Chapter Twenty-Five

"Chase them down!", yelled the Ninjamon captain.

"Let them go, we must tend to the wounded", IceLeomon said from the back. All the lower Ninjamon stopped in their tracks and followed the Ultimate-level's suggestion and the captain grunted in annoyance.

Angemon had stepped over beside me, and I became fully aware of how tall he had become. I knew I was not very tall myself, but because of that I was more or less aware of how tall others usually were by comparison. Standing before me, Angemon could have easily been two meters tall, yet he had a very calming aura.

"How did you- I mean…you digivolved!", I said

"Yes, when I saw you in peril I was determined to save you, and in doing so I was granted the power to evolve to Angemon", he said in his sonorous voice.

"You seem so different though, I mean, before you were just little Patamon, and now…"

"Digimon that evolve always seem more mature, but I'm not sure why", Paul said as he approached us.

Angemon did not speak, but instead I saw the data stream envelop him once again, and I knew Patamon would appear from the shining orb. When he came forward he was sporting the wide smile I had grown accustomed to in the short time we had been together. He flew over and landed smoothly on my shoulder; all previous "mature" behavior disappeared.

Leomon had also shifted back into his old, warmer form, and was speaking to the Ninjamon off to the side. There were two wounded from the battle, but both stood as tall as they could when speaking to their lion commander. Paul soon walked in from behind Leomon and joined the discussion, while I conversed with Patamon.

"Digivolving feels funny", he started casually.

"Oh really? How does it feel?

"Its like you are being squished and pulled around…like a pie!"

"You know what a pie is?"

"Yeah! I saw one back at the base…it smelled real nice"

"Maybe we can have one when we get back"

Deciding that they had taken too long in their conversation, I walked over with Patamon flying to my right. It seemed that as soon as I arrived the conversation was over and Paul was quickly motioning us back to the hideout's entrance. This time Paul had retrieved his digivice in anticipation, which made both Patamon and I laugh. "I think he really likes opening the doors", Patamon had whispered. Just before the dirt replaced itself on top of the stairs, I noticed the sun was setting. Had we really been in Yggdrasil's lair for so long? Exhaustion began to set in as I realized it had at least been two days since I had last slept.

"You look tired", Paul said as we walked down.

"Yeah, we haven't had much rest since getting here"

"Well we got the perfect solution for that. A good meal and warm beds is what you need"

Paul dismissed the digimon, except for Leomon and Patamon, and walked with us to the living quarters. They were conveniently located near the mess hall, but even the smell of freshly 'loaded' food was not enough to keep us away from the warm beds we awaited in the living quarters.

"You guys go on to rest then, Leomon and I will definitely have something to chow first"

Once we got to the door, which was marked in the same language as the rest of the consoles, Paul and Leomon bid us goodnight and walked over to the mess hall.

"Aren't they tired?", Patamon asked

"I guess they slept last night buddy, but not us"

Weakly I pushed open the door to find a hallway packed with plain twin-sized beds on either side. Most of these were already occupied by sleeping digimon; signs of beds being the property of certain individuals had marked others. One of the beds had been marked with the Ninjamon's captain. The only reason I was able to tell is because he had included a drawing on his own sign. We found an empty bed near the end of the hallway and I dragged us to it as fast as I could.

Without bothering to remove the covers from their tucked position, I crashed down on the right side of the bed, leaving a space for Patamon, who gladly accepted it with what I thought was a purring noise.

"Goodnight Charlie", he said softly

"Goodnight, Patamon", I answered automatically.

With that we fell asleep and it only took minutes for us to completely doze off.

Digimon that evolve gain access to previous born knowledge collected form their previous existence. While usually they do not directly have access to their past memories, the knowledge is normally passed in the form of instinct. Some believe that reborn Royal Knights, Demon Lords, Olympus XII, and other major digimon are exceptions to the rule; these scholars think that they regain all memories once they regain the Mega level.