Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Digital Manifest

Keepers

Chapter: 28/ Dusk

Rapidmon flew towards the hole that had appeared in the sky while behind him Antylamon followed closely, bounding from rooftop to rooftop with an ease that an Olympic gymnast would have admired and been supremely jealous of.

"Anything Rapidmon?" Spoke up Henry's voice in Rapidmon's mind. Even though the boy wasn't there with him, they were still able to communicate via the link that they shared through the digivice, something that Suzie (much to Henry's astonishment) had picked up on during the D-Reaper invasion and had neglected to share with the rest of the team (her excuse had been that she thought that they had already known about it, being that they were the most experienced as Tamers). Surprises aside, it turned out to work very well to their advantage, though Henry wished that he was by Rapidmon's side to help him in this fight. It just didn't feel the same without being on the frontlines with his best friend and partner.

"Nothing out of the ordinary other then that the sky's been ripped open again. I tell ya Henry, between the digital world and Yamaki's Juggernaut, we're not exactly doing the Ozone Layer any favors here."

"Terriermon…we've kind of got something important going on here. Could you quit clowning around already? This is serious!"

"And Global Warming isn't? C'mon Henry! We live on an isla…WHOA!" Rapidmon suddenly drew up short as he noticed something going on with the portal. The dark clouds that had been rotating around it had suddenly increased their pace, and lightning began crackling at the edges of its event horizon.

"Rapidmon? What is it?" Asked Henry, starting to sound a bit agitated on his end of things, his limited perspective and reliance on Rapidmon to be his eyes and ears frustrating him. "What's going on?"

"Take a look yourself through the partner cam," quipped Rapidmon as electric lines surged around his eyes, feeding the incoming visual data that he was receiving into Henry's digivice for him to view. As they watched, a dark shadow of the deepest black began to descend into the streets of Shinjuku, pouring from the portal as though it were made of liquid before finally settling into a shape that brought to Henry and Rapidmon's minds memories of the cable D-Reaper that emerged from the digital world during the final battle with the out of control program. Its design was simple, with little features beyond a dark mass of ceaselessly flowing shadow, resembling in some ways a dark colored cloak. The form surged upwards, taking in its surroundings as its body began to radiate a dark cloud that sucked in and smothered all light around it, blanketing the area around it with an impenetrable darkness that continuously crept forward and shrouded everything that it touched.

As Henry watched, he felt a cold chill rake through his body, causing him to shudder slightly. Revulsion crept through him and Henry grabbed hold of his sister and held her to him protectively. He couldn't recall ever feeling like this except perhaps when he had confronted the D-Reaper and its agents. Every instinct that he had told him that there was no hope of reasoning with this entity. You either ran…or you fought.

"H-H-Henwy?" Said Suzie, her body shaking as she clung tightly to him and her voice tattering as she spoke. "I'm scawed…"

Me too Suzie, thought Henry, surprised at the honesty that his emotions held. Me too…


Leomon roared as he was once more pinned beneath the burning, white fox spirit that Kuzuhamon had summoned and set upon them, his sword was raised in one hand, clasped between the jaws of the fox as it towered over him, growling while his other hand grappled with the beast's neck. Leomon gritted in pain as the flames licked at his body, especially his hand but he fought against it. It hurt and his body screamed to let go of the beast, but with the alternative to pain literally staring at him in the face he held on for dear life as he struggled to throw the monster off of him. After all, his survival depended on his not letting go of the fox spirit.

"Corona Blaster!"

Leomon grunted as the fox spirit was forced off of him with a powerful blast courtesy of Beelzemon and his Death Slinger cannon. Taking advantage of his reprieve Leomon rolled to the side, trying to gain as much distance as he could so that he could recuperate from the fox's attack. The beast wasn't quite so willing to give him that break however, and despite the fact that it's side was still smoking from Beelzemon's blast, it was once more after him, slamming its claws down almost as rapidly as Leomon was getting away. Snarling, Leomon quickly changed tactics, reorienting his blade that was still gripped in his hand so that he could stab at the fox spirit as it came at him again, and follow it up with a…

"Fist of the Beast King!"

Before Leomon could so much as follow through with his plan of attack, a burning, lion shaped apparition slammed into the fox spirit, knocking it backwards at the precise moment that Leomon rolled forwards. Not in the least bit deterred by this, Leomon leapt back to his feet and charged forwards, slashing at the fox spirit with his sword, catching it off guard before pulling back his fist. Orange fire swam around it and with a burning ire in his azure eyes Leomon thrust it forward, and the face of a snarling lion, the twin of what had first impacted with the fox spirit, surged forward. The fox spirit roared with pain as the attack smashed into its body, pushing it backwards and dragging it through the ground, digging up a trench and kicking up clouds of dirt and debris into the air. Leomon's eyes narrowed as he tried to see through the dirt cloud, but so far the only thing that confirmed that the fiery fox spirit was still alive was a dull, white glow. Otherwise, no movement was made by the beast. Leomon gripped his sword tightly in his hand as he began to take a step forwards, and then a hand fell on his shoulder. Reacting instinctively, Leomon leapt forwards, twisting in midair as he slashed with his sword, his eyes widening as he realized too late whom it was who had snuck up on him.

Beelzemon looked impassively at Leomon as he deftly dodged the attack by simply craning his neck to the side.

"A little jumpy, aren't we?" The Demon Lord chided, though his expression belied his tone. Leomon frowned and returned his attention to the dust cloud in front of them. There still seemed to be no sign of their opponent beyond the glow illuminating the smoke.

"I wasn't aware that you were capable of using my attack," said Leomon, his voice a low growl. Beelzemon glowered as he got into a battle position next to the lion digimon.

"I absorbed your data back in da digital world, remember? Dat means I have access to your power," said Beelzemon, surprised by how calmly and easily he had said that. Briefly he wondered if it was because he suspected this Leomon of not being the same one that he had destroyed and absorbed so long ago, but as they were in the heat of battle with no confirmation that their opponent was out of commission he swiftly discarded the thought. Fight first, ask questions later. At least so far this Leomon had proven to be as staunch of an ally as the original had been. It was almost enough to make him believe that this being was the same Leomon he had killed.

Almost, of course, being the operative word used here.

"I even used it to help try to free Jeri from D-Reaper," continued Beelzemon. "Or did Jeri not tell you dat?"

"She told me that you helped," growled Leomon, unsure what to think of the Demon Lord using his attacks in conjunction with his own. "She didn't give me any details since she introduced me to you. As you can imagine, she has been occupied of late…"

Leomon was interrupted by a fearsome growling, and the cloud of dust and smoke was torn apart by the form of the fox spirit as it rushed towards them, leaping through the air. Growling in irritation, Beelzemon flapped his wings and pushed off the ground, while Leomon leapt backwards. This entity had so far proven to be far more resilient then they had expected, and had taken almost all of their attacks and still came at them. Because of this, the two digimon had been steadily retreating towards the area of Shinjuku Park where they would be able to conduct their battle with the fox far more easily then they would on the streets of Jeri's home, especially since the clamor of their battle was awakening just about everyone who lived nearby. Leaping skyward, Leomon once more dodged another attack from the fox spirit while Beelzemon laid in with a Double Impact attack, the bullets doing little to deter the growling ghost of the forest. As Leomon began to descend towards the earth again his eye twitched as he saw what looked like a growing, black shape off in the distance.

What was tha…?

No sooner then Leomon had begun to crane his head to get a better view did he give a shout of surprise as the fox spirit impacted with him once more, its flaming claws digging into his shoulders as its momentum brought him crashing down to the ground. Beelzemon flew in on his great, black wings, the claws on his hands gleaming as he dismissed Death Slinger and placed his Berenjena shotgun back in its holster, as the latter had proven to be useless and the former was too much power to risk firing with Leomon beneath the beast. As he drew close, the fox smacked him with its tail, the blow quite surprisingly having enough force to throw him towards the ground where he impacted into a parked car. Sirens blared to life as metal twisted and glass shattered to accommodate his speeding body as best as they could.

Dis really isn't going well…

Leomon roared as he struggled against the fox spirit, but its strength was proving to be far more then he could handle on his own. He could feel energy coursing through him as Jeri, who was presently monitoring his battle through her digivice, slashed cards in a desperate bid to aid him, but strain as much as he could, the beast refused to budge so much as an inch. It began to lower its face towards him, its maw opening, revealing fangs that burned and crackled with fiery life, promising swift death for him, and afterwards Beelzemon for their belief that they could actually defeat it and its mistress in battle. Memories from his last battle with Beelzemon in the digital world flashed through his mind as he recalled the last time that he had been in this position, his thoughts…

Perhaps…this is my destiny…

…And the horror-stricken expression on Jeri's face as she faded from his vision, and the world around him darkened, shattered by the girl's scream as he felt himself disappear entirely. Such pain and loss as none should ever experience…

"LEOMON!" Leomon started as he heard Jeri shouting his name. He could hear her thoughts, the panic in her voice, and the familiar sound of her feet pounding against the ground as she raced towards him…all in his mind! The monster's fangs were only inches from his face, and Jeri was running towards him! The first thing that she was going to see when she got there…! No…no! He could not…would not…allow that to come to pass! Not when he had just come back! Not when so much danger had arrived, threatening everything around him, and especially Jeri! Letting loose a great and mighty roar, Leomon's body burst with a blindingly white light and he felt his body begin to transform as he writhed upon the ground. The light intensified around his body as a torrent of power surged through his limbs and then exploded outwards as great wings tore their way out of his back, forcing the fox spirit off of him and dispersing its fiery body to the winds, snuffing out its flames with ease.

Still growling, Leomon got to his feet, only to stumble forwards to his knees as the relentless waves of power washed over his body. Digging into the ground beneath him and clenching his teeth, Leomon fought against the sudden and unexpected surge of power that was forcing its way up from the very depths of his body. He…he didn't know what it was, but at the same time he felt as though he should. This wasn't the force of digivolution though. He had experienced it before, and while he imagined that digivolving to Ultimate would feel as different as digivolving to Champion had been to his Rookie stage, this…wasn't it. It felt as though there was something else in him. Something that was striving to awaken within him…rise to the surface and swallow him whole.

The light that engulfed him began to grow even brighter…


Chris looked down at his digivice, eyes wide with shock as its function had transformed into a series of agitated clicks and beeps that only grew as the seconds ticked by. Something was going on, that much was certain, and whatever that something was it was interfering with the normal functions of the digivice. All detection functions, anayzer programs, and visuals that they normally had were instead replaced by one halo circle hovering above the screens of both Chris's and Ryan's digivices, with the words Manifestation Detected flashing relentlessly. No reason was given, nor was there any explanation made as to what this Manifestation was, even though the word had cropped up a couple times during their adventures in the digital world and again when Kuzuhamon appeared. It was just there, flashing in the halo circle as though it were some kind of warning and…

Chris frowned as he tried to mentally command the digivice to turn off the warning function. Things had just seemed to go down the deep end ever since they picked up on that breach between the worlds (once again, something that only their digivices, nicknamed the Mjolners by an invading Gargomon), and they had yet to even try and resolve that! No sooner then they had gotten ready to deal with whatever digimon was preparing to breach, things went wrong right away starting with Rika's attempt to biomerge with her partner. It had gone right one could say, in the academic sense at least. If one kept their definition of a biomerge down to its most basic core, then yes, Rika and Renamon had been successful in that regard (though the strange spark garnered from her digivice wasn't all too comforting), however once one expanded it to include certain forms that a Tamer and their digimon partner digivolved to (which was usually form specific, and based solely on the nature of the partners involved in the joining) then it could easily be said that yes, something had gone wrong, and this was given further evidence by the fact that Rika and Renamon…no, Kuzuhamon…had attacked the…

A light bulb suddenly seemed to click on in Chris's mind. Earlier, when he had been analyzing Kuzuhamon's stats he had noted some interesting information in her digital profile that mentioned that her name was derived from a mythological figure in Japanese culture by the name of Kuzunoha, a white furred, fox spirit; a kitsune to be more precise. And what was more…

When Rika had been shocked by my digivice, thought Chris as a sense of realization began to settle on him heavily, his eyes widening even further as he felt a jolt of electricity go off in his brain from synapses going off like bombs. It displayed something about Kuzunoha. And now…when Rika and Renamon merged…they became a digimon whose name is derived from that very entity!

…But…what does that have to do with this Manifestation business?

As if in response to his question, Chris's digivice ceased with its blaring warning and the halo circle receded, only to reappear a second later, only this time with the tracking program activated. Chris furrowed his brow as the halo circle showed him a map of the surrounding city, points of light appearing on it almost immediately. His mind quickly backtracking to his time in the digital world and his and Ryan's first arrival in Shinjuku Chris recognized the white points of light to be digivice signals while blue were digimon. There were other colors that he didn't recognize but could hazard a guess as to what they were, one of which being a lighter blue dot that he recognized to be Gallantmon (as the dot on the map was in the direction that Gallantmon was moving) while two others were of a strange, orange color, and one of them was flashing between the regular blue of the digimon signal and the unknown orange tone. Cocking an eyebrow, Chris silently wished that his digivice would be a bit more informative about the information that it was presenting to him (and that it came with an instruction manual), when suddenly a familiar feel of electricity crossed his palm and the dots began to display information and statistics on them…

"LEOMON!"

"GAH!" Startled by Jeri's sudden and unexpected cry, Chris fumbled with his grip on his digivice and dropped it, the halo circle winking out as it clattered on the ground.

"Jeri!" Exclaimed Kazu as he made a grab for the girl as she began to dash forwards, her movement so swift that all that Kazu managed to grab as Jeri picked up speed was nothing but air. "Get back! It's too dangerous out there! JERI!"

Jeri either didn't hear Kazu or she didn't care, and who could blame her? Kazu certainly couldn't, having been watching the same battle as she had through the girl's digivice and offering what tips he could on card selection, but the battle between Leomon and the fox apparition had quickly deteriorated beyond either of their abilities to cope and now Jeri was reacting with all the desperation that she had, hoping that by some miracle she could alter the battle the same way that Takato, Henry, Rika, and Ryo did by throwing themselves into the danger, sharing what their partners faced everyday…

I can understand that, thought Chris as he bent down and picked up his digivice, his body tensing to follow in pursuit, glancing up briefly to see how the battle of both his and Ryan's partners against Kuzuhamon was fairing, wincing when he saw MetalDracaramon get knocked out of the air and sent careening towards the ground, leaving MegaTerradramon alone to fight her until Gallantmon could join the party. Chris looked back to the retreating backs of Kazu and Kenta as they quickly gave chase to one Jeri Katou, who was presently doing the sort of sprints that gave Chris the impression that she could leave a jet airliner in the dust.

A growl of frustration from behind the blonde haired boy caught his attention, interrupting his coiled preparation to pursue the three Tamers.

"Come…ON!!!" Ryan shouted as he clutched his digivice fiercely in one hand, and balled his other into a fist as he glared at the one sided fight between his partner and Kuzuhamon. Ryan turned to his digivice and called up its halo screen, desperately trying to find some way to fight Kuzuhamon and actually make it work! "This is insane! Takato's not even there yet, Henry's probably going toe to toe with whatever it is that's arrived here and needing our help, and we're down here while our partners are getting clobbered! What's it take to get these things to do something other then just digivolve our digimon?! I can't even get out of this stupid, Manifestation-flashing-thing!"

Chris winced; knowing full well that Ryan's incoherency in describing the strange warning that had been flashing on their digivices almost non-stop was a result of his frustration at the helplessness of their situation. He had been pursuing that line of thought earlier himself before Jeri's cry had startled him. There were times that both he and Ryan resented the role that they had been consigned to, that is to say cheering from the sidelines while their partners effectively got the stuffing beat out of them in their attempts to protect them. Not exactly the nicest position to be in even if it was safer for them. The Tamers at least were capable of helping their partners on the battlefield, and were able to merge with them to bring out their maximum power, working together as a team. What did they have to help their partners?

That was just it. As far as they knew, there was nothing that they could do except give their digimon partners the means to digivolve and that was it. But then…

"Well…" began Chris slowly. "Centarumon said that we weren't using these things to their full potential…"

"As it had been noted Chris," huffed Ryan in a somewhat derisive tone, his frustration showing even more clearly then before. "But what is their full potential, exactly? Have we had any moment when we ever noticed anything where they did something more then just digivolve, scan, and give us our partner's eye view of a fight?"

Chris frowned.

"Well…now that I think about it, what about that time when we opened up the gateway in that temple that we used to get here? The door was closing on us when Nightmare Blitzmon interrupted us, and we managed to force it open again right before everything went downhill…and then there was the time when you merged with GrimTerradramon to turn him back to normal when that virus was corrupting him. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that that's something more then what we're normally accustomed to seeing from our digivices."

Ryan closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then upon reopening them fixated his gaze on Chris.

"Okay. Yeah, you're right about all that but…I don't even know how either of us pulled that stuff off. And as much as I hate to admit it, this is a bad time to start learning the abc's…"

"Actually I think that this is the perfect time to learn given that we have no other alternative. Come on…think. The Tamers at least have hinted to us from their stories and from the show that these things operate from our own will power. What's stopping us from using that?"

Ryan frowned.

"You have step-by-step directions on just how to do that?"

"Well, what were you thinking when Nightmare Blitzmon broke into the temple?"

Ryan closed his eyes once more as he thought back to that day from a week ago.


There was a powerful crash and stone began to tumble to the ground. The kids turned around in surprise, the light from their digivices winking out in a second. As the dust began to settle, Ryan caught a glimpse of orange on the ground and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was Richoemon that lay on the ground before them. And there was something standing over him. The dust cleared, revealing the smiling black and blue figure of Nightmare Blitzmon. The ultimate smiled with the knowledge of having cornered his prey and raised his arm. As if to add insult to injury he heard the sound of stone doors grinding shut, without the power of their digivices they had no reason to stay open anymore. NO! Ryan shouted in his mind as he saw Leomon and Caramon position themselves in front of Nightmare Blitzmon. NO! It can't end like this! Not when we're so close! IT CAN'T! Suddenly a light erupted from Ryan's digivice and cascaded over the room, and soon another, even brighter light joined it, obscuring Nightmare Blitzmon's look of stunned surprise. The last thing Ryan remembered before he blacked out was the sound of stone shattering.

"I remember being desperate," said Ryan finally. "It seemed so…unfair. We were so close to going home, and they just refused to leave us alone, refused to let us go and they never once gave us a reason as to why they were after us. I was angry…and when I saw our one chance at getting out of the digital world closing on us, it felt like something in me just…I don't know…reached out. It felt a lot like unlocking a door in a way, only…different. Like I had done it with my mind instead of with an actual key."

"So…what if all we have to do is just…um…unlock these things," Chris raised his digivice to eye level and shook it lightly in indication. "I mean, what else do we have to lose?"

Ryan rolled his eyes, and was about to argue that essentially that meant that they were back to square one, when it clicked with him. In the past, their digivices had always reacted whenever they needed something bad enough, be it their partners digivolving to protect them or opening up a gateway to the real world. The principle was the same really, but how was he supposed to access that?

Maybe I'm thinking about it too much, thought Ryan as he thought back to a book on Chinese Taoism that his father had once bought. He had flipped through it one day, looking for some light reading. The philosophy itself proved to be anything but, and it certainly was confusing to his prepubescent mind as much of it involved one form of contradiction or another, but ultimately its greatest voice was in its emphasis on non-voice. It worked away from the logical world of words and focused more on spirituality and emptying the mind through meditation in order to be at peace with the world. It had been very thought provoking, and he was considering actually taking it up to see where it would lead him.

However, being transported to the digital world pretty much put a halt to such thoughts and after that his main focus became one of survival.

But that was neither here nor there, although in some ways there were similarities. He needed something to help his friend, his partner. Richoemon had stood by him throughout the majority of his trip to the digital world, not counting the time when he and Chris landed in the middle of the desert but still. Richoemon had never once faltered. Ryan sometimes considered it an oddity that the digimon had followed him with such loyalty, acting as his conscience while at the same time being the lighter and more innocent side of the pair much in the way that Caramon tended to be more sarcastic and outgoing while Chris was sometimes withdrawn and hated being the center of attention. They balanced each other out and were there for each other when it counted. For Ryan, his relationship with Richoemon always felt a little bit one-sided, mainly from Richoemon's unquestioning loyalty and his constantly stepping up to the dangers that threatened Ryan himself.

It's high time that I stuck my neck out there for him more, thought Ryan, remembering that time in the digital world when his partner digivolved to GrimTerradramon and went out of control, and then later in the real world when he looked at GrimTerradramon in the eye before they merged together. I want to help him. I need to help him. I can't stand just sitting on the sidelines while he takes all the punches for me…

Around and around, Ryan's thoughts went, his eyes closing as he did so. He focused on his desire to help Richoemon; he thought about how he was in his battle right now. After a few minutes it almost felt as though he could visualize MegaTerradramon's injuries, his exhaustion, and his determination to not stop fighting until some way could be found to help Rika and Renamon.

While Ryan focused his thoughts on his partner, he didn't notice the increase in temperature coming from his digivice.


MegaTerradramon breathed heavily as he dodged another Obsidian Rain from Kuzuhamon, his wings straining as exhaustion played at their tendons. The battle was not going well, and the loss of MetalDracaramon from the battlefield only made things worse as now Kuzuhamon could put all of her focus on him. This was followed by the deadening realization that he just didn't have the power or experience that it took to put the Mega level Shaman down.

I hope that someone gets here soon to lend a hand, gasped MegaTerradramon mentally as he did a barrel roll in the air, narrowly getting missed by yet another, more focused stream of black, crystal shards from the dark shaman priestess. I really could use a breather here…

"Womb Realm Mandala!"

Aw nuts…

MegaTerradramon looked over his shoulder to see Kuzuhamon pull back her staff in a wide arc, preparing to slash it and send another relentless wave of energy at him that would encircle him, and crush him. Gritting his teeth, MegaTerradramon prepared himself for the pain that was sure to follow.

"Shield of the Just!"

With almost cat like reflexes, Kuzuhamon altered her plan of in response to the unexpected attack. Twisting in the air, Kuzuhamon slashed her silver staff and released her Womb Realm Mandala attack like a twin pair of blades towards a shining white knight as it soared through the air, its massive shield glowing from the intense energies that swam around upon its surface until in one mighty burst, those energies were unleashed in one, powerful beam of light. Both attacks from the shaman and the knight collided with tremendous force and set off a fierce and almost blinding explosion that caused all three combatants to pause, and assess each other once the smoke and fire had died down.

Gallantmon landed heavily on his feet atop of a nearby roof, his golden eyes turned upwards at Kuzuhamon as she floated down to him, the expression on her face one of such serene calmness that one would almost think that they didn't just attack each other and that she hadn't tried to kidnap him earlier.

"I didn't want this Dreamer," Kuzuhamon said, her voice soft, lacking in any of the intensity of earlier events. "I merely wanted to keep you safe."

In his data sphere Takato was flabbergasted.

"Wha…? Safe? You hurt my friends, try to kidnap me, and…" Takato clutched at the sides of his head in frustration before glowering at Kuzuhamon. "…I don't even know what happened to Rika and Renamon; if they're somehow being controlled or possessed or what…!"

"I am simply using their body to facilitate the completion of my mission until such a time that I am able to reconstitute a form for myself…"

"Either way, for someone who claims to want to keep me safe you sure have a strange way of showing it! Let them go…now!"

Kuzuhamon chuckled wryly.

"Or? After all, you can't harm me without harming those whose bodies I have taken for my own, and to harm them is to harm yourself. Especially since they're connected so closely to you…"

Takato shook his head.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I know for a fact that Rika and Renamon wouldn't stand for something like what you're doing!"

"I know that too Dreamer. What they sense, what they feel, what they remember…you are right in your assessment of your friends. But what about you? Could you bring yourself to harm them, even if it was for their own good? If it was the only way that you could free them? Well…perhaps you might, but let me tell you something. You don't have anything to fear from me. On the contrary, the entity that is here now, the being that awakened me and triggered my possession of your two friends upon their merging; he is what you should be afraid of. He has been on the trail of the two Keepers, Ryan and Chris, since they first arrived in the digital world, searching for them because of what they possess. But their powers aren't anywhere near what you have, Dreamer. For you are complete while they are fragments of their source. You have the power to shape the world around you, and if you are discovered, you will become a prime target for those forces that crave that capability…to order the world as they see fit! From what I know of you through your friend's memories, you are not the sort of person who would readily invite danger, nor do you wish it to involve those that you care about. Come with me…"

"NO!"

Within his data sphere, Takato narrowed his eyes. There was too much, far too much information for him to process. And there were other pressing issues that were already barking on his doorstep. The breach between the worlds, Ryan and Chris's problems, Leomon and Beelzemon's battle with Kuzuhamon's fox spirit, Rika and Renamon…he didn't know if what he had been told was true, or if he should even believe it at all. But he couldn't just leave everything, his friends, his family, to whatever was going on now based on something that some being told him. He didn't feel that this being had earned any reason for him and Guilmon to trust a single word that she said, not when her actions had so far proven otherwise.

Taking a deep breath, Takato took a moment to look within himself for the resolve that it was going to take to do what he had in mind. To battle Kuzuhamon essentially meant battling Rika and Renamon, and while he had told the others that he'd do battle with her, Kuzuhamon had made a good point about whether or not he would be able to fight her because of that. He had said that Rika and Renamon wouldn't stand for being controlled like this, especially in light of her experiences with such digimon like IceDevimon and Parasimon. Odds were, she would prefer that someone did take her down before she became a danger to her friends, and while Takato had some measure of confidence that she did believe that he wondered if he himself would be able to do something of that sort. Would he be able fight his friends?

Gallantmon raised his lance, his eyes flitting over Kuzuhamon's shoulder to see MegaTerradramon coming up behind her, his body glowing with a strange, orange aura around him. He had to make a decision, and fast! Because like it or not, this battle was about to resume.

"For Rika and Renamon's sake," intoned Gallantmon as he pointed his lance at Kuzuhamon. "I will fight you. And I will win!"

Oddly, Kuzuhamon's mouth transformed into a smirk that was powerfully reminiscent of Rika's.

"I didn't expect anything less," Kuzuhamon replied as she raised her staff.


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