at me as we all circled up around Coach. A few minutes later we were all released, and after grabbing my stuff, I headed over to where Tai was sitting in the stands, talking with Ken. He was coming over to spend the night since it was Friday, something we did at one or the other of our houses pretty much every weekend. Since Ken lived in a different district, and we didn't exactly take a lot of classes together, so we spent a lot of time together on the weekends.

I was surprised though as I looked up to where Tai was sitting. Matt and Izzy were both sitting with him, something that didn't usually happen. Tai was the only one, other than Yolei occasionally, who ever came to our practices. It only took me another second to put two and two together, but Ken, as always, was faster than me.

"They found another one." He commented as he too looked up at the three older boys.

"Alright!" I shouted, pumping a fist into the air, and Ken stifled a laugh. I could see Tai, Matt, and Izzy laughing as they watched us, but I didn't care. It was time to go get some more Crests and get that much closer to getting Piedmon.

The three older digidestined met us at the bottom of the stands.

"So you found another one Izzy?" I asked before even bothering to say hi to them.

"Yes Davis, he found another one, now calm down before you pee yourself or something." Tai said with a smirk. I delivered a punch to his arm, at which point he let out a gasp of pain.

"Ah!" He shouted, grabbing his arm, and I was instantly concerned. I'd hit his bad arm…I didn't think it was that hard, but what if I re-broke his arm.

"Davis! That was his bad arm!" Matt said after glancing between me and Tai.

"Crap, Tai, I'm sorry, I didn't realize…" I said, but stopped as Tai stopped wincing and grinned. "That wasn't your bad arm was it?"

"Nope." Tai said, and I just hung my head low. Tai could always trick me with ease, and I always fell for it. It had started when we first met and we were both younger, but for some reason I kept falling for them.

Matt just laughed at me, though Izzy and Ken didn't join in at least. Matt then took a breath and gasped.

"Damn, you two smell." He said, covering his face.

"What? Is the smell of a little hard work too much for the rock star?" Tai asked quickly with a laugh.

"Yea!" I added with a laugh.

Tai grinned, then sobered up.

"Ok guys, in all respect to your hard work, you do smell. Go shower and meet us in the computer lab." Tai told us, and we nodded, each heading our spate ways.

Fifteen minutes later we were all in the computer lab, at least everyone who was going to be able to make it. Kari, Sora, and Yolei had gone to America for the weekend to visit Mimi before we thought anything would happen, and we couldn't reach any of them, so it would only be the men on this trip.

"Ok, everyone's here go ahead Izzy." Tai said after Ken and I entered the room, and took the seats that Tai gestured for us to take. I turned to Izzy, who stood up from where he had been talking to Cody and Joe.

"We've found the location of the next Crest." Izzy said, and I had to interrupt him, already confused.

"Wait, I thought we were looking for the Harmonious Ones?" I asked, and Izzy turned to me.

"So did I at first Davis. That's what Gennai explained to me. But it seems the program finds some sort of 'temple' that holds the Crests of the Harmonious One whose area it is in." Izzy replied, actually making sense to me for once. "At least that's what T.K. and Kari encountered with the first place we found."

"Oh. That makes sense." I replied, and Izzy continued.

"In addition to running the search program I've been doing some research on Doumon and Astamon in the event that we run into the two of them again." Izzy started, and I leaned a little forward. "There isn't much data on them, but I did find out some information about their attributes. Doumon is a data type digimon, while Astamon is a virus type. This was actually somewhat surprising to me, since I expected both of them to be viruses, which seems to point out that a digimon's type doesn't necessarily dictate whether it is good or…."

Wow, that's such a nice color for this room. The off-white makes you hate it even more than if they'd used a good color like blue…. My mind drifted to random things in the room as Izzy digressed into some topic. Luckily Ken seemed to realize what was going on, stopped Izzy, and got everyone's attention back.

Man…every time Izzy starts talking he manages to lose the entire room… I thought as Izzy resumed what he was trying to tell us.

"…virus type, so we've decided that should they attack us together MagnaAngemon and JewelBeemon will deal with Astamon, while WarGreymon engages Doumon." Izzy finished, and I just nodded. I may not know exactly why Izzy wanted the digimon to fight that way, but one thing I had learned is that Izzy is almost always right, and to go with what he says, especially if Ken was nodding in agreement, like he is now.

"What? Why can't I take out that punk Astamon!" Koromon piped up from where he was sitting in Tai's lap. "I'm a Virus Buster!"

"Yes Koromon." Izzy replied, "You are, as is MagnaAngemon. The difference is MagnaAngemon isn't any more powerful than an ordinary Ultimate against Data and Vaccine type digimon, only against Virus digimon is he going to be devastatingly effective."

"Oh…" Koromon replied, looking down at the ground.

"Hey don't worry buddy that just means you get to take out Doumon all by yourself!" Tai said, trying to cheer the little pink ball up. That seemed to word as he stopped looking so down.

"Anything else Izzy?" Tai asked, and Izzy shook his head. "Well, what are we waiting for, let's go get this Crest!"

We all stood up around the computer, except Tai, who just faced it from his chair, and held up our digivices.

~Digital World~

For once I didn't end up on the bottom of the pile, landing on top of the pile this time, and I jumped up gleefully. I'd been at the bottom about a dozen times in a row now, and felt it was good to finally not be buried. Cody was the unfortunate one who was stuck at the bottom, but he didn't look to worse for wear as Tai helped him to his feet.

"That wasn't fun at all." Cody commented.

"You're tellin' me partner." Armadillomon, who had been near the bottom with Cody, replied to his human partner.

I patted the younger boys shoulder.

"We all have to go through the pain some time Cody." I said, with a grin.

"Look at Davis, Matt. One time not on the bottom, and he makes it into a rite of passage for Cody." Tai said, elbowing Matt and then pointing at Davis.

"I heard that!" I called to the two of them, moving towards one of the rather large hills surrounding where we had landed. The entire area was covered in the hills in fact. It looked like we were near the mountains in fact.

"Is this the way we're supposed to go Davis?" Veemon asked as I stopped after walking a few feet. I actually didn't know, so I didn't feel like going too far in the wrong direction.

We walked back to the group after a few seconds, and everyone was looking at Izzy.

"Well, as near as I can tell, the temple should be up there." Izzy pointed straight towards the mountain range that was in the opposite direction from where I had been heading.

"In the mountains?" Joe asked as we all looked at the formidable mountains in front of us.

"Looks like it." Tai replied. "Isn't there a closer digiport Izzy?"

"Tai if there was I'd put us there. This is the closest one, and it's still so far away I can get a fairly accurate location with the locator." Izzy replied.

Tai looked up towards the mountains, and then at our group.

"We may have to come back tomorrow. We aren't going to make it up there in a single afternoon." He said quietly.

"We could get up there!" Wormmon chimes in, and everyone looks at him.

"Wormmon, I hate to put down your optimism, but that's a lot of mountain to climb…" Ken said, turning to his partner, but stopped mid-sentence. "Unless you all digivolved into digimon that can fly!"

"YEA!" I shout, instantly seizing onto that idea. We could fly up the mountains.

"Good thinking Wormmon." Ken praised his partner.

"Well, I guess that means we're going." Tai said with a nod.

"Yep. Now let's get digivolving!" I finish off, holding up my digivice, which instantly started to glow.

"Veemon digivolve to! ExVeemon!"

"Wormmon digivolve to! Stingmon!"

"Tentomon digivolve to! Kabuterimon!"

"Patamon digivolve to! Angemon!"

"Gomamon digivolve…"

"Gomamon you can't digivolve!"

"Ah, why not Joe?"

"Ikkakumon's too big to carry up the mountain!"

"Are you calling me fat?"

That pretty much ended the digivolution process as every started laughing at Joe and Gomamon. I hadn't realized it through the limited interactions I had with them, but they were a funny pair, or at least Gomamon made them that way.

Tai looked at the four digimon, and nodded.

"Ok, now all we have to do is find this temple. Matt, you go with Izzy and lead the way since we'll need your tag to find the Temple." Tai told the group, and everyone split up. Cody went with Ken and Stingmon, while Joe and Gomamon went over to T.K. and Angemon. Tai and Agumon made a beeline for ExVeemon and me.

"Got room for two more?" Tai asked with a grin.

"Yea!" ExVeemon exclaimed before I could answer.

Kabuterimon started to take off at this point, since Matt had been the first to head towards one of the flying digimon.

"Let's go!" I exclaim, climbing onto ExVeemon's back. Tai and Agumon climbed up a second later.

"You sure you can handle the weight?" I asked, suddenly concerned. ExVeemon wasn't the most powerful when it came to flight lift since he was designed for weaving and dodging in the air, not sustained flight.

"YEA!" He exclaimed, and then jumped into the air.

He seemed a little shaky at first, but then started to pick up speed, and smooth out. I lowered my goggles, the square replacements for the ones Tai had let me borrow, over my eyes, to help protect them from the wind. I let out a yell of pure pleasure as we soared through the air.

There was nothing quite as exhilarating as flying. The sense of freedom, of being up there above everything, all the problems and bad things in the world, was amazing. You couldn't get this same feeling on a passenger plane, unless you were actually flying it. You had to be in the air yourself to get the full effect, and it was great. Wind rushing into your face, the sudden feeling of free fall when you dropped down…it was exhilarating.

"Wahoo!" Tai shouted right next to me, and I could tell he felt the same thing about flying. His own goggles were down over his eyes as well. I had to laugh though at Agumon next to him. He looked just like a dog sticking his head out a window, with his lips being pushed back to reveal his clenched teeth.

It took us a few seconds to relocate Kabuterimon in the air, and a few more as we waited for the others to join us. Once we were all assembled we flew straight for the mountains. Kabuterimon led us straight up, and the initial adrenaline from taking off was wearing off. It was getting colder by the second, somewhat because of the altitude, but mostly because of the wind blasting past us. It was nice, but also freezing us.

Suddenly Kabuterimon headed for the ground below us, and everyone followed. Seconds later and we were all on the ground, trying to warm ourselves up.

"Are we there Izzy?" Tai asked, as he rubbed his hands together. His goggles were still down, which was a reminder for me to put mine back on top of my head.

"Not all the way. This is about the center of the area where my locator says it is." Izzy replied, finally shutting his laptop.

"And about time you got here." A rather bored voice abruptly entered our conversation. I spun towards it source, only to see Doumon and Astamon standing on one side of the clearing we had landed in, glaring over at us.

"You two again?" Tai said returning their glare.

"Didn't getting your butts kicked last time not teach you to leave us alone?" I threw in with my own glare.

The two digimon didn't reply with words, instead pulling up their paint brush and gun respectively.

"Watch out!" Angemon shouted as the digimon dove between us and the attack. There were three bright lights accompanying that, a gold one and a light pink one, though the orange one outshone them all.

"Angemon digivolve to!" Angemon didn't go through that large of a change between his Champion and Ultimate forms, just gaining another pair of wings to bring his total to eight, and gaining different armor than what he had been wearing. His mask was now elongated, extending well over his head, and was purple. On his shoulder was a purple beam shield, and on the opposite wrist was his beam sword, Excalibur. "MagnaAngemon!"

"Stingmon digivolve to! JewelBeemon!"

"Agumon warp digivolve to! WarGreymon!"

WarGreymon took position directly between the incoming attacks and all of us humans, quickly pulling the Brave Shield on his back out and forward to block the attack.

Astamon's individual bullets ricocheted off of the shield, while Doumon's energy attack hit it and caused a large explosion. Astamon kept pouring out his attack into the middle of the explosion where WarGreymon was, and I could hear the shots still ricocheting off of the shield. WarGreymon was still somehow able to get every single one of the shots fired by Astamon, despite the fact that he couldn't possibly see them from the smoke.

He didn't have to for a very long time, as MagnaAngemon and JewelBeemon jumped Astamon from either side. MagnaAngemon got his beam sword to cut Astamon's gun right at the barrel, cutting off his attack. That caused Astamon to fall backwards uncontrollably. That was stopped after a few seconds as JewelBeemon hit him from behind, sending him face first into the ground.

Those two seemed to have Astamon well controlled, but Doumon turned towards them as she wasn't attacked, and prepared to assist her partner. That's when WarGreymon exploded out of the smoke that had been surrounding him. He must have kicked off rather hard, since his movement through the smoke sent it flying in his wake. He flew right at Doumon, so fast and low to the ground that his out stretched claws, ready to strike, kicked up dust in his wake. He caught her with one of his claws before she could begin to assist her partner, and tossed her into the sky.

Doumon recovered before WarGreymon could get a finishing blow in on her, and used her paintbrush to block his follow up attacks. WarGreymon was still pushing her back with a steady stream of blows. Soon they moved farther away from us, and the trees blocked them from my view.

"ExVeemon, let's go help out WarGreymon!" I called out to my partner, anxious to help out now that we seemed to have the upper hand over Astamon and Doumon.

"Davis stop!" Tai called out, and out of reflex I froze. Tai had used that specific phrase to get me to stop doing something he didn't like almost as long as I had known him. Usually it was on the soccer field, but Tai would use it just about anywhere if he needed instant results. He'd gotten me as a kid to respond to that command by freezing in place, and it still worked even now.

"What's the matter Tai?" I asked after a second.

"Don't go after WarGreymon, he can handle himself just fine." Tai replied, and I started to protest. Of course WarGreymon could handle himself, but I may as well help him. It would make the battle go faster, and give me something to occupy my mind.

"Davis, we may need everyone's digimon to fight. Last time Astamon had help. If they brought help this time we'll need all of the other digimon will be needed to hold them off of MagnaAngemon and JewelBeemon." Tai pointed out, and I stopped arguing. Tai made perfect sense, in fact, I should have thought of that myself.

"Right." I said instead of arguing, and Tai patted my shoulder.

"Don't worry Davis, you're just focusing on the here and now. You had the right instincts for that, getting the fight over with quickly." Tai told me, trying to make me feel better.

"Thanks Tai." I replied, accepting the praise. Tai didn't like making any of his friends feel bad if they did something wrong, or had a mess up, but he would be honest, especially if the situation was something they could learn from.

I turned back to the battle as ExVeemon settled down next to Kabuterimon, Armadillomon, Gabumon, and Gomamon. I almost had to feel bad for the digimon. They had to sit back and watch their friends protect them, and their partners. That couldn't be easy for digimon that were used to being protectors.

"Excalibur!" MagnaAngemon shouted as he attempted to bring his sword down on top of Astamon. Unfortunately Astamon seemed to have fully recovered from the surprises of the first attacks directed at him, and jumped forwards into JewelBeemon. He hit JewelBeemon with a powerful punch before JewelBeemon could react to his sudden change of directions, and then used the momentum from the punch to push himself out of MagnaAgnemon's reach.

"Maverick!" Astamon landed from his kick off, and jumped right back at MagnaAngemon. The angle digimon had no time to react, but somehow managed to avoid the kick from Astamon, who instead hit a tree, demolishing it.

"Spike Buster!" JewelBeemon had recovered from his early hit, and was attempting to drive his spear into Astamon, who stopped the spear with his hands, holding the blade between his two hands.

It seemed to be taking all of his strength to hold the spear there, and that gave MagnaAngemon the opportunity he needed.

"Now! MagnaAngemon!" T.K. shouted out, seeing the same thing that MagnaAngemon and I saw.

"Gate of Destiny!" MagnaAngemon flew into the air directly behind Astamon and JewelBeemon, and drew a circle in the air with his Excalibur sword. The circle filled in, and a closed door took shape there, spinning in the same direction that MagnaAngemon had drawn the circle. The doors opened to reveal a portal of sorts, which immediately began sucking in everything in front of it, including Astamon and JewelBeemon.

MagnaAngemon had almost gotten both Astamon with his Gate of Destiny the last time we fought him, but had fled as soon as he drew the Gate. This time Astamon wouldn't be so lucky.

"This is your exit!" JewelBeemon grunted, just as he gave a full push that sent Astamon flying right at the Gate of Destiny. That's when things stopped going right. Instead of being sucked in by the Gate, Astamon floated in front of it, and laughed.

"What?" T.K. asked looked up at this, and I was just as surprised. I'd seen the gate suck up BlackWarGreymon, who had been one of the most powerful MEGA digimon we had ever fought, without a single problem, while he had been exerting his full power to avoid being sucked in. Despite that somehow Astamon was not being sucked in.

"You didn't expect the same trick that worked on my master to work on me did you?" Astamon asked with a laugh.

"How about this trick?" A deeper voice asked, and Astamon turned around, just in time to duck one of WarGreymon's Terra Forces. WarGreymon had returned.

He looked a little worse for wear, but he jumped at Astamon more than gamely, ready for a fight.

"Mega Claw!" He jumped straight into a close attack against Astamon, who managed to block the first few jabs, but WarGreymon kept attacking until he broke through Astamon's defenses. His final blow sent Astamon flying away from both the other digimon, and us digidestined.

"Treasure Lance!"

"Treasure Bow!"

"Horn of Desolation!"

First a lance of white light hit Astamon, followed seconds later by several smaller, though similar, lances, and finally a series of shockwaves hit him. The resulting explosion sent Astamon flying out of sight. WarGreymon watched the direction that he had been blown in warily for a few seconds, and then dedigivolved into Koromon.

Seconds later three digimon landed in the midst of our group.

One was a rather large serpent like digimon, which was almost completely white, except for the large shell just below its head, which was purple. Behind that digimon was one that reminded me of a goat, walking on four legs, and having a pair of purple horns. Of course, the two arms and the torso that extended from the lower body ruined the image of a goat. Finally the largest of the three was a large mule like digimon, with dark purple skin, and a large horn of sorts on its back. Strangely enough it walked on two legs, rather than the four like a normal mule…then of course it was a digimon.

MagnaAngemon and JewelBeemon didn't seem to relax at all as the three digimon came into view, and I had to agree with the two digimon. While none of the digimon were making any sort of threatening move, or posture, there was something about them that set me on edge. The air around them just wasn't the same one that most of our digimon excluded, it was almost…evil.

"Guys calm down!" Koromon said from where he was sitting on the ground in front of the three digimon. "These three are friends…kinda." He said, looking back and forth between the five digimon.

"Sandiramon, Pajiramon, and Indramon, all Ultimate Level Exalted Beast digimon." Izzy chimed in from where he was aiming his digivice at the three digimon. "They are all members of the Deva, twelve digimon which are servants and protectors of the rulers of the digital world." Izzy finished, and then looked up at the three digimon in awe.

Exalted Beast digimon? What's so exalted about them? I wondered to myself as the tension seemed to ease a bit.

"Izzy, who exactly are the rulers of the digital world?" Tai asked after a few seconds of silence. Izzy shrugged, but luckily the digimon seemed inclined to help us out.

"You know our masters as the Harmonious Ones, humans." The goat like digimon, Pajiramon I think Izzy called it, said in reply. "We are here to escort you to the Temple of the South, and to protect you from Piedmon's forces." Pajiramon then gestured to us to follow it, and started cantering almost directly south of where we were standing.

We stood around for a second, trying to decide whether we should follow her or not, and then Koromon jumped up into Tai's arms. "Come on Tai, these three helped us. What harm could come from following them?" The little pink ball asked his partner and Tai thought for a moment before shrugging.

The two of them started after the goat like digimon. I waited maybe half a second before walking after Tai, ExVeemon following me. I heard everyone else start following us a few seconds later.

Matt

I wasn't sure if we could trust these digimon completely as we walked behind the goat like one, Pajiramon. The other two followed behind us, either guarding us, or preventing our escape. I don't know if this was just a completely random streak of paranoia, or what it was.

I had been looking over Izzy's shoulder when he pulled up the information on these digimon, and one thing had jumped out at me from each of their profiles: VIRUS.

Every one of our enemies had been a virus type digimon, and while they had occasionally used data type digimon as minions the overwhelming majority of their forces had been virus type digimon as well. That left an instant dislike in my mind for any virus type digimon. We had never met one that wasn't our enemy in some way, which is probably why I expected these three to be the same way.

Fortunately, I guess, I didn't have that long to stew in my thoughts, as Pajiramon stopped at the bottom of one of the mountains that we were surrounded by. This seemed to be one of the higher peaks around the area we were in, and I had the uncomfortable feeling that we were about to have to climb it.

"All but Courage and Friendship must remain here." Pajiramon said as it turned towards us, and my eyes narrowed.

"Why just the two of us?" Tai asked before I could, and that told me that my friend was just as suspicious of these digimon as I was, even if he didn't show it.

"Only the bearers of the Crests that were held in the Temple may enter its precincts." Indramon replied in a deep, rumbling voice from behind us. "No others may enter."

Tai turned back to me, and I could tell from his look that he wasn't entirely comfortable with that. If this was a trick it would leave the two of use to face off with three Ultimates, and Koromon was too weak to digivolve from the looks of things. Not a very good combination. I just shrugged at Tai. It wasn't my decision if we should go forward, and it didn't really matter. I didn't really think we had much of a choice but to trust these digimon, but then of course my judgment was at least partially clouded by the fact that this was my Crest we were after.

"Ok," Tai replied a few seconds later, making up his mind. "Me and Matt will go up, the rest of you stay here."

Tai started forward at that point, and Gabumon and I followed right after him. Pajiramon led the way forward, and I was surprised that after a few feet steps appeared.

A broad staircase lead up the side of the mountain towards a now visible structure on the mountain side.

"Where did that come from?" I asked, pointing up towards the structure.

Tai, Koromon, and Gabumon all looked where I was pointing, but the digimon answered my question.

"The Deva are not the only guards of this Temple. Secrecy is its greatest defense. Only those chosen to guard it may enter." Pajiramon replied.

"So why can we enter?" Gabumon asked for us. "You were the Chosen Children destined to protect the South, and this Temple, from Piedmon and his Dark Masters." Pajiramon replied. "Each Harmonious One gave up some of their own power to form the Crests whose Traits you personify. As the most powerful of the Harmonious Ones, Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon were able to pour the most power into their Crests. This allowed the digimon partnered with those Crests to reach more powerful levels than their fellows."

"So does that mean that all of the others digimon also have a Mega level?" I asked, curious about this. Tai and I's digimon were the only ones to ever make it past the Ultimate level, though in some ways T.K. and Kari's digimon were just as powerful as many Mega levels even in their Ultimate forms.

"All digimon in this world have a fully developed line of evolution. Most are rebooted to the In-Training level before ever reaching that level. Your Crests allow your young digimon to reach levels of power far beyond what any other digimon even close to their age could reach." Pajiramon replied again answering my question. Maybe this digimon wasn't so bad after all. "But to answer your question, yes they all have a Mega level. Unfortunately all of the Harmonious One powered Crests have already reached their full power. There is no way for any of your digimon to reach a level beyond which they have already achieved."

I had more questions about that, I seemed to be channeling Izzy in his absence, but Pajiramon stopped.

"I can travel no farther." The digimon said, stopping a few steps from the entrance to the Temple. Tai and I nodded to the digimon, earlier distrust mostly gone thanks to the straight answers we had received for once.

The two of us, with Gabumon following us and Koromon in Tai's arms, entered the Temple. The entrance was a long stone corridor, which was rather plain. I guess all of this guarding and secrecy had gotten me to expect more ornamentation and shiny stuff. Ahead I could see a light that must have been one of the main rooms. When we exited the corridor I realized that it was the main portion of the Temple, and it was anything but a room. It was a massive garden, covered in all sorts of flowers, and trees, and other things that grow. The only thing missing was the animals of the forest in this one.

I stared around looking at all the different sights around me, and was pretty amazed. Sora would have loved it here.

I'd spent more than enough time with my former girlfriend to know how much she had come to appreciate the work that her mother did. She would have appreciated this garden immensely I'm sure.

"Man…Sora's going to be mad she missed this one…" Tai murmured softly. I'm pretty sure he didn't intend for me to hear that, so I didn't reply, though I did laugh on the inside as his thoughts mirrored mine.

"Even if your young friend had traveled with you young Kamiya, she still would not have seen my Garden." A booming voice echoed through the Garden.

I spun around immediately, just as I'm sure Tai and Gabumon did. Perched above the entrance we had just come through was the largest digimon that I had ever seen. It was a massive red bird, with a number of large wings, and had twelve spheres, that looked like red versions of the digi-cores that Azulongmon had given us last year, around its neck. This digimon had to be the Harmonious One that we were seeking out, Zhuqiaomon. I don't think I've ever been more intimidated in my life.

He turned his head, and clicked his beak. "Ah, where are my manners." The digimon said after a second of mutual staring. "I am Zhuqiaomon, the Guardian of the South. And the four of you are Tai Kamiya, the bearer of Courage, his partner Koromon, Matt Ishida, the former and soon to be current bearer of Friendship, and his partner Gabumon."

I didn't really know what to say at this point, I mean, what was there to say to one of the most powerful digimon in the whole digital world, not to mention one of its rulers.

"I cannot stay here long as I am needed in the East for a discussion with Azulongmon, but I needed to give the two of you a warning." Zhuqiaomon said before Tai could be his usual talkative self.

"A warning?" Tai asked.

"Yes. Things are not the same as they were before." The giant bird like digimon replied.

"What do you mean?" Tai asked, and I followed that up with a better question.

"And why are we just now hearing about this?" I asked, and Zhuqiaomon's eyes locked right onto me.

"The other Harmonious Ones do not believe that we should be interfering in the digital world at all. Myself and Azulongmon convinced the others that our best plan would be to return the Crests to their human bearers, you. Unfortunately all of the others are still set in their ways." Zhuqiaomon replied. "They wouldn't appear to you unless there was no other option."

"But you're doing that right now." I stated, quite obviously.

"I've never agreed with that policy, especially after you digidestined saved us." The large digimon replied, and I found a sudden liking for this digimon, a rebel among his brethren, not to mention actually wanting to actually help us.

"Well thanks." Tai said, rubbing the back of his head.

"But what did you mean by things are different?" I threw in.

Tai would probably get distracted by having a Harmonious One giving what amounted to praise.

"Piedmon is not the same as he was when you faced him before. He is somehow more powerful than he was the last time you encountered him." Zhuqiaomon answered, much to my satisfaction. "Something changed him, and made him that way."

"Changed him?" I asked.

"Something? As in something even more powerful than he is now?" Tai added right after me.

"I do not know digidestined, and unfortunately I feel you will be the ones to discover this, not I." The massive digimon replied. "Now I must leave. Matt, your Crest lies in the center of my Garden. Use it wisely, and stop Piedmon before it's too late." Zhuqiaomon opened all of his wings at this point and took off into the air, rising so fast that he was out of sight in only a few seconds.

I turned to Tai. "That was different." Tai said as I turned to him.

"Yea, but I liked Zhuqiaomon. He was actually honest with us." I replied, and a smirk appeared on Tai's face.

"Yea, that was nice for once. Now, let's get that Crest of yours so we can go home." Tai said, and the two of us headed down the path towards the center of the Garden.

Soon a structure of sorts appeared. It seemed to be a smaller temple of sorts, but an open air one, with columns supporting an open roof. Inside were two pedestals, each emblazoned with a Crest, one with mine the other with Tai's. I walked up to the one with the Crest of Friendship on it. Standing just a few feet from it I could make out the tablet of my Crest floating above the pedestal. As I approached it the Crest started glowing the deep blue that it had always glowed, as did my Tag. A second later the Crest flew off of the Pedestal, and was in my tag.

I had my Crest back.

Another sudden ending, but that's about what I felt it should be. Next week will be a little bit better, I promise. So not much to say here, so here's your preview.

Preview:

"This place is nice." I said as we continued through the woods.

"Mhmm." Tai replied, also looking around the woods. Then my Tag started to glow, causing both of us to stop in place.

"Is that doing what I think it is?" Tai asked, gesturing towards my Crest, which was faintly pulsing red.

I simply nodded holding it up, and spinning in a circle, trying to figure out which direction would lead us towards my Crest.

Review Replies:

DephsXylex: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. And you're quite right about Piedmon. I'd think he'd be trying a little harder to stop them from getting their Crests back though…

TaioraWarrior: Hehehe, yea, I decided that Matt and Davis needed a little bit of a push to get them away from their bachelor status, and Tai was the best person for that in my opinion. Kazuki though is a little over protective. He's kinda acting how I imagine Tai would if someone on his soccer team had been making out with Kari…so not well lol. And I didn't really mean for her to channel Jun, though she's going to end up sorta like a female Davis, at least where relationships are concerned, namely very up front and forward, which I guess is how Jun is. And thank you for pointing that out…it made me feel even worse lol.

Lachelle92: Lol thanks! And I take that as a huge compliment. I try and keep it as like the show as I could, and apparently I'm doing a decent job!

LyraXEthan: Thanks!

Zeobide274: lol something like that. And thanks! Now as for WarGreymon being able to take out Astamon, here's how I'm doing fighting comparisons for digimon. It's a twofold system, first a digimon's power factors into things, and then its experience. A more experienced digimon could take on a more powerful digimon and fight it to a draw and vise versa. WarGreymon is at the bottom of the top third of the Mega digimon (or more powerful than 2/3 of all other Megas. Imperialdramon is at the same level, and MetalGarurumon is only slightly less powerful) and he is also very experienced having fought a lot of battles. Now Astamon has been brought up to the same level that Piedmon was at when the digidestined first fought him, though he doesn't have any experience. That's why WarGreymon wasn't able to defeat him in that battle, not to mention he was more concerned with delaying the digidestined than fighting a battle to the death. Hope that serves as a sort of explanation for you. (I know the bias you're talking about though, since I have the same one. I try hard not to make WarGreymon too powerful though, because that wouldn't be realistic.)

Supershooter: Yep, now it's two down, two to go. And yes and no. JewelBeemon is a pretty powerful digimon, almost in the same class as Angewomon, but Angewomon is in that same class as Myotismon basically more powerful than pretty much every Ultimate around and nearly a Mega herself. She of course didn't actually kill Doumon, but just cause her to flee when her mission had obviously failed. And I'm glad you enjoyed!