Reviews:

Ackbarfan5556: Yes, they are not done yet. We just may see about that in the future ;-)

tommy tennyson: Sorry, but I don't think so. We're pretty far along by this point.

Music Chick: Glad you think so. We just may see what happens with this going forward ;-) I've got plenty of good stuff planned for this arc that many of you will be surprised by some of it.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday because we are now going back to the Digital World. Wonder what the kids will find when they get there. There's also a major plot point being explored in the beginning, so hope you all enjoy that. Let's get this party started!

It seemed as though all of Tokyo looked up at the sky at the exact same moment. If they weren't inside the town of Odaiba, they would have thought it was the most bizarre sight they had ever seen. Eight children floated into the sky inside of a column of light before disappearing.

Contrary to the general perception, Tokyo was not used to such strange occurrences happening all the time. It was fairly normal compared to most major cities in the world, but this was the first time it had dealt with something like this. The civilians just hoped and prayed that these children would succeed in order to save the world.

'Fools,' A figure smirked to itself as it watched the humans through a large telescope. They were all fools to think that a group of children could defeat him, considering how well the last group of children did. He smirked as he remembered that time.

Stepping back from the telescope, the light revealed the figure's true appearance. From a glance, he looked like a simple circus clown with one half of his face white and the other half black, colorful wig and outfit, and playfulness of one. But beyond the seemingly harmless exterior laid a thirst for death and destruction that could never be sated.

This was Piedmon, one of four Dark Masters. If Pennywise and The Joker had a love child, he would be the result of that creation.

After Myotismon left for the real world, and without the Destined Jedi to maintain order, he and his three comrades moved in to take over the Digital World with almost no resistance. Any Digimon that rose up against them were quickly destroyed and soon made their home on Spiral Mountain to keep watch over everything. In a way, the Dark Masters considered themselves gods of the Digital World.

"Lord Piedmon," one of his comrades, a puppet-looking Digimon, said in a high-pitched, almost child-like, voice. "When are we going to engage the Destined Jedi? I'm getting bored here!"

Piedmon sighed. "Be patient, Lord Puppetmon," he replied, his voice sounding like Dr. Frank-N-Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. "Good things come to those who wait. Remember the last time we had such annoying guests?"

"Yeah, but they were not half as annoying as these brats!" Puppetmon shot back. "And we did not hesitate to destroy them!"

A splash in a pool nearby caught their attention. A large sea serpent monster almost sixty feet long and covered in armor popped up from the depths of the pool to join in the conversation.

"Yes, but we only killed all but two of them," it said sadly, almost regretting that they had failed in killing all of them. "If you had waited for the right moment, Puppetmon, we would have destroyed them!"

"Don't put that on me, MetalSeadramon!" cried the puppet, pointing an accusatory finger. "Why do you always have to make such a loud entrance? Maybe that's why we failed to destroy them all!"

A large, machine monster sat quietly on the other side of the room as the two traded barbs back and forth. It was the size of a two-ton truck and very imposing with cannons on its back. It didn't seem to care about the argument going on.

"Oh yeah?" Puppetmon shot.

"Yeah!" said MetalSeadramon.

"ENOUGH!" Piedmon cried, their bickering driving him insane. He rubbed his temples to try and ease the headache that was starting to come on.

The hall fell quiet as his cry echoed across the walls. MetalSeadramon and Puppetmon looked on nervously, their bodies seized up with tension. The clown Digimon was unpredictable; one minute he would put on a pleasant demeanor, and then would destroy you the next.

But instead, Piedmon cleared his throat before he resumed talking.

"Thank you," he said. "Now, let's not fight amongst ourselves anymore because the Destined Jedi will be on Spiral Mountain soon enough. This time, we will not fail in destroying all of them." Piedmon's lips curled at the edges. "But first, let's give them the last great performance they will ever see."

As the Destined Jedi opened their eyes, they found themselves back in the jungle that they had started in when they first came. This time, though, the forest seemed much darker than it had before. All around them, the trees were thicker with less sunlight coming through the branches.

They brushed the dirt and grass off of their new yukatas before finally collecting their bearings. Now that they were back in the Digital World, they had to find out what had changed since they were last there in order to figure out how to deal with the new set of problems they were bound to encounter.

"Look up there!" Sora cried as she looked up at the sky.

The other Destined Jedi followed her gaze. They gasped upon seeing what she saw. At first, they thought their eyes were playing a trick on them, but after rubbing their eyes the sight did not go away.

"Is that…" Joe sounded too shocked for words. "Hokkaido?"

Sure enough, the northern island of Japan stared the children right in their faces from above. If they could see the Digital World from Earth, then it would seem as though the opposite would be true as well.

While the others continued to stare up at the sky in fascinated fixation, Joe felt a familiar presence nearby. The Jedi of Reliability made his way over to the tall grass that was near where the group had landed and searched through it for whatever he sensed.

He found nothing after checking almost every inch of the thicket, which boggled his mind. Whatever it was that had come by must have disappeared. With a shrug of his shoulders, he walked away from the grass.

"Joe!" a familiar voice cried happily, followed by the sensation of clawed flippers wrapping themselves around Joe's neck. The force behind the creature was so strong and sudden that it sent the Jedi tumbling to the ground.

Joe would have drawn his lightsaber by now, but as he reached down for it, he instead grabbed a clawed flipper that was perched against his side. He instantly turned over onto his back, knocking the creature off of him so that he could see who it was.

"Gomamon," he smiled, taking a deep breath before greeting the Digimon properly. "Don't do that again! You scared me half to death."

The seal Digimon huffed. "Well, excuse me for being so glad to see you. I was wondering when you lot would be back because we are in a lot of trouble right now."

"What kind of trouble?"

A rumble shot through the ground as cracks began to appear all around the earth near Joe. The ground instantly broke apart, splitting the grassy area into several floating islands. Joe grabbed the edge of the big one that the other Destined Jedi were floating on before hoisting himself up onto his elbows.

"That kind of trouble," Gomamon snickered.

"Ha ha! That's so funny I forgot to laugh! Mind giving me a hand here?" Joe grunted as he tried to pull himself completely up, but failing.

"Sorry, but I don't have any hands like you do."

Tai and Matt heard the commotion and came over to see what the problem was. The sight of Joe hanging by his elbows surprised them to say the least.

"Joe, what are you doing?" Matt said.

"Now's not the time to be fooling around, man," Tai glared at the boy.

"COULD SOMEONE PLEASE JUST HELP ME!" Joe roared, wanting nothing more than to be placed firmly back on solid ground at that moment. His legs kicked below him as he struggled to pull himself up again, but Matt and Tai got the message and helped him.

The two Jedi finally got a chance to see what had caused Joe to almost fall. Most of the pieces of ground that were floating had fallen into the abyss below, leaving them isolated onto the big piece that they were currently on. Tai didn't remember that being part of their first adventure in the Digital World. Maybe this was something that had changed while they were away.

"You thinking that this place has gotten weird too?" Matt asked Tai as he stared down into the abyss.

"You can say that again," the leader nodded.

"Hello! I'm still here," Gomamon snapped, hating that he was being ignored at the moment. He tapped a claw against the ground impatiently while the other flipper rested against his cheek.

Once everyone gathered around, Gomamon explained what had happened while they were away.

"Not long after you guys left, things started getting crazy," he said. "Everything went out of balance, creating a power vacuum that no one could fill up. Gennai instructed us Guardian Digimon to try and reclaim order to maintain balance in the Force, but…"

The kids didn't like the tone of his voice; it was fraught with fear, like even Gomamon didn't want to utter the words he was about to say.

"But what, Gomamon?" Tai pressed. "Tell us."

The Digimon swallowed the lump in his throat before answering, "But then they came along."

The orange hairs of his mohawk stood further on end as he said it. Everyone could sense the tension and fear that flowed through him. Things definitely were not right.

"Who's 'they', Gomamon?" Sora asked.

He shook his head. "No. I don't want to talk about it."

"Tell us. Please," Joe begged. "We can't help you if you don't tell us what we're up against here."

As much as he didn't want to, Gomamon knew that Joe was right. If the kids were going to have a fighting chance at saving both worlds, they needed to know the horror of what they were about to face.

"'They' are four evil Digimon called the Dark Masters," he gravely said, sending a shiver down his spine. Joe could see goose bumps multiplying all over Gomamon's body. "They're the biggest, baddest, most evil Digimon to ever exist."

"Compared to Myotismon, how bad are they?" Tai asked, hoping to get a scale of these Dark Masters.

"Oh, they make him look like a Monzaemon compared to them," Gomamon replied. "The first time that a group of Destined Jedi arrived in the Digital World, they encountered the Dark Masters, and almost all of them were slaughtered. Out of five Destined Jedi, only two survived."

Everyone gasped in horror. If these Digimon were so evil as to kill human children, then they were definitely going to be much tougher than anything they had ever faced. For a moment, the Jedi wondered why they had decided to come back in the first place. They felt like lambs being led to slaughter.

"Everything happened so fast that we couldn't maintain peace anymore. Eventually, the Digital World was reconfigured into that mountain over there."

The Destined Jedi followed where Gomamon pointed his index claw. Their eyes widened at the monstrosity of a mountain that loomed over them. What looked like a mix of water, grass, and wood twisting around each other in a never-ending spiral went up into the sky until it stopped at the structure on top. It looked like an observatory.

"That's Spiral Mountain, and that is where you'll find what the Digital World is now."

"So everything is up there now," Matt muttered as he gazed up at the peak.

"Color me cynical, but nothing surprises me about this place anymore." Joe added.

"Gennai sent me to get you all up to speed. We'll try and help you as much as we can, but for now you're on your own. May the Force be with you all."

Before anyone could say anything back, Gomamon vanished before their eyes. An eerie quiet fell over the entire clearing as the Destined Jedi struggled to digest what they had just been told.

"I don't like this," said Mimi as her hands and knees began to shake. "If these Dark Masters are as evil as Gomamon told us, then I don't think we have a chance to win."

"Now don't tell me you're getting scared just because of what he told us," Tai growled. "You know how Gomamon loves to joke around, so maybe he's just pulling our legs."

"Or maybe he's not," said Matt. "We can't just go charging in like a bunch of cowboys and expect everything to go the way we want it to, Tai. Remember, they have the blood of three Destined Jedi on their hands. There's no reason to think they won't destroy us too."

"You're getting cold feet too, Matt?" Tai got into the blonde's face. "We can't run away from this. There are too many people counting on us now."

Izzy stepped in between them to break up the inevitable fight that was going to break out at some point.

"Both of you stop it," he chastised. "So long as the eight of us fight together, we have about as good of a chance to defeat them as we did Myotismon."

"You're right, Izzy," TK smiled with a thumb's up. "We can do it."

"Yeah!" Kari agreed. "We'll knock those big bullies down a peg or two!"

Spurred on by their youngest members' optimism, the Destined Jedi shed their fear and tried to look on the bright side of things.

That lasted for about two seconds as a cold laugh echoed across the landscape. The Jedi drew their lightsabers, ready to strike down whatever was coming. Something lurked under the ground. They couldn't see what it was and didn't know where whatever it was could be.

The ground rumbled as a sea serpent creature emerged with a burst of teal light. Judging by its appearance, the kids inferred that it was yet another extension of the Seadramon evolution due to the similar look it shared with Seadramon and MegaSeadramon. It was over sixty feet long and covered in armor.

"Destined Jedi," it said with a chuckle. "I am MetalSeadramon, and you have no idea how long I have waited for this chance to meet you. Prepare to meet your doom!"

With a flick of his tail, MetalSeadramon flew towards the children with the grace of a dragon. Out of his nose, a teal blast erupted towards the trees that the children had taken refuge behind. The blast sliced the trees like a hot knife through butter and sent them tumbling down.

The group didn't know what else to do other than run, so they did. Navigating their way through the forest with their enhanced Force speed, they just hoped that they could outrun MetalSeadramon for as long as possible.

"What do we do now, Tai?" Mimi screamed as they continued running.

"Run!" Tai shouted back as he pulled Kari by her hand.

Another blast from MetalSeadramon tore through the ground behind them. The earth split open, creating deep fissures that the group fell through towards the abyss below.

When the Destined Jedi came to, they were surprised to see that they weren't dead from the fall that they had just taken. They had fallen a long way down and should have been severely injured at the least, but all they felt were just normal bumps and bruises.

Tai and Matt inspected their younger siblings for any serious injuries, but the two youngest Jedi were perfectly fine.

Their sense of awareness was finally at a high enough level that they could register what was going on around them. A thick mist, almost too thick to see ten feet away, surrounded them. After the fog incident in Odaiba, the Destined Jedi didn't have a good feeling that this presented any good news either.

"Well, hopefully we don't run into MetalSeadramon again," said Sora, which everyone quickly agreed with.

"I don't know," Matt replied. "I think this isn't the last time we will see him again." He then got a strange feeling in his gut. He rotated his head left to right, like he was looking for something. "Do you guys feel that?"

"Feel what?" TK asked.

Suddenly, the sound of metal screeching against each other filled the air, followed by booming footsteps. The Destined Jedi drew their lightsabers out as the booming sound got closer and closer to them. Because of the mist, they couldn't see what it was, only heightening their terror further.

"Steady, you guys," Tai encouraged, hiding the fact that his voice was shaking as he said it. His knees began to quiver and his arm trembled as fear threatened to overpower him. Sweat dripped down his brow in buckets. Whatever this monster was, it sure sounded big.

The booms stopped.

For a second, no one was sure what happened as the air fell silent. Joe twisted his head left and right manically, swinging his lightsaber as he did so. The others were desperate to find what was hiding in the mist, but were afraid of what it would be. Maybe whatever it was that made the noise was passing through and had finally left. It was fool's gold for the Jedi to think that, and the nervous energy circulating around them only rose.

Twin blasts of energy came hurdling through the mist like a bat out of hell towards the Destined Jedi. The explosion of the blasts hitting the ground in front of them was deafening as they were blown back several feet. The source of the blasts soon emerged from the mist.

A cross between a dinosaur and Godzilla completely covered in metal, robotic and machine parts, the size of a two-ton truck, appeared before them. Their jaws dropped as they gazed up in awe at the cannons on its back, which looked powerful enough to blow away all of Tokyo with one shot.

With a roar that rivaled Godzilla's, the monster unleashed more energy shots from its cannons towards the Destined Jedi. This time, they were ready for them and spread out around the area to avoid the blasts as they hit the ground.

"Let's get him, guys!" Tai cried before charging towards the creature. The others soon followed.

The metal monster was not fazed seeing the children running towards it. Instead, it fired more shots from its cannons. Instead of just one from each, it fired multiple shots; one after another in rapid succession. The Jedi weaved in and out to avoid the blasts. After a few more steps, they felt the familiar sensation of the ground giving way before falling into a void once again.

"Why does this keep happening?" Joe screeched as they plummeted down into darkness.

"I don't know, but I'm getting really sick and tired of it." Sora agreed.

The Destined Jedi then found themselves suspended in mid-air. A strange sensation of being held by strings overcame their bodies. The next thing they knew, they were being twisted and pulled into some of the most impossible positions that the human body could not do by itself.

The group looked up as the sound of joyful laughter filled the air. They saw what looked like the main character from Pinocchio in the flesh – or wood to be technical. The puppet wore a red hat and blue lederhosen that had a lightsaber attached to the waist. A crucifix boomerang lay perched on its back.

"Well, well, well," it sneered playfully at them, speaking in its child-like voice. "Listen here, Destined Jedi, I'm Puppetmon, and you are all about to become my new toys."

He then activated his lightsaber. The blade glowed a piercing red that highlighted the red of his eyes.

"So, let's have some fun!" he said as he jumped down to meet them.

For being made of wood, Puppetmon was surprisingly agile with a lightsaber. The Destined Jedi each took turns to try and slow him down, but he would dodge each of their strikes before attacking them with an elbow, a punch to the stomach, or a kick to the back of the knee. He moved so fast that they could not lock down his position to launch a counterattack. It was like trying to catch smoke with nothing but bare hands.

Puppetmon laughed joyfully, enjoying the whole experience as he finally decided he had enough fun with them for now. He would get his chance to do more later.

"Guess I have to let you all go now. I'll be in touch," he said before using the Force to cause the strings holding the Destined Jedi to disappear. They once again fell freely into the void below, wondering what else they would have to deal with next.

Tai tried to ease the bump on his head as he and the others once again felt the familiar sensation of hitting the ground. They were in what looked like an old Greek theater from ancient times with its marble columns and stone layout.

'What could be next?' he wondered as glam rock music began to play over loudspeakers around them. Tai recognized it as the tune to a Rocky Horror Show song.

From behind a column, a cross between Pennywise and The Joker stepped out into full view of the Jedi. Mimi screamed in horror at the sight of it.

"How do you do, Destined Jedi," the clown greeted pleasantly, a smirk playing on the corners of his lips as he spoke in rhythm with the music. "Enjoying the show are we? I see you've met my faithful accomplices. When we heard that you returned, we wanted to welcome you with a show. My name is Piedmon, and…"

Matt rolled his eyes before interrupting. "Let me guess, you're a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania too?" he quipped.

Piedmon frowned slightly, but ignored the comment. The music stopped.

"I see you shiver with anticipation for what is to come," he chuckled. "And what is to come is the downfall of the Destined Jedi!"

He ignited two lightsabers from his waist as he transferred them to his hands. Tai and Matt were quick to reciprocate the action before engaging Piedmon. The blonde came in from the left while Tai came from the right to attack him at the same time, but the clown was ready for them. He sidestepped their horizontal strikes, causing the two of them to overbalance.

Keeping Matt and Tai at a distance, Piedmon parried and deflected each of their blows like a master fencer against two amateurs. He laughed joyfully with each deflection, thinking of this as more of a game than serious combat. The two Destined Jedi were surprised at just how good of a duelist Piedmon was.

The clown pressed both sabers against Tai's before using his cat-like reflexes to kick Matt in the chest as he tried to use his Force speed, sending the blonde into a column. Tai gritted his teeth to try and push back with all his strength, but Piedmon was too strong. As their sabers unlocked, the clown punched the boy in the face before using the Force to send him flying into the others.

Tai rubbed his jaw to make sure nothing was broken before getting back up. Just as he did, Matt was then thrown into him, sending the two of them back to the ground.

Piedmon laughed at them. "You weaklings think you can destroy me? My powers are far more superior to yours. It's useless to try and defeat me. Allow me to re-introduce my co-stars to you."

The other three Dark Masters then appeared from a hole that MetalSeadramon had created in the ground and joined Piedmon to float above the children. The Destined Jedi were beside themselves as they came face-to-face with the Digimon that they had encountered before.

"MetalSeadramon, Puppetmon, Machinedramon, and I, Piedmon, are the Dark Masters! Now, who wants to be destroyed first?" the clown smirked. "The last group of Destined Jedi we faced lasted about five minutes, I believe. Let's see how you do."

The Jedi stood frozen with fear, thinking that this was the end.

"Well, looks like you all volunteer," Piedmon cackled maniacally as the four Dark Masters zoned in for the kill. The Destined Jedi shut their eyes tight, waiting for their inevitable demise.

The sound of a lightsaber activating filled the air as a figure used the Force to push the Dark Masters back.

"Well, looks like you kids could use a hand."

Who has come to their rescue? Will the Destined Jedi be able to defeat the Dark Masters with this new arrival? Find out next time on 'The Destined Jedi'.

See if you guys can guess who it is that has come to their rescue. I'll give you a shoutout in the next chapter if you get it right.

Anyway, yes, I used Rocky Horror stuff to introduce Piedmon because his voice was meant to be a rip off of Dr. Frank-N-Furter from the movie and I thought it would be interesting to do. I also thought it was important to disclose their backstory because it will be important later on in the trilogy universe.

Leave a review and subscribe as always because some dark shit is coming up in each of the next few chapters. You guys will not want to miss that ;-) Hope you all have a Happy New Year and I will see you guys next week.