Hi! I know, it's been a little while, but hopefully this chapter'll make it up.

Thanks for all the reviews! They've really been an encouragement in getting this chapter done.

Black Evolution

TK sat quietly beside his partner, absentmindedly rubbing the digimon's back as they recovered. He knew the truth, no matter what Daemon said. His friend would not leave him. Fighting together, not to mention battles where the world was at stake, built a special kind of relationship that one cannot just walk out on. It would take a lot to separate them. After all, the rookie did somehow cross dimensions to be with TK, didn't he?

"Come on buddy," the digimon said as soon as he opened his eyes. "We should get going."

"Where, Patamon?" TK didn't know where they could go, especially when he noticed the creatures, or Shades as Daemon called them, gathering on the outskirts of the village.

"Up the cliff," was the reply, as the rookie flapped his wings and took to flight. TK examined the stone face. It was rough and jagged enough; maybe he could climb it. He walked up and down along the foot of the cliff, looking for the best spot to begin his ascent. Finding it promptly, he began the rock climbing, his companion hovering above him. He had only just suspended himself off of the ground when TK glanced over his shoulder at the town. Alarm and panic seized him as he saw his pursuers hastening towards the cliff face. What was it that Daemon had in mind with these creatures?

TK didn't care to find out, and hurriedly made his way upward. He could feel the blood pounding in his fingertips as his heart raced faster. His feet were uncertain and his legs shaky as he pushed higher. Again, in his mind's eye, he couldn't help but picture the Shades approaching the rocky cliff, climbing after him—

A freezing hand at his ankle proved his thoughts to be more real than he had hoped. The Shade didn't pull on his foot, though it restrained him from climbing any higher. He ventured a glance down to see the lone creature hanging from his leg, with the rest crowded on the ground, waiting for the two. TK didn't waste any time in voicing his situation. "Patamon!"

The rookie was some ways up ahead of him, and glanced almost indifferently down at TK's call. At the sight of the creature, however, the digimon sprung to action, hovering back as fast as possible. TK cried out again as he felt the Shade climb up behind him, and its cold arm came down across his neck. The creature put its full weight on the limb.

TK choked with the sudden force on his throat, and it was all he could do to keep his grip on the stone face. His wild imagination almost got ahead of him again, as he began picturing what would happen if he were to fall. He was thankful for the reassuring call of his companion, and for the shot of air that brushed past his head and smacked the Shade right in the face. The grip around his neck weakened until the Shade was only holding onto TK's shoulders. The boy's companion came by for another attack.

"Boom Bubble!"

It proved to be enough to knock the creature back to the ground, and TK took a breath of relief to calm himself and continue upward. His ascent was hasty, being that he wanted to put as much distance between him and the Shades. He soon came to an outcropping in the rock. Pulling himself onto the ledge, TK paused to catch his breath and relax for a moment. When he stood and turned around to look for a spot to continue climbing up from, a large open space greeted him. TK gasped, being that he expected a rock wall instead of a black cave in front of him.

The cave.

He stiffened as he recognized it from his nightmare. The cave was one of those signs that differentiated the dream from reality. When he had come to the Dark World before, TK recalled the hole in the cliff being layered with bricks, like a train tunnel. Yet in the nightmare, he remembered how the hole was simply a jagged, uninviting black cave. It was the cave that he had been dragged towards by the darkness. It was the cave looming before him now.

With shaky feet, TK turned to find his way around, but there was no outcropping to get him outside the cave. He had climbed right into its mouth. He went to the edge to look for a way back down. He could climb up from elsewhere on the ground, but it didn't help that a mass of Shades were gathered at the foot of the cliff, waiting, watching. He felt their gazes bear into him when he turned around to face the cave.

The darkness hadn't necessarily dragged him to the pitch-black tunnel, though it most definitely herded him there. He may have been running away from the creatures, but he was still running towards the thing he hated the most. Black darkness. The shadows in the cave almost seemed to be moving, and it unnerved him.

There was the flap of little wings behind him, followed by his companion's voice. "What're you gonna do?"

TK hung his head and murmured bleakly in reply. "There's nothing we can do. We can't get off the cliff, we can't climb around this cave, and I'm most definitely not going in there."

"Give up?"

"I just don't know, Patamon. The only thing we can do is digivolve," he said, turning back around to face his partner. "You have to digivolve."

"Hey!" The digimon snapped, flustered. "I can't! Okay?"

TK clenched his fists. "You need to! We're helpless without the extra firepower!"

He felt something like a cold wind brush past him, but he was too engrossed in lecturing his partner to notice.

"The others aren't coming, Patamon. They can't. There's no way to break in, and I can't find any other way out. We have to do it like last time. Digivolve! Now!"

The digimon frowned sharply at TK's angry words. The air had grown freezing between the two, and a cloud of darkness blew past TK from within the cave. At first he didn't notice the black mist, and then it swirled and converged on his partner. His eyes grew wide.

"What's going on?"

The cloud swelled in reply, and then came the rookie's voice. "You did it. I'm digivolving, Takeru."

TK frowned at the digimon calling him by name for the first time since they arrived at the Dark World. He pulled out his D3 and saw the screen fade into black. He blinked. Not blank like an inactive digivice. Not shining like a reacting one. Just...black. He shot a concerned look at the fog that his partner was surrounded by.

"What are you digivolving to? That's not Angemon," TK's voice grew shaky with foreboding.

The cloud grew in size once again, and dispersed to reveal the champion within. TK let out a dismayed cry and stepped back at the revelation. The black digimon spoke in a sinister tone.

"Yes...Devimon!"

TK didn't stop backing away, retreating further into the black of the cave. Devimon smiled wickedly and began to pursue, hovering gracefully after him. The boy finally turned-tail and sprinted headlong into the blackness, his mind taken by panic and despair. Through the blind running, he couldn't help but think about what Daemon had said. The mega's claim had been true. His friend wasn't the one doing the betraying; TK had betrayed his friend.

Until next time!

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