Y/N: It's Urazamayking turn, yet again, and we're starting in on the third segment of the story. Things are really going to start happening around here. :)

U/N: Sorry… dunno what I think about this, but I set it up for chapter 32 which is where Sora and Jou are back in action :P I hope you like it though… review!

Title: Digimon Adventure 03

By: Urazamayking

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.

Part 3: Crest Digimon
Chapter 28: A purely faithful form of help…

Jou:

Sora and I didn't talk very much as we walked. We mostly just listened to Gomamon and Biyomon argue a bunch about who gets to do most of the fighting. I didn't mind their arguing as much as I usually would have because it made me feel less awkward about having nothing to say… I often felt like I had nothing to say, but would try anyway and just end up saying something stupid like how I'm supposedly allergic to everything that moves and breathes… and everything that remains stationary too. But Sora looked like she couldn't even hear the two of them arguing at all, like she was lost in some very interesting thought that mattered to her more than the fate of our very own existence. Of course the female mind was a strange concept and I wasn't about to go digging to try and help when I clearly wanted nothing more than to just let her think it over in her own mind… which is what I did for as much as I could manage… which was a good solid half hour until Sora said something, causing me to jump, having zoned out of the digimon's argument by then.

"Hey Jou…" Sora said slowly, "What do you think about Taichi?"

I stared at her for a moment as we walked, but she didn't look back. She stayed facing forward. I noticed that Gomamon and Biyomon stopped arguing and began listening. "That depends…" I told her, "Lately he's been… sort of a baby. An oversized grumpy baby who can't handle not being loved. But otherwise I think he's a great guy!" I realized that what I said wasn't in any way nice… but it was the truth and I wasn't known as someone who would lie—well maybe occasionally…

"And what about Yamato?" Sora asked very slowly.

"I think he's… well he's nice… and…" I lost track of where I was going. I didn't know how to answer that one, "He's always helping people and being as nice as he can… but sometimes he acts way too… shallow and by himself. That's annoying…"

"It is isn't it…?" She asked. And then she said nothing more for quite a while as we walked through the trees.

I wasn't a hundred percent positive why she wanted to know what I thought about the two boys, but everyone knew both of them liked her… and although she was dating Taichi, she had just spent a lot of time with Yamato, so it's very possible that she could have feelings for both—so I really did have a pretty good idea of why she was wondering…

"Sora?" I asked her after a while of silence. She didn't respond. "Sora?" Still no answer.

"SORA!" Biyomon growled flying forward, "Your friend is trying to speak to you!"

Sora looked slowly up to Biyomon and then turned to me, "I'm sorry…" She said monotonously.

"Sora…?" I asked, "Are you alright?"

She stared at me for a moment and then shook her head very slowly. She then turned and continued walking.

"Jou—you should do something." Gomamon pointed out running up to me.

"I'll try!" Biyomon said, "She's my digidestined." Before either of us could say anything Biyomon was flying ahead, chasing Sora.

Gomamon and I stayed back a little but continued to walk. Neither of us could hear what the two of them were talking about, but Biyomon floated around Sora's head, changing side every now and then as Sora continued to walk at a fast pace through the trees.

"Do you think it's working?" Gomamon asked, looking up at me.

"No…" I said slowly. "I don't."

"Me neither." Gomamon said flatly, then with more emotion he said, "Why not?"

"Because if it was working Sora would have perked up by now." I said, "She would have smiled, slowed down, or even showed some emotion."

"Yeah…" Gomamon sighed, "You're probably right. What do you think is wrong with her?"

"I think it's just a girl thing…" I said.

"You sure?" Gomamon asked, "Hikari, Mimi and Miyako never did anything like this—and until now I've never seen Sora so upset!"

"Well the other girls haven't been so torn with love before." I replied flatly.

"I see what you did there…"

"What?"

"Her crest of love was torn away from her." Gomamon laughed.

"That wasn't funny—or intentional." I said flatly.

"Aww c'mon!" Gomamon whined, "lighten up!"

I smirked for a brief moment. Suddenly Biyomon flew back to us. "She won't even smile! I've tried all the jokes I can think of! Oh—and she won't tell me what's wrong."

I sighed, "Well… she will when she's ready then." I said slowly.

"But I just don't see why—" Biyomon started, but I cut her off.

"Who is that…?" I asked slowly, pointing in the distance ahead of us where someone was running across our path and continuing into the trees. "Stay with Sora!" I demanded of Gomamon as I began to run. I was running as fast as I could toward the person, realizing quickly that it was stupid to run away from a possible threat that wasn't harming us, but I wanted to know who it was. The person was wearing a long black cloak with a long pointed hood pulled low over his face.

"Jou!" Biyomon panted as she caught up to me in flight. "Who is it?"

"I don't know…" I panted loudly, I suddenly remembered why I hated running. The person we were chasing was fast and I was really not.

"I'll stall him!" Biyomon cried out as she sped ahead of me toward the fleeing figure.

I smiled suddenly at the thought of Biyomon's speed. I remembered when she was first introduced to Sora and when she first digivolved how she could walk at twice the speed she could fly at, and now she was zooming through the skies. It was interesting to note how much our digimon had matured alongside us… it was something I didn't usually think about… but it made me glad to know that maybe Gomamon would soon grow out of his stubborn phase.

I panted heavily as I felt a sharp pain in my side, but I pushed through it and kept running. I saw Biyomon's feet holding tightly to the figure's arm as he swatted quickly and angrily at Biyomon. But she was successfully doing what she had planned—the figure was stalled, and not moving anywhere.

It took me another thirty seconds to reach them but as I did the person turned their head toward me and I noticed that dark hair hung down over the person's face, and when he turned back to Biyomon he punched her hard in the stomach and she fell to the ground.

"Biyomon!" I cried out, running toward her and helping her off the ground. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine Jou!" Biyomon cried out, "She's leaving!"

"She?" I asked.

"The girl!" Biyomon snapped.

I turned around sharply and noticed that she was right, the figure had disappeared.

"Are you sure it was a girl?" I asked. Biyomon nodded.

"I heard her speak. It's a girl alright."

I nodded and checked nervously over my shoulders quickly and then turned back to Biyomon who looked rather hurt in her stomach. "I can help—" I remembered that I had lost my bag in the rockslide where we had found Takeru and Daisuke, "Or I could have helped anyway…"

"It's ok Jou… I want to follow that girl." Biyomon said flatly, "Come on, let's go!"

"Ok, if you say so…" I said as I jumped to my feet, we looked around for a moment and then I turned to her, "do you know where—oh!" I stopped mid sentence because my digivice had begun vibrating. I pulled it out quickly and stared at it for a few seconds before saying, "Gomamon is digivolving…"

"What?" Biyomon asked, "Why? Do you think they're in danger?"

"Either that or Sora became really lazy all of a sudden." I sighed. "We'd better hurry back."

"Right!"

And so we did. We ran back where we had come, weaving in and out of the trees. Suddenly the pain in my side was no longer there, and the pure fear that something could have happened to Sora and Gomamon sent so much adrenaline into my body that I just had to push through the pain and exhaustion to get back to them.

Soon I could see Ikkakumon through some of the trees. I heard loud noises and yelling, but other than the big white walrus, I coulnd't make anything else out.

"Oh!" Biyomon shouted suddenly as she began to glow.

Biyomon digivolve to… Birdramon!

As she finished digivolving I jumped onto her foot and she soared straight upward to avoid the trees and then swooped down quickly, diving to where she saw Ikkakumon.

I closed my eyes and jumped as we soared overtop of Ikkakumon and landed softly on his back. I noticed Sora on the ground, her hands holding her knees together and her face buried in her legs like I had once seen her when she had been trapped in the cave with the darkness. Now was not a good time…

I turned to face the scene in front of me. A mermaid was lying down in the air facing me, her tail was silver and her hair was long, wavy and golden. She suddenly sat in an invisible chair and I noticed the symbol of faith encrusted in the center of her silver seashell bra.

"Faith…" I said slowly and I smirked. "You're mine…"

"Literally!" Ikkakumon confirmed.

I laughed and prepared for battle, but then I noticed that the fairy in green was riding a horse into the air toward Birdramon. The fairy of Purity that Mimi had described…

"Birdramon! Don't show mercy!" Ikkakumon said. It was then that I noticed that he was already beaten a little before Birdramon and I had arrived.

"Get her…" I said loudly and drawn out as Ikkakumon shouted loudly and fired missile after missile toward the mermaid until a great cloud of smoke cleared the small clearing of trees that Ikkakumon had made due to his fire power. I looked quickly to Sora to be sure she was alright, and it seemed like she was still doing fine so I turned back to watch as the smoke cleared.

Somehow I had a feeling that it wouldn't work—it never seemed to when there was dramatic smoke.

But then, when the smoke cleared the mermaid was gone.

"What happened?" I asked quickly.

"Where'd she go?" Ikkakumon asked at the same time.

I sighed, clearly neither of us were aware of what happened. Suddenly though Ikkakumon shouted loudly "UP THERE!"

I looked up in time to see both the mermaid and the fairy riding her horse, attack Birdramon and a loud explosion to occur. I threw my hands over my ears and ducked into Ikkakumon's fur as the explosion faded.

I looked up and saw Birdramon falling from the sky.

She landed with a loud crash, and she cried out in pain. I winced at the thought of falling from such a great height.

I felt so bad… I knew we shouldn't have split up!

I watched helplessly as the two female type digimon soared downward toward Ikkakumon and myself. As the horse's hooves touched the ground Ikkakumon backed up a little, hiding Sora from their view, whether that was his plan or not I didn't know.

"What a pity…" The mermaid smiled. "Your friend has proven to be no aide to you Ikkakumon dearie."

"Shut up Shinkoumon…" Ikkakumon said. He must have spoken with them before when Biyomon and I were gone. "You and Jundomon may leave now. You can stop causing such pain to the digital world!"

"We haven't caused any pain." The fairy, who must have been Jundomon said. "Not to the digiworld in any case…" She smirked, "it's a world… it can't feel pain. The digimon inhabitants however…"

"Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon shouted in rage. A torpedo shot toward Shinkoumon who reached out and grabbed the missile and wound up to throw it back.

"Move!" I cried out before she threw it giving Ikkakumon enough time to move—but he did not move a muscle and just let the missile hit him. He roared in pain as I hid from the explosion behind his head. I realized then that he was still protecting Sora as much as he could.

I poked my head up and looked around his horn as he groaned in pain from his own attack. "What are you two doing here?"

"We are awakening the Sovereign oh wise digidestined." Jundomon laughed.

"You mean they are… asleep?" I asked.

"Of course not!" Shinkoumon snapped, "How dare you suggest such a thing! They are resting to regain their energy!"

"So…" I said slowly, "Sleeping?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Jundomon smiled.

Shinkoumon elbowed her. "But not anymore!" she bellowed, "Awaken Lord Azulongmon!"

There was a loud, echoing roar as a flash of white and blue appeared from a crater in the ground behind Birdramon and a head erupted from the depths and darkness. It soared into the air, dragging behind its long billowing, misty body entangled with chains and clouds.

Slowly the sky filled with the creature. I knew all too well who that was.

I couldn't speak, I was so scared for my life just staring at the Sovereign… I had heard stories about the greatness of Azulongmon… but apparently the possession of the crests had corrupted them… so what did that mean for us?

"Greetings ladies…" The snake in the sky said in his low voice. "I appreciate your efforts. You may take your leave now."

"We were sent to get you." Jundomon said, looking to the sky.

"I'm aware." Azulongmon replied darkly.

"And you're to go to the mountain." Shinkoumon said.

"I will finish these digidestined off first." Azulongmon said.

"Awww…." Jundomon sighed, "Let me do it!"

"No." Azulongmon said simply.

"We can do it fine!" Shinkoumon argued, "We're strong enough individually. I'm sure we can do it as one!"

"Very well…" Azulongmon replied. "I will remain stationary as you complete your mission."

"You'd better hurry back to the mountain actually." Jundomon said, snappily, "You'll be late."

Azulongmon groaned loudly, like a pouting child and then said, "be that as it may, I still think—"

"Just leave you oversized bag of snot!" Jundomon snapped rudely, "begone!"

"You will not speak to me in that tone—"

"I'll speak to you however I want to." Jundomon smirked, "I woke you up, what're you going to do about it? Yeah! That's what I thought you big OAF!"

I stared in shock at how much confidence the fairy had to speak in such a way to her creator.

I noticed some movement in the distance as Birdramon got to her feet and stretched her wings.

"I shall take my leave before your stupidity rubs off on me." Azulongmon said before striking lightning down right onto the fairy and her horse and flying off, taking forever due to his long body.

The fairy screamed in pain and then roared in anger, "You stupid overgrown—"

"Meteor wing!" Birdramon yelled.

"dragon who thinks—" She continued.

"Jundomon! MOVE!" Shinkoumon snapped, swimming through the air, and away from the line of fire.

"Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon bellowed.

"And let me tell you—!" Jundomon continued, "I HATE YOU!"

Just as the two attacks came together and hit the fairy another bolt of blue lighting fell from the sky from the angry Sovereign. And in a scream of agony and pain the fairy exploded into a green orb of light that remained airborne for a moment before shooting off into the distance.

I was shocked. I wasn't sure what had just happened… but we won… or at least part of the battle—but it seemed almost too easy—and would Azulongmon return knowing that Jundomon was now dead?

I didn't have much time to think about that as Shinkoumon screamed in fury and rounded on Ikkakumon and I.

"You terrible awful b—"

Next time on Digimon Adventure 03: Mimi and Tai are headed into battle, and things are about to happen leading towards a climactic series of battles!