Ah, finally, the next chapter! Yes, it's another short one...but I'm quite excited about the next few, so those will definitely come up sooner.

LadyDevimon

She was an old enemy of the Digidestined. Gatomon clearly remembered that day on Spiral Mountain, when LadyDevimon came out to attack them. It was a bitter battle, but with help, Angewomon came through the victor. Then there was the second encounter in Tokyo. The devil digimon was wreaking havoc and toying with the humans there. She had to be destroyed, and Silphymon was the one for the job. The picture of LadyDevimon charging, with red claws extended, was still vivid in Yolei's mind as she now stood between Sora and the oncoming ultimate.

"Okay, guys!" She called to the three digimon nearby. "Anytime you're ready!"

"Hawkmon digivolve to…Aquilamon!"

Luckily for the champion, the tunnel was quite large, and didn't hinder him as he charged LadyDevimon. Gatomon went after him, and Yolei understood the cat digimon's digivolving predicament. Finding Kari was first on their list. It was Biyomon sitting idly by that caught Yolei's attention.

"What are you doing? You've got to help them!" She urged. Biyomon gave her a sad look before turning to Sora, who was still surrounded by a dark fog. The younger girl knelt in front of her as the two champions battled LadyDevimon nearby. This had to stop. If it was the darkness that was keeping Biyomon from being able to digivolve, then getting Sora out of it was their top priority. But how do they do that? When Kari had come close to succumbing, Yolei just had to slap her out of it. She doubted Joe or even Matt did that with Sora.

A roaring voice called out behind them, "Grand Horn!"

Yolei turned just in time to see Aquilamon charge LadyDevimon, but the ultimate easily deflected his attack, sending him sprawling towards where Yolei and Sora were sitting. Yolei grabbed the older girl and dove out of the way. Aquilamon violently crashed into the wall, shaking the tunnel and throwing rocks about.

"Sora!" Biyomon's voice came over the noise. "Are you okay?"

Yolei checked herself and turned her attention to her friend. "Sora, we need Biyomon's help."

Aquilamon's crash had brought Sora back down to earth somewhat, but the atmosphere of doubt was still there. "Help with what? What can we do?"

"We have to fight!"

"But what about TK and the others?"

Yolei shook her head. She didn't have the patience for this. Grabbing Sora's shoulder, she pointed towards the battle that wasn't going in their favour. "We have to worry about them later. Right now we have to deal with this! Listen Sora, we may not know what to do, but we have to start somewhere, and we have to start now. And that means fighting LadyDevimon!"

Sora looked on towards the skirmish between the ultimate and her quickly tiring opponents. She saw the pain of the two champions. She heard their cries as LadyDevimon was taking the upper hand. Her heart slowly regained its old sense of compassion. She may not know what would happen to any of them down the road, but one thing was for sure. Those digimon needed her help, and she just might be able to provide it.

"Biyomon," Sora said, and then paused. It still seemed bleak. It still seemed hard to believe to her clouded mind. But Sora knew in her being that Yolei was right. They had to start somewhere. The fog began to loosen from around her. "Biyomon, help them."

The darkness lifted and the atmosphere slightly brightened as the bird digimon leapt forward eagerly. A burst of red light suddenly shone out in the room, engulfing the Bearer of Love and her digimon.

"Biyomon warp digivolve to…Garudamon!"

The tunnel, though large enough for Aquilamon, didn't give enough room for the newly arrived ultimate. Garudamon's shoulders pushed up on the roof of the cave. A great cracking noise filled the tunnel as the battle was paused. The ground began to tremble, and the sound of shattering rock filled the air soon after. But what caught Sora completely off guard was that the ground had fallen away beneath her. Garudamon had broken through the stone floor, not the roof.

She wasn't in free fall for long before her partner caught her and Gatomon. Aquilamon wasted no time either in lifting Yolei out of the air. The two bird digimon soared down through empty space for several seconds before landing on the ground. Despite being deep underground, there was still light sufficient enough to recognize shapes of allies. Not to mention those of enemies.

"Evil Wing!"

Garudamon turned to where their adversary's voice came from, and launched an attack in return. "Wing Blade!"

The two waves of energy met, colliding in a blast of red and violet that lit the room with an eerie glow. The humans' digimon paused until the flames had settled and LadyDevimon was spotted.

"Now!" Yolei cried. All three digimon pounced forward, ganging up on the enemy ultimate.

"Blast Rings!"

"Lightning Paw!"

LadyDevimon smiled wickedly, even though watching Garudamon poise to strike. "You may have gotten the upper hand here, but your ordeals are far from over. You won't be seeing your friends any time soon, that's for sure."

"Wing Blade!"

The three attacks hit their target dead on, and LadyDevimon dispersed in a cloud of dark, wispy fog. Yolei let out a cry of victory and thrust a fist up in the air. "So much for her!"

Sora smiled and cheered along with her friend. Then came a small moment of silence as the group took a simultaneous breath of relief. Sora eventually said, "Thanks for not giving up Yolei."

The younger girl paused, and then adjusted her glasses. "I probably would have given in too, but…I don't know. I just didn't want to see you like that, covered by the darkness."

"Speaking of darkness," Gatomon interjected. "Wasn't it strange the way LadyDevimon was destroyed? I mean, it didn't look like her data was deleted or anything. She just went up in smoke."

"It's probably just because we're in the Dark World," Sora replied, almost shrugging the digimon's observation off. She turned to Yolei. "Well, where do you think we should start?"

The younger girl stared deep into the dimly lit cave around them. They were in another tunnel, though a much larger one than what they had just fallen into. "I have no idea. I'm thinking we may just follow one of these tunnels and see where it leads."

"Okay," Sora replied with finality. "We might as well start somewhere, you know?"

Yolei gave a knowing smile as they started off, their still-digivolved digimon in tow.

I had always wondered why Sora's encounter with the darkness seemed so short and shallow in the anime. But now after writing here, I realized that it's actually kind of hard to write an angsty Sora and still keep in character...oh well. Hope you enjoyed!