To my fans that I love dearly, thank you for reviewing. I know it was very harsh to not post the remainder of the chapter yesterday but what is done is done. Thank you to Tails-Coyote-Carnivore, and jenruki fangirl (). May this satisfy you even though it was not posted until late tonight.

Ch. 20 - Short on Time
"Yamaki." The Hypnos leader pulled his nose out of his computer.

"What is it Riley?" He demanded.

"Sir, you need to see this."

Sighing quietly, Yamaki pushed himself out of his chair and followed his employee. Riley led him to another computer in the lab. "We have been keeping track of the children based on what is scanned through their D-arc.

"I thought I ordered you to leave the tracker alone?"

"You did sir, and your order was followed but the tracker just picked something up, from Rika's D-arc…Sir you better see it."

"The trackers work in the Digital World?"

"Not until a moment ago when we received our first contact.."

"Stop stalling Riley. What did you find?"

She pulled up a window on the computer. "But, but that's impossible…" Yamaki stuttered.

Riley nodded sincerely. "Amazing. How could it transmit a physical object?"

"Yamaki! This is not a question of how it was transmitted. We were just faxed blood. The children are dying over there! What are we going to do?"

"Nothing." Riley stared at him in shock and disbelief. "There is nothing we can do, except contact their parents and come up with some reason as to why the Nonaka's no longer have a daughter."

Renamon felt Rika stir slightly and glanced down. A small trail of blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. "Rika…" The girl didn't respond but her hand fumbled with something.

Rika pushed a card between two fingers, and slipped it through her D-arc. "Digi-modify …health activate."

(Not a real card but it is now; because they always would pull out random modify cards that would help them in the TV show.)

Renamon instantly felt a weight being lifted off her shoulders. "Digi-modify…energy activate." Rika finished as the reverse Diamond Storm attack plunged into her partner.

Renamon swayed dangerously but she refused to fall. Henry dragging Terriermon ran over to them. Gently he slipped Rika out of Renamon's paws.

"I am sorry." Henry whispered into her ear.

"Why?" She asked quietly.

"I ran away from a fight and left you to get hurt…"

"That's a stupid excuse." She interrupted. "You have not thing to be sorry for."

"Actually I do. I didn't install the port."

Rika kept her face emotionless and tried very hard no to say anyting.

"Fanglongmon said the port wouldn't work in the canyon." Henry continued desperately trying to get a reaction from her.

"So how are we supposed to stop the D-reaper then?"

"I, I don't know."

"There is nothing you can do." The blue demon said advancing toward them. "You destroyed my clone but that means nothing."

"You talk big, but you have no punch." Rika said coldly.

Actually, you haven't seen anything close to resembling a punch yet. Something cold inside her rippled.

Juggernaut?

Don't be so surprised to hear from me. I am always with you. I always will be, even after you are dead.

Well since I don't plan on dying, anytime we will be stuck together for a very long time.

The J-reaper continued to advance it was now about ten feet away from them. "So how are you planning to wing it this time?" Henry asked, as he backed up a few feet.

"I thought planning was your idea?"

"Since when do you ever listen to me?" He replied.

"Good point."

"Terrier-tornado!" Terriermon leaped at the blue demon in a swirl of a green tornado.

(What a concept.)

The J-reaper sidestepped the attack. "Amateur." It muttered.

"We could be in trouble." Henry said quietly.

"Now what gave you that idea?"

"Just a lucky guess." Henry shrugged.

"May I suggest we stop fooling around." Renamon said her eyes on the J-reaper.

Rika nodded. "It's party time. Digi-modify…Hyper speed activate."

Renamon shot at the J-reaper.

But we can't attack it without harming ourselves.

"Why are you running?"

Oh God no, not again.

"That is the wrong direction to be running."

But if running in the opposite direction led me here, then that means I need to use the port here instead of there. Of course!

Henry pulled the black cylinder out of his vest pocket, and popped it open. "Come on. Come on."

"Yamaki. We ugh, have another problem." Riley said attentively.

The man felt ready to light his head on fire with his metal lighter. "What is it Riley?" He asked in a strained voice.

"It appears we miscalculated with the coordinates of the port. In order to activate it, the children would need to plant it inside the D-reaper's core."

"…These kids our smart. They figure lots of things out on their own. I don't believe there is any reason to worry."

"You don't honestly believe that sir, do you."

"No not really."

"Good because in order to plant the port in the core of the D-reaper, one of them would have to sacrifice their D-arc."

"What? That was never part of the original plan."

"It's the only way to fully activate the device."

"None of them would freely give up their partnership. But this is a dire situation…" Yamaki started to walk away deep in thought.

"I hope this turns out well." Riley muttered to herself. "For everyone's sake."

Henry looked at the hole in the center of the port. "It's just large enough for a D-arc to sit in." He muttered. "But, if I put it in, I might not ever get it back."

Henry glanced up at Rika, Terriermon and Renamon in battle with the J-reaper. "War is about sacrifices, but I don't know if giving up any one of them is a sacrifice I am willing to make. There must be another way. If I could somehow manipulate a D-arc..."

"Uh, Henry, you do know we are fighting for our lives right here?" Rika said coming up next to him.

"I just thought the port could still work." He replied shaking his head." But I guess I was wrong."

"That's not true. It looks functional. Besides it's never been used."

"Yea, but in order to work it the port needs an energy source."

"Yea, and that source is our D-arcs. Yamaki told us."

"Yes, but we might not get them back."

Rika shrugged. "There's no way of knowing until we try it."

Henry looked at her questioningly. She's willing to sacrifice her D-arc to stop the D-reaper? "Are, are you sure."

Rika looked him square in the eye and nodded. "I am sure."

ok so that was a marginally better ending, to the chapter.Ch. 21 will be up around next wed. Thanks again to those who R&R and have a happy thanksgiving.