Phew! Guess who finally finished this, five days later than he had planned and expected (Five Days at S-Rei's confirmed?!)? Well, if not for the effort I put into this after I realized I wouldn't make it in time, you might have gotten this update even later, cause trust me, it wasn't meant to be this long when I first planned it.

In the end, though, several scenes became much longer when I actually wrote them, and then, I've had some personal problems that kept me from writing quite as much as I wanted to prior to the last two days. But yeah, here it finally is, the chapter that you've been waiting for after that cliffhanger last time – which I still am really sorry for, but think of as necessary from time to time. Don't know if it was the last one, but I currently have no other cliffhangers planned according to my notes on this story.

Heh, bet some people would love to get their fingers on that document, cause it contains the answers to all the questions that you might have and probably will still get when it comes to this story. All the questions, mysteries and all that, answered in one surprisingly small document. Well, and now try to tell me again that it only takes one ring to rule them all. *snicker*

So anyways, everything else I want to address will be in the author's note at the end of this chapter.

Everything that's left for me to say here is: Have fun reading this chapter that contains a surprising amount of important stuff about people like Reika, Archenemy, Hazaado, but also about Rika...

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon or its characters.

Hazard of Hatred

ARC 3 - Homecoming

Chapter 4: The black moon rises

It was uncomfortably quiet in the train. Unnaturally quiet even. And that only served to further tear on my nerves. The unknown. The uncertainty. Had done so for the past 40 minutes, ever since entering the train.

But there I was. Sitting right opposite to her in a wagon that couldn't be anymore empty – really, how bad my luck was, an empty wagon, here in Shinjuku, everyone else that had been in it leaving along the way? - staring straight ahead out of the window right behind her, hoping to avoid her gaze.

But she wasn't even looking at me. Wasn't even trying to meet my gaze, despite the fact that she was more than aware of my presence, and most likely who I was. I wasn't disguised. Not a lot, aside from my change of clothes. There was no way she could've not recognized me.

So why wasn't she saying anything? Why wasn't she even looking at me? Why did she have to turn this silence into such torture? Torture, as I couldn't know when she'd finally decide to speak up. When she'd finally address me, and ask where I had been in all this time that, for them, had been almost an entire year.

A sense of dread had long overcome me. The feeling that, the moment she'd speak up, I'd suffer from a heart attack and suffocation at the same time, overwhelmed by the situation. By all the uncertainty, the fear and whatever else it was that was currently holding my body in a state of cold emptiness, void of logic and reason inside. That was choking me, and threatening to never ever let go of me again, unless I'd meet my demise by its hands.

For a second, my eyes were drawn to her, who she was sitting opposite to me, staring at the ground with a stoic, unreadable expression on her face. The void of emotion in her amethyst eyes. The thin line that her lips were, pressed tightly together in what seemed to be displeasure.

She had any reason to be displeased, I had to give her that. She had any reason to be angry, outright – as she often would put it – pissed. Cause why should she not? Her best friend, sacrificing himself for her wellbeing, and being gone for what was nearly an entire year, only to be back and never say anything? Never calling her to say he was alright? And to then appear in a train, by coincidence, of all places?

The train suddenly began to slow down. But even though it did, and Rika looked up towards the front of the wagon, where a small monitor displayed the next station long before a female voice from the speakers finally announced it, I didn't look away. Kept staring at her. Watched as her red hair shook gently as the train came to a stop.

The doors opened, and I glanced over to the closest one. This wasn't my station. And yet, I kept staring at the doors. Silently begged that someone, anyone, would come in and somehow ease this awkward tension that lay in the air. Some kind of distraction.

I didn't even mind the thought of an Infected coming in and causing chaos.

But no infected Digimon walked in. Not even a human. No businessman, no mother with her child, not even a teenager. Despite the downpour outside, no one was seeking shelter in the subway, and no one was aiming to go home using the subway – or maybe, just had chosen another wagon.

The doors began to close again, a light above the door warning of this process – and yet, in the last moment, a woman in a red coat calmly walked into the train. Her clothes were dry. She hadn't been out in the rain, something that confused me, but didn't further bother me when she gently lowered herself into the first seat by the door, at the back of the wagon, and pulled her fancy dark glasses a bit higher.

The doors closed again. Once more, it was just Rika, Gigimon – still within my arms – and me. And that woman at the back of the wagon, far away from us. Her entrance hadn't changed the mood.

The train shook once, let out a familiar hiss as it set into motion again, and I could only sigh on the inside. There were still quite a few stations to go until I'd be back at the hideout. Through the chase of Gigadramon through the city, Beelzemon, Gigimon and I had ended up in a completely different part of Shinjuku, far away from where I had actually intended to go. Made the train ride much more expensive, of course.

And, of course, it was just my luck to run into Rika of all people, who...

"Wait a second..."

Realization dawned on me, bringing confusion along. Gigimon shifted uncomfortably within my arms, but I couldn't care for that, instead frowned at her. At Rika, sitting opposite to me, Renamon nowhere in sight. Well, the latter was most likely outside the train, watching us from wherever she was.

But what was Rika doing in this train?

Exactly that was the question I should've been asking myself all along, the point that I had missed so far. Not only was this train headed towards the city from the outskirts of it – the outskirts, which I knew no reason for Rika to be – but it actually wasn't even headed towards where Rika lived.

So where did she come from? Where was she going?

Curiosity began to gnaw on me. Mixed with my already nervous and confused emotions, became a mess of emotions that I really did not know how to solve, let alone handle. This was it. Was just what I had feared. To feel doubt, among other emotions, as I would meet my old friends again. As my old life would invade my new one, and try to be part of it. As old and new would clash.

I held Gigimon tighter. More so subconsciously than with the actual intention of holding onto him. He didn't complain though, and merely accepted it, remained silent as I did. I could feel that he felt something akin to my own mess of emotions, could feel it seeping into me through the link we had to one another thanks to the Digital Hazard.

How was he going to handle this mess of emotions, though? Different from me, that much was easy to tell, but the actual point was that Gigimon, Guilmon, had a more simple mind than I did. More childish. He didn't think as far ahead as I did – often not on purpose – and didn't question things the way that a human would do.

For him, it was either understandable, often in a for others confusing way, or too complicated, at which point he'd trust me or Hazaado to understand it, and explain it to him in a way that would make it comprehensible. That was the way he learned things. How he had always learned things, from the day he came to be. He'd learn from me.

So did he understand this mess of emotions, something that I couldn't, or could he not comprehend the true extent of them? More than just often, he had shown surprising insight into things. Had more than often understood something that seemed complicated to me and others. Had even managed to explain it in a simple way, without knowing that he had just decrypted something that was confusing or hard to understand to others.

I don't know if it's Hazaado that allowed him to do that, or if it lay in the nature of a Digimon, beings that held data – information – within their very being, but through some weird joke of fate, Guilmon was able to comprehend some very complex things, and others, more simple ones, not. For some reason, Guilmon did know the first hundred digits of pi by heart (even if he often confused pi with pie, but I blame that on the fact that he was always hungry) but couldn't actually solve some easy equations. Which was a shame, as he probably could've done some of my math homework for me if he had been able to.

Which made me wonder – could Hazaado? Not do my homework, but do math.

"Hey, goggleboy."

I cringed, pulled back into reality by Rika finally speaking up. Immediately, one hand darted up to the goggles on my head, the traitor that they were at that moment, telling Rika who I was – I usually kept them in a pocket of my jacket as to not give away who I was, but I had completely forgotten to take them off after Gigadramon. Then again, she would've recognized me without them as well, I was sure of that. There was no way that she wouldn't. She knew me too well for that.

"Sheesh, don't react like that! Did I startle you that much, or what?" inquired Rika with a nervous chuckle, tilting her head a little. A soft smile was upon her lips, a smile that I found to be weird, simply due to how honest it was. How amused Rika was.

"K-kinda. Was a little lost in thoughts." I admitted sheepishly, trying to relax myself. She did seem rather relaxed for the situation. Whether or not this was to unnerve me even further or to lure me into a false sense of security, I didn't know. Both seemed like something Rika would do.

"So I noticed." offered the redhead in amusement, closing her amethyst eyes as she continued to smile at me warmly, so different from what I was used to from her. Could she be this excited to see me? No way! If anything, she would be angry, and try to keep that anger at bay. Which she usually failed horribly at. Unlike this time. "So, goggleboy, back to my actual question."

"Well then, here goes nothing!" was the first thing that flashed through my mind, and I felt the sense of dread return. How the weight upon my shoulders increased again, threatening to pull me down and make my life so much harder. The moment of Rika's wrath had come, and it had befallen me, of all people. What would her question be?

'Where have you been for the past year, idiot?', or 'What the bloody hell were you thinking, doing something as reckless as that?'. Perhaps even 'Couldn't you have at least taken Henry and me along? Do you know how boring it was here? We had to suffer, and you went and had some fun in the Digital World?'.

"Do you know how late it is?"

I froze. Frowned. Stared at her. In return, she quickly rose an eyebrow herself, irritated and confused by my reaction and lack of an answer. Seconds passed in which we sat there like this, my mind blank. Just blank. Like a computer that had crashed and had to boot up again, it took my mind a moment to actually comprehend the question that was the unexpected error that had caused it to crash in the first place.

She wanted to know how late it was. Just the time, nothing more.

No 'what were you thinking?' and no 'where have you been?'. Not even 'how have you been?' or a 'what happened?'. Just the time.

Slowly, she rose her right hand and pointed at her wrist – obviously lacking the wristwatch she was playing at – as if to remind me that she had asked for the time. But this action sparked an entirely new confusion within me. As simple as it was, it held an entirely new level of contradiction.

Left-handed people wore their watch on the right wrist. Rika was right-handed, and thus, would've worn a watch on her left wrist.

Now, of course there were exceptions. In the end, it was partly a matter of preference, based on whether or not a person could use their hand with the watch in the way. Just like it was a matter of preference if someone wore it pointing up, or into the same direction that the palm did. And of course, I had never seen Rika wear a watch.

"Uh..." I muttered in my stupor, stared at the wrist as if it would answer all questions I had ever had in life (which didn't only sound stupid, but looked stupid as well), "Don't you have a cellphone?"

With that, Rika finally gave up. She fell back into her seat and let out a sigh. A sigh, not a groan, as I would've expected it from Rika. As if to add onto the oddities, she reached under her seat and pulled a black sports bag from there, one that, even though it was already pretty big, looked like it was about to burst. Filled to the brim with something that weren't only clothes.

"It's in there somewhere." groaned the redhead, pulling it up onto her lap, "Really, if you don't want to tell me how late it is, you could've just said so."

I frowned. Rika, with a sports bag? She did some kind of sport? This late in the evening? She must've started to do so after I had left, as she hadn't done that when I was still around. Not that I had known of, at least. Knowing Rika, she rather spent her evenings at home by herself, or with Renamon. She liked it quiet and calm in the evenings.

And what kind of sport required such a bag to be filled to the brim to begin with?

Had Rika really changed this much?

"Uh, no. Hold on." I muttered and quickly pulled my own cellphone from my pocket, the screen lighting up to tell me the time at the push of a button, "I was just wondering. It's 10:36PM."

Oh god, was it really already that late? I know it had been after 9PM when Beelzemon and I had left the park, but had it really been that late? Had the fight with Gigadramon really been that long? The others were probably already wondering where I was, or thinking that I had run into Archenemy.

I didn't. But running into one of the Digimon he had infected and was controlling definitely meant we were on the right track, if one thought about it. It meant he was here. They were always where he was. Were the first sign of his arrival, his messengers. Tried to spread chaos, so he could finish it off.

I had interesting news for the others.

"Is it really that late?" sighed Rika, unknowingly voicing my thoughts, "Great, I'm going to be grounded. Guess that's what I get for staying longer to talk with the others and losing track of time."

Again, I rose an eyebrow. Others? Staying for them? I didn't know that anyone of the Tamers – save for Henry – really did any kind of sport, so it wasn't them she was talking about. But Rika wasn't exactly the most social of people, and didn't have any real friends outside the Tamers the last time I had seen her.

Hearing this and coming to that realization, something grabbed onto my heart and held it with an iron grip. Stabbed by the guilt. Stabbed by the true extent of my decision from back then, the decision to make a sacrifice to save the others. The one thing I had been afraid of, and that had always lurked in the back of my head during all my time in the Eastern Quadrant. During the four months there, that had been one year at home.

Things had moved on at home. The world hadn't stopped spinning while I was gone. People had changed as time passed. Things had changed as time passed.

They didn't remain the same as when I had unwillingly left the Southern Quadrant, as much as I had wanted it.

"So, anyways..." Rika suddenly leaned forward, elbows coming to a rest on her knees, one delicate red eyebrow rising in curiosity, "It is you, isn't it, Takato?"

I didn't even cringe this time. Didn't react, other than to lower my gaze, as my name finally fell, spoken by her in the warm and reassuring voice that I had not known her to possess. One year of my absence, and the overly confident but cold voice of Rika had changed. Rika had changed entirely. And I dreaded to see what the others had become.

But for Rika to be changed so much, it really hurt. Not because she wasn't like I had known her, and come to accept and befriend her.

But because I had always liked to believe that I had played a large role in her life. In her change from the coldhearted lonewolf that was unable to trust anybody or see any worth in them to the confident girl that could trust others and work with them. That no longer tried to be different, but had no problem fitting in, even though she was still different. Different in her own way, as we all were. Each of us unique, the reason we could work together so well.

And yet, in the final step of the change, the biggest of them, from Rika to this girl before me – who I had never wanted her to become, I guess, this was too crazy of a change – I had played no role. I hadn't played a role in it. I had been absent. It was not my friendship that helped her become who she was.

In the end, it had only been my attempt at being important. I had liked myself to believe I was not unimportant to her. Not just another person in her life, but a true friend. Someone who had come close to her, and had seen her heart. The hurt girl behind the mask of anger. But in the end, it seemed that it was just that from my side. Just wishful thinking.

She had moved on without me.

"Yeah, I am." I admitted with a heavy sigh and a heavy heart, lowering my gaze in shame. The ground suddenly seemed to be so much more interesting. Offered a welcome distraction from the thoughts and emotions that invaded my mind. From Rika's gaze. "So you still remember me, huh? Even after that year..."

"Uhm, excuse me?"

The confused, almost indignant sneer from her made me look up and frown at the girl before me. There was an expression between amusement and something that resembled pity on her face. She had raised an eyebrow at me in what seemed to be confusion, but a weak smile lay on her lips, one of mock amusement.

And I didn't understand. Wasn't sure what she was so irritated about. It clearly had to do something with what I had just said, but my words had been clear. I confirmed who she thought I was. I inquired if she still remembered me. Mentioned my absence of what was nearly a year. There was nothing wrong with it, unless...

I paled. Paled at the odd thought that struck me. There could be only one thing in my words that could be incorrect. The time.

I mentioned one year, which had obviously irritated her. And that meant I had been wrong about the time. But if I had been wrong about the time, then...

Then how many years had I been absent for real? How much time had passed while I was gone? How much had I really missed? Azulongmon had said that one day in the Eastern Quadrant was three days in the Southern Quadrant. About four months in the Eastern Quadrant should've meant that I had been absent in the Southern Quadrant for nearly one year. The thought of that alone had been hard to deal with, the thought of all the time I had missed.

But if it truly was more, then how much had I really missed? How much of my friends' lives had passed without me being part of them? Of my family's life? Everybody who I knew?

I was faintly aware of a door opening, the ticket inspector – a tall, almost unnaturally thin man in a blue coat with a too big hat that covered part of his face and kept it in shadows – coming in and approaching us. If not for the sound of the door, I wouldn't even have registered he was there, didn't really do so until he was already in front of me, one gloved hand extended into my direction, his gruff voice pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Tickets, please!"

I still winced, despite having somewhat registered him. Momentarily taking my mind off Rika, my time of absence and everything that bothered me, I fell into what might as well have been autopilot as I lowered my gaze, never once looking up the the man before me, sled a hand into my pocket and proceeded to pull my ticket from it. The last thing I wanted was to get another problem.

"Takato, watch out!"

The startled cry of Rika ripped me out of my daze and sent a wave of cold washing through me, panic. I rose my gaze to frown in her direction, but upon doing so found her pushing herself out of her seat, charging towards me and the ticket inspector.

Even with Hazaado immediately awake and pushing my body to its physical limits, enhancing my reflexes, it was Rika who managed to react faster than me, having seen it before either Hazaado, Gigimon or I could've seen it.

She slammed into the ticket inspector – or rather, what I had believed to be a ticket inspector – in a tackle that sent both of them staggering, with Rika immediately recovering, and the 'ticket inspector' falling over the closest row of seats, letting out a startled howl, followed by growls of what had to be pain as he slammed into the row of seats behind it with his face first, and then into the ground.

Before I knew it, I was out of my seat and had placed myself in between Rika and what apparently seemed to be a rather unfriendly individual – whoever or whatever it was. The Digital Hazard was active, glowed a bright red on my right hand, enclosed in the two red circles and with lines extending up my arm towards my chest, limitless anger surging through me. At one point during his jump from my lap as I had leaped towards Rika, Gigimon had digivolved into Guilmon and now stood before me, fire and a growl rolling in his throat.

The blue hat of the ticket inspector rolled out from behind the row of seats he had fallen over. Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I waited for him to reappear, my heartbeat echoing within my ears, and only one thought – not even my own – resounding in a primal chanting within my head. The will of the Digital Hazard.

"Protect the Sacrifice Queen. Protect Rika."

I balled my hands to fists. Swallowed. My throat felt dry. My fingers twitched. The tension from before was replaced by an entirely new level of tension, this one not only in my mind, but physical. All of my muscles felt on fire, ready to act should anything happen.

And then, as a ghastly laughter began to echo throughout the wagon, black claws appeared from behind the row of seats, made me narrow my eyes and shift in my stance. They were definitely not human, but attached to what resembled a human hand, bound in bandages. Leather belts surrounded these hands where their wrists were.

And thus, I knew what Digimon we were up against, long before it actually appeared from behind the seats, crawling on all fours, its head tilted in a weird angle to look at us, the sick smirk on its shriveled lips and the sharp teeth beyond them sending shivers down my spine.

"Mummymon, an ultimate." I growled under my breath, watched as the undead Digimon climbed to its feet, the blue coat it had worn before hanging off its back, and thus revealing the bandages that surrounded its entire body. The black datachip on his forehead, right in between his eyes, no longer concealed by the hat and the shadows. And the gun it held. The same gun that Rika had seen it point at me before.

"Behind us..." I heard Rika hiss into all of sudden, followed by her placing her back against mine. Turning my head a little, leaving Guilmon to watch Mummymon, I glanced over my own and Rika's shoulders to the back of the wagon, where the woman that had entered the train had been sitting. The only exception was, though, that it was no longer a woman, but the hideous shape of an Arukenimon. And a groan escaped my lips as I knew what situation we were in. I had been suspicious of the woman when she had entered the train, with how she was dry despite the rain and all, but for her to be an Arukenimon had not been what I expected.

"Oh great, now Archenemy has started watching the second season of the series." I hissed under my breath, narrowed my eyes, couldn't help but make that comment. Sure, these weren't the Arukenimon and Mummymon from the Eastern Quadrant, the ones that had appeared in the TV series, but what were the odds of these two Digimon appearing alongside each other?

Well, they did compliment each other in some way, with how Arukenimon was excelling at close combat, and how Mummymon was an excellent marksman that could support her from safe distance.

My fists began to shake, the Digital Hazard upon my right waiting for my command. The space inside the wagon wasn't exactly big, there was little room to avoid, and little room for attacks. None of Guilmon's evolutions would fit into the train, save for Gallantmon, but it would be hard to move with a lance and a shield.

It was easy to wield a rifle, though, like Mummymon did. Arukenimon was fast, nimble, and able to climb walls and seats. And neither of them would be forced to move to begin with to attack us.

Things weren't looking too well for us.

Rika's PoV

A long sigh escaped me, followed by a groan as I stretched my tired limbs, then rolled my shoulders and my neck. This drew the attention of my opponent to me, who quickly rose an eyebrow and frowned.

"Getting tired already?" she inquired mockingly, "And that this early into this lovely evening?"

"Early my ass." I growled back, let myself fall back a bit to reach into my open bag and pull my cellphone out, the screen lighting up as soon as I ran my thumb over a button, "It's almost 11PM. Mom's gonna think I'm out with a boy or something now."

"She really wants you to find a boyfriend, doesn't she?"

"She's a sucker for romance. She apparently thinks it is real and that everybody is going to experience it and stuff." I mused under my breath, slipped my cellphone back into the black bag, and then turned to face my cards anew, "Well, let's finish this and go home."

"Agreed." chuckled the other female with a nasty grin on her lips, falling into a different stance, "But you won't go home without a loss!"

I watched as she showed me the back of her right hand, a glint of madness glowing within her amber eyes. She obviously thought that she was going to win, and seemed to be pretty confident in it. And just like it apparently was my purpose in the world to do so, as I had done it countless times, I crushed my opponent's confidence with the simple pull of a card.

She winced and froze up as I pulled the card, madness replaced by shock. Twirling the card around in between my fingers so that she could see what was on it, her mouth fell open and her eyes widened. With a smirk finding its way onto my own lips, I ceremoniously dropped the card onto the ground in between us, and savored the taste of victory.

With a groan of defeat, Reika facepalmed and fell over, falling from her sitting position onto her back. With the smirk still on my lips, I rose an eyebrow at her and chuckled, amused by her defeat. Yet another defeat. It seriously didn't seem to be her day, that for sure. First she's all paranoid in the morning and babbles something about watching a horror movie last night, and then she comes up to me and inquires if I were up to a stroll through the park later that evening.

Well, at one point during the evening, the stroll escalated into us retreating into Guilmon's old shed and sitting down to play a few games. And somehow, she had lost every round of the card game, despite the fact that she was actually not that bad at it. Her cards weren't exactly bad either. She had a lot of Knight Digimon in her deck, mixed with some really weird Virus-type Digimon. And interestingly enough, she often sacrificed the knights, distracting me with them, to play strong viruses. In the end, though, she still lost.

"Well, would you look at that." I taunted, pointing at the cards between us, "Looks like I'm going home with a victory. Yet another one."

"It's only bad luck! Tomorrow, I'm going to beat you again!" huffed the lying girl and childishly crossed her arms in front of her chest as she pouted, "Just you wait!"

Feeling amused and playful, I picked my cards up and sled them back into the pocket of my belt, before actually crawling next to Reika – still leaving more than enough distance in between us so she wouldn't get any weird ideas, of which she apparently already had enough – and laid onto my side, using my elbow to support my head.

"Isn't it a bit cold here on the ground?" I chuckled, "You know, unless you start growing red scales and a tail, start to breathe fire and snarf bread like air, I'm not going to believe it if you say it isn't."

"This is where Guilmon was all the time, right?" muttered the brunette, her pout suddenly replaced by what might as well have been a melancholic stare, one finger sliding over the hard concrete beneath her, "You know, before he vanished."

"Yeah. We still hang out here, even though he's gone. Make sure nobody else claims this spot." I replied, smiling a bit, "Guilmon would want it back when he actually returns."

"Guess so." agreed Reika, but trailed off and fell silent as she watched how I sat up, rolled my neck, and finally stood up. It really wasn't comfortable on the ground, neither comfy nor warm. Only someone like Guilmon would be able to sleep there without as much as a complaint, that much was clear. He probably didn't even feel the cold or the hard concrete.

I knew Terriermon would complain all night, as he usually slept on Henry's bed, or wherever else it was comfy. I knew Brainiac had a couch in his room, and that the bunny-like Digimon also spent the one or other night on it.

Come to think of it – Guilmon can sleep anywhere, Terriermon likes to lie on something comfy and warm... But where did Renamon sleep? Did she even sleep? I have never actually seen her lying down other than when she was defeated or really weakened. And somehow, I couldn't really imagine her lying down and sleeping on the ground or a bed.

And the thought of her standing upright on some roof as she slept was both creepy and ridiculous at the same time. But Digimon didn't even have to sleep, did they? I mean, they could feel tired, and I knew they did sleep. But did they have to? This was just another question I'd have to ask Renamon one day, that for sure.

"You know what, Rika?" sniggered Reika all of sudden, still lying on the ground in the same spot, with only her gaze shifted towards me, and thus allowing me to see the suggestive smile on her lips, "It actually is a bit cold down here. Join me for some snuggles and sharing some body warmth?"

I rose an eyebrow at the flirty girl, didn't even let the message get to me. Instead, with a stoic expression on my face, I took a step closer to her and prodded her into the side with the tip of my foot, causing her to cringe a bit, and eventually fall into mad giggling when I used my foot to roll her over onto her stomach.

"Okay, okay, I get it! You're not in the mood for snuggles!" laughed the mad girl and quickly pushed herself up onto all fours, before she reached over to pick her own cards up and put them back into her pocket, "Still, the offer is up!"

Rolling my eyes, I groaned and gestured her to follow me out of the shed, which she did without as much as a complaint. The vibrant smile was still on her lips as she caught up to me just outside the shed, in the cool breeze of the late evening. Or rather, night. Neither Mom, nor Grandma would like that I was so late, especially since I'd have to go to school the next day. Grandma was supportive and all, but even she had her limits when it came to something that affected something as important as school.

"What's it with you and that flirty attitude towards me, anyways?" I finally dared to ask as we descended the stairs that led up to the shed into the nightly park, the paths that led through it illuminated only by small light posts. It gave the park a calm aura, the image of something mystic. A safe haven, loaded with mysteries. The quiet image of what was where it had all begun. Every adventure I had ever been on since meeting the Tamers, and even that, it all started and ended here. In the park.

"Isn't it obvious?" inquired the brunette at my side, but her voice was lower than usual, so low in fact that I turned to the usually so boisterous girl – and quickly did a double-take when I saw that she had crossed her arms behind her head and that she was avoiding my gaze with a blush on her cheeks, "I mean, you're not dense. I like you. A lot."

I blinked, something in my mind telling me that this was not real. That this conversation had not just taken this turn. And yet, suppressing a sigh, I closed my eyes and kept walking.

"And with that, you mean in a romantic way?" I inquired carefully, continued to stroll down one of the paths. To believe that we had that topic. That conversation. To believe that something in my mind was actually not against what Reika was offering to me!

"Do I have to spell it? Yeah, I like you that way, you ass." huffed the other girl, though the last part sounded less like an insult, and more like a chuckle, "Something wrong with that?"

No. 'No' was the answer that my mind immediately came up with, but that was not spoken aloud. No, there was nothing wrong with the fact that she had a crush on me. If anything, I somehow felt a warm sensation within me at the thought. The feeling of being appreciated. That there was someone out there that cared for me in that way.

But there was something else. The question whether or not I reciprocated these feelings. Whether or not I had a crush on her as well. Whether these conflicting feelings and emotions in my head meant anything.

The problem was, simply put, that the images of Takato and Reika inside my head had started to mix at one point. Why, I didn't know. For what reason they did, I didn't know either.

What I did know, though, was that at that moment, I couldn't say without a doubt in my heart which feeling I felt towards whom, and which emotions was triggered by either one, or both of them. Whether or not these positive feelings were triggered within me at the thought of Takato, or of Reika.

I knew which memory to sort to which of them, and what emotion these memories trigger. But the images themselves were the problem. The overall picture. Parts about these two were clearly distinguishable, clearly different, and had never and would never mix. But others had. And it would take me time to sort things out. To clear things up.

"I guess not." I admitted with a sigh and a smile, though it was crooked, "The thing is, I don't know what I feel. If I even have these feelings for you that you have for me. My mind is a mess, it has always been, but lately even more so. There's conflicting images. Besides, I know it feels like we've known each other for an eternity, when we actually don't even know each other for more than a week, and then there's the fact that..." I trailed off, thought about how to phrase this, "I'm not looking for any romantic relationships. I don't think I'm even ready for one."

To my surprise, Reika smiled. She was still blushing, but could look me in the eye again. There was no hurt in her eyes. No sign of rejection or sadness. And in the end, I hadn't rejected her. I had just told her my current situation.

"That's alright." replied the brunette to my surprise, the same vibrant smile from earlier on her lips, enthusiastic and lively as ever, "To be honest, I'm not looking for a relationship either. Not a romantic one, at least."

I rose an eyebrow at her, frowned.

"But why that flirty attitude then? Why all these innuendos and..." I began, only to be interrupted by Reika chuckling to herself, shaking her head at me.

"It's not a romantic relationship that I want, not now. These things have to grow on you. They're not just there all of a sudden, you can't force them to be there, they have to evolve into one of their own. For now, for my part, I'm just content with friendship between us." explained the brunette, smiling brighter than the sun, and warmer, too, "I'm sorry if I have been a little creepy with my flirty attitude, I guess it's just who I am and it's just... I feel safe around you. Comfortable, even if there were to be no distance between us. I don't feel embarrassed or ashamed for what I feel for you."

It was done at that moment. I felt how my own cheeks began to heat up in a radiant blush. I'm not one for all that romantic babbling and stuff, but even my cold heart couldn't remain that way with such words being spoken.

"I'm not going to rush things, or force you to anything. I've been comfortable with the way it has been, and if things don't turn out the way I'd like them, and you have someone else, then it's completely fine, because you can be happy. And that means a lot to me on its own." whispered the brunette, took my hands into her own and smiled brightly at me, "To be honest, Rika, I don't think what I feel will ever be what you feel. I don't think that our relationship can ever become anything else but what it is right now, and that is a strong friendship. Because I know there is someone else for you. And I think the problem you have right now is that you mistake the feelings you have for him for something you might feel towards me."

"I know." I sighed silently. I knew she was right. It was Gogglehead. It was always Gogglehead. He meant something in my life, had an impact on it that no one else had ever had, and he just wouldn't stay out of my mind. Of course I would've felt the same kind of worry and sadness if it had been Henry who had gone missing like Takato had, heck, probably even if it had been Kazu or Kenta.

But for Takato, and for Takato alone, this worry was greater. Because I was missing something from my life.

"See, was that so hard? You finally admitted that he means something." chuckled the brunette girl, smiled, "Now it's up to you to figure out what I mean in your life, and what he means. What feelings you have towards me, and what feelings you have towards Takato."

I nodded. Gently, softly. See what she was referring to, saw her point but...

Reika's hands weren't warm around mine. Why weren't her hands warm? Why did they feel as cold as the breeze around us, the cold winds that were the messengers of the storm that had passed?

"Thanks, Reika." I whispered, "I guess I really needed to voice my thoughts for once to actually make sense of them."

"No problem. Told you before I'd always be there to listen to you."

I smiled. Yeah, she had told me that. On that warm day, in our garden, when we had sat under the Sakura tree and had watched as Renamon had humored...

My smile fell.

No.

No, Reika hadn't told me she'd always be there to listen to me. Reika hadn't said anything like that at all! She hadn't been there on a warm day in our garden, she couldn't have been, I only knew her for a few days now, and the weather had been cold and uncomfortable for several weeks!

Reika must've felt that something was wrong, as her smile fell as well. It was confusion that spread across her face and it was worry that lay in her eyes as she looked at me. As our gazes met. As I opened my mouth to ask what the hell was going on.

As the ground shook and trembled, and finally burst apart at the end of the path that we stood on, a huge shadow emerging from it.

Both Reika and I gasped, let go of each other's hands and stumbled away from the giant Digimon – it definitely was one, as the fog that emerged from the hole and quickly enveloped us told me. Renamon appeared between the Digimon and us, appeared from thin air as she usually did.

"Rika!" I heard her yell, both out of worry and the need for me to prepare for the fight. Pushing Reika further back, I let out a growl – I really didn't like being interrupted in anything – and pulled both my D-Power and my cards.

On reflex, I slashed a card through my D-Power, watched as Renamon began to digivolve into Kyubimon. Winds were whirled up as Renamon changed, the fog moving.

"Let see..." I growled under my breath, narrowed my eyes in hope to identify the shadow before us. It quickly turned out to be in vain, though, the thick fog preventing the light from the light posts to reach it, and so I was forced to do this the old-fashioned way: I pulled my D-Power up and pointed it at the shadow.

Data came up almost immediately, the same moment that Kyubimon emerged from her digivolution and whirled up winds that pushed parts of the fog away, allowing one to at least get glimpses at the reflecting surface of the metal colossus before us.

And I froze in terror as I saw what we were up against.

And as I spotted the weird black datachip on its left shoulder.

Takato's PoV

"Spider Thread!"

A growl of anger escaped Gallantmon's lips as we – Guilmon and I – forced its body out of the way of the razor-sharp wires that extended from Arukenimon's fingers. Like whips, they lashed out and slammed into the seat that our shared body had stood on before, cut through the leather like a hot knife through butter, sending its padding everywhere.

Hazaado cursed within our mind as we landed on the ground, but I paid him no attention, too focused on avoiding the attacks aimed at me. The threads lashed out again like snakes, followed us like sentient beings, tried to curl around our right leg and cause severe damage there. Just in time, we brought the lance down on the threads, which quickly changed their mind and instead curled around the lance, pulled on it as we rose it.

Exploiting this, we yanked on the lance and thus the attached threads, surprising the Arachne and sending her stumbling into our direction. A row of seats was in the way, and she ended up slamming her legs into it, fell over it, ended up upside-down in a row of seats, all of her legs twitching and moving as she made fruitless attempts to free herself.

The threads uncurled from the lance and we could pull it back, used the momentum to turn on our heels and scan the train for Mummymon. The Egyptian Digimon was quickly spotted, staggering towards us, but as soon as it noticed that we had seen it and had taken care of Arukenimon for the moment, it pulled its gun.

This time, I cursed. We brought our shield up just in time to deflect the incoming stream of energy. It was weak, but consistent, and yet I found myself oddly reminded of the first time Guilmon and I had ever biomerged into Gallantmon. Back then, Beelzemon had shot at us. More powerful shots, but less. A lot less.

Casting a glance over Gallantmon's shoulder, we found that Arukenimon had yet to free herself of her predicament. This meant we had a time window, albeit small, to take care of Mummymon. It was my will that turned Gallantmon's head and scanned the rows of seats to our right for Rika, as it was where she had last been, and only after finding her taking cover in between two of them did we turn to our bandaged opponent.

The energy still rained down in a change of bursts, streams and volleys on Gallantmon's shield Aegis, but the lack of force behind it made it easy to stand my ground. This wasn't Beelzemon firing his pistols, the stream merely impacted with the shield without pushing us back.

And as such, it was easy to push against it. Easy to charge towards the Digimon with the gun while keeping Aegis up to shield us from the energy. Only too late did Mummymon realize that he couldn't stop us, let alone do any damage to us, and for the briefest of seconds stopped the barrage of gunfire to lower his weapon and frown.

His rotten brain didn't seem to catch on fast enough, as he didn't even try to defend himself with his weapon or his hands when Gallantmon's body crashed into him, shield striking him into his bandaged face and knocking him backwards into the air. Hazaado's will flew into Gallantmon, causing the knight to slam his armored feet down on the ground, swing the shield back and exploit the momentum to bring his lance forward in the clear attempt of impaling the falling Digimon.

And if not for Rika letting out a panicked growl at that moment, he would've hit. But upon hearing Rika, my own will influenced Gallantmon's body again, and instead of ending Mummymon's manipulated existence, whirled around to find the reason for Rika's reaction.

As all three of us – Hazaado, Guilmon and me – suspected, that reason was that Arukenimon had freed herself of her predicament and advanced towards Rika's hiding spot. Hazaado wasn't even irritated by my interruption, wanted to defend Rika as well, even though for different reason. She was the Sacrifice Queen, and he needed her. He didn't have any emotional attachments to her, like I did.

But it was Hazaado that swung Gallantmon's right leg back and hit the armored foot into the side of the bandaged Digimon on the ground, sending him rolling into the nearest wall.

With Mummymon momentarily incapacitated, our focus was back on Arukenimon, who posed a threat to Rika. It was like tunnel vision as we charged forward yet again, our mind only focused on protecting her, our Sacrifice Queen, to ensure she was alright and out of danger.

And so, there was only Arukenimon in our vision. Blackness, a long tunnel, with the Arachne at the end, the only target, and everything else faded out of our perception so that we would at no point be distracted. And we weren't. Tackled the Arachne before she had the chance to even see us coming. She stood no chance in recovering from that blow, even as she slammed all of her six legs into the metallic ground in an attempt to slow us down.

She failed, we didn't slow down one bit, and hit the wall behind her at full speed, almost crushing her like an actual as we pushed off her. Gallantmon's body stumbled back, our head turned a bit and spotted the bandaged hand at the other side of the train on one of the backseats. Mummymon was trying to get up, using the backrests of a row of seats to steady himself, but we wouldn't allow him to do that. He was the lesser evil, Arukenimon was the real threat, and had to be taken care off as soon as possible. We could always deal with him after that.

So, grabbing the broken backrest of one of the seats that hadn't escaped Arukenimon's threads before, we ripped it off, aimed and threw. And just in time, the head of the mummy surfaced from behind the seats, anger in his eyes that was quickly replaced by surprise and then pain as the backrest flew right at him and hit him into his face, knocking him over yet again.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a station rush by the window, but it was empty, no one in it. Instead, part of it seemed to be under construction, with the stairs closed off, and scaffolds standing in front of a broken wall. The thing that immediately struck me as odd, though, was that train hadn't stopped, hadn't even slowed down.

I knew that something was really wrong that moment. The fact that no one seemed to be in my wagon anymore – or the one behind and in front of it, guessing from what I could see through the windows in the doors between the wagons – combined with the fact that I was ambushed by a Mummymon and an Arukenimon and that we weren't stopping for a station really did not mean anything remotely good.

Enhanced senses detected the smallest of movements just behind us. Arukenimon was moving, recovering, trying to get up from the ground and get her revenge on us while we weren't suspecting it. But we were. And were ready to prevent it.

The heavy armor rattled as our shared body moved again, cape rustling in the wind of the sudden turn, but it wasn't a lance or a shield that hit Arukenimon in the side of her head as she rose from the ground. Instead, it was the heavily armored leg of Gallantmon that ripped her off the ground and flung her into the wall with enough force to bend metal, shatter glass, shake the entire wagon – and throw her out the window.

Arukenimon's shrill shriek echoed through the mind I shared with Guilmon and Hazaado at that moment as the Arachne broke through the glass and bend the metal around the window so far that her body fit through. For the briefest of seconds, I could still see her through Gallantmon's vision – then, even before her body impacted with the wall of the tunnel, she was gone from my sight.

That left us with Mummymon.

It hurt to know that Arukenimon hadn't been cleansed of her black datachip and was still suffering, but I knew she would eventually be sent after me again, and thus give me another chance to free her. For the moment, it was less about freeing the two Digimon than it was about protecting Rika. I wouldn't forgive myself if she were to be hurt because of me. Because Archenemy wanted revenge on Hazaado and me.

I couldn't say if Archenemy was aware of the colored Hazards out there, the links to the Digital Hazard that supplied it with additional strength and influence. And if he was aware of them, did he know the importance of the blue Hazard of Sacrifice? Of the Sacrifice Queen? If so, that practically painted a target across Rika's back. A problem I would have to come up with a solution for sooner or later.

"Nyehehe."

The dark chuckle behind us reminded me of the other threat, and I was the first one to react, the first one to give the shared body the command to turn. Our body turned, and on instinct rose both lance and shield. But it was this action that Mummymon had expected, and it was this that proved that his brain wasn't nearly as rotten as I had thought it to be.

"Snake Bandage!"

The moment we had begun to move, the brainwashed Digimon unleashed its attack. Ghastly arms rose and pointed at us, bandages developing a life on their own and extending into our direction. They didn't get to us thanks to lance and shield, but had never been their goal, had never been what Mummymon had aimed for. I knew it the moment that the bandages curled around Gram, our lance, and yanked on it.

Yanked it out of our grip.

Immediately, I could feel Guilmon's and Hazaado's outrage flood our shared mind, their momentary distraction forcing me to be the one to take action and give Gallantmon the command to grab Rika with our now free arm, pull her against our armored chest, and bring Aegis in between us – as in Gallantmon, of which I was part of, and Rika – and the Egyptian Digimon, right before it could pull the trigger of its gun and start the hail of energy anew.

Hazaado cursed the moment that the first burst hit Aegis, followed by more, soon to become a stream rather than bursts. Like rain pelting against a window, the energy burst resounded on the shield, but Aegis stayed strong, took every hit. Protected us and our Sacrifice Queen. I dared to command Gallantmon to move his head and peek around Aegis, and thus spotted Mummymon standing right in front of the door to the next wagon, Gram lying discarded to his right – he couldn't use it, after all – on the ground.

That wasn't too much of a problem, actually. While useful in close combat, there was no way we could've used lightning joust inside the train to begin with, as the train wasn't only made of metal, but contained a lot of electronics prone to lightning.

One lightning joust, and the entire train was risking to crash.

No, not an option. We had already damaged the train enough as it was, and I'd rather not risk getting people into danger. The other wagons had to contain at least some people, after all. They had to, had they?

Guilmon forced Gallantmon to pull his head back after a burst of energy soared by, seeking cover behind the shield again, Rika still within our arms, holding onto the armor that covered Gallantmon's torso. This meant we had to hold the shield a little lower than usual, protecting her, who she was without any armor, rather than ourselves. Part of our head was exposed, and ever so often, energy would graze along the helmet, but it meant nothing. We felt nothing. Not enough to matter, that was. We had suffered through worse. I had suffered through worse, Guilmon had, and I don't even want to know what Hazaado had felt within his countless existences. The unimaginable pain that no organic being would ever be able to comprehend, let alone handle.

"Hey." I heard Gallantmon growl to Rika, and immediately knew that it was Hazaado that was speaking through him, even though the voices in which the knight spoke were still that of Guilmon and me, "I believe now would be a good moment to call Renamon, don't you think? Not that we can't handle that freak that doesn't act his age, but a distraction would still be welcome."

The redhead shifted against us, rose her gaze to look the knight into the eyes, though I doubted that she could see anything but our chin from that angle. I didn't know what her actual reaction was, but I imagined it to be an angry glare. That was her usual reaction to being told what to do.

"You still didn't get it, did you?" I heard her growl, though it sounded a lot less intimidating than how I remembered it, "I can't call Renamon! I can't! She's not here! She wasn't to begin with!"

I froze for a second, and felt how confusion spread not only through my part of Gallantmon's mind, but that of Guilmon and Hazaado – only for realization and then dismay take that place of Hazaado's part. He had come to realize something, something that he clearly didn't like. What it was, though, I couldn't tell, and he didn't seem to feel like sharing it.

Why, though, would Renamon not be at Rika's side? Her constant guardian, the one Digimon that was the least likely to ever disappear from her partner's side, was not there? There was no way they had had another fight and went separate ways again. There was no way that Renamon had beaten and deleted. That just couldn't be.

So where was Renamon? Could it be that Rika had told her not to follow her, and if so, for what reason? And how likely was it that Renamon would've listened to that? She would've followed her anyways, just without making it noticeable for Rika! And Rika knew that. She knew that, even if she told Renamon not to, her partner would be there to watch over her, and that she could call her anytime.

So if Rika told me that Renamon wasn't there in such a moment, then really wasn't. For whatever weird reason.

"Shit." cursed Hazaado under his breath, though I wasn't sure if he only did so within the mind we shared, or through Gallantmon himself. Rika, at least, didn't respond to it, and instead pulled her head down when one of the bursts of energy hit the shield just behind her and the sound startled her.

But Hazaado was right. This didn't necessarily make it any easier. Without Renamon to distract Mummyon or take care of him as we protected Rika – really, a Diamond Storm through the window on one side of Mummymon would've been enough, just a short distraction that allowed me to rush him down – we would have to come up with a different way to defeat him and protect Rika at the same time.

It were moments like these that I hated not having backup and being unable to call someone to help me. And that was leaving the problem of how that backup would board the moving train out of the picture.

At that moment, it felt like the biggest joke of all time. A flashback to what had been one of the most questionable decisions in my life. Once again I was on a train that was not going to stop anytime soon. Once again ambushed by an enemy I could do little against in the situation I was in, forced to wait for the right moment. Maybe it truly was a good thing that I could keep a cool head in such a situation, remaining level-headed where others, people with less patience like Rika, fell into a state in which they didn't bother how much they got hurt themselves or in how much danger they brought themselves into.

Even though I did sometimes fall into a similar state when facing the unknown. Panic.

But this was no such moment. I remained where I was, hiding behind my shield, waiting for the moment in which I could turn the turn the tables and get the upper hand.

And such a moment came in the shape of a hollow click. A hollow click emitted by Mummymon's beloved Gun 'Obelisk' upon the moment that its clip ran out of energy – I knew that the moment that the pressure against the shield faded, as it stopped shaking under the impact of countless projectiles, and the undead Digimon let out a huff of irritation.

I knew this was my moment to strike, a chance, a time window so small that I had only one try to move and make use of it – and either I managed and made use of it, or failed and would be hit once he had reloaded. Either way, though, I would be closer to him, and would be between him and Rika.

At the same time, Guilmon, Hazaado and I willed our combined body to move. The shield fell to the side as we moved our arm, our armored body slipped past Rika, the red cape brushing along her body as Gallantmon charged at the undead.

Mummymon spotted us, his unsettling yellow eyes moving from the gun within his grasp to us, to Gallantmon, though his bandaged hands did not stop their procedure. There was still a great distance between us as he pulled a lever at the side back and ejected the clip from the top of the weapon, but our armored body was still gaining speed.

One clawed hand reached for the belt around his waist and pulled another ammo clip from there, prompting us to lift our shield in front of us and push off the ground again. The clip entered the weapon, and the lever was pushed forward again, thus locking the clip in place.

Through my will, Gallantmon narrowed his eyes. Being only a human, I needed concentration. I was no Digimon, and no being with powers that made others consider them a deity. Even in Gallantmon, my part of its mind was still very human, and in order to best work with those of Guilmon and Hazaado.

But, despite being only human in nature, my mind did not falter as Mummymon turned the gun toward us before we could reach him. There was no fear or panic in my mind as I starred down the barrel of the gun. No thought of dying or defeat. No thought of regrets or mistakes I made.

Our jump ended in front of the undead, the gun inches away from Aegis. The shield slammed into the gun just as Mummymon pulled the trigger, and the undead Digimon letting out a scream of pain as his arm was violently jerked to the side in what was definitely an unnatural movement. With his finger still on the trigger and pulling it through, this resulted in a stream of energy that moved without control through the side of the train that was to my left. Windows shattered and metal bent, and though I heard Rika snarl behind me, I knew it was because she had to take cover because of the shards coming her way.

Gallantmon's arm moved by Hazaado's command, shield being retracted and then moved back toward Mummymon, slamming into the undead and pinning him against the wall. His head hit the wall and he let out a grunt, eyes losing focus for the slightest of moments.

Hazaado wasn't intending to let this chance go by, had every intention of exploiting it. And he did in the most shocking of manners. In retrospect, for the person standing to the side, who would simply watch it, it probably was not as shocking. But imagine being in the place that I was in at the moment. Imagine your body acting without your consent, even going as far as acting against your will. Think of seeing it from your own point of view as it does something you would've not done without question or regret.

In my case, it was Gallantmon – my own creation and something I was actually part of - being, to my very shock, unjustifiably brutal.

With Mummymon still stunned, Gallantmon brought his empty hand forward by Hazaado's will – actually bypassing my control and that of Guilmon – and punched the undead into the face with enough power to knock it back into the wall yet again with a sickening crunch, leaving quite a dent in it. But Hazaado wasn't done, and continued the movement to slam his elbow into the mummy's skull as well.

Mummymon did not recover from that. His body slumped against the wall, and if not for Hazaado's grip on his throat, he would've collapsed. But Hazaado was just as relentless as I had come to know him over the months. For a second he hesitated. He must've felt my discontent about his actions, as he, once he continued, brought it to a rather quick end rather than living out his violent nature – he pushed Mummymon up the wall, let go of his throat, pulled his arm – coated in the crimson energy of the active Digital Hazard – back and punched the unfortunate Digimon into the face for one last time.

And thus, shattered the black datachip on the undead's forehead.

What little consciousness Mummymon had that moment was gone with the removal of the black datachip. His eyes glazed over, he opened his mouth as if to say something, but only a shallow breath left his throat as he finally collapsed at the foot of the wall.

And burst apart into data.

How cruel the Digital Hazard could be. How a simple punch could become an instrument of violence and destruction with only a little bit of Hazaado's endless anger seeping into it, fueling the embodiment of his power. And I was wielding this power, once more became painfully aware of how it didn't change me, but woke what was already lying dormant within me. It didn't turn me into a vessel of rage, anger and hatred towards different beings and objects. It didn't make me the berserker I could unleash with just a little concentration and a bit of anger.

That was all already there. Was just as much part of me as the nice guy I could be. Like the gentle and helpful personality. Two sides of a coin, two parts making up the whole. It was just that I liked being the nice guy more than the monster.

Speaking of monster, though, it wasn't quite as over as it appeared to be as I stood over the data that reassembled into the shape of a Digi-Egg, cleansed of its corruption through a virus by a virus. While the Digi-Egg of Mummymon vanished, returning to the Primary Village, I could only watch through the eyes of a knight that should be an embodiment of justice, but had become so much more. I was still all about justice. Aiming to keep it up.

But this knight itself was tainted. The shining armor, white and red and gold, hid a being that was influenced by its own uncontrollable emotions, by anger and the grudges that it had begun to keep upon learning what it really looked on the inside. No heart beating within him, but an organ that had the shape of four triangles. Not beating, but pulsing. Inside the cavity of the armored knight's chest beat no heart, but pulsed the core of what it was. The Digital Hazard. By becoming one with Guilmon, the core was reunited with its instrument, heart and body becoming one.

Gallantmon extended his hand towards the remains of what had once been the black datachip, but I didn't care about it. This was Hazaado's part, he did the complex part of exterminating the power of the black datachips and their existence, something only he could do with the more complex powers of the Digital Hazard.

But he did not do so without sending a thought throughout our shared mind. A thought he had planted into my mind countless of times, meaning to reassure me of what we were doing, and to justify what he often did. The thought simply told me that we were doing the right thing, and were releasing these Digimon from their suffering into a free life, and that we had to resort to violence for that more than we often wanted to. Yes, this thought did sound psychotic, and it probably even was.

And even though it would never really reassure me or make me believe that what we did was entirely right, it did not fail in at least calming me enough to continue on. For another day. For another fight. This path of violence and destruction may not be the path I wanted to walk, but it was the path that had been chosen for me, a path leading to freedom of many by sacrificing my own. A path I was willing to walk for that goal, even if it meant to bring out the darkness within me, the darkest parts of my own personality. The need for destruction. The need to vent my anger, releasing it through actions. The desire to do so.

A loud noise from above startled me out of my train of thoughts. Turning Gallantmon's head to glance at the roof, I frowned within the depths of the Digimon, felt a sinister anticipation arising within me. And should not be wrong as I heard the sound of something sizzling with my hearing, enhanced by the Digital Hazard being active.

The sizzling steadily grew louder, and Gallantmon clenched his hands as I did. Hazaado made no attempt to control the body this time, merely waited for what was to come, not knowing how to react either. But he did realize what it was before me.

Still too late, though.

A pale-blue hand with a red ruby on the back of it broke through the metal roof, ripping a large hole in the metal that had been weakened by acid. For the briefest of moments, I could see the face of Arukenimon – it hadn't really become anymore beautiful after our attacks before – through the hole and the ceiling of the tunnel beyond it, but that view was quickly obstructed as the monstrous hand reached further down into the train, and went straight for the head of Gallantmon.

Neither of the three personalities that had control of the knight's body had the time to react, neither me, nor Guilmon, nor Hazaado. The armored hand that moved to intercept the Arachne's move came too late, the monstrous hand slipped past the helmet and grabbed us by the throat, applied pressure, strengthened the grip it had just gained on us.

A snarl escaped Gallantmon, though I wasn't sure which one of us actually made him do it. All I knew was that I wanted her off us, wanted her to let go, and was desperate to make her do exactly that. It was my will that made the armored fist slam into the side of the spider's hand, but it did little to nothing, she held on. And to make it worse, exhibited the strength that she possessed as she used this single hand and the weird angle and began to lift us off the ground by our body's throat, the second hand aiding the first as soon as she had us closer to the ceiling.

Helplessly suspended into the air, all we could do was to struggle, hammering our empty hand – the shield was out of question this close to the roof of the wagon, heavily limited by the lack of space – repeatedly into her arms in hope to cause her enough pain to let us go.

For an Ultimate, she was strong and had a rather high resistance. Further enhanced by the influence of the black datachip, this made up for an Ultimate that easily held the strength of an average Mega. And I could only dread the moment that Archenemy would be strong enough to actually throw an infected Mega at us.

Drawn further towards the hole and Arukenimon on the roof above it, our attempts at breaking free became more frequent and desperate, more panicked. A sick smile spread across the Arachne's lips as she drew in her prey – the prey I had become – and just like the predator that she was, she enjoyed playing with it. With me.

But I had angered her before. Had dared to put her position as the predator in this fight in question, and she was more than hellbent on reminding me of what and who she was. And by that, I mean that her sick smile changed. Changed as her lips curled up, only to then part, revealing sharp teeth – and as these opened up, the green liquid that gurgled within her throat.

I knew what that was. 'Acid Mist', one of Arukenimon's signature attacks, a green liquid that sizzled through pretty much everything just like the acid that it was. And not one I wanted to experience first hand. Shortly too shocked to move as I spotted it, my participation in the attempts at freeing us from the situation became much more focused and desperate than they had already been before.

The liquid drew closer, regurgitated – well, at least not as disgusting as actual regurgitation – and rolling down the Arachne's tongue. Green of acid covered the red of her tongue, quickly filled her mouth and threatened to drip down on us.

Swinging a fist at the Arachne's head above in an attempt to free us, or at least prevent us from being hit by the acid, Gallantmon's armored fist failed to connect and instead only carried the momentum into a clumsy swing.

And then, a sharp pain. A stinging sensation that spread through my left shoulder, even though it wasn't actually my own shoulder that caused the pain. It was the sensation of only a few drops of acid upon the armored knight's shoulder, carried over to me through the biomerge. And though it was not the worst pain I had ever felt while being Gallantmon, the dishonorable title that D-Reaper's attacks claimed, it made me clench my eyes shut, ball my fists and let out a scream that echoed within the nothingness that my body was in, deep within the core of Gallantmon.

But Hazaado managed to ignore the pain. Countless existences over millennia of the Digital World's calendar – mere decades within human time – that had brought countless ways to experience pain and death had hardened him and steeled him for every new confrontation with Archenemy and his minions, every death only another step in turning Hazaado into something more fearsome and fearless.

Just for him, a popular saying could be bent – What does kill you only makes you stronger. And stranger.

As Guilmon and I struggled to stomach the pain, Hazaado took the sole control of Gallantmon's actions and lifted his head to glare daggers at the spider-like Digimon that appeared to be smirking with its mouth wide open, mouth agape and corners of lips turned up as green liquid dripped from white triangles of teeth.

A feral snarl rolled within the throat of Gallantmon – if he were to possess one beneath the helmet, a detail even I did not know – as anger flared up. Through the fogginess of a mind tortured by growing pain, I felt as Gallantmon's body began to heat up, undoubtedly slowly building up the energy of the crimson Digital Hazard within its chest, courtesy of its master's rising anger. The image of Arukenimon, still unfalteringly smirking, invaded my mind, despite my own eyes being closed. Gallantmon's perception was invading my mind even if I did not want to see or experience it, but Hazaado's anger made everything about the biomerge go out of control without something to focus it on, without ChaosGallantmon ready to be woken. An empty spot at a table, everything building up upon it without it being taken care of, without someone being there to take care of it.

Arukenimon's mouth opened wider, ready to allow the corrosive liquid that had build up beyond her teeth to be released in one stream of corrosion that even Gallantmon's armor would have trouble getting unscathed out of. Her lips curled up further and more liquid bubbled out of her throat.

And with a sickening crunch, so abhorrently disgusting that even the recollection of it made my stomach turn by the images, my imagination going rampage with images of what it must've been like, that invaded my mind, Arukenimon was suddenly gone.

Gallantmon fell, hit the ground inside the wagon and ended up on one knee, and immediately, as if choking him had truly made him feel the sensation of suffocation, rose his free hand to his throat. Of course it had just been me, asphyxiation something that was more common with humans than with Digimon, and merely my own reaction to being held up by the throat rather than that of Guilmon, Hazaado or Gallantmon as a whole.

And as Gallantmon rested there, something resounded throughout the wagon from above. Something repeatedly impacted with the roof of the wagon, bent the metal under it as it bounced off again and again. Something that was moving away from me, away from the direction that the train was moving into.

The images that my imagination made up to fill the hole between the crunch and Arukenimon's sudden disappearance invaded my mind for the first time as Gallantmon rested there on the ground inside the train. One still image was etched into my mind, the image of the situation that the sound had originated from, and the only image that was not made up by my mind to fill the blanks.

Arukenimon, holding onto Gallantmon's neck from above, staring down at him with her mouth wide open and acid dripping from her teeth. Her neck horribly twisted to the side, smirk gone, panic in her glowing eyes. Head twisted to the side in an unnatural angle by the sign that hung from the ceiling of the tunnel, announcing something in digital letters.

She had not been careful, had been too concentrated on torturing us. Sadism unleashed in favor of attention.

But as their name suggests, Digimon are no humans. They could endure a lot more, and to even think about something that was not digital in itself, like the attack of another Digimon was, killing them was an audacity in itself. If you tried to kill them with something that was not digital in itself, they just came back when you expected them not to.

Arukenimon did so. Something that sounded like rapid steps on the roof announced her return. The sizzling returned as well, moments before Gallantmon could fully recover, this time on the other side of the wagon, at the back of it. Rika, still standing there, perked up, let out a hiss and fell into a sprint towards where we were located. She slipped past Gallantmon and took cover behind a row of seats to our left just as the roof at the back of the wagon had completely corroded.

A cone of light shone down into the train, getting brighter and dimming down at regular intervals as the lights on the ceiling of the tunnel passed above. A shadow was cast down onto the ground as Arukenimon stepped over the hole, warning me of her return before I could actually see her, and knowing that the knight's body had not fully recovered yet, I willed him to hide next to Rika behind the seats with his back pressed against them, and merely had him peek around their edge to keep an eye on the Arachne, and wait for the right moment to strike.

She dropped down into the wagon, and it shook under the weight of the overly large spider, lights flickering and going out, sparks raining down. Pulling Gallantmon's head back, I had him wait for a few seconds, knew that Guilmon and Hazaado would not try to make him move. This was about something akin to stealth, and with me being the most controlled and concentrated out of the three of us, I was the one commanding the body we shared until it was time to move or fight, where either Guilmon or Hazaado would be in charge. Of course, neither of us could completely step back and let the others handle it. In the end, it was still all three of us commanding the body at the same time, with neither one holding back. It was kind of hard to explain, and I was never sure myself whether or not my perception of how to handle the control of Gallantmon's body was completely right. It was kind of hard to tell who did what when all of the minds that could control the knight were fused together into one.

I was sure, though, that it was me who made Gallantmon peek over the seats. And even if not, it was me that made Gallantmon hiss in something that was just as much surprise as it was shock upon spotting the Arachne. Not because she was close or about to attack us.

No, it was because of the horrible sight that she was, even more so than before – her neck was twisted to the right by at least 60 degree, and it did not seem like it was going to return to its normal angle anytime soon by itself.

Arukenimon seemed, and that rightfully so, rather angry about the state she was in. But it wasn't just anger. With the way that the Digital Hazard reacted to it, I'd say that it was blind fury that drove the spider-like Ultimate to continue on and, in a fashion that was less of a predator and more of a berserker, hunt us down.

Sure, she did grab her head with both of her hands and set her head with another sickening crunch, after which she shook her head and seemed rather dizzy for a second, but if not for how real the situation was and felt, I'd be wondering if I were caught in some horror flick. It sure did feel like one. Me, hiding behind a row of seats, cowering there to stay out of the sight of the predator. I was weaponless, but not without means to defend myself.

It really did wake the same unnerving feeling within me that I had once felt before. It had been a dark night in late autumn after the whole D-Reaper incident and only shortly after the return of our partners, and Rika had invited both Henry and me, along with our Digimon, over for a weekend of just hanging out and spending time together. At one point during the night, Henry had fallen asleep, tired after a long day, and Rika had talked me into turning the lights out and playing horror games.

Of course it had been a bad choice to accept it, she was much more resistant when it came to horror. The unnerving feeling, that the one I was feeling at that moment resembled so much, had been awoken within me that night during a sci-fi horror game in which you were trapped in a space-station without the means to permanently get rid of the main threat of the game, an alien that stalked you throughout the game and could kill you in one hit. The game had focused heavily on stealth and distracting the alien, rather than confronting it directly, giving you a feeling of claustrophobia and isolation as you progressed through the darkness of the game.

That feeling was back at that moment, and it had a name. Not claustrophobia or isolation, but rather something that came hand-in-hand with it, something much more sinister and much more human in nature.

Paranoia.

It was paranoia that I felt as I made Gallantmon duck behind the row of seats, hoping that the Spider-Digimon was not aware of our position yet. Holding my breath and seeking Rika's gaze for reassurance, I listened as Arukenimon's graceful, almost completely silent steps began. They were slowly growing louder, barely noticeable so though due to the little weight that was put on each of the thing legs. The predator was silent, just like the alien in that horror game, and moved around in a nature that no human could.

Just like in that horror game, I had to focus on senses other than sight to know where the opponent was. Had to listen to know if it was close, or far away. If it was moving away from me, or drawing closer. This time, it wasn't speakers that amplified the sound, but the enhanced hearing that the Digital Hazard granted upon me.

That was until Rika let out a small hiss to get my attention, knowing that, through the armor, I would've not felt her touch. Gallantmon opened his eyes – only then making me aware that he had closed his eyes when I had closed my own inside him – and glanced over to her, only to see her nod towards the wall in front of us. At the foot of it lay a rather large shard of glass, once part of the windows that had shattered when Mummymon's attack had gone out of control.

It wasn't the shard, though, that Rika had meant to show me. It was the reflection of Arukenimon in it. I could see her. Could see that she had perked up – she must've heard the silent hiss from Rika – and was glancing around, obviously searching for the source of the noise.

Though it was only her silhouette that I could see in the shard, the darkness masking her features and only exposing them whenever the dim light of the lamps of the tunnel above, I could see that she was listening as she glanced around, slowly creeping through the aisle between the seats.

If Gallantmon had been in actual need of breathing, I would've stopped to do so, fearing that she might hear me. The situation was intense as it was, the sense of paranoia and claustrophobia increasing with every step that the spider took, and I doubted that it could get anymore dangerous.

So my heart nearly came to a stop when Arukenimon suddenly let out a gurgle and spat acid through the train. For a second, I had thought she had found us, but the short burst of acid was aimed at the second to last row on the other side of the aisle, where she had apparently thought we'd be.

Even now, she was playing her game of mental torture. Even now, she was trying to trick us, more so me who I was only human in mind and prone to fear, into making a mistake. The burst of acid had not been to actually attack anything, but to coerce me into giving away our location in a moment of panic. The worst thing about that? I almost had.

Of course, we could actually jump out of hiding and charge at her with Aegis held in front of our body, but was that the smart thing to do? Her acid was anything but weak, even more so through the effect of the black datachip, and neither of us who we made up Gallantmon was willing to risk finding out if the acid could get past Aegis.

It probably could if the acid was infused with the essence of its polar opposite, Archenemy. After all, Gallantmon was an embodiment of the Digital Hazard, and the black datachip was the opposite. It was one of the reasons why Gallantmon was even more efficient against the black datachips than any other shape of Guilmon – with the exception of Megidramon – could be. Only Gallantmon, who was united with the Digital Hazard, and Megidramon, who was the very epitome of the Digital Hazard's energy, could be that efficient in breaking them.

The problem with a black datachip though, and in this case as well, was to actually get to them. Not only were most of the black datachips actually attached to and manipulating Digimon that already had an enormous amount power to begin with, but they were often placed either in obscure places on the Digimon's body, or places that it was hard to get to while the Digimon was awake and moving. The face was often such a spot, as it was easy to defend.

In most of the cases, it was why we had to defeat a Digimon before I could cleanse it of the infection with Hazaado's powers. I couldn't do so while they were conscious. That aside, I had yet to see a Digimon that survived its cleansing and did not revert to a Digi-Egg that returned to the Primary Village.

In Arukenimon's case, the black datachip was attached to the back of her torso, right in between her shoulder blades, something I wouldn't even have been aware of if not for Hazaado granting me enhanced senses. There was no way I could reach it while she was awake and able to move. I would have to defeat her. We would have to.

The question was still how to do that, though. As long as she could spit the acid, she was at advantage when it came to reach. Without lance, Gallantmon had to resort to 'Shield of the Just', but not only did that drain too much power and had to charge up, time during which Gallantmon couldn't move and would those be exposed to Arukenimon's attacks, but it also was too destructive. It would easily lay the train in ashes.

With lance, which we still had to retrieve, Gallantmon could do the quick and powerful 'Lightning Joust'. Once again, though, the danger of that was its effect on electronic devices, which the train heavily relied on. That it was made of conducting material sure didn't help either.

Neither of Gallantmon's attacks was an option. This called for the classic way of fighting bare-handed – well, with a shield and a lance – but that led to the first problem again: Getting in reach without being hurt. And all of that wasn't even taking the last problem into account – whatever I did, I had to protect Rika at the same time. Whatever careless thing I did decide on, I couldn't allow it to endanger Rika.

But – that much I knew that moment – whatever it was that I would decide on, it had to happen fast. Arukenimon moved, and that in a way that caught me off guard. Instead of creeping further through the aisle like before, she jumped off the ground, pulled her legs in for a second, then extended them again. Six pointed legs landed on the backrests of seats, bent them, but supported the weight of the Arachne that used them as a vantage point. Her head was just below the ceiling, her features illuminated by the sparks that rained down from the broken lamps, and it was the sickest of smiles that had found its way onto her lips.

She had spotted us from there.

Three minds, merged into one, went into overdrive. A solution had to be found for the problem, and that rather fast – Arukenimon was already gurgling up more acid as she set herself into motion again, moving over the backrests at the crazy speed that a spider could move at in proportion to its size.

For just a second, Gallantmon's eyes darted over to the lance on the ground, just one leap away from our position. Either way, we had to grab it to fend the spider off, but the question was which way to fend her off without endangering Rika and ourselves.

There was one way. It wasn't a way that would make everyone come out unscathed, and it wasn't a way that ensured everyone would be alright. If anything, it put us all into danger, but Gallantmon most of all, not considering what would happen to Arukenimon.

Even though I was tempted to ask Rika for her opinion, to ask her if she trusted me enough to do it in a fashion that only the broken mind of a madman – of Hazaado – could come up with, there was no time for that.

"Hold onto me!" I bellowed, and the redhead immediately understood that I was referring to her. She didn't struggle as I made Gallantmon's empty hand reach for Rika. It grabbed her around the waist, pulled her against the armored body of the knight, but passed it to the arm with the shield. The intention was to cover her as effectively as possible, even if it meant to risk my own wellbeing. I'm not one for heroic sacrifice, and this was none. It wouldn't mean my death, and it wouldn't even be as grave of a sacrifice as the end of the Parasimon incident had been.

And even that had not been a heroic sacrifice. Just a sacrifice I had been willing to make, knowing it was not ultimate despite the unknown factor. I'm not one for heroic sacrifices, but willing to sacrifice some of my own happiness to ensure the happiness of others.

It was that thought that echoed through the mind of Gallantmon, shared by Hazaado, Guilmon and myself, as we leaped out of hiding with Rika safely in our arms, and as our free hand curled around the lance on the ground. This wouldn't mean death, and it wasn't a grave sacrifice.

But it would hurt like hell.

Arukenimon had no time to react as we pulled the lance up and pointed it at her. Sick glee spread across her lips as she readied herself to retch the green acid at us. But it was panic that rested in her eyes as she spotted it. The first bolt of lightning that rolled down Gallantmon's arm and into the lance as a reaction of knight and weapon being reunited.

There was fear in Arukenimon's eyes even before the attack was unleashed. But it was too late for her to stop, and nowhere to run to.

"Lightning Joust!"

From there on, it was just a series of black and white flashes. Still images, no connection between them, flashing before my eyes. Electricity being unleashed in one straight line, hitting Arukenimon point-blank into the chest. Her pained scream echoed through the air as she was electrocuted, but it was drowned out by the sounds of the electricity spreading from the first strike of lightning and her body, and the sounds of electronics bursting apart.

The train swerved, the wagon's brakes screeched, and Gallantmon was thrown into the next wall. A burst of fire. Arukenimon becoming unstable. The black datachip being fried, grilled by the lightning. Everything was black after that, but I heard the horrible sounds of metal bending, of brakes screeching, of fire erupting and glass shattering. One wagon slammed into the other, and though I didn't see it, I clearly felt as the one I was in fell over onto the side, Gallantmon's body being thrown into the direction, slamming into the other wall.

The metal bend as the heavy armor hit it, leaving back what would definitely be a dent of the size of Gallantmon, but I couldn't focus on that. The only thing I cared about at that moment was to force Gallantmon to keep his arms wrapped around Rika, protecting her from the train crashing. I had known this would happen. Had dreaded to go this far, but as always, there was this thought planted into my mind. The thought that I had to rely on such drastic measures.

Hazaado knew better than to make me regret or doubt what I was doing while I was pushed beyond the point where even I could not make clear decisions. Where decisions were forced under pressure. Whether or not these decisions truly were right was a different thing, though.

So when I did finally regain the ability to control Gallantmon after the crash, whether it had been minutes or mere seconds after bolt of lightning, the first thing I did was to growl in pain. Everything was fuzzy and blurry when Gallantmon's eyes opened, a sharp ringing noise echoing throughout the skull of the being that I was. And while I did feel the presence of Guilmon, Hazaado did not respond as I called out to him. But I couldn't worry about that.

The first thing I saw upon opening the eyes of Gallantmon was a mess. True to what I had felt, the wagon was lying upside-down across the rails, rather than on them. The windows had shattered and the metal was bent, doors gone and the frame out of shape. Fire was burning at several spots near me, but even more burnt just outside the wagon, close to where the others had piled up, and Gram had somehow ended up. The other wagons were horribly bent out of shape as well, but the one we were in seemed to be in the worst condition. Whether or not this was from the crash or from the deflected attacks before, though, I couldn't tell.

Arukenimon was nowhere in sight, not as the Arachne herself. Instead, not too far from where Gallantmon was lying on his back, a cluster of data floated in the air, not yet having gathered into a Digi-Egg. And seeing that it hadn't, a cold shiver went down my more or less non-existent spine – I was still part of Gallantmon's data, and less of a separate being, after all.

The reason I shivered, though, was that the data had not gathered into a Digi-Egg during the crash, right after the demise of the Digimon it had been. It usually did, only a few seconds between demise and rebirth. So, seeing it still floating and only about to turn into a Digi-Egg, this meant that not the Lightning Joust had dealt the finishing blow. The crash had.

There was little I could do, though, as the data gathered into the shape of a Digi-Egg. Gallantmon's body was aching all over, paralyzed by the pain it had to endure. After all, it had just been through a train crash, and that did not even leave a Digimon unscathed. All I could do was to watch as the Digi-Egg, rather than vanishing on the spot as they usually did when they returned to the Primary Village, floated out of the closest broken window of the train and vanished from my view. For a second, I questioned this strange behavior.

But it was the flash that followed after that that reassured me that everything was alright, and that the egg had indeed returned to the Primary Village. And knowing that it had, that I had saved this unfortunate Digimon as well, I let Gallantmon relax. The armor rattled as his body relaxed, as his arms fell off his chest and released Rika, and his head hit the ground, with something that was neither completely groan, nor sigh, escaping us.

If there had ever been a time that I actually wanted to curse, it was that moment.

No longer having enough energy left, Gallantmon fell apart, de-digivolved into its separate components – Guilmon, lying to the side, and me, Rika still atop me. Hazaado was there as well, but he only within my head, was not physical.

Rika stirred a bit, but I was far from being ready to actually do that. Much like Gallantmon's body had, my own body was tired and aching. My shoulder didn't hurt like it had before, there was no acid to burn through it. But there might as well have been.

Humans were not made for train crashes, and Digimon weren't either. I had been both at the same time, and I felt horrible, even after one part faded and I was only human again. So I didn't deem it much of a surprise that I did not get up when Rika did, and instead just watched as the redhead stumbled out of the upside-down wagon, crawling out through one of the broken windows.

She didn't seem unscathed either. Several smaller cuts were along her left arm, and I didn't doubt that she'd gain at least two or three bruises of varying size and intensity. But other than that, and the fact that she was rather dirty, with mud and ash contrasting with pale skin on arms and face and blending into the black of her shirt, she did seem to be okay.

Me? Not so much.

"This wasn't what I expected when I stayed longer at drama school tonight." I heard her breathe, but it seemed to be more of amazement and shock than confusion or resentment towards what I had done. In fact, she appeared to have a crooked smile upon her lips as she turned to me.

Still, drama school? Rika and drama school?

With a smile on her lips, the redhead ducked and climbed back in through the window. She approached me and offered me a hand, and despite the pain I felt, I reached out and accepted it. A completely new jolt of pain shot through me as she pulled, a pain that originated from my right shoulder joint upon putting strain on it.

I didn't cry out though, and knew that Hazaado would immediately start to isolate the area and disable the pain receptors there – that was how he had described it. Turning off the pain while my body recovered with the help of the Digital Hazard. When he had grown more powerful and had been able to take control of my body if I allowed it, he had also been able to manipulate more of my body through the power of the Digital Hazard, rather than just my senses. How far this control would eventually go, I didn't know, and it was generally a topic we avoided speaking about.

We rarely ever spoke about the powers I'd be granted the further I'd get with controlling the Digital Hazard. If there was something important I could take advantage of, he told me, and I never questioned it. So maybe he wasn't me, and maybe he could not fully be trusted, but I did exactly that. He wasn't me, but he was part of me. And everything he did that would be bad for me was just as bad for him, if not even more.

Cause in the end, the fact that he could interact with me and everything in the surroundings was only because I allowed him to.

Still, I had the feeling that I could only stand upright because he had already taken care of a lot of pain.

Rika smiled at me as I was on my feet, she somehow seemed to realize that I'd be fine. There was no other way that could explain why she did so after what we had just been through, a train crash. Sure, she was fine for the most part, but it could've had a worse outcome for the both of us had I not been Gallantmon.

"That was a thing." chuckled the redhead and patted my shoulder – I didn't feel it, Hazaado had already done his work – while she cast a glance around, "I knew one could go out with a bang rather than silent, but to return with a bang? Never heard of it until now."

I opened my mouth to say something, but all that left my throat was breath. I was panting, my body was tired and there was nothing more that I wanted than to pass out and let the Digital Hazard do its work. He'd have a lot to do. I had to, too. The others needed to know.

Rika pulled her hand back. She didn't wait for me to say anything, and merely climbed out of the train yet again. This time, though, she didn't remain just outside of it, and instead forced her way through the rubble and the wreckage, the piles of bent metal that once were part of the train and the parts of the walls and the ceiling that had collapsed. The tunnel didn't seem to be in danger of collapsing, but I'd rather not risk it. We had to get out there soon and let the authorities take care of that. Maybe inform Hypnos.

With Rika turned away from me, going god-knows-where, I saw my chance to get rid of the black datachip that had remained after Arukenimon had been defeated. Thankfully, Gallantmon's attacks carried just enough energy of the Digital Hazard to cleanse an Infected, and especially Lightning Joust was efficient in infusing the Digital Hazard's energy into another being through its lightning-like nature. And that was technically all it took to stop the influence of a black datachip. Just enough energy of the other corrupting force, of the exact opposite – Hazaado. Which was always too much for the Digimon too handle, and the reason they were destroyed and reborn as Digi-Eggs, but without taking the black datachip along.

It was kind of just as if I were to apply the firewall to a certain Digimon, rather than a quadrant. The protection of an individual, not of its home. But sooner or later, isolating single beings didn't work, just forced Archenemy to move on to the next host. The quadrant-wide firewall was the only permanent solution to the problem.

But I didn't have enough power to do so. Sure, I had a lot of control of the Digital Hazard after all the training with Hazaado after the defeat of Archenemy in the Eastern Quadrant, but it was like Hazaado had said – it's easy to protect several small holes, but hard to protect a big one. This time around, the energy that Rika, the Sacrifice Queen, could offer me was not going to be enough.

This was why the DigiDestined had tagged along. Our best bet was to track down Archenemy and keep him occupied as Hazaado and I worked on a solution. Even better, if we did track him down and defeat him, there was no need for the firewall in the first place. It was not going to stop allowing Digimon to come into the real world, just limit Archenemy in his movements.

So until then, until we could get to the real objective – the defeat of Archenemy – we could only focus on the smaller tasks that arose. Defeat Infected, cleanse them, destroy black datachips. Hunt down Archenemy. Protect those important to me.

Well, another black datachip to add to the list.

The Digital Hazard came alive again, having fallen asleep after Gallantmon had separated, and flared up in all of its crimson glory on the back of my right hand. Through focusing the anger within me, though, it quickly expanded. Yet again, the crest of hatred upon the back of my hand began to spin at increasing speed, crimson lines spreading up my arm, soon to vanish beneath my right sleeve.

My chest began to heat from within, the true Digital Hazard activating and unleashing its energy. My chest began to glow crimson beneath my shirt, but I remained unfazed. I had experienced that and the side-effects that it brought countless times during the training and the times I had relied on it to destroy the black datachips.

And this time again it did not disappoint me. Though my chest did feel ablaze, I felt the stinging sensation of the crimson-glowing chains that broke out of it and found their way out of my sleeves, falling into my waiting hands. Moving the right one, whirling it over my head, I allowed speed to build up. Letting go of the left chain, thus gaining a free hand as it simply dangled from my sleeve, I focused on where the black datachip lay on the ground among the rubble.

All I had to do was focus, Hazaado did the rest. The black datachip reacted to the energy of its natural enemy close-by and reactivated, but was quickly lifted off the ground and began to levitate at just the right height – that of my chest – for me to deal the finishing blow to it. By the time I threw the chain at it, piercing through the black material thanks to its sharp end and the momentum it had, the large Digital Hazard sign had already appeared in the air.

And after that, I only had to watch as the datachip burst apart and was absorbed by the large Digital Hazard sign. Vanishing from existence before the sign followed, waiting for the next black datachip. Hungry as it was, waiting to feed on more of these until there were none left. Its hunger was not out of lack of food, but out of hatred, and would only be satisfied as the very last black datachip and their owner were no more.

As my hands sunk down and the Digital Hazard fell asleep again, I knew two more Digimon were freed of the manipulation. Of the torture. Given their own free will again as the Digital Hazard cleansed them. And my hands balled to fists, and my eyes narrowed as I took a deep breath and relaxed.

The pain had not subsided yet. But it would. Soon.

"You done over there, goggleboy?" I heard Rika call out, reminding me of her presence. Turning to look out of the upside-down wagon that I was still in, I found that she had climbed onto one of the other fallen over wagons and was kneeling near one of the windows. "I got something you should probably look at."

I frowned, mainly at the mysterious tone in Rika's voice, partly due to the new nickname she had for me, but decided to check it out. She wouldn't call me over like that without a reason, that for sure. And whatever it was, it seemed to be important.

I had to duck to climb out of the window, much like Rika had been forced to before. Shards of glass cracked under my shoes as I leaped out of the window and landed on the ground, mixed with the sounds of fire crackling and my still hastened breaths.

Making my way to her location through the piles of rubble and metal, avoiding fires and unstable heaps along the way, I climbed onto the wagon as well and, with a questioning raise of an eyebrow, frowned first at her, and then down into the train.

What I found there was indeed curious. I had expected to see something I'd rather not, anything from twisted bodies to whatever gruesome image a mind could come up with in the face of an accident as terrible as a train crash.

But there wasn't something like that. In fact, there wasn't anything. The wagon was empty. All of them were, as it quickly turned out. There hadn't been a single person inside to begin with during the crash!

This brought up thousands of new questions, all of them starting with the question where the passengers had vanished off to. There had definitely been people inside the train when I had boarded it. And there was no way that all of them had left along the way without any good reason, there had to be somebody that had aimed to go downtown like I had, and Rika apparently also.

But seeing all of the wagons empty, I felt something weird well up inside me. Fingertips sliding across the metal of the wagons, my hands balled in anger that was Hazaado's. Anger at the realization that left me feeling empty and worried.

There was no way that it was a coincidence that only Rika and I had been on that train when it crashed. There was no way that it was a coincidence that Arukenimon and Mummymon had attacked us, and neither were it coincidences that they had done so when the train had been otherwise empty. I even began to doubt that it truly was a coincidence to begin with that I had run into Rika in that train.

And while I could only worry about how much Archenemy knew about Rika being the Sacrifice Queen and her importance for the power of the Digital Hazard, the thought that this all had been set up drove Hazaado insane in anger. I felt him boil inside me, and even though I had not allowed him control of my body, my hands had balled to fists under the influence of his rage.

Without warning, Hazaado activated the Digital Hazard. But, unlike any other time, a blazing heat developed within the back of my right hand, and even though the Hazard upon it was spinning at incredible speed, no lines extended up my arm to change the Digital Hazard into its second state.

I knew what this meant. Hazaado was furious, and his anger knew no bounds or limits. It was in this state that his mind often melded into mine, and his thoughts began to become audible to me. And this time around, there was a command in them. Something that told me what to do.

It was not like I had to follow these commands. Even when his mind melded into mine, it was still separate, and had no control of the body. Any command he'd give at such a moment was more like a suggestion. And yet, I did jump off the wagon like he told me, left Rika staring at me in confusion as I made my way through the wreckage yet again.

I wasn't headed for the upside-down wagon I had fought Arukenimon and Mummymon in, though. Instead, by Hazaado's command, I walked past it and searched for the first wagon, the one the driver was located in. Should be located in, that was. Hazaado wanted to know it now, wanted to know how much of a 'coincidence' this truly had been.

So when I did find the first wagon and the place where the driver should've been, his absence made Hazaado let out a roar of blind fury within our mind. There was no driver.

"This was a trap. A damn trap, and we sprung it rather gloriously!" I heard him bellow within me, his voice shaking in absolute anger, "So that's how far he is willing to go. This is how much he thought ahead. He must've been following us. Must've stalked us, that little creep!"

I didn't share this anger. Yet I let Hazaado rage for his heart's content as I, on the other hand, merely stared at the empty driver's seat and wondered the same thing as before – where was everyone? How had Archenemy managed to create this trap, luring everybody but us out of the train? How did everyone know when to leave, while we didn't?

And why would Archenemy spare everyone else?

I was tempted to use the powers of the Digital Hazard in an attempt to find out more, the console that was used to control the train within reach, just behind the window. Much like Lucemon had shown me early on, I had learned that the Digital Hazard could indeed manipulate such a camera or a console to alter the way it worked. It could manipulate or destroy. Could deactivate them, but also break them – either in their memory, or their electronics.

But not only could it do that, but it could also access the memory of such a device. I barely ever got to use these powers, but from experiments I knew that I could access the memory of a device that recorded them, and could allow Hazaado to evaluate the data to know what this memory included.

As it should be, though, I didn't even have to go as far as do that. Not only did I doubt that he was in any state to do that, but the answer supplied by an entirely different, surprising source.

Rika had the answer, even if she didn't know.

"Okay, how did we end up here?" she inquired as she stepped up to me and stared further down the tunnel, using part of the wreckage to climb onto the tilted wagon, "I thought this part of the line was abandoned and still under construction?"

Oh, Hazaado did not like to hear that. His anger spiked up anew and a new command told me to turn my head to face the direction the train had been traveling into. Narrowing my eyes, I allowed the Digital Hazard to enhance my senses and scanned the darkness ahead for that which Hazaado had been seeking for. And it wasn't even hard to find it.

There, in the distance, hidden in the darkness ahead, was a construction area. One that included a rather large hole in the ground, lack of rails, barriers and scaffolds. This time, I saw why this enraged the deity-like entity so much.

We would've crashed either way. Even if Gallantmon had not unleashed the Lightning Joust that had caused the train to crash, it would've just crashed into construction site either way. And that, without me protecting Rika, would've probably ended very different. Not in the good way.

"He infected the train with a virus. That's how he did it. How he remote-controlled it." I heard Hazaado hiss within my head, his but a feral whisper, "That bastard. I'm not sure how he got the passengers out, but I assume he passed some kind of message through the train. They have monitors in these, right? And speakers? He had plenty of ways."

I gave but a silent nod. Talking to Hazaado aloud wasn't an option most of the time with other people around, people who would deem me crazy. Now, Rika was a special case and I doubted that she would just call me outright crazy, she has seen too much crazy stuff for that. Really, a deity-like being living inside you? We've faced beings that represented the Chinese zodiac, fought a phoenix god, and a rampant program that was hellbent on destroying humanity. This wasn't even taking things a step further, I guess.

Still, it probably would look crazy at first, and I'd rather explain this at a different point, in a more comfortable place. A train wreck probably wasn't the spot for that.

"I get that, but still..." I replied within my mind, though my lips did move a bit in the darkness, knowing that Rika wouldn't be able to see them, "What I don't understand is why. Why would Archenemy make sure that the train aside from us before using it as a trap? Why would he spare other people? He doesn't seem to be very coordinated when it comes to traps, and it never seemed like he actually cared whether or not he hurt anyone but us before."

It was silent after that. Hazaado did not reply to the question, not immediately, and as his anger had mostly faded, I could no longer hear his thoughts. I knew he was hiding something. No, not hiding, he was holding something back, that was the correct way to say it. He was thinking about what to say, and how to say it, and that could only mean that Hazaado did not want me to know everything. He was good at that, I had learned that rather quickly. Just by phrasing things a little differently, he could withhold information, and you didn't even suspect him to.

He could sweet-talk you into buying something useless that you had no use for, just by phrasing things so that the useless junk sounded useful. Even afterward, you'd probably rather question the functionality of that junk, rather than why you bought it in the first place.

But did I blame Hazaado? No. In the end, he did withhold this information not to harm me, but rather the opposite. In the end, I was human, and could only comprehend and deal with so much, while he, with his deity-like existence, had seen and experienced things beyond my comprehension. Beyond any human comprehension. Things that, if unveiled to a human mind, would probably drag them down into the abyss of madness, and they'd never truly recover.

Eventually, though, Hazaado did reply. And his answer made me question how much he really knew about Archenemy, and what little I knew. Because, even though it did answer my question, it only opened up new ones. More.

"Hurting people that pose no threat to him is against his programming." replied Hazaado, though the mysterious stoic tone of his voice made me immediately raise an eyebrow, "He can't hurt who he doesn't recognize to be his enemy. Heh! And this poor idiot is forced to prioritize, if he wants to or not, that's the way he was made. So yeah, he can only recognize the biggest threat to be his enemy, and that is us. As long as we are, he can never hurt anybody that doesn't result in hurting us. In fact, he will even have to protect innocent people from harm like he did this time. Poor bastard and his poor programming. Bet he doesn't even know he protects others as he tries to us."

"Just what is that supposed to mean?" I inquired silently, raising an eyebrow as I continued to stare straight ahead into the darkness of the tunnel, "Programming? Made? I mean, I do get that important part, that he is forced to follow some routine or something, and always has to prioritize, but..."

"Don't think about it for now." interrupted Hazaado, "All you need to know is that he can't just target anyone. His brain is only able to handle one enemy at a time due to prioritization, and based on who poses the greatest threat – and that can only be us – he is only able to target that one. Sadly, this does involve those close to that enemy, which is why we're protecting your family and friends. If he hurts those, he hurts you, that's why he can do that. Emotional pain is a bitch."

"I think I understand. As long as I'm alive and you're part of me, we're the biggest threat, and his unwilling prioritization means we are his target." I repeated silently, "But if he were to get rid of us, he'd be able to move on to the next enemy in his line of priorities. And since we're the only ones who really do pose a threat to him, the only ones who can actually stop him, he'd be able to wreck havoc with us gone."

"Exactly." growled Hazaado within my mind, "So let's make sure to escape the next trap we spring as well. Aside from the fact that I doubt that you'd enjoy death, there's too many innocent lives on the line. Starting with the next threat, the Tamers and the DigiDestined, Archenemy would start a killing spree of unearthly proportions. D-Reaper was nothing against what he'd be able to do. He's on an entirely different scale. We're talking about networks collapsing, about society breaking apart, about missiles and other weapons of mass destruction being fired upon his will, and a war of a scale that humanity has only come close to breaking out. All by his will after I'm out of his way, the only real threat to him. Earth as we know it would end in a matter of a day, maybe two. That's why we have to stop him. Why I have been doing this for as long as he and I exist."

I swallowed. My throat felt dry and my hands were balled to fists, shaking, even though this was no new information to me. Hazaado and I had talked about the proportions of this before. Of how serious this truly was. Hunting down Archenemy, a parasite in someone's body, was only the tip of the iceberg, but the real threat lurked below the surface of the water that it swam in. And we could never allow it to get that far. He had to be taken down while we still could take him down. While he still was recovering and gathering his own strength.

"Got it." I whispered silently, and thus announced the unofficial end of this conversation. Of this exchange that only brought more questions. But these were unimportant at that moment. These were questions I could care about when I was alone with Hazaado, and he'd be more willing to explain his ominous words. In fact, these questions of what he had meant with 'programmed' and 'made' could even wait until after the defeat of Archenemy, after he had been taken care of. Maybe then they'd make more sense.

"You got what, goggleboy? Are you fantasizing?" spoke Rika all of sudden with surprisingly melodic voice, catching me off guard as I had completely forgotten about her being there, "You seem to be awfully out of it. You really do."

Pulled back into reality, I shook my head in an attempt to clear it of all the questions and unknown factors that bothered me. A headache was acting up, and a really bad one. I really didn't want to do anything but to collapse atop my bed and sleep – at least rest – until my body was okay again. Numbness of pain receptors did not equal the lack of exhaustion or the immunity to headaches, that for sure.

"I actually feel like I am, so I might as well be." I admitted with a heavy sigh, rubbed the back of my neck as I turned to her, "Sorry, was kinda lost in thought. This doesn't happen every day."

"I figured." snorted the redhead in return. To my surprise, she still didn't seem to be overly angry, even after the train crash. Instead, she even smiled as she approached me and placed a hand on my shoulder, unaware of the fact that I couldn't feel it. "Let's get the hell out of here before we run into more trouble. I don't know what this was about, but I get the feeling I might know soon."

With a nod, waiting until she had pulled her hand back, I let Rika guide me away from the crash site. It wasn't easy, that for sure, I wasn't exactly athletic, and with one direction blocked off by the construction area, the only way we could go was to climb over the pile of wagons and somehow make our way through the narrow space in between them and the ceiling.

"No point in hiding it from you anymore, I guess." I sighed as Rika crawled through the narrow space, and meant it. Yes, I had planned to keep the Tamers out of this, but now, Rika had been directly involved, maybe even targeted. This changed things a bit. "But we can't tell Henry and the others just now. I know this might sound weird, but I didn't come with this problem directly to you guys because I was worried you'd be put in the crosshairs as well. I ran into some problems while I was gone and..."

I trailed off for a moment. Rika had finally pushed her way through the narrow space while I had talked, but reappeared to offer me a hand and help me through as well. Picking up Gigimon – Guilmon had de-digivolved in the meantime and had followed us up the wreckage – I handed him to her, before following through the narrow space myself. I had to lie down on the wagon and crawl through the narrow space, through which Rika helped me by pulling on my arm after putting Gigimon down on the wagon she stood on. Back on my feet, I opened my mouth to continue, but Rika beat me to it.

"Look, before you continue that, there's something I need you to ask." she interrupted me, her hands still wrapped around my right one. She let go, though, and turned away from me to hop down from the wagon we were on, descending the mountain of wreckage, leaving me to follow. "But we should keep moving."

I had to agree, picked up Gigimon and made my way down the wreckage as well. I definitely didn't want to be caught by the authorities and explain how this happened, and why no one was on the train with us. Hypnos I would be able to explain it to, maybe, but the police? Would they believe the crazy tale of a computer virus living inside me, fighting a war against another computer virus that jumped from body to body like some creature in a horror movie?

'Unlikely', was the answer in my head as I made the final jump and landed next to Rika on the tracks. No one would believe this crazy story, even though it was indeed true. It's always the craziest and most unlikely stories that are true. Would Rika believe it?

"What's it?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as she behaved, despite the situation we were in. Strange Digimon attacking, a train crash, and I had been gone for what was almost a year – and yet, Rika behaved absolutely casual. Like nothing was wrong. Like this was actually quite exciting.

Rika send me a glance as we continued to follow the tracks back to the next station, our steps fast enough to be considered a jog, but no run. Not that I could've even if I had wanted to. Not after that just then. She seemed to think the same thing, though, as she suddenly stopped, but not without suddenly grabbing me by both shoulders and turning me to face her.

"Who am I, Takato?" she asked, eyes narrowed at me. Seriousness lay in her eyes as she asked this mysterious question, her lips but a thin line, tightly pressed together. Of course, I had seen Rika serious like this countless of times, she wasn't exactly a person that was all about laughter and fun times even after she had begun to open up to us, but something about this seriousness was different from other times. I couldn't put a finger on what it was, though.

"What kind of question is that?" I heard myself ask, even though my mind was trying to solve what she was insinuating, "You're Rika Nonaka, partner of Renamon, and..."

Rika interrupted me with a groan, pulled her hands back and covered her face with them as she turned away from me. This action seemed to make little sense to me, but Hazaado let out a sigh of disappointment. He knew something, didn't he? And whatever it was, it was connected to what he had realized earlier when Rika had said that she couldn't call Renamon.

"That is kind of the thing, Takato." sighed Rika as she turned back to me, gnawing on her lower lip – that was something I did not remember her to do, she'd often bare her teeth instead when she was frustrated– and moved her left hand through her hair. Again, a left-handed action? "I'm not Rika Nonaka."

"What?" it escaped me even before the actual confusion kicked in – what did she mean she wasn't Rika, she clearly was! - and the frown found its way onto my face, "What do you mean you're not Rika? But you know my name! You know about the Digimon! About Guilmon! And you didn't question the biomerge!"

"Of course I do know about all of that. Everyone knows!" exclaimed the girl that, after all, did not seem to be Rika, even though she clearly looked like her, "If you can't remember, this huge pink blob broadcasted everything! Everyone saw how you fought against it and stuff."

I closed my eyes in irritation. Of course, how could I have forgotten about that? This wasn't the Eastern Quadrant, people knew about Digimon and who were were. The kids that destroyed the 'thing' that threatened humanity. D-Reaper had broadcasted our fight – world-wide for all I knew – and Digimon were no longer just a card-game, appeared in the real world on a daily basis.

How ironic that I had already gotten used to how things worked in the Eastern Quadrant and had to adjust to my own home again.

But that didn't explain one thing.

"But, if you're not Rika..." I began, opened my eyes and frowned at the redhead, took in the sight that she was, all the similarities between her and the girl I knew, all the small details they shared, from the special red tone of their hair color to the same pale skin, "Then who are you? Why do you look like her?"

The girl bit down on her lip again. She turned her head and stared at the ground to my left, teeth grinding nervously on her lower lip.

"The answer is actually quite simple, and at the same time not so much." sighed the redhead, seemed uneasy, "Let's just say that, just theoretically, Rika's dad were to be still living in Shinjuku, just another area of it..."

"So he's alive?" I interrupted her, raising an eyebrow, but quickly rose my hands in defense when she began to glare, "Just asking, Rika never talked about him. The only thing I know is that she hasn't seen him since she was what? Maybe three? I know he divorced from Rika's mother, and that Rika doesn't like to speak about him. From how she reacted when I asked once, it sounded like he might have died."

"He's alive and kicking, thank you very much." snorted the redhead in irritation, "Now, as I was saying, if he were to be still in the area, and actually a single father then..."

Something clicked inside my head, and though realization only dawned shortly, I shuddered at the prospect of what I was about to learn. It made little sense, but I knew exactly where this was going.

"Okay, are you seriously trying to tell me you're Rika's sister?" I inquired, closed my eyes and tried to wrap my mind around this, "Because that would be creepy and really, really confusing."

"I told you it'd be simple, and at the same time not so much." chuckled the redhead, nervously scratched her neck before she quickly bowed to me, "I'm Ruki, Ruki Nonaka. And to make it a little more confusing, I'm actually Rika's twin sister."

Oh, Kazu and Kenta would love to know that there's a second Rika walking around Shinjuku. But the thing was – was there actually a second Rika? Was there actually a possibility that this was true? If it were, a lot of things would make little sense, like how the Rika didn't know. Or did she just not want to know?

"Okay, so without questioning that you are Ruki Nonaka, who is Rika's twin sister..." I continued, hands once again at the height of my chest in defense of what I was saying, "How would that work? How would Rika not know? No offense."

"None taken, but you answered that yourself. We were little when we were separated, when I went with Dad, and Rika stayed with Mom." chuckled Ruki, though there was no actual amusement in her voice, "If it wasn't for Dad telling me about her and Mom, I probably wouldn't even know about Rika, either. Well, if not for D-Reaper."

"I see." I mused, trying to empathize with her, wondering how I would've reacted if I were to be in her place. It felt strange to think that there'd be someone like me out there, someone I should have some kind of connection to. Someone who shared my looks and my genes, but who was a stranger to me.

Well, there was Hazaado inside me, someone who actually didn't share my looks or genes but my one mind, and I hadn't actually really known he was there for most of my life, either. Sure, in the back of it, I had known that there was something there, but I had never considered it to be what it was.

"Do you have..." I trailed off again, decided to phrase it differently, "I mean, Rika has no contact whatsoever to her father, right? Does this mean you don't get to see your mother either?"

Ruki rose an eyebrow, but then shook her head. She didn't seem glum about it, though I could see a small hint of disappointment.

"I haven't seen Mom either since she and Dad divorced, they didn't exactly do that on the best terms. I mean, Dad and I always got along and we always did fine, but I guess there's always been something just..." she trailed off, tried to find the right word, "...missing, you know?"

"I guess." I muttered, though I couldn't really say. Despite my attempts, I couldn't put myself into her shoes, the same problem I had encountered with Rika when I first met her. Even though I tried, Rika and her situation had remained mysteries to me, situations that I couldn't help but feel helpless in whenever I tried to imagine it happening to me.

"Let's change the topic, alright? I've accepted it, but I'm not quite comfortable talking about this to someone who actually knows Rika."

"I'm not exactly in touch with her right now." I replied, "I don't know if you somehow heard of that, but I've been gone for about a year. Which is kinda hard to explain."

"I'm guessing it's connected to us being attacked just now?" chuckled Ruki uneasily, "I mean, Digimon don't usually have these black datachips, right? And knowing from the TV series, something midnight black, something that usually isn't there, attached to a Digimon rarely means anything good."

"Well, you have a point there."

"I knew you'd say that." laughed the redhead, poking me in the side before she gestured into the direction we had been leaving in to, reminding me that we weren't in the most comfortable or nicest of places, "By the way, don't mind me asking, but what's it like to have a Digimon partner?"

"You don't have one?" I inquired with a frown, exchanging a confused glance with Gigimon in my arms. This would be the first time that I heard of only one sibling finding a Digimon partner. In each and every case I knew, sooner or later, both found their partner, often only shortly after one another. Tai and Kari, Matt and TK, Henry and Suzie.

"Nope. Wish I had, though. It seems pretty awesome." the girl trailed off and looked over her shoulder back to the train wreck, "And never boring."

An uneasy chuckle escaped my lips.

The question should remain unanswered, though. Before I got the chance to even start to explain – and that would definitely take a while – I heard something I had rather not. Ruki had heard it too, as she froze at the same time as I did, even Gigimon in my arms tensed up.

Sirens.

"Okay, so much for that! Seems we have to leave it at that and finish this another time." Ruki pulled her bag over her shoulder and threw it onto the ground, then quickly fell onto her knees before it and began to dig through its contents. I watched in confusion as she did this, but got the answer before I even found the time to ask. She had pulled her cellphone out.

Quickly getting the hint, I pulled my own cellphone out of my pocket.

"I think it's best if we separate now. We can continue this if we're not about to be caught." spoke Ruki rather quickly, before she turned her cellphone to me and allowed me to type the number on her screen into my own cellphone, "Call me tomorrow."

My thumb stopped over the final digit, my mind only then catching up. Raising an eyebrow, ignoring the sirens that steadily grew louder, I frowned at her.

"Uh, why again should I call you?"

"Still a little slow, huh?" chuckled the redhead, "I'm in on this, of course! Whatever it is that you're involved in, I'm involved now, too! I mean, sure, I can't exactly help you in a fight or anything since I don't have a partner, but that doesn't mean that I can't join, right? Besides, I want to get to know you and, since you seem to know a lot about my sister, what you know about her. I've always wondered what she's like. Ya know, when she isn't fighting giant blobs of pink doom as some kind of Shaman. Or whatever it is she's fighting."

Ruki pulled her cellphone back when she saw that I had typed in the final digit and threw it into her bag again. Quickly zipping it up, she threw it over her shoulder, smirked at me as she prepared to make a run for it.

"Just don't forget to call me when you have some time to spare and want to talk or hang out, got it?" she added, before she took a deep breath, "You don't seem to have a lot of time to kick back and relax, and that's what I can offer. A moment to take your mind off this fight you seem to be involved in, and share your thoughts with someone who isn't as involved as your partner."

"Well, that is true." I admitted, more so under my breath to myself than directed at Ruki. But she had heard it nonetheless and smirked, but didn't say anything. Instead, she rose her left hand – well that finally made sense, she actually was left-handed – and waved, running toward the closest platform, soon to vanish in the darkness of the dimly lit tunnel.

It was just me and Gigimon again. And Hazaado, of course.

Letting out a confused hum, I rose Gigimon until he was in front of my face and looking at me. We shared a smile, mine crooked and his not so much, and looked at each other, but I guess neither of us truly knew what to say. He didn't say anything, and I didn't say anything.

At least I knew what Hazaado had realized when Ruki had said she wasn't able to call Rika. It must've been this point that Hazaado had realized that the redhead with us wasn't infected with the Digital Hazard, and thus not Rika. She hadn't been the Sacrifice Queen all along.

But even though she hadn't been, I knew I would've done the very same thing. I would've protected her even if I had known that she hadn't been Rika. This hadn't been about her being Rika, even though the thought that I knew the person that I had to protect at that moment had driven me to work extra hard. To not fail.

The sounds of Ruki's footsteps had long faded away, drowned out by the sounds of the sirens becoming even louder, when I gently lowered Gigimon. A strange girl, really. Or maybe she was just so strange to me because she reminded me of Rika, and her every action seemed to be so different from what I expected Rika to do. Ruki carried herself with a certain hint of grace, seemed polite where Rika was insulting or sarcastic, but shared a certain strength and confidence. Also, where Rika was about physical activity – she had once expressed a certain hint towards martial arts – Ruki seemed to be about social skills, which was rather ironic given Rika's introverted personality.

Working with her would be an interesting, yet strange experience, that much I knew already. But she was right in that regard – she was involved after that train incident. She knew about the existence of black datachips, and due to her appearance, there was a risk that Archenemy would mistake her for Rika and would target her instead, so we had to observe her as well. Whether she wanted to or not, being in that train at that time had lead to her being involved into all of that.

Besides, she was right. I needed someone to talk to that wasn't as involved. Also, her living in Shinjuku – unlike the DigiDestined and, in a sense, me – meant she could go around a lot easier without being suspicious.

"Let's get out of here." I mused aloud, and heard Gigimon giving an approving hum, "We should turn into Gallantmon, this'll make it easier to escape, and we can get back to the hideout quicker without having to rely on public transport."

"Yeah, good idea." I heard Hazaado confirm in a growl within my head, speaking up for the first time since the fight on the train, "Also, we could avoid being ambushed again like that. And if it's going to get rough and we're out of options, we could always switch to the other biomerge form from there..."

With a nod, I grabbed my D-Power.

Rika's PoV

"RIKA!"

Even though I heard Reika shout in panic, trying to warn me off the danger that was approaching me from the other side, Sakuyamon turned her head too late. Renamon's worry about me flashed through Sakuyamon, but was quickly replaced by a surge of pain as the heavy object that Reika had seen slammed into us.

Thrown out of the air, I felt how Sakuyamon hit the ground and bounced off it several times, dirt and grass staining the miko's body. Every surge of pain flew through me as well, but I simply bared my teeth – something Sakuyamon did as well because of that – and snarled, trying to force the beaten body that I was part of up.

But I couldn't. Sakuyamon had taken quite a beating already, had been absolutely defeated by the weird enemy we were up against. This wasn't a normal Mega-Level Digimon, of that I was sure, cause even though it was one known for its resistance and strength, for it to neither be hurt by anything we threw at it, and to utterly defeat Sakuyamon – and me with that! - without as much as a problem, it had to somehow have gained even more strength.

I had the feeling that it was somehow connected to that black datachip on its left shoulder, so small in comparison to its hulking size, blending in with the darkness around us, but contrasting with the steel-gray of its body.

Sakuyamon was struggling to get back up. Exhaustion was nagging on us, on both Renamon and me. I could feel how close this body was to breaking apart. How close Sakuyamon was to de-digivolving into Renamon and me.

And that would be our death certificate. There was no way that a weakened Renamon would be able to take on the hulking Mega that Sakuyamon had not been able to. To make it worse, there was no other Tamer close by, and no way any of them were to be able to be there in time. So if Sakuyamon were to be defeated, there'd be no one to fight. No one left to protect Reika, who could only stand at the side and watch helplessly, unable to do anything herself.

The ground beneath us shook as the hulking figure of the Mega set into motion. Gathering up the last bit of strength that Sakuyamon had left, the priestess struggled to push her upper body up from the ground, turning her head to glare at the incoming threat.

Machinedramon towered over us with its empty eye sockets, showing no emotion and no sign of actual life. Just an empty shell of metal, led by the maliciousness of its very core. And yet, for a second, our gaze shifted over to the small black dot on its left shoulder. Machinedramon were known for being driven by nothing but maliciousness, and yet there was something else on him that oozed malice, and it was that black datachip. How these were connected, and if it was connected to the strength of this Machinedramon in particular, though, I couldn't tell.

All I knew was that, despite all the attempts we had made at hurting the colossus, he had yet to show any signs of having received damage. He did flinch and some attacks did push him around, but that was everything. There was barely any scratch on that thing, and it was driving me insane to know that we had only dealt little to no damage so far, and, unless something changed, would only continue to do so.

What we were lacking was something that could penetrate the metal that Machinedramon was made of, something like the Dramon Destroyers of Wargreymon. The problem is, Sakuyamon did not have anything like that. She was a powerful Mega-Level Digimon, even more so because she was a Biomerge-Digimon, but she lacked the physical strength that some other Mega-Level Digimon had.

"We need MegaGargomon." I could Renamon call out within Sakuyamon, and could only agree. We needed someone with more strength, and MegaGargomon was that someone. Gallantmon would've been fitting for that position as well, heck, even that idiot Ryo as Justimon would've been a welcome support.

But neither of those knew of the threat I was facing. Neither of them even knew I was here with Reika, there had been no reason to tell them. Of course, they must've noticed the bio-emergence, but the question was when they'd arrive. If they'd arrive on time.

Seeing Machinedramon step over us and point his left claw at Sakuyamon, the answer threatened to be 'no'. But I did get support in that moment, even though it was an unlikely one. I didn't get my hopes up, knew who it was, but it was a welcome distraction to see the small stone hit the side of Machinedramon's face and turn his attention away.

"How about you pick on someone your size, MechaGodzilla?" I heard Reika yell. Of course, that was a stupid move, as this only made the Mega turn his head to her – and for the briefest of moments, I saw a faint red glow in the depths of his skull through the empty eye socket, followed by a primal growl from the Digimon.

"Entity recognized. Threat Level: Unknown." hollered Machinedramon in his gruff metallic voice, and to my further surprise, turned his entire body towards Reika, almost as if Sakuyamon wasn't deemed a threat anymore. Almost like he couldn't understand – Machinedramon, who was said to have an intellect incomparable to anything – what threat Reika really was, and thus targeted her first.

It made little sense, and Reika's move was simply stupid and more than just dangerous, threatening her life. But it was our best bet, and the thing I had waited for, the welcome distraction. With Machinedramon not looking, I pushed Sakuyamon's body to the limit and let her climb to her feet, then rush towards Reika. The girl didn't struggle when Sakuyamon crashed into her and embraced her, picking her up and taking into the air with her in her arms, thus avoiding Machinedramon crushing her any time soon.

The mechanical Digimon didn't like that of course, and immediately turned his body to point his blasters at us, aiming to shoot us out of the air. I wouldn't allow that, and neither would Renamon. So seeing him charge up his blasters, knowing how excellent his aim was, we turned Sakuyamon's body and stopped our movements in midair. There was no point in trying to avoid the unavoidable, so there was only one other way to ensure we wouldn't be hit.

"Spirit Strike!" I heard Sakuyamon announce in a combination of Renamon's and my own voice, the hand that wasn't holding Reika close to our body twirling the staff. The four colorful Kuda-Gitsune that were summoned by our attack rushed past me the moment that the announcement had been made, curled around one another and then spread out again before they slammed into the huge colossus of a mechanical beast. They didn't hurt him, much like any other attack had done, but at least they did what I had aimed for – they made him flinch and stagger to the side just in time.

They interrupted his announcement of his Giga Cannon, but even though they did, it was released from the blaster mounted onto his right shoulder, orange energy shooting up into the sky, missing us by mere inches. A wave of hot air rushed past us just after the energy had missed, forcing Reika to bury her face in our shoulder to shield it.

"Damn it!" cursed the brunette into Sakuyamon's shoulder, though I couldn't blame her for that, I would've reacted like that as well if not for the fact that Renamon's calm nature was affecting me as Sakuyamon. "This isn't how it was supposed to be. Should I do that or...?"

"What is that supposed to mean?! What is 'that'?" I asked through Sakuyamon upon hearing the quiet words that Reika had added, which I obviously hadn't meant to hear. I felt her cringe against Sakuyamon, but didn't get the chance to ask again, as Machinedramon let out a roar upon its recovery and turned to aim at us again.

I bared my teeth, which Sakuyamon reflected. How long could this go on? How often would I manage to force it back and throw Machinedramon off aim until he would hit us after all, maybe only by accident?

This was no permanent solution, and not a way to buy time until someone else would arrive. Sadly, it was our best bet to buy the time that we needed.

Or so I thought.

Just when Machinedramon's blasters began to light up again, gathering energy within them, and I prepared to throw yet another Spirit Strike at him, everything changed. Just when I thought we'd not make it, the tables were turned. In but one announcement.

"Demon's Disaster!"

The night before us lit up in violet, a burst of energy flying through the air at such incredible speed that at least I nearly missed it. I felt how Reika froze up in my arms, before she suddenly whirled around and stared into the same direction as Renamon and I did as Sakuyamon.

And stare as well we could. Stare in disbelief as Machinedramon let out a roar of anguish, throwing his head back and howling at the night above, cringing and twitching – before he slowly stopped, almost as if life was drained from his body, as if movements became harder every second, like his joints had begun to rust and were no longer able to move.

And then, starting from his torso outward, where the attack had hit him in the back, he slowly began to delete. I could barely believe my eyes as I saw that. Machinedramon, who I had problems dealing with, defeated in one hit. Machinedramon, who was known for his resistance and strength, defeated in one hit.

Not knowing what else to do, we dropped out of the air and landed. Immediately after touching the ground, Reika struggled and we let her go, to which she, much to my confusion, dove and hid behind us. I couldn't focus on that though. Maybe it was Renamon's carefulness that led us to do it, maybe it was my own distrust, but we remained where we were and kept staring at the spot where Machinedramon had last been.

By then, he had completely dissolved into data, steel-gray particles floating in the darkness before us, the night only illuminated by a light post. I couldn't see the mysterious Digimon that had helped us, but knew he was approaching slowly as I heard rattling of something metallic from the darkness ahead, the data of Machinedramon absorbed by the being in the shadows.

And by the time that it finally entered the cone of light, it had absorbed Machinedramon completely. A hand was the first thing I could see, an armored glove extending from the darkness to catch the black datachip that fell out of the air after Machinedramon's destruction.

"Don't trust him, Rika." whispered Reika all of sudden, seriousness and caution in her voice, her eyes narrowed as she stared into the darkness ahead, "Don't trust your eyes."

I frowned within Sakuyamon, turned the miko's head to look at the girl hiding behind us in confusion. What was she saying? What did she mean? Once more, something about her seemed to make little to no sense.

Before I could actually wonder about it, though, the individual that had just defeated Machinedramon did step into the light, turning my attention back to him. And, while I had reckoned a lot of Digimon at that moment, anything and anyone that remotely reminded of a humanoid with armored hands, I didn't expect it to be who it eventually was. Didn't reckon it to be a familiar Digimon.

It was Gallantmon.

I did a double-take, but it was definitely him. Sure, his armor was a steel-gray instead of its usual blinding white, and the red parts of his armor seemed to be a dark blue, but it was him, was Gallantmon. He just looked a lot more like he had done in my dream.

That dream...

"Ta-Takato?" I whispered under my breath, and Sakuyamon did the same, sounded sickeningly hopeful, despite the fact that I had promised myself not to get my hopes up until he'd be actually in front of me. The knight didn't respond to that, even as I repeated his name louder. Could this really be him? After nearly one year, he appeared before me, and like that?

I felt Reika holding onto Sakuyamon stronger, almost like a scared little girl that hid behind her mother, scared because of a stranger. But I wasn't her mother and she didn't seem to be scared, and this was no stranger, this was Takato. Gallantmon was unique, after all, so it only could be him.

That means, he had been. Until the day that this weird gateway had opened before me and I had seen Gallantmon fight side-by-side with a Digimon that had looked just like him. Gallantmon, who had been a creation of Takato's and Guilmon's bravery and sense of justice.

How, or why there had been a second Gallantmon, I still couldn't say, even almost one year later. Why, or how Gallantmon had lost the shine of his armor, I couldn't say either.

What I could say, though, was that this encounter somehow creeped me out. The way he stood there, one hand extended and still holding the black datachip. The way he kept silent even after I had called out what was probably his name – even if he wasn't Takato, he should've reacted to it. But he didn't.

Not until he suddenly clenched his hand to a fist and crushed the black datachip in it. I cringed and Sakuyamon followed, not prepared for this sudden violent reaction. But Gallantmon hardly seemed to care, he merely stared straight at me as the remains of the datachip – no more than black particles that floated in the air around his hand – were absorbed by his already dark armor.

Was this how he had lost his shine?

There would be no answer, not from him, not then. I knew that much when he, without another word, turned on his heels and began to approach the darkness again. Of course I reacted. Of course, I wouldn't just let him go away again after that one year that he had already been absent. Not after I had just come to terms with the reason why his absence hurt me so much. Not after Reika had just helped me to accept these feelings.

But it was my own body that worked against me. If Sakuyamon's body could be considered my own, that was. Because the moment that I wanted to sprint after the leaving knight, just after the first two steps, the wounds that it had received in the one-sided fight with Machinedramon acted up. Sakuyamon's right leg gave in, being the unfortunate part of her body that had hit the ground first, and we fell, hit the ground with our knees and were on all fours before I knew it.

We didn't make any attempt at getting up. Not only would it be pointless because of our body, but because I knew that Gallantmon wouldn't be found if he didn't want to be found. Even if we had de-digivolved and our original bodies would've not been in a condition nearly as bad as that of Sakuyamon, I knew there was no way I would manage to catch up with him, let alone find him in the darkness.

Takato was gone again. If that had been him, that was.

I let out a curse, and even though Reika, who had rushed to our help and had placed a hand on our left shoulder, heard it, she didn't comment it. Didn't even react, other than to kneel down next to us and examine the state we were in.

"Just give up, there's no way you will catch up to him." spoke the brunette in the same serious tone as before, "You shouldn't even try to follow him. Something isn't right about this."

Sakuyamon broke apart that moment, all of her remaining energy used up. Renamon immediately fell onto her stomach next to me, let out a gruff hiss as she did, and I myself snarled as soon as I found myself on all fours on the ground, right where Sakuyamon had been before.

Lost. We had just lost Takato again. Our first actual lead ever since that strange gateway had been there, other than the Hazard on my hand acting up for seemingly no reason, and it was gone.

"Reika." I managed to breathe, my whole body aching, joints throbbing, and yet I turned my head to glare into her direction, "Tell me you saw that too. Tell me I didn't just imagine things. That I didn't just see things."

"No." replied the brunette after a moment of silence, "No, you didn't just imagine things. I saw him too, that knight."

Reika offered me a hand and I took it, let her pull me up and, after she insisted on it, leaned onto her shoulder, let her support my weight. Renamon had recovered fairly quick and was already on her feet, but it didn't seem like she was in any condition to carry me.

She didn't have to, though. Reika, despite her rather fragile appearance, was surprisingly strong, had no problem to walk even with me leaned onto her shoulder and should, as I should learn, not be forced to stop a single time on our way to the subway, and from there to our homes.

But she was in a weird mood all along, all the way back there. At no point did she try to start a conversation, didn't really react to anything I did or any attempts at a conversation that I made. She merely walked and stared straight ahead with an expression I found hard to read, hard to understand.

Somehow, I had a feeling that it was connected to the appearance of Machinedramon and this grim-appearing version of Gallantmon. It all started with what she had added just seconds after helping me up.

"No, you didn't see things. That was ChaosGallantmon."

Takato's PoV

I've hardly ever been as content to not be Gallantmon anymore as when we finally reached the hideout and could de-digivolve into separate beings again at the foot of the steps that led up to the door. The moon was at its highest when I, body aching, climbed the steps to the heavy wooden door and took a deep breath, hoping that I could only fall into my bed and sleep while the Digital Hazard took care of my current bad condition.

To my surprise, despite how late it was, the door opened before I could even search my pockets for my key, and it were Tai and Matt that stood in the doorway and looked rather worriedly at me. Rightfully so. I must've looked horrible after all I had been through.

Guilmon pushed past me and entered the house first, only to immediately take a left turn and vanish in the doorway to the living room, which was where he slept most of the time. He was tired too, I knew that, didn't have to ask or even rely on our link to one another. After that day, we all were, even Hazaado seemed tired.

I didn't say anything as I entered the house and closed the door behind me, though I knew the two DigiDestined of the first generation would want answers. The way they followed my every move told me that.

"I ran into some trouble today." was the first thing I said, though it hardly seemed to be a surprise for them. They just shared a glance, but didn't say anything, so I just gestured them to follow me into the living room. Both nodded, but only Tai followed, Matt left for the kitchen instead, and only returned to the living room when I had already collapsed into the armchair, and Tai had sat down on the couch next to where Agumon slept and snored.

When Matt entered, I knew why he had left for the kitchen, though. With three cans of soda, two of them already open – that explained what the two had been doing when I had returned to the hideout – he sat down on the couch next to Tai, passed him one of the open cans, placed the other on the table before him, and then passed the final can over to me, throwing it over the table.

I caught it, and though the cold of the can surprised me, it was a welcome surprise. I really needed a cool drink after all that.

"So what happened?" inquired Matt as he rose his can to his lips and took a sip, though he did not avert his eyes from me. Tai, though holding his own can near his lips, didn't do either of those things. He didn't drink and didn't look at me, merely stared out of the window into the night. He had a general idea of what had happened, I was sure of that.

"Let's just put it this way – we're onto something." I growled, and though I felt how my head throbbed, the headache from before acting up again, I opened my own can, "There's going to be news of a train crash on an abandoned line tomorrow. I was ambushed by an Arukenimon and a Mummymon with black datachips."

"Arukenimon and Mummymon?" repeated Tai and frowned, turned to me after all, "That sounds oddly familiar. Didn't MaloMyotismon have two henchmen like that? Poor guys were backstabbed by him."

"So that really happened, and not just in the TV series. But, yeah that's what I thought, too." I snorted, shuddered, then took a long sip from my soda, "There's more to it, I may have recruited someone for us without wanting to, but let's stick with that. I'm tired. Really, really tired."

"You look like that as well." commented Matt, before he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, "But at least we know one thing for sure now: Archenemy is here. Was it only Arukenimon and Mummymon?"

"No, I ran into another Infected on my way home and had to defeat it as well. Makes me think Archenemy is observing us as well." I added. That last Infected – I really could've done without it. Not exactly a welcome encounter, that for sure, and that I had already been tired and ready to de-digivolve at any time hadn't helped either.

But, at that moment, as I finally sat on that armchair, I really couldn't help it anymore. My eyes closed without me really wanting to, but I let it happen anyways. Didn't care where I was, and how I'd wake up. I only wanted sleep. Only wanted the sweet relief hat it brought.

"That doesn't sound good. So he knows we're here, too, and he wants us gone." I heard Matt muse, though it already started to sound faint, far away, "We need to prepare then. I guess neither of us thought that he has already recovered that much, but if he has already recovered enough to command his army of black datachip Digimon and send them here, we may be in for quite the resistance."

"We should gather the others tomorrow and inform them. Might even have to change assignments and form bigger groups instead of letting them move out in pairs of two." added Tai, "Takato, you might as well retell what you went through today and... Takato?"

I didn't respond. Didn't want to, despite being still somewhat conscious. I was too tired to move or even say anything. Tai called my name again, but I didn't even care by then anymore. Just needed sleep. A lot of sleep.

"Let him be, Tai. I think he has the right idea, we should head to bed as well. I get the feeling that tomorrow will be a long day."

I snorted on the inside, mainly because I had the same idea. Tomorrow would be a long and eventful day, I knew it as well. Still, I was really thankful towards Matt for that, I only wanted to pass out now. And to be honest, I did, right there in that armchair.

I barely registered how Tai turned off the lights, and how Guilmon crept closer to the armchair I was in. My fingers brushed along the scales on his back, and I began to pet him a bit, though that slowed down as my consciousness slipped away.

A lot had happened that day. And little did I know that it was only the prelude to something much bigger, a game of lies, in which nothing was like it truly seemed.

But at least for that night, everything was at peace as I finally passed out and fell into a sleep without any dream.

I guess I had just been too tired to even dream.

And there we go, I finally finished the chapter I've been working on for way longer than I had first expected to! God, when did this become so long? I mean, I don't know how many of you noticed it because you checked my profile, but I spent the larger part of the last two days, including nearly the entire nights in two attempted all-nighters, on this chapter. I ate while writing this, I watched videos and television while writing this, and listened to music while writing this.

Does this sound like I was obsessed?

Anyways, moving on to some stuff I actually want to mention at this point...

It has been mentioned in a review by , and I'd like to confirm that I am well aware of the existence of ChaosGallantmon Chaos Mode, and that since before I started to plan this story. What that means? Well, I was aware of him while I planned the events for the separate arcs of Hazard of Hatred. What I mean with that is for you to figure out~

No, there is (sadly) no plan for Arukenimon and Mummymon from Adventure 02 to appear in HoH, but I still wanted to pay them some kind of tribute, which is part of the reason I decided to have them in this chapter. What the other reason was? Well, that's another secret for you to eventually figure out as we continue on. I'll take my hat off to whoever finds out first by connecting the dots that will soon have gathered.

So now we have established our two storylines... Wait, what do you mean you don't see that? Heh. Well, of course we have Rika's and Reika's storyline, which involves the Tamers, and now we have Takato's and – le gasp – Ruki's storyline, which involves the DigiDestined. Yes, I'm aware that Ruki does seem a bit cliché, but, aside from the fact that I do love my one or other cliché, Ruki will not play out like you think she will.

Hopefully. Otherwise I lost my edge and made it really, really obvious.

But yeah, Takato has gained an additional partner from his quadrant in Ruki, which was kind of the main motivation that led me to create her in the first place. I wanted him to have a partner that was from the Southern Quadrant, but was neither involved with the Tamers or the DigiDestined, nor had his own Digimon. Since I also wanted that Rika's background from Runaway Locomon played an important role in HoH – it is based on that after all – the creation of Ruki was more or less unavoidable. Also, there's other reasons for her creation, but these will be explained later on, as they are involved with what her role will be.

But what does this mean for that little word in the summary, 'Rukato', which now could refer to "Ruki x Takato" as well? What about the Rika x Takato you have all been waiting for? Let me reassure you: It will come, but only with more build-up.

Flawless transition: Pairings has been part of this chapter a bit. After it had been mentioned that the Rika x Reika has been a little strong so far (blame me shipping Yuri-Pairings most of the time for that to seem a bit too strong...), I actually went ahead and changed one of the scenes I had planned for this chapter a bit to further go into that topic and explain it a bit, thus actually giving me a bit of a possibility for character development.

Though mentioned and heavily went into, Reika x Rika is not actually that much of a thing as it seems to be. Reika has feelings for Rika, as mentioned in this chapter, and Rika somewhat reciprocates them, but as also mentioned in this chapter, these feelings might as well be for Takato. Rika has problems understanding what she feels for whom of the two. Also, why and if Reika really feels what she claims to feel for Rika will play a rather large role soon.

What also will not be a thing will be Ruki x Takato, just to mention that before it comes up. What role Ruki will actually play will be explained in the next chapters, she's just been introduced after all. And no, Reika x Takato will also not be a thing. Though it would be fun, I mean, after all she is... Whoops, almost said too much!

Speaking about her, I'd like to go into two theories that you guys have mentioned about her. thor94had the theory that Reika might be the evil Gallantmon from Rika's dream, a biomerge of Reika, but the thing I want you guys to think about is – is that Gallantmon from that dream actually evil? A biomerge requires a human and a Digimon to become one being, but Reika is alone, so who is she biomerging with, and would she be the human or the Digimon part of that biomerge? Also, why should that be Reika in the first place, and not just Takato, who is the only one able to become Gallantmon?

The thing is, in that dream that Rika had, a lot of things are not like they seem to be at first glance, and that might be because it's limited to Rika's point of view, don't you think?

While not proved wrong by the story, I'd actually like to say a thing about XInsanityXGuiltechXShadowwindX's theory – while somehow really interesting, Reika is actually not the daughter of Takato and Rika. There will be no time traveling involved in this story. Reika shares a surprising amount of things with Takato and Rika, yes, but for other reasons.

But does she actually share them, or has she simply assimilated them and is merely copying them?

Well now that I gave you guys a few things to wonder about, I think this is a good point to end this chapter. Let's leave it at this, and leave more things for the next chapter, which currently is planned for the middle of June.

But that does not mean that I don't like to hear theories from you guys! I'm actually all about theories, and I promise, I read every review that is made (Man, 210 already, that number really fills me with glee about all that support from you guys...)!

Uh, by the way, just because it has come up recently, though I do speak a bit of Spanish, I'm actually not fluid in it right now (will change next year, I'll be going to a foreign language school starting in September and have to learn Spanish and French), so, just if it's not too much of a bother, could you please review mainly in English or German right now? I can translate the one or other review in another language than these two, but I'm afraid that something might get lost in translation and that I cannot address it properly. If you want to review in Spanish or whatever else language nonetheless, feel free to. I enjoy every review, no matter what language, and I will find a way to understand it. Somehow.

With that being said, I think this has gone on for long enough. Hope you guys and gals enjoyed this chapter, and I see you in the next one!

This has been SorrowfulReincarnation and like the other times...

So long!