28 ~Fighting back~

'Stop!' demanded Eiji just right at the time when Piedmon and Cyberdramon were no longer in the team's sight. 'Who are you guys and how do we know if we can trust you?'

The Sagittarimon to his right was the first to answer, saying. 'You don't talk to us like that!' but was soon stopped by Minervamon. The humanoid digimon walked away from her position of the leading role and stepped to Eiji's side.

'We don't have much time left.' She said; her tone desperate. 'Just come with us first, and I can tell you everything.' Seeing that the leader of the digi-destined, and the rest of the group, showed no sign of believing her, she added. 'To make things short, I have Sorcermon's words. Is that enough to make you believe me?'

That was, in fact, enough to shut the digi-destined up. The kids followed the group tight for the next few moments. It seemed like they walked for hours, or even half a day just to get to where the group led by Minervamon was intending to take them. The soon arrived there, where giant reddish brown walls stood, the walls didn't seem intact, with several scratches and bullet holes on them, but they did look solid enough. The giant walls were divided in different rectangular pieces, each linked together with some metal frames that were now covered in rust. Occasionally in between the walls stood a giant gear, for unknown purpose, at least to the digi-destined.

'How are we supposed to get through that?' uttered Amy. 'I don't see any doors.'

'Please step on there.' Instructed Minervamon, gesturing for the digi-destined to go to a specific area where thick black boundaries were drawn to form a perfect square near the wall. Without much choice, the destined went there. It was hardly large enough for all of them, but they did manage to get into the square without missing any members.

'I suggest you close your eyes.' Shouted Minervamon, who was now far away from the digi-destined.

Without much time to react, the entire scene in front of the destined changed in a split second. The rocky roads and the bushes were gone, replaced by hemispheric huts and numerous digimon that seemed to be labouring. The group of Sagittarimon was gone, as did Minervamon. The digi-destined turned their heads round frantically, finding an entirely different environment. To their right was an especially large structure that looked like a warehouse of some sort; digimon around them didn't seem to care if there were humans or some freak-looking digimon species. The only thing remained there were the walls –they seemed the same whatsoever, only now they were not surrounding something in front of the destined, they were surrounding the destined. It was only then did they realize that they were inside wherever the walls were protecting.

Seconds later Minervamon and her squad were there as well, appearing from nowhere.

'How'd you get here?' asked Takumi, more shocked than surprised.

'Through this.' Answered Minervamon, taking out a strange-looking, semicircular machine from somewhere near her. 'This is one of the remains left here. We call them Transports. They allow us to get to anywhere from anywhere as long as we have one on the other side. But as you can see, these machines tend to break down after used. The only one that ever remained intact is the one by the gate, where I asked you to step onto.'

'So, this is the Fortress?' mumbled Eiji.

'That's how we call it.' Petermon was the one to answer. 'Though I've never been inside before.'

'Then, can anyone tell us what's going on?' demanded MetalPhantomon.

'Fine, now that we're safe.' Replied Minervamon; her voice was soft, almost a complete opposite to her warlike outfit, and so was her gaze. 'We have digimon here working for the ones in the Temple, and that's how we got Sorcermon's message that you might be in danger.'

'I thought you all considered them as some crazy psychos.' Mumbled Amy, immediately hushed by Yuzuki.

'This is a place left behind by humans.' Minervamon continued to explain. 'And since we work with Sorcermon, most digimon here is not surprised to see you.'

'But how did you find us?' asked SaviorHuckmon.

'Sorcermon has more than you can think of.' Replied Minervamon. She then pointed at the back of the destined, where a double-layered house stood. 'That's an empty house. I believe you can use that.'

As told, the destined went to that building, all except Petermon. He was detained by Minervamon while the others headed into the house.

'Sorcermon said nothing about you.' Uttered Minervamon; her gaze sharpened, like how she was supposed to do with that giant sword in a battlefield.

'Surely your versatile friend told you about Hepia?' replied Petermon, receiving a nod from the female digimon as a confirmation. 'I from there.' He continued. His eyes filled with hatred, as if he could single-handedly outmatch the mega confronting him. 'That digimon –BurningGreymon –destroyed my homeland. I joined them so I can find him, and get my village the justice it deserved.'

'So, you want to get your village revenged?'

'More.' Replied Petermon. 'During the travel with the humans I figured out what Piedmon is doing to the others. I want to revenge my village, but I also want to stop Piedmon from hurting the others. You haven't seen what he's capable of; that freak has to be stopped!'

'Then I suppose this conversation is over.' Murmured Minervamon.

'Wait.' Muttered Petermon, successfully preventing Minervamon from leaving as she stayed and turned at the champion. 'What are you fighting for, then?'

'I don't know.' Replied Minervamon immediately, so fast that it seemed like she had foreseen the question. 'Survival, I guess.'


'Damn it!' shouted Ryosuke as he kicked a rusted tank next to him, causing it to fall and roll a couple feet away towards the door of the building. Everyone knew what's going on with him, which was why no one complained. Lillymon X, however, had to admit that she was a bit scared by her partner's rage. She had seen the black-haired boy's emotional side before, way more used to his quick than any other destined, but she'd never seen him real angry before, not even once.

'The next time I see him, he's dead!' he shouted as he kicked another tank towards the door.

'Get some rest then.' Whispered Eiji, who tried to approach him, only to be pushed aside. 'The digimon here seem to be willing to help us. Maybe tomorrow they will tell us more about the digital world, about Piedmon.' He continued regardless of the younger boy's emotional state.

Yuzuki sat on the bed, next to where Kaoru was sitting.

'Don't look like that all day.' Said the black-haired girl in a failed attempt to cheer Kaoru up. 'We've still got lots of fights ahead.'

'Thanks.' That all Kaoru would say.

'Then, I guess we should just sleep early?' uttered Yuzuki as she lay on the bed, covered herself with the blanket and closed her eyes. Though not very willing, Kaoru joined her a few minutes later after having stared at the ground for almost an hour since he'd finished taking a shower and all other personal needs.


'Can I ask for something?' asked Yuzuki to Eiji, after remaining members had been arranged to their rooms.

'I'm not actually that terrible, am I?' replied Eiji. He'd taken the role of the leader for long, but was not accustomed to being asked formally.

'Can I stay with Kaoru?'

The first person to respond was the one that'd been mentioned. 'I can be fine on my own.' Uttered the blonde boy. He knew he'd been acting weird lately, and could understand why the others cared about him, yet he was still, in his own opinion, relatively capable of taking care of himself. Having said that, he immediately walked to one of the rooms to his left, only to be stopped by Yuzuki, holding his sleeve.

'No, you're not.' Said Yuzuki, taking something out from her pocket Kaoru's digivic, which had been lost by him a day before while they were battling Calmaramon.

'When?'

'You didn't even notice that, did you?'interrupted Yuzuki. She pulled Kaoru back from the door and continued. 'You can't keep acting like that. Sometimes I even have to call you three times in a row before you take any notice of me.' Despite knowing that Kaoru wasn't a very talkative person, the situations in which she then mentioned were all some life-or-dead ones, and thus she was really concerned that Kaoru's concentration problem might get him into big troubles at least that's what she said.

'Well, you don't really have to ask for my permission; I'm not really that manipulative, anyway.' That's all the leader of the destined could say. 'Though it might be a bit awkwardyou know, a boy and girl we were mostly together in the wild, so, as long as you two come into agreement, I have no objection.' With that said, he went to a room to his right. 'Call me if anything happens.'

'Well, what do you think?' asked Yuzuki. Kaoru, who'd been staring at his digivice since he'd got it back, seemed surprised to hear the black-haired girl's voice and switched his sight back to thehorizon.

'Wait, I still…' he scanned around, but could find no trace of Eiji. 'When did he go?'

'See?' uttered Yuzuki. She pulled Kaoru's arm and gestured for him to come with her. 'You're not acting like yourself.'

'Right…' mumbled Kaoru, neither following Yuzuki's lead nor resisting, he simply allowing her to pull him to wherever she wanted to.


Kaoru woke up not soon after he had fallen asleep. Not having any clock or timing machine, he could only estimate by the view outside the window that it should be about two in the morning. He looked at the other side of the bed, where Yuzuki was lying, to ensure that he didn't wake her up, though it turned out that she was as awake as anyone in the morning.

'Sorry, I…' whispered Kaoru, only to be interrupted by Yuzuki. 'It's fine. I haven't been able to sleep all the time, so you didn't actually wake me up.' she said as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

'You don't have to do so much for me.' Mumbled Kaoru.

'Well,' uttered Yuzuki as she turned down her head. 'I didn't do this for you –not only for you.' She said, wanting to tell the blonde boy that she had started to experience the situation of seeing every dead face in her head after Kumamon was killed, and that that made her felt weak and wanted to not be left alone, but seeing that saying those things out might only make Kaoru remember more about Duskmon, she only said one simple sentence. Turning her head at Kaoru's direction, she said. 'I didn't want to be alone.'

None of them said anything. They both stared at each other's glistering eyes in the darkness for a few minutes, which seemed like an eternity to them. And then, out of an unknown urge, they leaned closer to each other, held an arm out, placed it at the back of the other's neck, pulled the other's head toward themselves, closed their eyes, and pressed their lips together. It almost seemed like their moves were perfectly identical to one another's.

The kiss went on for no more than ten seconds, but it seemed long enough for the two that when they were separated it felt like hours had already passed away.

'Sorry, you…' uttered Kaoru. Yuzuki didn't have to listen to him to know what's going to be said, that she already had a boyfriend. Though many had thought in that way, she really only considered Katashi as a good friend, without romantic relations. Yet it seemed like everyone was thinking differently, and that made her wonder if Katashi, too, thought that they were in a relation and loved her. Though that made it extremely uneasy to say this, she still said. 'We're not lovers, at least that's what I've been thinking.'

'I still shouldn't have done that.' Mumbled Kaoru.

Trying to switch the topic, Yuzuki said. 'Anyway, is your shirt always wet?'

'It just happens, every time I have nightmares.' Replied Kaoru, in a whisper. 'It doesn't feel good, but I can't just take it off. It dries in the morning anyway.'

'You can, if that makes you feel better.' Uttered Yuzuki. Normally she'd think that she must be out of her mind to say that, yet somehow, in the night, she just thought differently than she did in daytime.

Kaoru was also an example of not acting normally at night, like being controlled by some kind of brainwaves such that he thought differently than usual. He took off his sweaty shirt, placed it on top of the small cupboard near the bed, where he placed his hoodie.

They stared at each other for a longer time. Though they couldn't see one another clearly in the darkness, the awkwardness came after the prolonged staring and both of them turned their faces to the opposite direction, getting back into the sleeping position. The darkness was always there to hinder visions, but none of them necessarily needed their actual sights to tell that both their faces were flushing red.

A few minutes passed, and they had, fortunately, reached a less awkward state. Yuzuki was the first to speak, saying. 'Can I ask for a favor?' no responses came. Knowing what that meant, she said directly. 'Remember the time when I accidentally…'

'You always can.' Replied Kaoru before the black-haired girl even finished her sentence. Silently, Yuzuki held out her arms, wrapped them round Kaoru's waist and pressed her face against the blonde boy's bare shoulder.

'Can I ask for a favor in return?' asked Kaoru as he placed his hands on Yuzuki's arms.

'You always can.' Replied Yuzuki. Though they couldn't see each other's face, they were feeling closer than ever.

'Don't let me go.' Kaoru uttered.

'Never.' Whispered Yuzuki. Knowing how impractical her answer was, she added. 'Until morning.'


'Sorry, we're late.' Uttered Yuzuki as she and Kaoru went downstairs to see that everyone, even their respective digimon partners, had arrived –quite long ago apparently. They spend a little time discussing issues at the hall, then Minervamon took them out, stating that they needed to know about what they were about to face.

'Go up there.' Requested the mega in a half-commanding tone. To her left was a stone staircase, embedded to one of the walls surrounding the fortress. The destined went up one by one without objections, but could see nothing really special even when they had all reached up the top of the walls –not until Minervamon was up there too.

'I think you might have something to show us?' muttered Pteramon.

'You can it from here.' Said Minervamon, pointing outside the walls.

'I don't see anything.' Uttered Amy. As soon as she said that, she turned her head a little right, and found the view that contradicted her previous comment.

'I suppose you all see that now?' said Minervamon.

'What is that?' asked Eiji. He saw, or believed he saw, something like a warehouse –an especially large one, that was covered in nicely painted iron walls. Though distant, he guessed that the warehouse should be at least one-third the size of the Fortress, which made that quite a luxury in the digital world.

'That's a place we're planning to strike.' Answered Minervamon. Before anyone could ask the reason for the seemingly unnecessary violence, she said. 'Lately we've discovered that the notorious Krams has been going in and out of that warehouse frequently, with boxes of materials.'

'You think that's their base?' asked Yuzuki.

'No.'

'Then why are you planning on a strike?' asked Lillymon.

'We suspect that they are working with someone else. Some of us had claimed that for more than once, they saw a digimon welcoming the Krams at the front door of the warehouse –a digimon that looked like a human in fancy clothes.' Explained Minervamon. 'I assume you have some idea who that was?'

'I can't be sure.' Uttered TigierVespamon. 'But if that's Piedmon then this might be our best chance to take him down.'

'But how are you planning to strike exactly?' questioned MetalPhantomon. 'I don't think that warehouse's walls can be torn down easily.'

'You have experienced using the Transports, right?' said Minervamon. 'We have a few remaining in store. Our plan is that, we'll get someone inside, and plant one of those Transports there. Then we'll sneak inside that facility from here without being noticed at all. That'll also be our way out if anything happens.' She then paused for a while, looking, for the first time in front of the destined, worried. 'We only have one problem.'

'And what might that be?' asked Yuzuki.

'We can't get anyone inside, and we have completely no idea of whatever might be inside.' Replied Minervamon.

'So the whole plan is just a talk?' uttered Ryosuke.

'I thought you might have something to help us.' Replied Minervamon, frustrated.

'And we do have that something.' Answered Kaoru out of the blue. 'I know someone here who's very skilled at sneaking around.' He said, staring at Amy.

'What?' muttered Amy as soon as she realized that everyone there was staring at her, with the obvious demand written on their faces.

'I don't know you much, but I trust Kaoru's decision.' Uttered Petermon.

'Can you actually get into the warehouse?' asked Minervamon, seemingly excited at the fact that the plan could finally go on.

'Well, I can, technically.' Uttered Amy, turning to BlueMeramon. 'But why will I do as you ask? I might get myself killed in the process.'

'Or you may get us all killed if the plan goes on without some inside information.' Added Takumi.

'Fine.' mumbled Amy, annoyed. She then asked if anything needed to be prepared, and received the unexpected answer that she needed to go as soon as possible, which was that day.

'I will get you one of the Transport. Once you get there, place it there, and then scout around. You'd better return this afternoon.' Requested Minervamon.

'Or maybe she don't have to.' Suggested Takumi. 'She can do that telepathy trick, right?'

'BlueMeramon can.' Corrected Amy. 'And I'm not sure if it could reach that far away.'

'Anyway, just give it a try.' Uttered Ryosuke.

'Then please follow me.' Demanded Minervamon.

'Before I go, can I have a moment?' demanded Amy. She then turned to Kaoru, and dragged him away from the others to a faraway corner. 'We need a little chat, I believe.'

'I maintain my opinion that you're the best choice to infiltrate the warehouse.' Whispered Kaoru.

'You really think I'm up to that?' uttered Amy. Though it was known to everyone that Amy was a bit different in the way of thinking, Kaoru could hardly think of what else the older girl would want at the moment, given that almost anything between the two of them had been settled.

'Tell me,' continued Amy, 'will it be too harsh of me to occupy you from her after all this is over?'

Kaoru's red face instantly answered the question before he could say. 'I don't think now's the best time to talk about that.'

'When are you planning to announce that to us, publicly?' continued Amy, giggling.

'How did you know that?' whispered Kaoru.

'I think that's pretty obvious.' Replied Amy. 'Anyway, at least announce that after we get out of the digital world.'

'Maybe.' Whispered Kaoru.


'What took you two so long?' questioned Minervamon as Amy returned to the group, impatient.

'Nothing important to you.' Replied Amy casually. 'I'm ready to go, show me the way.'

'Please follow me.' Said Minervamon, guiding the girl and her partner digimon to the small warehouse where the inhabitant of the Fortress kept the Transports.

A few more minutes passed, and only Minervamon returned from the Transport storage.

'They've gone, successfully.' Reported the mega.

'Then there's nothing we can do for now?' asked Pteramon despite how the others in the group really enjoyed a moment of rest. They'd been through so many battles in the last few days.

'We should get ourselves ready.' Suggested Petermon. 'Now that you're all here, there's a great chance that BurningGreymon may come here.'

'Yeah, I didn't really think of that.' Muttered Eiji. With all the things they'd gone through in the last few days and the prolonged company of Petermon, he'd almost forgotten that Petermon was with them because of BurningGreymon, which caused him to wonder if he'd continue to go with the group after they defeated the last hybrid, or would he simply settle down at somewhere and rebuild his village with the survivors. The latter's not too bad. He thought, knowing that they'd given enough trouble to the other digimon.

'I wonder what the Krams are transporting for Piedmon?' uttered SaviorHuckmon.

'Something precious for sure.' Replied his partner.

'What if that's not Piedmon at all?' suspected TigerVespamon, followed only by another question by MetalPhantomon, pointing at the wall to the team's left. 'What's that?'

At the wall where MetalPhantomon was pointing at, a bright orange light shone. So bright was it that it almost made the digi-destiend believe that it was about time of sunset, while it was still actually early in the morning. Minervamon, immediately alerted, ordered a few other digimon, mostly Sagittarimon, to the direction of the light to investigate while trying to go to somewhere to figure out what to do. But it was a bit late; the light suddenly disappeared. It just disappeared at an instant, not like turning off a light bulb, as if the light was never there.

Then, just when the destined thought that the wired thing was over, a large bombing noise came. It led the digi-destined's attention to the wall where the noise came from –the same wall where the light had come from. Nothing happened at first, but then the wall started to go through a change in color –its original dull gray surface with the reddish brown rust became a dark gray color; the tone of the gray was so consistent that the wall seemed just like a new one. The color also reminded the destined of that of burnt coal.

The idea of burnt coal turned out to be no coincident at all –a few seconds after the wall had changed its color it started to fall apart. Unlike the usual cracking and rumbling, the wall fell off, becoming countless black tiny particles that rained down silently. In no more than a minute an entire portion of the wall was gone, as if someone had cut a perfectly smooth rectangle form the wall. The destined could now grasp a clear image of the cause of that.

They were a bit stunned at first, but later found out that they shouldn't actually be all that surprised. Behind the now gone wall was TyrantKabuterimon, accompanied by countless Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon species digimon.

'So he escaped the cave after all.' Mumbled Ryosuke.

'Wanna guess what he's up to?' uttered Pteramon, but there wasn't the time for a casual conversation. The Krams, with the opened wall, rushed inside the Fortress, so tightly packed were they that from a aerial view, the Krams seemed just like a water current of red and blue.

'Go to the storage!' yelled Minervamon to the destined. 'Guard the remaining Transports!' with that, she went off to the direction of the broken wall, where the Krams had already begun slashing and grasping things and slicing villagers.

'What do we do now?' muttered Petermon.

'Go to the storage as tasked.' Replied Eiji. Immediately he went off to the direction of the storage without waiting the others. Without much choice, the others had to follow. Only it wasn't all of them who went to the direction of the storage. SaviorHuckmon discovered half way that Petermon was gone, and then found out that he was at a distant area, fighting the beetle digimon.

'He can take care of himself. Go to the storage first!' ordered the leader of the destined. They went on, only to encounter a bunch of the Krams. They didn't seem to be blocking their way, but rather just there by coincident. There were too many of them, after all.

'Any suggestions?' asked Ryosuke. 'If no, I suggest beating everything in our way.'

Nobody was free enough to give any responses. SaviorHuckmon was busy slicing a few Kuwagamon nearby where the humans were just trying to hide. He stabbed a Kuwagamon in the mouth, throwing its lifeless body away while turning around and slashed another with his tail blade; Pteramon was accelerating for the storage while shooting as many beetle digimon as he could, resulting in numerous explosions and flying bodies of the Krams. Focusing solely on reaching the storage, he seemed to ignored as many digimon as he could, only to be eventually overcome by a sudden strike from an Okuwamon, who crushed into the champion with its giant pincers opening and closing, getting closer and closer to Pteramon, who was forced to land, every time the Okuwamon made a move.

A knock from MetalPhantomon was what saved Pteramon. He knocked the Okuwamon with the back of his sickle, threw him midair and then slashed it with the laser part of the sickle. While doing that he failed to pay attention to his back, where a MegaKabuterimon was approaching. He could only know that when the beetle approaching him yelled upon being stung by the sword of TigerVespamon, which had been thrown to the ultimate. Nearby Lillymon was blasting as many Krams as she could while occasionally receiving help from others from the team.

Everything was chaos at that few minutes –digimon fighting everywhere; arrows flying; the destined dodging blasts and approaching the storage. Yuzuki was right in the middle of the battlefield. Things seemed to be a blur to her, as if her eyesight had suddenly gone bad and needed extra lenses to help focus; the noise was loud and messy, so messy that the black-haired girl felt like she heard nothing at all. From all of that, however, one particular scene caught her attention the m,ost.

Minervamon, wielding her giant blade, jumped up and down and swung her blade at the leader of the Krams, who swiftly responded every single strike with the metal claws mounted on his forearms. Regardless of the sheer size of Minervamon's freaking sword, not even a scratch could be seen on TyrantKabuterimon's armor, as if the giant blade was no more than a plastic toy. TyrantKabuterimon swung his tail at Minervamon, who jumped up and evaded the strike even with the additional weight of her sword.

Seizing the chance while the female digimon was midair without any means of defense, TyrantKabuterimon launched his right arm at Minervamon and gripped her tight in his fist. Minervamon struggled, swung her sword aimlessly at TyrantKabuterimon. The result was the same –not even a scratch was made.

'Chrome Digizoid, like it?' taunted TyrantKabuterimon as he tightened his grip. 'The jobs given to us were so easy lately –transporting metals; hunting down humans that is supposed to be extinct, which turned out to be not true. Isn't it great to have a chance to finally crack something?'

Minervamon let out a painful expression, but never screamed. She kicked the other mega while still trying to free herself by swinging her blade. Almost every hit was useless. Enraged, she threw her sword straight at the head of the leader of the Krams and, hopefully, stabbed his left eye, which was, unfortunately, not protected by the metal TyrantKabuterimon had mentioned no more than five seconds before. Feeling the instant pain, the mega loosened his grip and dropped Minervamon.

TyrantKabuterimon let our a long and, needless to say, painful scream. Enraged, he gripped the sword of Minervamon out of his eye socket, swung his tail to knock off the mega who'd just barely escaped him and, with a long cry, broke the sword in half, throwing the broken pieces to Minervamon, who was still struggling to get on to her feet.

'We have to help her!' shouted Yuzuki, watching from faraway. As soon as she said that, she found herself occupied by the Krams once again and had to hide all the way as the brutal killing went on. The beetle digimon seemed to care less about taking and more about chopping things in half, which caused quite a lot of trouble to the destined. They'd been charged to guard the storage, and yet they were still very far away from their destination, where they're supposed to be half an hour ago even when under attack.

'We have to take care of ourselves first!' replied MetalPhantomon in a rush as he knocked another Kuwagamon away with the back of his sickle, barely escaping another incoming MegaKabuterimon from his back.

'How can we even get there without getting ourselves killed?' muttered Pteramon as he drifted away from an Okuwamon, only to found himself nearly killed by some other Kuwagamon. The beetle digimon were so unorganized the destined somehow hoped they were more in order, like an army. At least that way the mess caused would be more comprehensible. Another thing Pteramon hated was that his partner was insisting that they should follow the plan and get to the storage, where everything depends on, when they could only be thankful not to get killed by the craze.

Another strike from a Kuwagamon, this time reaching SaviorHuckmon's left arm as he swung his blade. Fortunately the jaws of the beetle was opened too wide that not much damage could be done before the ultimate took notice of that and threw the Kuwagamon away. Just when he thought the density of the Krams was the greatest, all the digimon –champion and ultimate, beetle and stag beetle –backed off, as if they had received an order of some sort.

What SaviorHuckmon found out was that they weren't receiving any orders. They were receiving a warning. The same bright orange light was there as the beetles retreated. Barely noticing that due to the mess of the fight, the destined looked to the source of the light, and found out that, not surprisingly, the light belonged to TyrantKabuterimon.

The orange sphere at the abdomen of the purple-armored mega was glowing, possibly giving out quite an amount of heat, too, if the destined had the chance to feel that other than just deducing from the observation that smoke was beginning to appear around the area where the light shone. Remembering what happened to the Fortress wall earlier, it didn't need a particular genius to tell that the target of the mega –Minervamon in this case –would surely end up dead once the leader of the Krams finished his move, no matter how that ought to be done, seeing that no one had actually seen that before.

Minervamon got up to her knees, taking breaths deeply. The armor of her opponent had proved too hard to penetrate even with the sword she had been so proud of, not to mention that the sword had now been broken into two. Desperate, she searched for a weakness of the mega, any one that would let her give a fatal strike. Surprisingly, even to herself, she could only come up with the crazy notion that the sphere at which the light was being given out was the only spot where she could place her bet on.

The light glowed brighter and brighter, just like the time when the Fortress wall was turned into ash instantly. Minervamon gripped her broken blade, rose up, and charged, right at TyrantKabuterimon. As exhausted as she was, she could surely feel that she was running faster than she'd even done in her entirely life. The great distance between the two was shorted within seconds. She was very close to her target –so close.

TyrantKabuterimon fired.

A beam of orange light with an estimated base radius of about two of the hemispheric buildings tall could be seen jetting out the mega's abdomen. It went straight through anything in its path; the wall behind where Minervamon had once stood was now the victim of the beam, too. Nothing could really be seen under the effect of the brilliant light except for the outline of the retreating Krams and the buildings.

Time passed –an unknown period of time. No one could really tell how long had passed –very long, that was for sure. The light faded; first the luminous intensity dropped drastically, then the fading was much slower. Things could be seen again with colors, and the first sight terrified the digi-destined.

Minervamon, if the thing in front of TyrantKabuterimon could still be called so, stood right in front of TyrantKabuterimon. Both her arms raised; her feet still in a running position. She was, horribly discolored, as if a human-shaped coal standing with a fighting pose with still glowing sparks lit randomly all over her lifeless body. Layers of burnt tissue started to flake off the body like rust.

The bad guy wasn't too good, either. The broken sword of Minervamon was there, embedded right in the middle of the orange sphere of his body; only the handle of the sword could be seen. The two digimon were the same –motionless and dead.

The scene was too terrible that, even though they're safe, no one dared to go to the bodies. So lost in thought was the destined that only a cry from some other digimon brought them back to reality.

'It's gone! They're all gone!' shouted the digimon.

'What's gone?' inquired Eiji, realizing how foolish he was to have asked that soon after he finished speaking.

'The Transports. They're all destroyed!'

Yuzuki, upon overhearing that at the side of Eiji, dropped to her knees and stared at the dead digimon for who knew how long.

Minervamon had died in vain.