Summary: The Demon Lords have received their 7th member-as an egg. They must now contend with raising him into the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Beezlemon... Canon-compliant AU, Impmon-origin prequel to season 3 Tamers. (With some elements from the Adventure seasons.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it.

Notes: Thanks again for all the comments, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter.

Ch. 13

When Impmon realized he was talking to himself out loud, the child felt thoroughly humiliated. Still, he refused to admit at all that he was feeling a little lonely. There was just really no one to talk to, or anyone who wanted to talk with him-he would only admit to feeling too paranoid to go look for someone who would. Hell, he was getting desperate enough to almost welcome Weregarurumon's company, even his taunting-still, Impmon was too busy striking and defending and getting beat up to hold much conversation.

One day, Impmon stumbled into a thick entanglement of bushes. Once he went inside, went a certain distance and down a certain depth as the ground sloped, he found the branches arched above making roofs, and he could walk beneath them easily, and all together it was like a tunnel of leaves, a fortress of foliage he could walk through. Some areas were a cool darkness, others had patches of light dotting through the leaves.

He paused, eyes wide, when he found an egg nestled within the bushes.

It was a pink pastel color with splotches of pale green spiraling around it, and Impmon crouched down, crawling carefully toward it. His little button nose sniffed at it, and with one red gloved finger he poked at it-he reared back when it twitched slightly, enough to fall on its side. The child digimon winced at that, eyes screwed shut, then one opening up slowly, wondering if he'd find it shattered with stuff spilling out-but the egg was fine and still again.

Impmon moved closer to it again.

"Should I pick you up and set you up straight again or what?" Impmon silently told himself that he had company this time, that the baby digimon inside the egg heard him, even if it didn't have a mouth to speak with yet.

Impmon glanced around the brush caves, then lay flat on his belly, head rested on his folded arms, a little more level with the egg.

"I don't see anyone who could be your procreators-I guess you're a normal digimon, huh?" Impmon scratched at the dirt, sorta filling up the silence from the egg. "Barb said I was an a-whatscallit…anna molly, an...anomaly, that's it, he said I was an anomaly. 'Cause I was created from half Lilith's data, and half Wizardmon's, and that's different from how most every other digimon is born. Like, everyone else is their own thing, y'know? I mean, no one else really has procreators-that's Lilith and Wizardmon for me-I mean, no one else is really a mix of two other Digimon's data, and, um-well, Barb kinda lost me there, he started talking about brains and stuff and how I have an 'independent mind' unlike DNA evolutions, and I'm still not sure what those are-like, he said they were hybrids like me, but they weren't like me, he said they were temporary and had two minds but I was permanent and with one mind and-"

The child digimon blew out a frustrated breath, and fixed the egg with a hard stare.

"Lucemon just said it meant I was a freak." Looking annoyed, Impmon continued, "But he said that wasn't a bad thing. Said freaks are unique and superior and 'one of a kind.'" On that last phrase, Impmon had done an air quote with his fingers as his eyes rolled. "Said it was something to be a freak even among the Demon Lords." Impmon then completely laid his head down and sighed.

"I only have one procreator now though. I mean, one that's alive, and that's Lilith. Wizardmon's dead, and maybe if he weren't, Lilith wouldn't have ditched me here, maybe he wouldn't have let her and she'd listen to him..."

There was a growl and the earth suddenly shook, and Impmon was instantly up, his eyes narrowed and a fire lit in his glove, though he had enough presence of mind to keep it away from all the surrounding flammable foliage. There was another voice, a pained hiss, and when the ground continued to tremble, Impmon finally noticed the egg shaking along and spinning around and looking really helpless and pitiful. The child digimon instantly let his flame die out and he rushed for the egg, holding it close to his chest like how Belph did when he was smaller and Lilith and all the other Lords were going crazy with those plant digimon.

With all the trembling continuing and intensifying, Impmon didn't really think much of the egg's shaking until he heard it crack.

Horrified, he looked down at it, instinctively thinking it was breaking. Lines were running jagged spider webs all around and pieces were bulging out, shifting...

Even the sound of a defeated, dying yowl outside couldn't distract Impmon from the realization that the egg was hatching, and he stared down at it, awed and thrilled, wondering if he had been like this when he was little and leaving his egg too...

Swiftly and carefully, Impmon set the hatching egg on the now still floor, and watched with numb shock as another leaf burst out of the shell.

"The hell?..."

Then the rest of the baby digimon popped out, making soft cooing sounds. The large leaf was like its tail, and its whole body was a matching light green. It had two little pointed ears, flat against its round body until they popped up. He was just as appendage-less as Impmon had been before. The baby had a large pale pink nose, and above it were two black button eyes, and below those were lightly flushed cheeks.

Impmon's mouth dropped as the baby digimon's wide eyes looked around, then it hopped forward, pushing his nose against his violet fur, sniffing at him.

"Hey, hey, watch it!" Impmon snapped, shooing the baby with his glove, but not hitting it. "Some personal space, bozo!"

The baby's leaf tail twitched as his eyes stared up at him, blinking. "But my name's Leafmon."

Impmon huffed. "Well, how was I supposed to know that? I'm not a mind reader, y'know..." The older child digimon grumbled incomprehensibly a little while longer (he was annoyed-he remembered Lilith saying that Wizardmon could read minds, wondering if Lilith hoped her hybrid had inherited that skill, and if she was disappointed he hadn't).

Finally, he said, "I'm Impmon."

Leafmon hopped up and down excitedly and all over him, though Impmon managed to stay upright as he rolled his eyes. "Nice to meet you Impmon!"

"Yeah yeah," he muttered, waving an airy hand around.

The baby's leaf tilted, and he asked, "How come Lilith left you here?" Impmon stilled and went completely silent, staring at Leafmon with wide eyes. The infant digimon didn't notice, instead continuing, "And where are we, anyway?"

Impmon shook himself. "We're on an island in the middle of damn nowhere." The older child looked away, rubbing the back of his neck, shifting over the knot of his scarf. "And I guess Lilith left me here 'cause she wanted to teach me an important lesson."

"Oh." Leafmon looked down to the ground for a minute, then back up. "Wanna play a game?"

"Huh?" Well, that was sudden. "Um, yeah, sure." Impmon hadn't played a game in a while, he'd been too busy trying to not get killed.

"Ok, let's go-" and Leafmon began to look for an exit out of the bushes, and when it found a promising gap, it started to hop toward it. Immediately Impmon grabbed the infant by the stem of his leaf tail, dragging him back.

"Let's just play inside for now."

"How come?"

"'Cause you're too little to go outside right now, and I know an awesome game we can play in here."

"Ooh, what is it, what is it?"

"It's called 'drawing,' and..."

Leafmon eventually tired out quickly, though he had drawn a promising portrait of Impmon in the dirt. When the infant monster curled into Impmon's body, the older child for once felt safe-he hadn't felt like that in a while. And when Leafmon snored real loudly, Impmon found it soothing. It was a harmless noise, from a friend, someone he had to care for-not some enemy lurking in the dark hungry for his data.

Impmon slept comfortably and peacefully for the first time on the island.