Chapter 14

A/N: I hope you guys like the fight scenes as much as I love writing them. Enjoy :D

At the School

"That sounds like it would actually work," Takuya said impressed. They were all sitting around the computer lab trading ideas and strategies on how best to take on Dragomon.

"I've been known to come up with a few good ideas," Tai bragged making Matt roll his eyes.

"So, we still have the problem about us not being able to DNAdigivolve," Veemon brought up.

"Actually, we may have been able to solve that," Izzy said. Veemon cheered and ran over to hug Izzy, making the boy chuckle a little. "I was talking with Beetlemon and he mentioned something about each warrior having two spirits and the ability to merge them together." He looked over at JP for confirmation.

"Only Takuya and Kouji have actually fusion evolved, but in theory all of us should have the ability to do so. Beetlemon said that if we give up that power you guys should be able to DNAdigivolve or whatever it's called," JP said.

"So I won't be able to evolve into Aldamon?" Takuya asked receiving a shake of the head from JP. "That sucks!"

"Izzy and I were disguising it, and we think it would be better for them to evolve further since we will still get stronger with them, and the rest of us have never fusion evolved before anyway so we're not sure if we can at all," JP explained.

"Fine," Takuya gave in.

"When should we start the attack?" Armadillomon asked excitedly from beneath Cody's chair.

"Maybe the day after tomorrow, just to make sure everyone is well rested," Joe suggested.

"What?!" Gomamon whined, "We're totally fine! We don't need to wait that long. In fact let's go right now!" Gomamon was a bit riled from hearing his friend's battle stories and not getting any action himself.

Gatomon stepped in front of him and put her paw directly in front of Gomamon's face immediately halting his march out the door. "You may be fit to go, but I wouldn't mind a cat nap." The other partner digimon agreed, expressing how tired they were.

"Fine," Gomamon huffed and plopped down next to Joe. Joe laughed lightly at his partner's antics, gently patting his head.

They continued to discuss different battle tactics and strategies. Kouji was leaning against the farther wall when he felt a chill run down his spine. Unsure of where the feeling came from, he pulled his jacket closer to himself. Suddenly Kari shot up in her chair and gasped, drawing everyone's attention.

"What's wrong?" Tai asked his sister worriedly.

"Something bad is coming, something dark." Kari closed her eyes tightly and wrapped her arms around herself. Now Kouji was sure something was definitely wrong. Glancing around the room Kouji realized that they were two people short.

"Shit!" Kouji pushed past a few people and digimon and bolted out the door.

"What's his problem?" Yolei glared at Kouji being one of the people he shoved out of his way.

"Something's wrong," Kari said quietly, "Kouji must have felt whatever I did."

"Kouichi's not here!" Zoe exclaimed, after looking around the room she realized they were a few kids short. That would also explain Kouji's freak out.

"Neither is TK," Matt said jumping to his feet. Everyone got up and was getting ready to search for their friends. Looking out the window they could see Kouji already in his shadow from sprinting off to some unknown location.

"Hurry let's go!" Takuya shouted rushing out the door followed by the rest of the group.

With TK and Kouichi

Duskmon unsheathed both of his red curved blades and casually stepped closer to the boys. "Rather than wasting my time searching for him I can just kill you, then he would come straight to me," he taunted, "Maybe I can just wipe out all of your friends that try get in the way too."

"That's if you can kill me first," Kouichi stepped forward angrily; his shadow form's dark aura began to form around him.

"We'll help too." TK stepped up next to him and Patamon's body glowed from the light of Digivolution. TK suddenly felt some sort of strange power flowing into him. Was this what the others were talking about?

Kouichi glanced at TK, "Don't worry everything's going to be fine," he said, as if he could sense TK's wariness. TK nodded at him and embraced the power that began to fill him up. The shadows completely wrapped around Kouichi forming a snarling black lion. Rather than Angemon appearing, TK was rather shocked to see MangaAngemon standing there instead.

"Interesting, at least you're going to provide me some entertainment," Duskmon jeered. He charged at them with his blades crossed forming an X. MagnaAngemon caught Duskmon's swords with his glowing purple one. They both put all their strength in trying to force the other back, testing the others power. MagnaAngemon grunted as he was slowly getting pushed back.

Kouichi chose that time to intervene, charging at Duskmon. But Duskmon was expecting him and jumped into the air avoiding the collision. From the air he launched a 'Deadly Gaze' at the pair. Both of them managed to get out of the way in time causing the red beams of light to strike the ground. When Duskmon landed, he glared at the two of them. Maybe this was going to be a little harder than he thought it would be.

Kouichi leaped at the Duskmon, trying to slash at him with glowing claws, while MagnaAngemon dove at him trying to impale him with his sword. Duskmon was forced on the defensive, parrying MagnaAngemon's attacks while trying to dodge Kouichi's. Duskmon slammed his shoulder into MagnaAngemon's chest, knocking the winded angel down. He quickly turned around in time to see the black lion closing in on him.

He raised an armored arm in defense as Kouichi's fanged clamped shut on it. He then slammed his fist into the lion's muzzle forcing him to release his hold. With the two of them out of the way for a few moments he turned his gaze to TK.

TK's eyes widened in fear as Duskmon ran at him. Duskmon had decided to take the opportunity to eliminate TK. Duskmon raised his blade and slashed at him.

TK raised his arms trying to protect himself and shut his eyes tight. He waited for the blade to slice him in half, but it didn't come. Slowly opening his eyes he saw MagnaAngemon standing before him. His partner had bravely taken the attack for him.

The angel digimon sank to one knee, a deep gash stretched across his torso. The feathers on his wings were crumpled and slowly floating to the ground. The wound was too much, causing him to dedigivolve into Patamon. Patamon curled tightly into a ball whimpering in pain.

TK's mind instantly went back to the fight they had with Devimon, where his partner was destroyed. It was the exact same thing as before. Patamon would give his life for TK as many times as he could but TK was powerless to help him.

Duskmon let out a merciless laugh, "Weakling! I knew if I targeted you one of these imbeciles would blindly try to protect you. Too easy." TK completely ignored the evil digimon and went over to his partner. He knelt next to him and carefully picking him up trying not to disturb his wounds.

Duskmon raised his swords to attack again, but before Duskmon could attack, Kouichi hit him with a body slam trying to get some space between them. TK sat there, oblivious to what was happening around him. Both of them landed with heavy thumps on the ground. It took a moment for them to Kouichi and Duskmon exchanged blows, but Duskmon was faster and stronger than he was. TK was dragged out of his stupor when Kouichi was slammed into the ground a few feet in front of him.

Duskmon was panting slightly but was otherwise unharmed while Kouichi sported multiple cuts and bruises. Even if he was hurt, Kouichi, still wobbled to his feet to stand protectively in front of TK. TK was a bit stunned by Kouichi's desire to protect him but now he was sure he had made a wrong assumption about him before. Kouichi was darkness yes, but he wasn't evil. This Duskmon character, on the other hand, certainly was.

Gently cradling the unconscious Patamon in one arm and gripping his digivice in the other, TK stood up and glared at Duskmon. Okay so how did the other kids do this? How did they give their power to the warriors? He gripped his digivice tight and willed whatever kind of power that rests within himself into Kouichi. Slowly he began to feel a slight tugging sensation, like something was trying to pull out his very essence. He was expecting it, so he wasn't startled when a deep voice spoke to him.

'Thank you.'

The shadows built up around Kouichi, obscuring the lion's form. Duskmon sensed what was happening and raising his blade to strike. When he brought it down, instead of the sound of cutting flesh there was a clang of metal on metal.

The shadows fell away revealing an armored warrior in black and gold lion themed armor. Duskmon's sword was being blocked by an almost translucent shield that looked similar to a lion's face. Kouichi, now Löweemon, swung his shield causing Duskmon to stumble slightly. Löweemon gripped his lance tightly and thrust it forward. His lance grazed Duskmon's side making him hiss in pain.

Löwemon's shield faded away as he held his weaponin both hands, he would need to be more aggressive if he wanted to win. Duskmon quickly shook off the small blow and raised his dual swords. "Finally, now it gets interesting," he sneered.

TK watched as the two dark digimon clashed. Small sparks were created from where their weapons met. Duskmon launched a flurry of attacks one after another. Expecting an assault like that Löweemon parried every attack and lashed out whenever there was a slight pause in Duskmon's attacks. After a while both of them began to tire, as they got sloppier more attacks began to connect with their target.

With a powerful swing of his lance, Löweemon knocked Duskmon to the ground. TK cheered quietly on the sidelines as Duskmon slowly rose to his feet. For the first time in the fight Duskmon broke eye contact with Kouichi to stare off down the street. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever show up."

His comment confused TK and Kouichi. Just who was he talking to? Then Kouji, still in his shadow form, skid around the corner and immediately came to a stop when he saw Duskmon. "What are you doing here?" Kouji growled.

"Didn't you miss me? I certainly missed you?" Duskmon smirked. Kouji just glared at him and walked toward his brother. "Well this seems a bit unfair, two on one." Duskmon's eyes moved between the twins.

"I think I should make the odds a bit more even." A massive amount of dark energy began to gather around Duskmon. An eerie feeling washed over the twins making them jump back to put more distance between them and the pulsing orb of dark energy that formed where Duskmon used to be standing.

After a few moments the orb rose into the air and small cracks started to form. Those small cracks spread to cover the entire surface. Unable to retain the being inside of it the orb shattered! A large bird creature hovered in the sky, massive wings kicked up small dirt puffs and menacing talons glinted in the light from the streetlights.

Velgemon let out a loud roar that rattled the bones of his opponents. Velgemon dove toward the twins who easily jumped out of the way. Kouichi tried to hit him with a few 'Shadow Meteor' attacks, but Velgemon was a very agile flyer and easily evaded them. Not having any ranged attacks, Kouji just kept his eyes locked on their opponent, his tail lashing back in forth in frustration.

When Velgemon tried to dive bomb them again Kouji leapt at him, his jaws clamping onto the wing of the bird digimon. Velgemon roared in pain before his middle eye began to glow. Unable to flap one wing the two of them began falling. Before they could hit the ground, Velgemon turned his head hitting Kouji with a 'Dark Vortex'. The force of the attack dislodged Kouji from his wing making him crash to the ground, a small crater formed where he landed. Velgemon was able to pull up from his fall just in time to avoid crashing into the ground.

While this was going on Löwemon was afraid to launch any long-ranged attacks in case he hit his brother. After Kouji hit the ground he ran over to make sure he was okay. Kouji was fine; he stood up and shook himself before leaping out of the small indentation in the ground. Now that his brother was okay Löwemon began launching more attacks at Velgemon.

Velgemon was getting fed up with them. Destroying the both of them was proving a bit harder than he thought it would. Looking at their positioning from the sky Velgemon smiled. They were bunched together, perfect.

He swooped down toward them but circled around them instead of trying for a direct attack. Expecting him to fly at them not away from them, the twins were slightly confused. The very tip of his wing skimmed over the ground leaving a deep crack in his wake. Watching as Velgemon circled them; the twin's eyes widened recognizing his most devastating attack, 'Dark Obliteration'.

TK was confused as to what was going on. Why was he just circling them? Just a moment ago he was extremely aggressive, what happened? As Velgemon flapped his wings to gain some altitude, walls started protruding from the ground trying to trap them inside! Kouji immediately started sprinting toward the crevice at the side of the circle. He leapt though the gap and turned around to check to make sure his brother was safe.

Kouichi had run over and picked up a confused TK, who was still holding Patamon, before he ran for the circles edge. "What's happening?" TK shouted. Kouichi ignored him and focused on getting the two of them out of the circle before it closed completely.

As soon as Kouichi and TK made it out the four of them put as much distance as possible between them and the strange dome. Once the twins dubbed it was safe and had a good amount of space between them and the doom they stopped to catch their breath.

"What is-" TK began to ask. But before he could finish his question the dome shut. An instant later the entire dome began to glow red and exploded. The explosion shook the ground knocking all of them off their feet.

When the earth stopped shaking TK looked up and gasped. Where the dome used to be was now a huge hole in the ground. Everything inside the walls had been annihilated.

While they were recovering from the explosion Velgemon struck! He came from behind them and caught Kouji in his talons. The razor sharp talons dug deep into Kouji's body making him scream in pain. Velgemon tossed him to the side making him crash into the side of a building.

"Kouji!" Kouichi and TK shouted. Kouji was bleeding but he still rose to his feet refusing to stop fighting. Velgemon laughed at them as he floated in the air. They may have him outnumbered but he was still stronger than they were. He would get his revenge.

Kouichi knew that he and Kouji were overpowered. Besides Kouji already being hurt, without Kari or Matt around he couldn't spirit evolve, handicapping him even more. It was amazing that he could keep up his shadow form all on his own. He needed more strength if they wanted to destroy Velgemon. He closed his eyes and looked deeper into himself.

TK jumped and almost dropped Patamon when a loud roar reverberated within his very soul. The slight pull he felt from Kouichi spirit evolving increased. Instead of a slight tugging it was now a sharp pull. It continued to suck the energy out of him. Even Patamon moaned slightly and began to struggle in his sleep.

The shadows began to creep in again, this time wrapping around Kouichi. Then a sharp pain erupted throughout TK's body. Unknowingly he was feeling Kouichi's pain as his body began to warp into his beast spirit. Kouichi shut his eyes tightly as he began his evolution. His flesh and bones stretched and reshaped themselves.

TK crumpled back to the ground clutching Patamon tightly to his chest. He heard another roar, but this time it came from the area around him and not from in his head. The shadows around Kouichi slowly dissipated, an armored lion now stood in his place. TK could still feel the pulling of energy and it didn't feel like it was going to stop anytime soon.

JagerLöweemon let out another loud roar. From the skies Velgemon narrowed his eyes sizing up his opponent. Choosing to be cautious he attacked from afar launching multiple beams of red energy at his opponent below. JagerLöweemon returned fire, releasing dark energy blasts of his own. Some of the attacks collided in mid air causing explosions and smoke to litter the sky. All other attacks were dodged leaving the two at a stalemate.

Kouji had recovered slightly by now and limped over to TK. Every step jarred his wounds, but he managed to maintain his shadow form. His brother was doing alright for now and there was nothing much he could do while Velgemon was in the sky. He noticed that TK was sitting on the ground shaking slightly.

"What's wrong?" Kouji asked.

"Something is sapping my energy, and when Kouichi turned into that it felt like my body was being torn apart from the outside," TK replied. Even if he hadn't physically done anything TK was starting to breath heavily.

"He beast spirit evolved, it's a stronger evolution but the process is a painful and it requires a lot more energy to do so," Kouji explained, "We can go into more detail later now's not the time."

Velgemon was fed up with long range attacks and swooped down and tried to impale Kouichi with his talons. Luckily Kouichi was fast enough to dodge and counter attack. The 'Ebony Blast' hit the bird digimon in the back causing him to lose his balance and crash into the pavement.

Velgemon shook himself and stood up and glared at Kouichi, only to see that he was covered in shadows. The shadows continued to grow around him forming a much larger lion. With a roar JagerLöweemon charged toward Velgemon. The bird digimon flapped his wings to lift off into the sky to get out of range of Kouichi's next attack.

But he wasn't fast enough. JagerLöweemon's 'Dark Master' attack struck him in the chest. Vegelmon roared in pain as he felt the shadow enhanced claws of his opponent tear through his torso. JagerLöweemon burst through Velgemon's body and skid to a halt, his claws creating deep indentations in the ground as he landed.

There was a gaping hole in Velgemon's chest where Kouichi had struck him. Slowly the hole began expanding until Velgemon completely disintegrated and was no more.

"You did it!" TK cheered. But rather than celebrating JagerLöweemon turned toward them and growled. TK shivered as he looked into his blood red eyes. "Kouichi?"

"Stay back," Kouji commanded pushing past TK to stand in front of him.

"What's wrong with him?" TK asked.

"He can't control his beast spirit," Kouji said, "Strange he never had any problems back in the Digital World." TK had to strain to hear the last part. Then Kouichi pounced at them. Kouji met him in midair stopping his attack. Kouichi snarled and snapped at his brother while Kouji did his best to keep Kouichi occupied without actually hurting him. The two of them wrestled on the ground until Kouji managed thrust his hind legs into JagerLöweemon's stomach throwing him off.

Once he hit the ground again JagerLöweemon rolled over and opened his jaws as dark energy gathered in it. Kouji was too close to have any time to dodge and was hit dead on. As he was blasted back his shadow form disappeared and he landed hard on the ground in his human form.

Kouji did his best to shake of the attack and stood back up; he formed two swords of light and held them in a defensive position in front of himself. TK began shouting at him to run away, but Kouji didn't move. He wasn't afraid, his face was absolutely blank. He knew his brother was still in there, overwhelmed by the beast spirit of darkness.

JagerLöweemon growled and slowly began walking toward Kouji. Multiple flashes of different colored energy slammed into his side knocking him away from his brother. Kouji and TK looked in the direction that the attacks came from. The rest of the group had finally arrived. The rookie digimon had all simultaneously attacked JagerLöweemon.

"Get ready guys," Tai commanded pulling out his digivice, the rest of the chosen following his lead.

"No don't!" Zoe shouted standing in front of them; her arm's spread out blocking their way. Takuya ran past her to talk to Kouji, who was looking at his brother as he recovered from the attack.

"Why? TK and Kouji are in trouble." Sora asked.

Zoe bit her lip nervously, how was she going to explain this one? "So Kouichi can't control his spirit huh?" Takuya's voice was loud enough for all of them to hear. Tommy and Zoe sighed and shook their heads and JP started to massage his temples in frustration with Takuya's lack of tact.

"That's Kouichi?" Ken asked.

By then TK had walked over to them. "He turned into that thing when the huge bird digimon attacked us," TK began to explain, "Then all of a sudden he lost it and started attacking Kouji." They gasped when they saw Patamon's condition.

"What happened to Patamon? Is he going to be okay?" Palmon asked.

"He saved me," TK answered, "And, I don't know."

"How do you feel?" JP asked TK.

"Me? Well truthfully I'm exhausted. When Kouichi first spirit evolved I felt that energy sharing that you guys were talking about, but then when he changed into that form it began to feel like he's trying to suck me dry."

"The energy of only two people can't support the beast spirit," JP concluded, "The beast spirits are much harder to control and without enough power it's like trying to manage a dog with a piece of floss rather than a leash."

"But Wormmon and I are here now can't he just use some of our strength to control it?" Over the short amount of time he got to know Kouichi pretty well and was very worried for him.

"I don't think so, if not it would have already happened," Tommy said.

"He's coming!" Agumon warned them. JagerLöweemon was back up and staring at the new comers trying to decide how to deal with them.

"Let us take care of him," Kouji said not taking his eyes off his brother. The rest of the warriors ran over to where Takuya and Kouji were standing. Each of the chosen's digivices began to glow with the warriors symbols. Energy surrounded each of the warriors as they began to spirit evolve. JagerLöweemon snarled at his new opponents.

Kouichi was sitting on the ground with his legs pulled to his chest and with his arms wrapped around them. He had his head down wresting on his knees. He shivered slightly; there was a constant throbbing pain that wracked his body. He was also surrounded by darkness but that didn't bother him much.

His mind was fuzzy making it difficult for him to focus on a single thought. As he lifted his head there was a bright light in front of him. The sudden appearance of the bright object hurt his eyes making him put his head back down.

Leave me alone

After a few moments the light faded away and went out. With the light gone his pain in his eyes subsided, but now loneliness began to sink in. The light had hurt but at least he wasn't alone.

Come back

Where is everyone?

Then more lights appeared. There were five of them all a different color. The five lights began to circle around him. They seemed familiar but he couldn't remember. He could hear voices but couldn't make them out. They were quiet and muffled.

The brightness of the lights hurt his eyes, but at the same time they comforted him. He wasn't alone anymore.