Hey all...so this chapter came out easier than I thought it would be...hope you enjoy.

Sand and Stone

Down the shore, a sound like horse's hoof beats filled the air as MetalGarurumon held up his sprint. There was something about the Dark World that made one want to keep silent, as neither of the three had spoken since the gallop had started. Each had his own personal qualms about their situations. Wormmon had to find Ken. MetalGarurumon had to protect his partner. Matt shouldn't have left TK.

The human of the group was staring off into the Dark Ocean, where their speed seemed to be making no difference to their location. No matter how fast MetalGarurumon ran, the ocean lay beside them, its stillness making it seem like a vast black mirror. Matt wondered if they would meet MarineDevimon before TK. He would prefer that. After all, mega always trumps ultimate. Except in the case of MagnaAngemon. It was a nice fact that an ultimate that powerful was on their side.

"Everything'll be okay, Matt," MetalGarurumon came to stay.

"I just can't wait for it to be over," the boy replied after a pause.

"It will end soon, don't worry. We can do this."

"I know."

"Then try to relax, you're choking me."

Matt looked down at his hands gripping his partner's metal collar. He managed to smile, knowing that his position couldn't possibly be all that uncomfortable for MetalGarurumon. The digimon could just sense it, and he wasn't far off. Matt's fingers were white. He loosened his grasp and patted a free hand on a non-metallic part of his partner's neck.

"We've got this."

"And it's time to prove it!" MetalGarurumon said, his voice raised as he slowed to a stop. Matt looked up to see what they had come to. He saw a line of cliffs in the distance jutting out into the ocean, and his heart raced with encouragement. The only catch was the new obstacle in front of them. It was another digimon. A mega.

Puppetmon.

Matt groaned, making sure he was loud enough for the mega to hear.

"You again?"

Puppetmon cocked his head and glared. "Yeah, it's me. What's wrong? You don't wanna play?"

Hoping to avoid a battle and get a move on to Kari, Matt played along. "Well, I can't right now. Got an errand to run."

"Awww," the mega slouched forward. "Just one game? I promise, if you win, we don't have to play ever again!"

Matt folded his arms and glared back at Puppetmon from where he sat atop MetalGarurumon. "Wasn't that the deal last time? And besides, what happens when you win?"

"It's a game of war! What do you expect?"

The human forced a chuckle. "Well then, if you insist, let me finish what I have to do here, and then we'll see about our war game."

"But the game's already started!" Puppetmon protested, revealing a black revolver and aiming it straight for Matt. The boy gasped in surprise as MetalGarurumon growled and crouched into a sitting position. Matt quickly recovered and narrowed his eyes.

"Fine, if you want to play like that…"

Unbeknownst to Matt, the mega had already begun to squeeze the trigger. All he knew was that something had grabbed him and was pulling him back. He flailed to keep his balance, and flinched violently when he heard the report of the gun. Whatever had tried to pull him off of MetalGarurumon had failed to do so, but he was now out of the bullet's direct path. Puppetmon had been aiming to kill, but his shot only tore through the upper edge of Matt's right shoulder. He reeled from the impact, falling the rest of the way off of MetalGarurumon with a loud groan. Wormmon landed on top of him.

In response to the gunfire, Matt's partner let out an enraged howl and roared out an attack. "GRACE CROSS FREEZER!"

The blast was amplified in fury, and went rumbling towards Puppetmon. The enemy mega leapt instantly out of the way, brandishing his hammer. He turned on MetalGarurumon, jumping forward angrily and raising the mallet above his head.

"Puppet Pumm…!"

The evil digimon had miscalculated his jump, seeing that MetalGarurumon was coming faster than he first thought. The mech wolf had clamped his powerful jaws down on the handle of the hammer, severing it in two with a single chomp. Puppetmon fell straight out of mid-jump and landed on his rear. MetalGarurumon loomed over him with a merciless glare.

Puppetmon whined, "Aw, you're no fun!"

With that he bolted to his feet and took off. Once again, MetalGarurumon didn't give chase. Injured boys were more important than pursuing Dark Masters. He trotted back to Matt, who was curled up on the sand in pain, his shoulder bleeding profusely. The two digimon inspected the injury as Matt rolled his short sleeve up. The bullet had grazed him, but the gash that lay open was still enough to keep Matt grunting and wincing for a while.

"How does it feel, Matt?" MetalGarurumon asked worriedly. Matt took a deep breath.

"Well, I haven't exactly been shot before. At least the bullet's not stuck in my shoulder. I should be okay for a while."

"For a while…" The mega echoed.

Matt turned to Wormmon. "Was that you who tried to get me out of the way?"

Ken's partner nodded modestly, causing the human to smile and gently rub Wormmon's head.

"I owe you."

The rookie smiled in the way only he can, "Ken may not be here, but I still know I can do something worthwhile."

"Let's get going," MetalGarurumon urged. "First TK and now you are injured, Matt. We should get the others and get out of here."

Matt rose to his feet with a nod and climbed clumsily aboard. The mega had to practically lie down so that the wounded boy could mount. They started off once more, this time going for a smooth ride rather than a speedy one. Those cliffs in the distance must have been the outer wall to the cove, telling the group that they were close.

After about ten minutes, when they had come face to face with the stone cliff, MetalGarurumon hesitated. Matt looked curiously at his digimon, trying to read his expression from where he sat. When he found he couldn't, he tried asking instead.

"What's wrong?"

MetalGarurumon's gaze had turned towards the waters on their left. "Waves," the mega responded thoughtfully. "I hear waves."

Matt glanced towards the ocean, eyes narrowing when he saw that the dark waters were still calm. He listened hard for the sound of water splashing on sand, but he couldn't discern anything. How could there be waves?

"Where're they coming from?" He asked his partner.

Another moment of listening and MetalGarurumon backed away from the stone face. "Beyond this cliff."

Matt looked up, estimating the height of the cliff. Only about thirty or forty feet. He was about to urge his digimon to fly them over, but he stopped himself with a sudden sense of foreboding. This had to be Dragomon's cove on the other side. He grew uneasy about what may be on the other side. Tsukaimon's description of Dragomon didn't paint a pretty picture. Matt opened his mouth to speak, but was again stopped, this time by sheer surprise.

A scream had filled the air.

Matt's mind sprang into action. "Hurry! Get us over there! That was Kari!"

MetalGarurumon leapt into the air, instantly flying his cargo over the cliff wall. Matt gaped at the scene, horrified. The cove was filled with living shadows, and where there wasn't a Shade, there was knee-deep water. Knee-deep, for the moment, that is. They had found the source of the splashing waves, as water was rushing through the little inlet and slowly flooding the cove. The massive body of Shades seemed to be split in a civil war, and Matt's gaze soon found the centre of the fighting. He gasped, and urged MetalGarurumon on.

Kari was close to the cliff wall, where the water wasn't so high. Even so, the rising ocean was the least of her concerns. Her movement was being restrained by the Shades. One of the tall figures was standing behind her, its lanky arm wrapped tight around her neck and the other hand clamped tight over her mouth. Apparently they didn't like her screaming. But the sight most confusing to Matt was how the Shades seemed to be fighting over her. A small group stood around her, while the rest of the mob swarmed angrily at bay. Several times the larger group would lunge forward, but were repelled by the renegades. Were they protecting her? Why? Matt racked his brain as MetalGarurumon waited for an opportunity to attack. He remembered the shadow creature in Myotismon's castle, talking about the Queen of Light, and having her help them rebel against their master. Was this what that Shade meant? Matt frowned. The Shades had no intention of letting the humans go free, and that was the bottom line, that was what they were fighting for. Freedom from the Dark World.

Leaning forward, he encouraged his digimon with quiet but firm words. "Get them. Give Kari some breathing room."

MetalGarurumon circled one more time before diving sharply, letting out a blast. "Grace Cross Freezer!"

The power of the attack sent the Shades into panicky disarray, except for those holding Kari captive. Before they could react however, MetalGarurumon was attacking again, slashing away at the creatures and freeing Kari. Matt vaulted off of his digimon, ignoring the twinge in his shoulder. Kari had lost her balance after being released, and was now scooting away from the whole scene, soon sitting with her back pressed against the smooth cliff wall. Telling by the look in her eyes, Matt could see that she hadn't fully grasped what had happened. She was terrified out of her mind. He ran over and knelt next to her, resting gentle hands on her shoulders.

"Kari?"

She turned her wide eyed gaze at him, trying with shaky limbs to drag herself away from the contact. Matt didn't pursue, but attempted a different approach to calm her. It was taking a while for her to come back to her senses.

"Hey, we're here. You're gonna be fine; we got your back."

It was a moment, but when it finally registered to Kari that she was at last in the presence of a friendly face, she leapt forward and wrapped her arms around Matt. The boy was taken aback by the sudden reception, but decided to return the embrace. He felt her clutching tightly at his shirt and knew it was only a matter of time before she realized the shoulder she was resting her head on was a bloody one. When she did, she jerked her head back with a gasp and an apologetic look.

"Was I hurting you? What happened?"

Matt shrugged it off, not wanting Kari to worry more. "Ran into an old 'friend.' It's not too bad, but I bet I'll have to get some stitches when we get back."

The mention of returning home was visibly comforting to Kari as she took a breath and looked off towards the battle. MetalGarurumon was successfully holding off the Shades while Wormmon stood in front of the two children as a last line of defence. It was apparent that they would be fighting for some time. Every time a gap was blasted in the Shade's ranks, it would be filled in by twice as many of the creatures. They seemed to be morphing out of the water itself. Matt recognized that fighting the Shades would only tire MetalGarurumon out. They had to escape the cove now that they had rescued Kari.

"MetalGarurumon!" Matt called, running toward his digimon with Kari beside him, his hand on her back to make sure she wasn't carried off when he wasn't looking. "Get us out of here!"

The mega stopped his manoeuvring long enough for the humans and Wormmon to mount. Matt sat behind Kari, and Wormmon hopped up onto the girl's lap. MetalGarurumon took off before the humans had a chance to completely secure themselves, jolting them from their positions. Matt grabbed Kari around the waist with one arm as she began sliding off of the mega's back, and grasped MetalGarurumon's collar with his free hand. Once he was sure Kari was safe in her spot, Matt grabbed MetalGarurumon with both hands as the mega increased his altitude to escape the cove. He wasn't fast enough. The Shades had formed into pseudo-digimon forms, and were now closing in from above, taking the appearances of Snimon. They approached with uncanny speed, and MetalGarurumon knew he needed to get his cargo out of harm's way.

"Jump off!" He said to those on his back. The mech followed up his words by rolling over in mid-air, exposing his stomach to the snimon as it cried out in a raspy voice.

"Twin Sickles!"

The three passengers on MetalGarurumon let themselves fall from their mount. They were at least twenty feet up when they began their decent. Matt was falling facing upward, and saw Kari and Wormmon just above him. His own partner was further overhead, taking the snimon's blow, since dodging it would only leave the children vulnerable. Not that it didn't hurt when Matt hit the ground. He winced hard, and then let out a sudden yelp as Kari landed on top of him. At least he had shielded her fall, but it didn't leave him feeling any better. He may have broken something, or he may have just been winded. Either way, he was unable to respond to Kari as she rolled off and checked on him.

"Matt? Can you talk? Please? What did I do? I'm sorry!"

She was certainly on edge. It must have been the Dark World getting to her. Matt was trying to gulp in lungful after lungful of air, but he couldn't seem to get enough oxygen. He was only able to choke out words to Kari between gasps.

"Wind...knocked...out... Not your...fault."

She relaxed somewhat with his response, but still looked on worriedly as Matt swallowed and resumed his panting. He finally brought himself to sit up, and his face fell at the sight in front of him. They were in the same stance as before, with Wormmon standing guard in front of him and Kari, and MetalGarurumon taking the burden of most of the fighting. They were hemmed in on all sides and even from above. Flying digimon forms were circling overhead, ready to pick the kids off should MetalGarurumon try and carry them out that way.

"What now?" Kari asked, keeping close to the older boy. Matt was definitely the opposite of Tai, but she didn't care right now. In this world, she would have even looked to Izzy as an older brother.

Matt sighed, and scanned the imposing cliffs. "We can only wait now and fight them off. TK will be here soon. He's got to be."

He still felt guilty about leaving TK, even though the boy had his incredibly powerful partner with him. After Matt had found his little brother's hat lying there abandoned on the sidewalk, he just couldn't get over worrying. He probably wouldn't until they were safe and out of the world of darkness. He just had to keep hope that TK would come through. He had to keep hope that they could hold off the Shades until then. All they had to do was hold on.

After all, it was the Child of Hope himself coming to help.

Well...after how today turned out, I wouldn't be surprised if the next chapter came out tomorrow.

See you next time! But review first!